Ernst Anton Plischke (1903-1992) an Austrian born architect who trained under Peter Behrens at the Master School in Vienna (Akademie der bildenden Künste). He worked on several occasions in Vienna, briefly in New York and for a period of twenty four years in New Zealand.
In the 1930s he designed significant projects in Austria including employment offices and numerous apartments and houses. His designs for the Vienna Werkbundseidlung (1928/30) and for the Employment office at Liesing (1930) were featured in Alberto Satoris' 1935 publication "Gli Elementi dell'Architettura funzionale".
In 1939 Ernst and Anna Plischke emigrated to New Zealand, where Plischke was employed by the New Zealand government in the Department of Housing Construction, working on the design of state flats and on the planning of new community centres. In 1947 he left goverment service to later enter partnership with Cedric Firth. In private practice Plischke remained a continental modernist, designing many fine houses, churches, monuments and furniture, including the Sutch House (1953) and the Massey House office building (1952). His employment with the government and his relationship with the New Zealand architectural establishment of the period remain controversial.
In 1963 returned to Vienna to take over took over as head
of the Master School of the Academy in Vienna. His work has
been the subject of an exhibition and has been discussed in
several monographs and theses.
Selected bibliography
Fonatti, F. "E. A. Plischke," Katalog zur Ausstellung 1983 an der Akademie der bildenden Künste, (Vienna: Akademie der bildenden Künste, 1983)
Matthews, A. "E. A. Plischke: the connection between theory and form," (BArch sub thesis, University of Auckland, 1986)
Plischke E. A. "Design and Living," (Wellington: Department of Internal Affairs, 1947)
Plischke E. A. "On the human aspect in modern architecture," (Vienna: Verlag Kurt Wedl, 1969)
Plischke, E. A. "Ein leben mit architektur," (Vienna: Löcker Verlag,1989)
Tyler, L. "The architecture of Ernst Plischke in New Zealand 1939-1962," (MA thesis University of Canterbury, 1986)