Hundertwasser - from Wien to Kawa Kawa

The culmination of Freidenriech Hundertwasser‟s architectural career was a toilet in Northland, New Zealand. It was his one and only realised project in New Zealand. While this may not seem a particularly significant project, it has had ramifications wider than could be expected.

Kawa Kawa had been quite a centre of industry in the late 1800‟s. Originally a mining hub it had transformed to agriculture by the 1930‟s. There are a number of original Art Deco houses close to the main street that attest to its
value as a regional agricultural centre form this time. By the 1970‟s, decline had set in and it languished for several decades. Hundertwasser found the isolation attractive, and made the region his base from the late 1970‟s.

Now his toilet upgrade, complete with green roof, gold balls, tree, inset bottles and ceramics made by students form the Bay of Islands College, it has become the most photographed public toilet in New Zealand, and a lightning
rod for Hundertwasser devotees the world over.

“Bus tours pull up outside for photo sessions, travelers familiar with Hundertwasser’s
work in Europe are making special visits to the Bay of Islands rural township, and
domestic visitors are making a stopover for both practical and philosophical reasons”
As a case study in regional rejuvenation it has ticked all the boxes: A low budget project, an iconic designer, a compelling concept and local community involvement. The success of the project should be more widely disseminated to local government authorities in Australia.

Vienna was a very modern city in the late 1890‟s through to the early 1900‟s. It was the seat of European contemporary architecture, design and art. It was also the home town of Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele. Vienna‟s population at the turn of the century was over 2 million, placing it fifth in world city population size. A series of poor decisions and bad luck in the late Hapsburg period saw the city begin a decline that continued until the end of the Cold War. Not the least of the bad luck was the death of Klimt to pneumonia in February 1918, and Schiele to Spanish Flu in October 1918.

Hundertwasser was born in Vienna in 1928. His father died just after Hundertwasser‟s first birthday. His mother Elsa was Jewish, however his father had been a Catholic. Hundertwasser and his mother posed as Catholics during the war. To be inconspicuous, he joined the Hitler Youth. After the war he undertook formal art training for three months at the Vienna School of Art. He was inspired by the Austrian Seceesion movement of the turn of the century, and the works of Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt. Early school reports remarked on his ‘exceptional feeling for colour and form’.

The next three decades saw Hudertwasser concentrate on art, but increasingly turn against the prevailing architectural throught. He was fascinated with spirals, and called straight lines “the devil‟s tools”.

He made a series of nude speeches of 1967 and 1968 where he condemned the enslavement of humans by the grid system of conventional architecture. He rejected rationalism, the straight line and functional architecture. His speeches called for a boycott of this type of architecture, demanding creative freedom of building, and the right to individualisation of structures.

People just don‟t do stuff like this anymore! More‟s the pity: The author discloses
that he attended the 2nd of Dr Jim Cairns and Junie Morosi‟s „Confests‟ at Bredbo,
NSW, in the summer of 1978. It was a „togs off‟ affair – days were spent deciding
whether to attend the Proust tent, the Sufi dancing, the Iridology tent or FoE strategy
meetings. As Bob Dylan used to sing – “I was so much older then; I‟m younger than
that now”.
Along the way Hundertwasser put his graphic skills to coin, stamp and flag
design