THE THIRD SKIN IN THE THIRD DISTRICT
This is about the third skin, the outer skin of KunstHausWien.
Man is surrounded by three layers, his skin, his clothing and walls, the building.
Clothing and the walls of buildings have in recent times undergone a development which is no longer in keeping with the individual's natural requirements.
Windows are the bridge between inside and outside. The third skin is interspersed with windows as the first one is with pores.
The windows are an equivalent of the eyes.
The facade is not perfectly straight and flat, but humpy and interrupted by irregular mosaics. A black-and-white, irregular checkerboard pattern signals the disbanding of the grid system, its breakup.
On the side toward the courtyard a black stairwell connects the exhibition rooms.
The entrance and courtyard were paved with old granite blocks, Dutch clinkers and old bricks from Emperor Franz Joseph's days - a chance for the craftsmen to be creative themselves, a joy for the visitors.
What we urgently need is barriers of beauty; these beauty impediments consist of uncontrolled irregularities.
Paradises can only be made with our own hands, with our own creativity in harmony with the free creativity of nature.
Written in April 1991 for KunstHausWien
Published in:
Hundertwasser - KunstHausWien, Cologne: Taschen, 1999, p. 12