Alfons Walde

Alfons Walde was one of the most fascinating painters of classical modernism in interwar Austria. His skiers in the fantastic mountain world of Kitzbühel, the farmhouses crouched in the snow, but also his nudes and pictures of the built environment are widely known and fetch dream prices at auctions.

Far less well known is the fact that Walde also played a significant role in shaping the environment he depicted: as an expert in “homeland security” and as the designer of numerous buildings, the most famous of which is probably the Hahnekammbahn in Kitzbühel.

Like other Tyrolean architects of the time, Walde found himself caught between the traditionalism of the Heimatstil and modernism. Architect Alfons Walde resolved this conflict by responding to the built environment and the wishes of his clients in the valley, while paying homage to modernism on the mountain, which was merely subordinated to nature as a backdrop.

This volume brings together Waldes' architectural work for the first time in a complete catalog of works and provides detailed information on a surprising number of projects, as well as completed works.

Olivia Hromatka, born in 1985, great-granddaughter of Alfons Walde, Bachelor of Architecture (PRATT Institute) in Brooklyn, New York, 2009, Dipl.-Ing. Architecture (TU Vienna), 2014.

Her interest in architectural history and Tyrolean modernism motivated her to undertake the first-ever review of her great-grandfather's architectural legacy.