Joseph Hoffmann Furnitures

Joseph Hoffmann

With his designs Hoffmann sought to give life to a total work of art. He rejected machine production and was convinced that the architect’s task did not end with a mere drawing, rather it continued by following up fabrication with a craftsman’s care.
His great master at the academy in Vienna was the architect Otto Wagner. It was he who encouraged Hoffmann to travel through Europe after he earned his degree: in Italy he received the “Premio Roma” for his thesis. In his furniture we can see a linear geometric order based on straight shapes that were derived from Cubism.
His masterpieces were the Pukersdorf Sanatorium and the Stoclet House in Brussels.
He also designed the interiors for these two buildings, as well as the houses he built in Vienna for Kolo Moser and the writer Beer-Hoffman and in Geneva for the artist Ferdinand Hodier.
His most important projects include the Austrian pavilion for the Venice Biennale, and the Rome World Fair, the Caffè Graben in Vienna and series of funerary monuments.