Günther Domenig

Günther Domenig (6 July 1934 – 15 June 2012) was an Austrian architect.[1]

T-Center Wien

Zentralsparkasse building on Favoritenstrasse

'Steinhaus' at Lake Ossiach

1993FunderMax Werk II (built in 1987)

Domenig was born in Klagenfurt, and studied architecture at the Graz University of Technology (1953–1959). After working as an architectural assistant, he set up in practice with Eilfried Huth (1963–1973), producing buildings in a brutalist vein. They designed buildings with exposed concrete that are among the outstanding examples of brutalism in Austria. Both the Pedagogical Academy Graz and the Oberwart Parish Church were commissioned by the Catholic Church.

Another much-noticed design from this phase is the visionary and unbuildable Stadt Ragnitz project.[2] Here, Huth and Domenig designed a megastructure that is similar to the projects of the so-called Metabolists and Archigram's projects. At the beginning of the 1970s, Huth and Domenig increasingly designed pop-art-architecture. Their temporary buildings for the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich were colorful and had the rounded corners and playful geometries typical of pop art. The multi-purpose hall of the Institute of the Sisters of St. Francis in Graz is reminiscent of a tortoise shell and thus is organic architecture.

Domenig's first internationally acclaimed completed work was the Z-bank in Vienna, which signalled a much more expressionistic, counter-modernist aesthetic. He is also known for his own concrete home, the Steinhaus at Lake Ossiach, on which he worked for more than 30 years.[3][4] Since 2003, Günther Domenig has worked primarily with Gerhard Wallner. They founded the company Domenig & Wallner ZT GmbH.

In addition to his practice, Domenig became a professor at the Graz University of Technology in 1980.[5] He died at the age of 77 in Graz.[6][7]