Room 179, University College,
University of Toronto,
At the turn of the 20th century and in the face of mistrust and rejection by many of their colleagues five architects had the vision and courage to take up and adopt the scientific and technological discoveries of the day. They were Otto Wagner, Adolf Loos, Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright and Henry van deWelde.
Otto Wagner exerted influence on the development of modern architecture not only by his buildings in
Vienna but also by his writings and by the work of the “Wagner School” where he taught architecture to talented students from all over the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Wagner and his friend the painter Gustav Klimt were leaders of the Viennese Secession. They came in close contact with Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Glasgow group. Mackintosh came to exhibit at the Secessionist Pavilion in Vienna at the turn of the century. Otto Wagner’s legacy was passed on to his many students such as Rudolph M. Schindler who practiced in California, Jan Kotra a Czech architect and proponent of the Cubist style of Architecture, Joe Plenik a Slovine who practiced in Vienna, Prague, Belgrade and Lubljana, Josef Hoffmann who practiced in Vienna, and Ernst Lichtblau who immigrated to the U.S.A. sand taught at the Rhode Island School of Design.
Wagner, although much derided by his contemporaries was very influential on the architecture of the 20th century. Wagner’s ideas and works influenced many of the famous architects and planners of the 20th century were influenced, among them Le Corbusier, Sant’ Elia, Gropius, Mies van der Rohe and Rchard Neutra. Wagners ideals still have relevance to architecture of today.
Miro Klement is a long time member of the William Morris Society. He and his late wife Olga Williams were involved with the society almost from its inception. Miro is a professor emeritus from George
Brown College where he taught Architecture for 23 years. Before that he was employed in various Architectural offices in Toronto and London England where he spent four years in the early 1960s. One of the subjects Miro taught at George Brown College was History Of Architecture. Miro was always interested in architecture as far as he can remember. He was born in Prague, in what was then Czechoslovakia, where he was surrounded on all sides by historic architecture. From an early age he
was taken to historic buildings like the Prague castle, the palace of Versailles, in 1939 when he and his family escaped to France after the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, Westminster Abbey when
they got to England in 1940. He and Olga made various trips abroad where they did the historic buildings. On one memorable trip to Rome they spent a week without once going to see the
antiquities. They did the Vatican and all the Baroque churches in the city. Olga and Miro were twice in Vienna specifically to see the work of Adolf Loos, Josef Hoffman and of course OttoWagner. The slides in this slide lecture come from these two trips.
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