The Kundmanngasse and Its Significance

Between 1926 and 1928, Wittgenstein designed a house for his sister in Vienna. This book concerns the relation between that house (the Kundmanngasse) and the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921). In this introductory chapter, I describe the aims and structure of the book and provide information about the history and reception of the house. I also present a review of the relevant literature, divided into two parts. The first part focuses on the place of the house in the history of architecture. The second—and, given the aims of the book, most important—focuses on the relation between the house and Wittgenstein’s philosophy.