Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky Center

An apartment museum dedicated to a true Viennese pioneer: For three decades, architect Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, the inventor of the fitted kitchen, lived and worked in the 5th district. The legendary Viennese architect’s repaired and reconstructed flat currently functions as a museum and research center.

Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky (1897-2000) was born in Vienna and made an indelible imprint on her generation. She was one of the first women in Vienna to study architecture and is often regarded as the first female Viennese architect to operate substantially. She was a social housing pioneer, a supporter of the women’s and peace movements, and a resistance fighter against National Socialism.

She is also known as the “Mother of the Fitted Kitchen.” Schütte-Lihotzky created the Frankfurt Kitchen, the precursor of the fitted kitchen, in 1926. Everything has to be small and easily accessible, but yet having a high design claim. Around 10,000 houses had this standardized kitchen fitted.But the Adolf Loos student spent her entire life refusing to be defined by this single characteristic.One of her most famous quotes is “I am not a kitchen.”

Schütte-Lihotzky lived the last 30 years of her life in a 55-square-meter flat on Franzensgasse in Vienna-Margareten that she designed herself. The apartment was refurbished and rebuilt after her death in 2000. The Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky Club, a non-profit organization created in 2013, had the heritage-listed apartment rebuilt in 2021/22 so that it might be experienced now as it was during Schütte-Lihotzky’s lifetime. The flat and its 35 square meter roof garden were renovated over the course of a year. Many original pieces of furniture, such as lamps, drapes, and tables, are on display, as well videoed chats with Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky. A 100-year-old Kyrgyz tapestry that has been meticulously repaired also draws attention.

Today, the museum acts as a showroom and is available to the public on Tuesdays and Fridays. It is also a research center dedicated to the history of Austrian architects. On the outside, the outstanding Viennese female architect is immediately visible: Schütte-Lihotzky is shown in an art piece on the next building’s projecting firewall. A big, painted portrait portion produced by the PRINZpod artist collective is on display.