Siegfried Sitte’s unique design for Zell am See

Abstract

The Austrian architect and urban planner Siegfried Sitte (1876-1945) is – after Franz and Camillo Sitte – the last representative of a three-generation family of architects. His extensive oeuvre is divided into two very different creative periods by the caesura of the First World War. At the beginning, there is the intensive collaboration with his famous father Camillo Sitte and the continuation of the latter’s urban planning projects. Building on his father's design principles, Siegfried soon developed an independent profile. Between 1903 and 1914, many designs and projects were developed, but however, hardly ever realized. After the war, Siegfried only rarely signed planning work as an executive architect. Instead, the focus is now on the academic discussion of urban planning. Surprisingly, it is precisely during this phase that his design for a development plan for the small town of Zell am See (Salzburg, A) is approved in 1925 and becomes one of the few realised urban designs by Siegfried Sitte. What distinguishes this¾so far hardly noticed¾urban design? Can the influence of Camillo Sitte's urban planning theories be detected in the development plan for Zell am See? To what extent does the design respond to the local landscape structures and the built environment in Zell am See? Based on these central questions, one of the few realised urban development projects by Siegfried Sitte will be discussed and, in addition, a critical classification of his oeuvre in the internationally received urban planning history of the interwar period will be undertaken.