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Walter Sobotka

Walter Sobotka

Walter Sobotka (1888–1972) studied under Max Fabiani and Karl König at the Technische Hochschule in Vienna from 1907 to 1912. After military service, he started to work for Karl Korn’s building firm in 1919, before becoming an independent architect in 1923. He was vice-president of the Austrian Werkbund in 1932–34, and contributed two houses (nos. 29–30) to the model estate, including their furnishings. Having emigrated to the USA, he worked as a furniture designer for the Thonet Company from 1939 to 1941. He was then appointed assistant at Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh and later became professor, a post he retained until receiving emeritus status in 1958. He subsequently resumed his activity as an independent architect until 1972. Sobotka, who was both an architect and furniture designer, was part of the second phase of Wiener Moderne (‘Viennese Modernism’) in the inter-war period.