about 20 years ago, when architect adolf loos came onto the scene with the house on michaelerplatz in vienna, with its completely bare façade wall, in which only the square window holes were cut, a storm of indignation roared through the viennese art and lay world (there was a heated "loos house debate" in the viennese city council). i myself, although i had a prominent leader of modern austrian art as a teacher, could not initially warm to this architectural sobriety - today we say objectivity - either. there was no lack of mockers of this latest architecture, as it was written in a major viennese daily newspaper at the time: the most modern of architects walked through the streets of vienna brooding over art - loos was pictured below, standing in front of a canal grating and staring at it, and found what he had been searching for in vain for so long.

what was then considered an outburst of artlessness and was declared impossible by the public, the authorities and the press, is now taken for granted to an even greater extent by the public in all major cities in germany and france. even in innsbruck, some new buildings and conversions (tower block, farmhouse, etc.) have been built from this new point of view of practicality.) have emerged from this new point of view of objectivity. soon we will also have become friends with the clock, which shows only single strokes instead of numerals, and it will only be a matter of time before - just like the loos' purpose manifestation and the abstraction of the hour digits - only lower case letters will be used in our writing for rational and economic reasons. apart from the fact that such an implementation in german writing is not really new at all, but merely a regeneration, and that lower-case writing exists in many foreign languages without any signs of inadequacy, it would certainly be accepted by the business world without resistance (just think of the simplification of typewriter manipulation and typesetting work, the simplicity of language teaching, etc.).

what seemed outrageous to us art disciples at the time in our generally school-educated obsession with architectural finery due to the sensible but revolutionary idea of loos' house was soon brightened up by inner realisation. when i walked through the streets of innsbruck 10 years ago, coming from vienna, i already had the silent wish to see all the superfluous, meaningless, heavy cornices and stucco decorations with which our newer houses (anichstrasse, bürgerstrasse, etc.) are "stuck on" and "decorated" knocked down - which, by the way, happened after a few years in individual places (post office building, farmhouse, etc.).

the disapproval of bare wall surfaces that is so often expressed in the judgement of buildings at present is a natural, reactionary feeling of our spoilt eye, which sees the streets predominantly overloaded with heavy cornices and window frames. therefore, the strict rejection of the new architecture, unless it shows obvious violations of reason and taste, is also very unfair. one must not forget that the non-expert and the average person, even some artists, are mostly conventionally biased in their judgement and therefore cannot claim to be truly objective.

in order not to be misunderstood, i must expressly state at this point that, when it comes to the external design of residential buildings, i am resolutely opposed to the uniform bleakness of factory construction, which is also largely reflected in the tower block. we have plenty of examples in tyrol's old towns that show how a certain warmth and individuality can be achieved even with the simplest of designs. let us now try to judge the skyscraper from the spirit of our time. in doing so, however, we must free ourselves as far as possible from the ban of certain traditional views in order to exclude those one-sided judgements that no longer have any inner justification today. weren't the painters courbet and delacroix labelled as "not classical", leibl and liebermann as "too naturalistic" due to the public's habitual adherence to traditional aesthetic principles? and what did richard wagner's art have to suffer? of course a real, true critic must above all have a clear eye and a healthy sensibility coupled with reason and know how to defend himself against the artistic distortions and gimmicks of all "progressive" artists who try to pretend their work is visionary.

finally, let us remember that it is not a question of whether a building is good or bad, not of horizontal windows or a flat roof, nor of decorative romanticism or machine fanaticism, but of the honest, truly forward-looking attitude of an architect. welzenbacher is currently building in a modern Nordic style and has achieved the best success with it. his style was well received in germany and he was appointed there. it is therefore not surprising that the tower block, as a proud representative of the metropolitan architecture of the lowlands, does not fit into our mountain world - this is perhaps the greatest weakness of the building.

as i said, the essential thing about this high-rise issue is not so much whether or not the high-rise fits in with tirol, nor even the few fanciful additions, but the act that contributes to the emergence of a new style.