Villa Rezek Restored, Now On View: 1930s Viennese Modernism by Architect Hans Glas
There’s a quality to a well-restored historic work of architecture that is unmatched—the marriage of early twentieth century materials where edges are refined with an updated structure and surfaces refinished with real consideration. Villa Rezek, built between 1933 and 1934 in Vienna for physician couple Anna and Philipp Rezek by the largely unknown Jewish Viennese architect Hans Glas, is one such example. Set on Windmühlhöhe in Währing, Vienna’s 18th district, near works by Adolf Loos and Josef Frank, the house exemplifies Viennese Modernism in the interwar period: a reinforced concrete structure with generous openings, clean lines, and expansive terraces. It’s a building that is both staunchly modern and unmistakably humane—an architecture of optimism amid a turbulent era.
Its recent restoration, undertaken between 2020 and 2024 by Maximilian Eisenköck Architektur, approaches the house as a layered document. The firm’s research-driven approach combines archival study, material analysis, and the precise attention to building history, chemical composition, and traces of original use. This allowed the villa to be returned to its 1930s condition without erasing its past. That past is substantial: the forced flight of the Jewish Rezek family in 1938; postwar occupation by American military generals; partial destruction; and the eventual protection by the Federal Monuments Office in 2010. Newly reopened as a temporary museum in spring of 2025, Villa Rezek offers a rare, intimate encounter with modernist domestic life—rooms restored with original furniture, photographs, and plans, where even absences feel present. It is also a quiet corrective: a reintroduction of Hans Glas, long overlooked in Austria, into the architectural lineage he helped shape.
Photography by Julius Hirtzberger for Maximilian Eisenköck Architektur.
Above: Original bookshelf-lined walls of the more social spaces in Villa Rezek were carefully restored and decorated with 1930s Wilhelm Wagenfeld glassware, upholstery textiles, and design books referential to the time.
Above: Noble wood varieties were used on the built in cabinets and bench.
Above: Glass-front bookshelves and oak parquet floors.
Above: A curtained storage entryway and rectangular black-and-white floor tiles.
Above: Original built-in storage with custom key lock hardware.
Above: The children’s bedroom was originally designed for the Rezek’s two daughters. It’s defined by a more colorful palette and was restored and decorated with Josef Frank B 246 Armchairs in red.
Above: Weighty door handles that withstand the test of time.
Above: A view of the custom cabinetry and razor-thin wood topped detail on the desk risers.
Above: Showcasing 1930s storage considerations, a tiny compartment for keeping personal items folds down out of the built-in closet cabinets. An Egyptian Stool from 1925 by Josef Frank sits beneath.
Above: The characterful black-and-white kitchen features a fold-out table with aluminum dry goods bins, typical of the time in Germany and Austria, is designed with a vintage stand mixer and baking scale.
Above: An original 1930s Elin electric range.
Above: Reminiscent of ship building and the sanatoriums of the era, a porthole window looks out onto the villa terrace.
Above: A view of the modernist terraces of Villa Rezek.
Above: The exterior at 37 Windmühlhöhe in Vienna. The building is available to tour by booking through Villa Rezek.
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