The 'Studiensammlung' in the basement contains fascinating studies of different materials, like metal, wood, ceramics and the furniture collection. This part seems to be the more succeded part of the collection. It looks like a stock house and the clear white painted walls without windows focus the view on the exhibits.
The exhibition in the first floor suffers from the strong and heavy decorated rooms. It's hard to feel them, because the building draw off the attention, e.g. in the floor it was hard to see the welded architecture model of Zaha Hadid's Feuerwehrhaus.
The wide range of rare exhibits give a goog overview of 20th century design, for experts it is the best place to see and discover the relevance of the Austrian part of the modernist movement. In an other city this would be the mayor tourist attraction, but competition is hard in the capital of Habsburg and music history, historism and art decó and the viennese coffee houses. But visit the MAK and you will see Vienna with other eyes!
Building
1863, since 15th November 1871 in this building, 1875-1877 new wing. In 1989-1993 there was a complete renovation and an additional wing built. The main building is a historistic building of similar structure and condition as the UPM in Prague and the first museum on the Ringstraße (the elegant ring-boulevard)
Web site
Poor and only for advertising made websites were my motivation to begin the design museums blog. But the website of the MAK Vienna is good and gives you a extensive overview of its activities. See the notable online-database of the collection or the online-database of Austrian design.
See the album with pictures from the museum
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| MAK Wien |
