Built / Unbuilt

Emperor Karl IV advertised an international architectural competition in 1714 for the design of a new church. Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach¹ threw together elements of Hagia Sophia, citations from Trajan’s column and references to Palladio and Bernini essentially establishing a discourse of historical dimensions; a wild project. In 2016, the Vienna Museum announced another competition, not for a church, but for the extension of their museum next to Karlskirche. We decided not to ignore the presence of Karlskirche - the main figure on the square - but to immediately (well, after 302 years) take up the conversation once again, with all the existing triumphal columns, spiral stairs, domes, Portici and others, involving Loos, Brancusi and Constant.

[1] competitors were among others Johann Lukas von Hildebrand and Ferdinando Gallo Bibiena