Wittgenstein on Architecture and the Kundmanngasse

In this chapter, I offer a reading of Wittgenstein’s remarks on architecture that will allow me to formulate (in Chap. 6 ) what I take to be the relation between the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (1921) and the house Wittgenstein designed for his sister (the Kundmanngasse). I start by arguing that Wittgenstein uses ‘architecture’ to refer to two different activities, depending on whether they are pursued in “good” or “bad” cultural periods. For that end, I address also Spengler’s influence on Wittgenstein. I then argue that, according to Wittgenstein, whereas architecture in good periods can produce works of art, architecture in bad periods can only produce functional buildings. Since Wittgenstein perceived the period of his lifetime to be bad, it should follow that he intended the Kundmanngasse to be a functional building and not a work of art. I argue that his remarks on the subject and the design of the Kundmanngasse corroborate this perspective.