Emergence of Modern Architecture in El Salvador

Numerous schools, markets and municipal offices, large public administrative and cultural buildings, but also a large number of projects for private clients - they are all part of the impressive oeuvre that Ehrentraut Katstaller-Schott (1924 - 2024) and Karl Katstaller (1921 - 1989) realized from the 1950s to the early 1970s in all parts of El Salvador. With their buildings, they played a decisive role in shaping the architectural modernity of the Central American country and yet their work is almost unknown in Europe today.

On the initiative of their granddaughter Rachel Katstaller, who lives in Innsbruck, and on behalf of aut, Ivona Jelčić and Nicola Weber went in search of traces, traveled to El Salvador and looked through the extensive private archive that is located in the couple's home. In the course of the research, it quickly became clear that the recently deceased Ehrentraut Katstaller-Schott in El Salvador is considered a pioneer of female architectural history. The results of this research can now be seen in an exhibition at aut, which is accompanied by a comprehensive publication.

Ehrentraut Schott, born in Vienna, and Karl Katstaller, who comes from Innsbruck, began their training in the 1940s - she in Vienna and Graz, he in Berlin and Weimar. Around 1948/49, their paths crossed at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, where both attended the master class of Lois Welzenbacher - a key representative of Austrian modernism, whose teaching had a decisive influence on them. Together they worked on the implementation of a private house designed by Welzenbacher in Kronberg, Germany. The former fellow students became a couple who set up their own practice in Germany.

A decisive turning point came in 1952 when the Salvadoran government called on foreign architects to actively recruit them, partly because there were no corresponding training opportunities there at the time. In the spring of 1952, the couple traveled to San Salvador to work for the Department of Urbanization and Architecture (DUA) of the Ministry of Public Works and never returned to Europe. Over the next 10 years, they worked intensively on the modernization program, which - financed by the flourishing coffee trade in the otherwise very poor country - pursued the vision of a decidedly progressive "welfare state". In contrast to the predominantly conservative attitude in Austria, progressive approaches from experimental architects were welcomed in El Salvador when building a nationwide network of educational centers, markets, sports facilities, cultural buildings and settlements.

Oriented towards the principles of international modernism, Ehrentraut Schott and Karl Katstaller developed their own style of "modernismo tropicalizado" adapted to the climatic and topographical conditions of the region, combining the technical knowledge acquired in Europe with local architectural traditions. Widely projecting canopies, open corridors, horizontal sunshades, ornamental lattices made of brick or pumice concrete pipes and the integration of lush vegetation became recurring elements that ensure natural ventilation and cooling. The sculptural variety of surfaces characterizes many of their buildings, such as the primary school in San Vicente (1954). Here they also experimented for the first time with a suspended roof construction made of reinforced concrete, a principle that was perfected in 1963 at the Óscar Quiteño sports stadium in Santa Ana and contributes to the sculptural appearance of the buildings.

One of the most iconic buildings designed by the architect couple is the administrative building of the CEPA port authority in Acajutla, built in 1958, whose striking deep concrete latticework is both a shade and a defining design feature. Or the State Museum of Anthropology in San Salvador (1962), built after their employment at the DUA, an elegant building covered with hyperboloid concrete shell elements that exudes the spirit of international modernism with its clear lines and reduced formal language.

Parallel to their work at the DUA, Ehrentraut and Karl, together with other colleagues, worked to establish an architecture faculty at the University of San Salvador and were among the first professors from 1954 onwards. Ehrentraut Schott completed another degree in 1959 and was thus authorized to work independently in 1960. This makes her the first woman to practice and teach as an architect in El Salvador, which made her a role model for subsequent generations.

In the following years, the couple, who had been married since 1962, devoted themselves primarily to private commissions from foreign businessmen, for whom they designed residential buildings, office buildings and industrial facilities. Interior design was often part of the commission, as evidenced by the numerous designs for furniture or entire rooms in the typical mid-century style. In the garden of their house in San Salvador (1973), they even set up their own furniture workshop.

Over the course of the 1970s, the political situation in El Salvador became increasingly unstable and the unrest escalated in 1980 into a bloody civil war that was to last almost twelve years. The Katstallers stayed in the country, but construction work came to a standstill. After Karl Katstaller's early death in 1989, Ehrentraut continued to work well into old age, mainly on private conversions and interiors.

The exhibition curated by Ivona Jelčić and Nicola Weber at aut - fittingly in a building designed by Lois Welzenbacher - is the first comprehensive documentation of the life and work of the architect couple. Previously unpublished materials from the extensive private archive in El Salvador are on display, including design sketches, plans and photographs by Ehrentraut Katstaller-Schott, who documented her own buildings with her camera. Personal documents, correspondence, texts and film recordings also provide insight into the life stories and extraordinary careers of the native Viennese and the native Innsbrucker.

Accompanying the exhibition, Park Books is publishing the publication "Between the Continents. Ehrentraut Katstaller-Schott, Karl Katstaller and the Modern Architecture of Central America".