Maks Fabiani and urbanism in Vienna at the turn of the 19 th century

The progressist model was based on the utopian socialist ideas from the beginning of the 19th century. Among the proponents of these ideas were Robert Owen, Charles Fourier, Benjamin Richardson, Etienne Cabet, Pierre Joseph Proudhon and others. At the end of the 19th century, Otto Wagner developed progressist ideas in his proposal of the Great City (Die Grossstadt)[2], while at beginning of the 20th century another proponent of the progressive models were Tony Garnier in his proposal for an industrial city (Cité industrielle)[3], and later, in the 1920’s, the international movement C.I.A.M. with their proposal for a functional city, formulated in The Athens Charter[4] by Le Corbusier.


Otto Wagner and a progressist model of urban growth
The proponents of this model based their ideas on the concept of a universal man with universal needs. They believed in the future, in science and technology, in the idea of progress which was supposed to solve all the ills associated with cities. Progressist ideas are thus refl ected in the functional organization of a city and its design. The proponents of the progressist model propose a new urban order, suitable for any human society at any given time and space. They were convinced that a type apartment is appropriate for this new order, the uninhibited growth of a city and an urban form, open towards the countryside. This form is organised and distributed in accordance with the basic urban functions (residence, work, recreation and traffi c). A progressist city rejects and doesn't pay attention to the historical heritage issues. It is subject only to the very clear logic of geometrical laws.
The most typical Viennese representative of the progressist urban planning at the end of the 19 th century was Otto Wagner, as his essay Die Grossstadt proves. Wagner believed in a universal man with universal needs, which are essential for the organization and design of a city. As he wrote on several occasions, he was convinced that any artistic creation has to originate from set goals, needs, means and characteristics of the actual time. His motto 'Artis sola domina necessitas' (Only needs rule art) corresponds to this assumption. Wagner claimed that typical needs necessarily call for typical architectural forms, for anonymous architecture and even uniformity on a city level. As an example he designed the urban plan for the 22 th Viennese district. Its urban form consists of a rectangular grid of uniform buildings, parks, obelisks, monuments, fountains and public palaces, interconnected with a good traffi c network. The design was based on the functionality principle, which Wagner advocated in the architecture also. So he showed how the morphology of a historical city centre can be adapted to the transformed needs of a metropolis' growth.
For Wagner the only adequate future for a city was the Great City (Die Grossstadt), which was 'the most modern architectural form' . [5] In accordance with the progressist model, Wagner proposed an unlimited growth. He designed a city as a federation of autonomous districts (Bezirk), equipped with all the necessary services and interconnected with a network of circular boulevards and radial avenues. Wagner proposed a functional reorganization of the city. Instead of the traditional zoning, he advocated the intertwining of urban functions, which would among other things reduce traffi c. Wagner promoted the idea of decentralised concentration, a modern concept, which is in today in the focus of present theories regarding the sustainable development of cities.
Wagner devised a modular city, where every module or district lives its own independent life, while operating as an integral part of the urban structure as a whole all in sync with each other.

Camillo Sitte and a culturalist model of urban growth
The second, culturalist or conservation model arises from the works by John Ruskin and William Morris [6] and their criticism regarding industrial cities. Nevertheless, we have to look for the real origin of this model, those of the romantic writers (Victor Hugo, J. Michelet) and their nostalgic idea of 'the lost beauty' . Other infl uences were historical and archaeological studies. Unlike a progressist city, a culturalist urban form is spatially limited and completely separated from the nature that surrounding it. Culturalist cities are rather small, the same as cities in the middle ages. Within them, we can't fi nd any trace of geometry or prototype forms. What is emphasised is the notion of a community and a sense of collective spirit. The predominant idea is anti-industrialism. While for the progressists, hygiene is of key importance, the culturalists' main focus was the aesthetic. Ruskin is convinced that all artistic creations have to originate from nature. He argues for the use of traditional materials, such as wood or stone, and says that even new techniques need to be built manually and not industrial. The use of industrially produced metallic constructions for him is a violation of the principles of nature. Ruskin proposes a return to a concept of art, inspired by the middle ages (Ruskin, 1848).
Two most important representatives of the culturalist model at the end of the 19 th century were Ebenzar Howard and Camillo Sitte. Howard profoundly infl uenced the urban planning culture at the break of the 19 th and the 20 th century with his idea of garden cities, developed in the book entitled Tomorrow, a Peaceful Path to Real Reform, [7] published in 1898. At the end of the 19 th century, the idea regarding garden cities was especially popular in the Anglo-Saxon countries, where it was considered as the best cure for over-populated cities.
Camillo Sitte (1843Sitte ( -1903, the author of the book entitled City Planning According to Artistic Principles (1889), [8] had a crucial infl uence mainly on the urban planning culture in Central Europe. Since the process of urbanization in this geographical area was slower than in the West European countries, the idea of garden cities and de-urbanization didn't have many proponents in Central Europe.
Sitte, an architect and art historian was very interested in history, as he proved in his book discussing the systematic morphological analysis of medieval and renaissance towns and squares. He wrote that such analyses can contribute to better solutions for the present problems encountered while building cities. He claimed that modern urban planning should meet three fundamental conditions: to break away with the tradition of building houses in rows; to preserve old towns as much as possible; and to make new creations according to the ideal of the antique models. Sitte used these morphological analyses of three-dimensional urban spaces, in both a ground plan and in volume as a basis for his three elementary principles of urban design, which should serve modern urbanism: the principle of harmony between public buildings and their surroundings; the principle of designing vibrant urban ambiences; and the principle of arrangement and reconciliation. Due to his conservationist ideas, Sitte was considered the founder and initiator of the protection of monuments.
But Sitte wasn't only a mere critic of the aesthetic side of modern cities building. He was also aware of the need for urban regeneration and adaptation to the demands of modern life.
"Modern life and modern construction techniques don't allow the imitation of old town organizations. This is a fact we can't escape without sinking into fruitless fantasies. Beautiful and perfect monuments of the old masters have to be preserved diff erently, not only with foolish reproduction. We might reap a new harvest from the seemingly barren soil only, if we research and fi nd the essence of regulation and succeed to implement our fi ndings in modern conditions" (Sitte, 1889: 74) Sitte's ideas had an important infl uence on the urban planning of the second half of the 20 th century. In the 1970's, Sitte was even considered to be the father of post-modernism [9] . His popularity reached its pinnacle in the last decades of the 20 th century with the movement for new urbanism, [10] whose members sited Sitte's work as one of their major historical references.
Otto Wagner and Camillo Sitte were considered as the then two pillars of Viennese urban planning. We could say that their ideas somehow express the dialogue between modernity and historical memory. Both men were architects and engineers, unlike the majority of urban planners. Hence they could design a city in three dimensions. Their architectural education was expressed in a strong interest for the beauty of a city, which they understood diff erently. Sitte thought that the beauty of a city was connected to art, in its noblest meaning of the word; a harmony, which seduces our senses. Wagner on the other hand thought that the beauty of a city is in allowing room for modern city forms, in providing good living and working conditions and to comply with the functional, hygienic and existential needs of modern man. His opinion was that the beauty of a city doesn't spring forth from a harmonic combination of heterogenic elements, but from the eff ect created by discreet elements, united in one big monumental form. Wagner was convinced that modern eyes lost the feeling to intimate scale and adjusted themselves to more monotonous images, to straight lines and huge masses.
Interestingly, Sitte never designed any great city neither was Wagner's utopian metropolis ever realised.

Max Fabiani: between the progessism of Wagner and culturalism of Sitte
Fabiani's work remained hidden in Sitte's and Wagner's shadow for a long time, despite the good reputation he had in cultural circles of modern Vienna at the turn of the 19 th century. Due to the eff orts of the late professor of architectural history at the University of Trieste, Marco Pozzeto, Fabiani's work is now well-known and is now considered within a Central European context.
Maks Fabiani (Kobdilj, Slovenia 1865-Gorizia, Italy, 1962, whose father originated form Slovene Karst and mother from Trieste [11] , studied architecture at the Vienna University of Technology (1883-1889). Even before his graduation, Fabiani was an assistant at the Graz University of Technology (1889-1891). In 1891 and 1892, he worked as Prof. Wilhelm Edler von Lowe's assistant at the chair of architecture for two urban planning courses: 'Urban planning from antiquity to modern times' and 'Evaluation of artistic principles in modern urban planning' . During this time, he acquainted himself with Camillo Sitte's work and his ideas aff ected him strongly.
Between 1894 and 1896, Fabiani worked in Otto Wagner's studio in Vienna. He participated in Wagner's project for the metropolitan railway and helped Wagner with his book entitled Modern Architecture [12] , for which he wrote several chapters. He described this collaboration in one of his letters to Nace Šumi, PhD, Professor at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Ljubljana in 1952. "You might be interested to know that I wrote the booklet Modern Architecture in the Hutteldorf Villa on Wagner's express wish. The writing occupied us for several weeks. Wagner and I discussed all topics. He completely trusted me, even regarding style and choice of examples ... " [13] Therefore it isn't a coincidence that Fabiani himself advocated the ideas of the Great City (Die Grossstadt), applied them in his work and re-shaped them in his urban plans, such as the regulatory plan for Ljubljana and the regulatory plan for Bielsko. Camillo Sitte and Otto Wagner are undoubtedly two of the key fi gures within the Viennese artistic and intellectual circles at the turn of the 19 th century. Much less known is that Maks Fabiani was held in high esteem amongst the most distinguished architects of that time also. Fabiani was very important for the development of the technological sciences (urban planning is one of them), as the chairman of the Austrian Association of Engineers and Architects, Atillia Relle [14] wrote.
It is less known even to larger professional public, that Fabiani was the fi rst of the Vienna architects who chose a thesis on urban planning for his doctorate in the technological sciences. The academic title, awarded to Fabiani, was "the proof of genuine science, which stimulates the moral dimension of researcher" (Pozzetto, 1997: 30). The additional point to this is the request by the teaching staff at the University of Technology, addressed to the Minister of Culture and Education, in which they proposed that Maks Fabiani should become a professor ad personam (without a call for applications). They substantiate their request with the following explanation: "It would be of great benefi t for our university, if we could give a permanent position to Dr. Fabiani  Fabiani argued for his thesis with two regulation plans, for Ljubljana and Bielsko (now Biala in Poland). The report, accompanying the latter plan, clearly expresses the architect's artistic credo and his refl ections upon urban planning: "A city is like a big house. But look! While each of us tries to make the planning scheme for his house as carefully and good as possible and shifts his furniture around his apartment to place it along the walls as eff ective as possible, almost noone among the thousands of city-dwellers is aware of the fact that a city, our big common apartment, can be arranged well, only if we fi rst fi nd a position for individual buildings, squares, streets and parks. All of this brings great advantages without substantial costs. A city or a town has been always creating an arrangement of residential and hired houses, palaces and so on. Nevertheless, a logically organized city is a new acquisition. This is an undisputable artistic task" (Pozzetto, 1988: 59-60).
For Fabiani, urban planning had a noble artistic mission, but at the same time he was aware that urban planning has to off er functional solutions and that could also eliminate problems regarding hygiene, traffi c, industry, green areas and architectonic typology. A city couldn't be seen as a monolith piece of art anymore, but as a living organism, which has to stay receptive to ongoing alterations. Urban planning is therefore a continual process, able to transform all the time. "We keep asking ourselves when are we going to achieve the fi nal solution or when the picture of a city will be completed? Never!" (ibid.: 61) Because a city is a living organism that grows constantly, the same as a person develops from his or her birth onwards. This was a completely novel idea in those times. We don't fi nd it in the works or writings of Sitte, Wagner or other architects of that period.
Architecture, urban planning and planning were for Fabiani only diff erent levels of the same idea. All architecture has to be designed in such way that it is in accordance with its spatial and city environment. If planning is to be successful, it has to deal with a city as a whole and consider how it blends in its territory and region. This principle is the basis for regional planning.
Fabiani had a very acute sense for the local environment. He emphasised the need to respect the local character and to preserve genius loci, which is the most complete expression of the soul of the people and the place. The highest imperative for him was always the respect of the local spirit, as he proved with his architectural and urban plans for Ljubljana and various Italian and Austrian towns. His architecture completely blends with the form and materials of the local environment; it fuses with the town and becomes its integral part of it.
Fabiani is seen as the forefather of the preservation of historical towns. Due to his respect of historical heritage areas, he was appointed secretary of the permanent board for monuments, established in Vienna as a consultative section of the central imperial and royal commission; for the protection of monuments. All Fabiani's essays and blueprints prove that he profoundly appreciated the heritage of historical towns He wrote: "Every architectural fragment, connected to the history of a town, every sign, even of minor importance, contributes to the enrichment, poetry and dignity of a town. Historians and archaeologists must help architect and provide him with the necessary documents." (Ibid.: 103).
Fabiani fi rst examined his urban planning ideas in his regulation plan for Ljubljana. The city suff ered a violent earthquake in 1895. In this disaster, almost 90 percent of buildings were damaged [15] , and this opened up the possibility for a radical regeneration of the city. The city council decided to commission a general regulation plan and asked the Association of engineers and architects to name some architects-urban planners, who would be prepare to deal with this task. Among the proposed names mentioned at that time were (Ludwig Baumann, Eugen Fassbender, Mayreder brothers, Alfred Reinhold, Leopold Simony, Theodor Bach), the council chose Camillo Sitte, who designed and sent the plan in September the same year. At the same time, Fabiani made his regulation plan for free and on his own initiative and sent it to the municipal authority (Šumi, 1954). Comparative analyses showed that both plans had many things in common and also that Fabiani's plan was more aligned with the character of the city and understood its needs better. Fabiani was the fi rst urban planner with a very clear vision of the development of Ljubljana, which he thoroughly explained in his accompanying report. The text, which was printed in 300 copies as an off print, is the fi rst Slovene essay on urban planning. With this, Fabiani laid the foundation for urban planning terminology. [16] He designed his plan after a meticulous morphological analysis of the existing city, based upon Sitte's model. This analysis helped him to determine the fi xed elements of the existing urban form and the major outlines for its future development. He based the new urban form on a street network, composed of concentric and radial streets. Among these, squares and parks facing Ljubljana castle are placed. The predominant motif is a 28 metres wide and 6400 metres long ring road, which is lined with trees and winds around the city. This boulevard, similar to the Vienna Ringstrasse, complements the existing motif of two streets, enclosing the castle hill along the river banks.
In his urban planning, Fabiani was interested in the shaping of urban form as well as in the functioning and organization of the city. To facilitate the connection among diff erent parts of the city, he conceived a tram line and prepared general guidelines for the construction of the city in 3 dimensions: design of buildings, arrangement of squares and parks; and organisation and the layout of market spaces and other public buildings. Fabiani's plan for Ljubljana is a refl ection of both Sitte's conservative urban planning ideas and Wagner's functionalism. He treats the city as a whole and respects the local particularities (genius loci) and in the same times he ensures a good functioning of it. Nevertheless, the most important quality of his plan is that Fabiani foresaw the sustainable development of the city. He designed major outlines, which were the guidelines for the city's development for more than half a century. That he mastered his profession completely only goes to prove an interesting fact that some of his ideas are up-to-date even today.
In his designs for Vienna Karlplatz in 1898 [17] and Ljubljana Slovenski trg (Slovene Square) in 1899 [18] , Fabiani carried out the principles of three-dimensional planning on a small scale. His design for Karplatz was awarded the fi rst prize at an invitation of tender, opened by the Vienna Municipality Authority, while the design for the Slovene Square was directly commissioned by the Ljubljana Municipal Council. Both squares are designed from one perspective of sight and also as a monumental set design.
In 1898, the Ljubljana Municipal Council awarded Fabiani the commission for drawing a plan for the expansion of the city north of the railway line [19] . Fabiani designed an independent, self-suffi cient, well-equipped and organized district according to Wagner's principles of a metropolis. In the centre of the district, he put a big square and drew it three-dimensionally. He used two existing major axes leading to the city centre as its supporting structures and added a third axis, which to connected the city with the cemetery. The secondary street network, composed of radial and concentric streets, shaped as a fan, which narrows towards the city centre. Squares and parks are located at the intersections of the radial and concentric streets: all facing the castle. While Fabiani's regulation plan for Ljubljana from 1895 directed the development of Ljubljana for more than half a century, the plan for the expansion of a city with its geometrical form, which didn't give any consideration to the existing division and ownership of the land, didn't aff ect the development of the district north of the railway line.
Fabiani's works in Austrian, Italian and Slovene cities and towns are in a way a bridge across these three nations that inhabit the Central European cultural region for almost two millennia. They integrate Wagner's progressivism and Sitte's conservatism, the two main trends in urban planning culture at the end of the 19 th century. At the same time, they are a proof of the polivalency of this architect, who mastered several professions: from architecture to urban and regional planning; from the regeneration of cities and towns to constructing waterways between the Adriatic Sea and the Danube river; from philosophy (Akme) to art; from literature to technology. Pozzeto was right when he wrote that Fabiani was "an urban planner by profession, an architect and a civil engineer by education, an artist by his sensitivity and a 'Central European' by culture. "

Conclusion
The 19 th century urban planning saw solutions for city problems in new forms in relation to the growth and development of cities and also in new ways of adapting to the demands of modern life. Nevertheless, it didn't change the basic structure of the city, despite all the eff orts involved in the search for the new solutions. While the proponents of the culturalist model borrowed their formal language from the middle-ages and the renaissance period, progressive urban planners used the formal language of the baroque and the neo-classical period with straight avenues, lined with uniform building, great vistas, geometrical formalism, parks, etc. Art nouveau, which radically regenerated architecture and applied arts at the turn of the 19 th century, didn't infl uence urban planning in the sense of inventing a new urban form. Urban planning therefore tried to cope with new conditions, created by industrial revolution and new towns' population with traditional urban forms, like streets, squares and parks and particularly with new architecture. [3] Garnier, T. (1917) Une Cité Industrielle: étude pour la construction des villes. Paris.