Heinz Tesar


Heinz Tesar was an Austrian architect who had an international reputation for his church and museum architecture.

Life and career

Tesar studied architecture from 1961 to 1965 at the Akademie der bildenden Künste in the master class of Roland Rainer. After several stays in Hamburg, Munich and Amsterdam, he opened, in 1973, his own studio in Vienna. From 1972 to 1977 he was a member of the Board of the Austrian Society for Architecture and from 2002 to 2006 he was a member of the Baukollegium of the city of Zurich. In 2000 he opened an office in Berlin. Tesar died on 18 January 2024, at the age of 84, in Baden bei Wien.

Academic career

From the 1980s, he taught at various universities in Europe and America:
For various international competition entries he received the first or second prize: e.g. for Klösterliareal in Bern, the University Library in Amiens, the Synagogue in Dresden, the Museum for Art and Design in Ingolstadt and the Museum of Medicine in Padua, Italy.

Notable buildings

  • 1974–77 Music Studio, Steinach am Brenner
  • 1976–78 Unternberg Parish church.
  • 1977–86 Church and Cemetery, Wagrain
  • 1976–83, 1985–88 Residential Development, Vienna,
  • 1981–83 Firestation Perchtoldsdorf.
  • 1981–83 Haus Grass Bregenz.
  • 1981–85 Biberhaufenweg settlement, Vienna,
  • 1985–87 House Grobecker, Vienna,
  • 1986–87 Administration building Schömer, Klosterneuburg,
  • 1987–90 Day-care, residential complex Wienerberggründe, Vienna.
  • 1991 Design Koloman Walisch Square, Kapfenberg.
  • 1993–95 Keltenmuseum in Hallein
  • 1994 Stadttheater / cinema and museum, Hallein,
  • 1995 Evangelical Church, Klosterneuburg.
  • 1995 Warehouse area, St. Gallen Styria,
  • 1995 ″Taschenberg Residence″, Dresden
  • 1998–99 Essl Collection Museum Klosterneuburg
  • 1999 Donau City Church of Christ, hope of the world in the Danube City Vienna.
  • 1999 Haus am Zwinger, Dresden
  • 2000–05 Conversion Bode Museum Kaiser Friedrich Museum, Berlin,
  • 2001–06 Teichgartencalvario, Klosterneuburg near Vienna,
  • 2001–06 BTV City Forum, Innsbruck,
  • 2007–08 Auditorium, Institute of Science and Technology Austria, Klosterneuburg
  • 2013 Conversion of Kahlsperg Castle for the Franciscan Sisters of Hallein