Hilmteichstraße 24. Haus Albrecher-Leskoschek von Herbert Eichholzer
Heimo Halbrainer/Eva Klein/Antje Senarclens de Grancy
Graz: Clio, 2016
German, 160 pages, paperback
ISBN 978-3-902542-25-0
EUR 24.00

As a modern Gesamtkunstwerk and place of "liberated housing," the building located at Hilmteichstraße 24 in Graz was designed in 1937 by Herbert Eichholzer and furnished by Josef Frank using tubular steel furniture and various fabrics. In the living room, Axl Leskosche created a large-format mural with encoded content and references to the political situation of the time.
As of 1938, the building was a meeting place and postal address for a circle of artists and intellectuals who, in opposition to National Socialism, jeopardized their freedom and - in the case of Eichholzer - paid for this with their life.
After conversions and renovations, the original architectural design of the Albrecher-Leskoschek building is only still discernible in the interior spaces. Leskoschek´s mural is hidden behind another coat of paint, but it can be iconographically reconstructed. In the face planned demolition, this book discloses the architectural, art-historical, and contemporary-historical significance of a - non-protected or listed - monument of Styrian modernism.

The architectural historian Antje Senarclens de Grancy teaches and conducts research as a university assistant in the Institute of Architectural Theory, Art History and Cultural Studies.
Eva Klein is an art historian and designer working as a project assistant in the Institute of Art History at Graz University.
The historian Heimo Halbrainer has headed the association Clio since 1996, which is conceived as an interface between research and mediation.