Eilfried Huth was associated with the architect Günther Domenig for almost ten years, and was a major representative of both the “Graz School” and the radical Austrian scene of the 1960s and the 1970s. The projects which they designed together broke with modernist functionalism by being presented as evolving environments. If their first joint projects explored the potential of the inflatable (Trigon, 1967), they imagined a series of ground-breaking projects, from the megastructure Stadt Ragnitz (1969) to “green architecture” (Floraskin, 1971). When they parted company in 1973, Huth became involved in painting, producing works both abstract and organic evoking cellular cross-sections in the human body. He also continued the biomorphic aesthetic developed with Domenig and designed several sculpture-architecture projects (Haus Keckstein, 1976; Haus Weinburg, Styria, 1977-80) in which he developed a participatory approach. Eilfried Huth would build several houses: Haus Lackner, Weinburg am Sassbach, 1978-82; Haus “WU” Vasiljevic, Graz, 1983-84; and housing units (including Ragnitz III, Graz, 1986-92), for which, together with Herbert Altenbacher, he experimented with novel installation and circulation structures, based on an interplay of geometric variation for the basic elements. They would also construct highway infrastructures (Plabutschtunnel, Graz, 1983-87), and they rehabilitated a major university building in Graz (Montanuniverstät Leoben, Institut fùr Geowissenschaften, 1982-92).
Eilfried Huth was born in Java and graduated in 1956 from the Technische Hochschule in Graz; he was associated with Günther Domenig (1934-2012) between 1963 and 1973. As the winners of many prizes (Grand Prix International d’Urbanisme et d’Architecture, at Cannes, 1969; the European Prize for Steel Construction, 1975), they together constructed several projects (Pädagogische Akademie der Diözese Graz-Seckau, Graz-Eggenberg, 1964-69; Pavilion Olympics (Swimming Hall), Munich, 1970-72). They took part in a number of historic exhibitions (Urban Fiction, Vienna, 1966-67, by Günther Feuerstein) and retrospectives (Visionen der Moderne, Deutsches Architekturmuseum Frankfurt, 1986). Eilfried Huth was invited to Kassel University from 1971 to 1972, and taught at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin between 1985 and 2002.
