Many, many years (decades!) ago now, I visited a friend in Vienna. We went to a place I knew nothing about called the Hundertwasserhaus. Very interesting I thought at the time. Obviously memorable since I still remember it more than 25 years later. Since that trip, I had mentioned that “famous” architect Hundertwasser to friends and colleagues. No recognition of this person. So, I thought, I guess he was just a local Viennese architect with one unusually designed building.
We arrive in New Zealand, motorhoming our way North of Auckland through Northland and what do I run into, but a Hundertwasser Museum! What?? How did this guy who as far as I know only did a building in Vienna also have this museum in the middle of semi-rural New Zealand (in a smaller town called Whangārei) and yet no one I know had heard of him?
Turns out, like many an American and European, Hundertwasser had it with the rat race and moved to New Zealand, near Whangārei, in the 70s to get away from it all. He became famous here and they eventually built an art center honoring him, about a decade after he died in 2000, based on one of his designs.
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THEN I learn, he has a famous building in New Zealand built while he was still alive — a toilet. Yes, really, there is a public toilet in the small town of Kawakawa that he designed. So, this leg of travel became the Hundertwasser hunt. We went out of our way to stop at Kawakawa (I just love the name of that town) to see…a public toilet. We plan to be in Vienna this fall for a few days and the Hundertwasserhaus will be on the must-see list!
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