Contrasting modernist architects in Vienna show

Vienna

TAKE two bedrooms, each designed in the early 1900s by a different ambitious young architect for an apartment here. Both are modestly sized and furnished with a bed, dressing table, wardrobe and night tables. But the similarities end there.

One room was the work of the architect Josef Hoffmann, who designed it in 1902 for his clients Johannes and Johanna Salzer in warm shades of brown, with beautifully made wooden furniture sharing the geometric motifs of the carpet and curtains.

The other was devised as a dreamy spectacle by Mr Hoffmann's arch-rival, Adolf Loos, in 1903 for himself and h…