Interior Design Between the Wars

The Imperial Furniture Collection holds one of the key works of Viennese interior design around 1930: the apartment of the ceramic artist Lucie Rie, designed by Ernst Plischke in 1928.

In the exhibition Interior Design between the Wars this outstanding ensemble will be places in the context of the history of Viennese furniture design.

In Vienna between the two world wars a characteristic style of furniture and interior design had developed which differed significantly from the international Modern style of the Bauhaus, for example.

Viennese furniture and interior design were notable for their formal variety, ingenious details and high standards of craftmanship.

While the beginnings of this development lay in the years immediatly preceding the First World War, these new ideas continued to be influential during and after the Second World War both in Austria and abroad.

The Imperial Furniture Collection showcases this specifically Viennese facet of the Modern movement between the wars with examples of complete interiors designed by the architects Felix Augenfeld, Josef Frank, Wilhelm Foltin, Johann Vinzenz Kabele, Walter Loos, Ernst Plischke, Otto Prutscher, Margarete Schutte-Lihotzky, Franz Schuster and Oskar Strnad.

The exhibition will also explore the various fates of these architects (e.g. emgration) against the background of contemporary political developments.