Ernst Lichtblau

Born in an assimilated Jewish family (the father was managing director of a factory for Meerschaum pipes), Lichtblau graduated in 1902 from the state school in the Schellinggasse in downtown Vienna, in which he later (1906-1914) should return as a teacher of furniture design.

Lichtblau in 1904 studied the ancient residential architecture throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina, seeking to create a modern style based on these indigenous forms.

He was impressed by the cascading and cubist forms of the roofs, the simple but powerful shapes of the houses, modeled by light and fine valers of scale black, white and brown.

Lichtblau's most famous buildings include the so-called "chocolate house" in Vienna-Hietzing, a part of the Paul-Speiser-Hof and a double dwelling in the Vienna Werkbundsiedlung due to its façade design with dark brown majolica.

Lichtblau had to emigrate in 1939, he reached the United States from Britain and became a respected teacher at the Rhode Island School of Design.