Friedensreich Hundertwasser was an artist that worked in various mediums including canvas, stone and also used his own body. His paintings are bright, busy and colourful. This is also evident in the buildings he created. Isn’t it so much better when you look at at building that isn’t grey or square? It’s amazing how much of an impact architecture has on its surroundings and the mood of a place.
On July 4, 1958 he read his celebrated and controversial Verschimmelungs-Manifest, the so-called Mould Manifesto against rationalism in architecture, in the abbey of Seckau. “A person in a rented apartment must be able to lean out of his window and scrape off the masonry within arm’s reach. And he must be allowed to take a long brush and paint everything outside within arm’s reach. So that it will be visible from afar to everyone in the street that someone lives there who is different from the imprisoned, enslaved, standardised man who lives next door.” In 1972 he published the manifesto Your window right — your tree duty: planting trees in an urban environment was to become obligatory: “If man walks in nature’s midst, then he is nature’s guest and must learn to behave as a well-brought-up guest.”
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