arbeitsgruppe 4

The architectural group 'arbeitsgruppe 4' was founded in 1950 by classmates from the master school of Clemens Holzmeister at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. All four architects already knew each other from their studies at the vocational school in Salzburg. The association, which originally formed for the purpose of joint participation in architectural competitions, consisted of Wilhelm Holzbauer, Friedrich Kurrent, Johannes Spalt, and Otto Leitner (who left the group in 1953 due to disagreements in the competition for the new museum of the city of Vienna). After Leitner's departure, his place was informally taken by the one generation older Anna-Lülja Praun, who was one of the first female architects in Austria (she had previously worked in the studio of Josef Frank, was a partner of Herbert Eichneholzer, and an assistant to Clemens Holzmeister). During the period of 1956-64, when Wilhelm Holzbauer was in the USA, he also detached himself from arbeitsgruppe 4 and founded his own architectural studio. Friedrich Kurrent and Johannes Spalt worked together until the early 1970s, when the association concluded its activities after two decades. During that time, they managed to create 120 projects, of which only a mere tenth were realized.