JOSEF FRANK. AGAINST DESIGN: THE ARCHITECT'S ANTI-FORMALIST OEUVRE Das Anti-formalistische Werk / The Anti-formalist Oeuvre of the Architect

With Josef Frank the catalogue for the exhibition in the MAK, Vienna, focuses on one of the most important Austrian architects of the 20th century. In addition to his groundbreaking architectural oeuvre, the discussion considers Frank as a designer who must be thanked for his many important stimuli to international design that are still valid today. His ideas of an free, enlightened housing and living culture is more topical today than ever.

The publication for the exhibition JOSEF FRANK: AGAINST DESIGN at the MAK, Austian Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Art in Vienna focuses on one of the most important Austrian architects of the 20th century. Beyond his pioneering architectural work, Josef Frank (1885-1967) is highlighted in particular as a designer whose influence continues to be felt around the world today: as an architect and designer who remains "contemporary" to this day, he represented a pragmatic approach to design that emphasized not so much formal qualities as those of social experience. Especially today, Josef Frank's ideas about an uncontrived and unpretentious functionality, whose aim is an independent, free, and enlightened bourgeois domestic culture far from stylistic dogmas and fashionable conventions, seem more relevant that ever.