Josef Hoffmann

Architect and designer (1870–1956)

Born in Moravia in 1870, Josef Hoffmann studied architecture in Vienna under Otto Wagner, the great master of Austrian modernism. In 1897, alongside Gustav Klimt and Koloman Moser, he co-founded the Vienna Secession, a movement dedicated to liberating art from historicist styles. In 1903, together with Koloman Moser and the industrialist Fritz Waerndorfer, he established the Wiener Werkstätte (the "Vienna Workshops"). These applied arts workshops produced furniture, metalwork, glassware, textiles, and jewelry, driven by the ideal of the Gesamtkunstwerk—a total work of art in which every everyday object is conceived with the same exacting standards as architecture. His style is defined by its geometric rigor: squares, circles, grids, and spheres, earning him the nickname "Quadratl-Hoffmann" ("Square Hoffmann"). He also collaborated with leading bentwood furniture manufacturers, Thonet and Jacob & Josef Kohn, designing seating and tables that brought modern design within reach of a broader public. His architectural masterpiece, the Stoclet Palace in Brussels, completed in 1911 and featuring murals by Klimt, is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Passing away in Vienna in 1956, Hoffmann is celebrated today as one of the founding fathers of modern design.