Vienna consistently tops surveys as the best city to live in (most recently the Mercer 2010 “Quality of Living” survey of 215 cities). Vienna also keeps you guessing: classical or modern? Eastern Europe or unabashedly western? The glorious past or the vibrant present? The answer lies in the way Vienna has embraced all these avatars with ease and created its own identity as a world-class city.
With more than a hundred museums and palaces, it is hard not to be impressed by all the grandeur on display. Yet all this history and heritage sits lightly on Vienna. There is no better proof of this than the quirky Hundertwasserhaus, an explosion of curves and colours. Set in a quiet lane away from the buzz of the city centre in the Landstrasse area, this apartment building designed by Austrian architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser seems to be Vienna’s way of thumbing its nose at the world that once thought of it as stuffy and boring.
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Read more here… Vienna: My Kind of Place in The National, July 02, 2011
