The Columns

Hundertwasser's column designs.

There is only one remedy for the disease of the far overhanging canopies, balconies and building portions: columns.

The overhanging building portions with no support are probably intended to demonstrate the daring of the architect and statical engineer, but they only produce discomfort in anybody standing under them. Sometimes the “floating architecture“ collapses, such as the Berlin Congress Hall.

The column is an essential element of western architecture. Standing next to a column you feel as when you are under a tree. A column must be beautiful and colourful and radiate of its own accord, by day, in the rain and in the moonlight.

Hundertwasser, 1985