:: loos excursions 2 - landhaus khuner ::

Yesterday I went to Payerbach, one and a half hours by train away from Vienna's city centre:

Built as a holiday house in 1929/30 the Landhaus Khuner it is now a Hotel: www.looshaus.at
The owner is mildly friendly but after some persuasion he allowed me to look at two of the unbooked rooms (4 and 5). In the process of renovation and adaption to it's new function as a hotel, they added an astonishingly ugly new addition to the building and replaced the original windows with standardised windows, destroying the original rhythm of the facades. Also the former dining niche was closed off from the main space to become a bar, losing one of the more interesting spacial moments of the building.


Never the less, it was a revelation to see the building and experience it. It's not an example of a 100% radical Raumplan design. Still there are interesting effects you would get in the typical Raumplan like the narrow and small entrance, the splitting stairs, stepped front terrace, indoor windows, mirrors placed into specific view axis, and some minor split levels. All four facades work differently and are solved according to the interior development. Additionally Loos designed the shutters of the windows in an minimalist way out of green colored metal, adding to the modernist look of the facade. The house is wrappted into a traditional Landhaus or mountain hut typology - from far it blends in neatly with the surrounding architecture, from close the details of the facades, the placement and rhythm of the windows as well as the small roof terrace give a hint to Loos' genially designed interiors and interior sequencing. My favourite room is the Library. It is split leveled down below the living room, and has the house's biggest window to the outside, making up for it's relative narrowness. It is this room were one can experience the Raumplan the most, especially in terms of it's visual relationships to the living room. It's also the only room I found so far, were Loos allowed it to be photographed with the window not closed by curtains, underlining the importance of the windows dimensions and Loos' strategy of inside-outside relationships.
Loos' play with colors and material cladding is very convincing and adds to the spacial experience, when moving from one room to another. I was surprised by the intimate and "gemütliche" atmosphere the building immediately embraced me in, at the same time it was very light, bright and strikingly modern. In terms of mood and interior sequencing this Loos was more convincing than the Le Corbusier houses I visited so far.