Austrian Postal Savings Bank, Art Nouveau bank building in Innere Stadt, Vienna, Austria

The Austrian Postal Savings Bank is an eight-story building by Otto Wagner clad in square marble slabs fixed with aluminium rivets, with granite at the base and top. Two 4.3-metre cast-aluminium figures by Othmar Schimkowitz stand on the attic corners. Inside, the Kassenhalle is lit by a glass skylight and a floor of glass tiles that lights the mail-sorting rooms below.

Otto Wagner designed this banking institution in 1904, implementing innovative construction techniques with reinforced concrete and aluminum. The building marked a turning point in Viennese architecture by visibly integrating technical progress into its outer form.

The building represents a break from traditional architecture, introducing modern design principles through its functional layout and material choices. The facade with its characteristic rivets still speaks today of the desire to make functionality visible.

The building is centrally located in Vienna and easily accessible by public transport from multiple directions. The interior is well-lit and offers clear access to different areas, with stairs and elevators easy to find.

The marble slabs are held by 17,000 iron nails with aluminium heads, not by the rivets that seem to fix them. Wagner chose this because the fast construction did not allow the mortar to set. The nails, lead-sheathed to prevent rust, became an ornament.