Az W Classics: Eilfried Huth_ Architecture Today. Where is it going?

Welcome address: Monika Platzer, Az W Curator

Statement: Eilfried Huth, Architect

Panel disussion with:

Fritz Achleitner, Architecture Critic
Heidulf Gerngross, Architect
Sabine Gretner, Caritas
Verena Mörkl, Architect, superblock

Eilfried Huth completed his architecture studies (1950 – 1956) at Graz University of Technology. His plans to emigrate to South America fell through, and he subsequently founded an office with Kleinschuster und Domenig. The competition successes of the 1960s — including the Graz-Eggenberg teacher training academy, the church building in Oberwart and the Ragnitz urban utopia — are today among the key works of Austrian architecture history. In 1975 Dominig and Huth parted ways, and Huth’s interest turned towards user-participatory housing. The first implementation came with the construction of the Eschensiedlung in Deutschlandsberg (1972–92). In-line with Huth’s motto, “my dream house is not a house”, with participation in the planning and realisation, the estate of terraced houses becomes an attractive alternative for people building their own homes. From 1985 to 2005 Huth was a professor at the Universität der Künste in Berlin, where he trained a large number of students.

Huth does not see the future of architecture in “expressive self-presentation” but in the permanent critical engagement with socio-political contexts, and these contexts are what we would like to discuss.