ABSTRACT
The idea of design reform was prompted by the Great Exhibition and the criticisms articulated first in London established the basic framework of the discussion in Austria-Hungary. Austrian design reformers did not attach the same utopian moral values to historical emulation as Pugin, Ruskin and Morris in England, yet implicit in their approach was an attempt to preserve pre-industrial modes of production. Analysis suggests that although the Semperian programme promised a break from traditional practices, a reluctance to discard entrenched values meant that it was never fully implemented. The raison d’etre of the museums was raising design quality and stood in contrast with the earlier industrial exhibitions as well as the Cabinet of Physical and Mechanical Machines in the Polytechnic, which served merely to showcase manufacturing excellence. Critical assessments of museums of design tend to focus on the failing authority of the culture of historical emulation.
