Steiner House, Modernist villa in Hietzing, Vienna, Austria

The Steiner House is a white, two-story villa at St. Veit-Gasse 10 in Hietzing, Vienna, built by Adolf Loos in 1910. Its street facade is plain stucco over brick, with a projecting central bay, a small square upper window and a large glazed double door. A curved, dark grey metal roof—a quarter-cylinder—wraps over the upper level, hiding two further floors that face the garden.

Adolf Loos designed and built this residence in 1910 for painter Lilly Steiner and her husband Hugo, creating an early example of modernist residential architecture. The house represents a turning point in how homes were designed and built during this transformative period.

Lilly Steiner was a painter, and Loos placed her studio on the first floor beside the bedrooms. Inside, oak wood, marble, panelling, dark exposed beams, Oriental rugs and English furniture contrast with the plain white street facade, which Loos kept silent toward the city. Fixed benches and corner seats were new to Vienna in 1910.

The building is protected as a historic monument and can only be viewed from the outside or through occasional guided tours offered by architectural organizations. The best view of the distinctive roof form can be appreciated from street level, particularly from the front elevation.

The curved metal roof was a response to Hietzing building rules that allowed only one storey above street level and a single roof light. Loos bent the roof into a quarter-cylinder so that three floors plus a basement could sit behind a facade that still reads as a single storey from the street.