Hundertwasserhaus in Vienna: You Can't Go In, So Here's What to Do Instead

The Hundertwasserhaus is the building Vienna's grown-ups pretend to be above and every child loves at first sight. It has no straight lines if it can help it. Windows of all sizes are scattered across walls painted in patches of blue, ochre, pink and white. Trees grow out of the balconies. The floors inside are deliberately uneven.

The painter Friedensreich Hundertwasser designed it, with the architect Josef Krawina, as a protest against the flat grey blocks of postwar housing. The city built it between 1983 and 1985 as council flats. It has 53 apartments and people still live in them, which is the one thing first-time visitors don't expect: you can't go inside.

The photo below catches it in autumn, under the branches of a tree turning gold. Blue walls bulge and dip, a mustard storey sits on a pink one, and each window has its own frame and its own colour.

Looking at it properly

Stand on the corner of Kegelgasse and Löwengasse in the 3rd district and look up. The building steps back in terraces, and the roofs carry soil, grass and trees. Hundertwasser called the trees "tree tenants" and believed nature should get back the ground a building takes away.

Look at the windows. He thought every resident had the right to decorate the facade around their own window, as far as an arm could reach. Each opening is different.

Look at the ground. The pavement in front rolls in gentle waves. It's meant to be walked on slowly.

Come in the morning. By late morning the tour groups line up for the same photo from the same corner, and the street is narrow.

What you can go into

Kunst Haus Wien, about ten minutes' walk away, is the Hundertwasser museum, in a former furniture factory he remodelled in his own style, with wavy floors and a café with a garden. It reopened on 29 February 2024 after a renovation of nearly nine months. Adult entry costs €16, open daily 10:00 to 18:00. The permanent collection shows his paintings, prints and architecture models.

Getting there

Tram 1 to Hetzgasse, then a few minutes' walk. Or walk from the city centre along the Danube Canal, about 25 minutes, and come back through the Landstraße district for coffee somewhere less photographed.

More on the house in autumn: Hundertwasserhaus in Autumn, Vienna's Most Playful Landmark on Travel Marketing.