Josef Hoffmann (1870-1956) was an Austrian architect and designer.
Hoffman came from a wealthy and political family (his father was the mayor of the district of Jihlava Pirnitz). Originally he should follow the footsteps of his father, but his passion was the art.
Hoffmann studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna with Karl Freiherr von Hasenauer and Otto Wagner. At the conclusion of his studies he was awarded the Prix de Rome, which meant that he then spent a year in Italy. The purist forms of the houses with their flat roofs and facades straight probably inspired his cubist style.
In 1897 he founded together with artists Gustav Klimt, Koloman Moser, the Vienna Secession, an association of artists from Vienna. Since 1899 he taught at the University of Applied Arts Vienna.
With the banker Fritz Wärndorfer and Koloman Moser in 1903, he founded the Wiener Werkstätte, a production community of visual artists for whom he designed many products and which existed until 1932.
1906 Hoffmann built his first great work on the outskirts of Vienna, the Sanatorium Purkersdorf. This project served as an important benchmark and inspiration for modern architecture in the first half of the 20th Century. The building had a clarity, simplicity and logic, a new style, the "New Objectivity".
Some of Hoffmanns furnitures are still produced, as the iconic "Cubus Armchair". Developed in 1910, this was presented at the International Exhibition in Buenos Aires. Hoffmann's constant use of squares and cubes earned him the nickname "Quadratl-Hoffmann".
Although he communicated little with his students, Hoffmann was a highly esteemed and revered teacher. He was always trying to make the most of each in which he gave his students challenging assignments that were based in part on real jobs. Hoffmann did great job promoting the talent of his former students, Oskar Kokoschka, Egon Schiele and Le Corbusier.
On 7th of May 1956 Hoffman died in Vienna. The city honored him an honorary grave at Vienna's Central cemetery and in Purkersdorf the Josef Hoffmann alley is named after him.
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