Table for the Dispach Office of "Die Zeit"

1902 saw the newspaper Die Zeit, the worldview of which was quite friendly towards Viennese Modernism, open its telegraph office. Located on Vienna’s exclusive Kärntner Straße, it was used both as a flagship store and for the display of breaking news. The design of this office was entrusted to Otto Wagner, the father of Viennese Modernism. Wagner’s so-called Nutzstil [functional style] stipulated that the form was to always develop out of the construction, with the materials employed corresponding with the creation’s intended use. For this dispach office, two tables were made. Their design was derived from the trestle tables common during the Renaissance: Wagner translated this type into a modern variant, reducing it to the most necessary supporting and resting structural elements. The frame elements, made from high-gloss, nickel-plated iron pipes, could be reduced to the minimum in terms of their dimensions, while also facilitating the reflection and, hence, the continuation of the surrounding space. This quality ensured that the space at hand would be opposed by a minimum of material.