Tzou Lubroth Architekten steht für richtungsweisendes Design in Retail und Gastronomie. Seit 10 Jahren werden von uns entworfene, großformatige Lokal-Konzepte umgesetzt. Mit der Mensa der Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien haben wir eine mit dem Preis für Deutsches Design ausgezeichnete Kantine realisiert, die jeden Tag über 2000 Personen verpflegt. Auch kleinere Formate bedeuten uns viel, wir designen die Stammbar, wir entwerfen das Lieblingskaffeehaus, oder das Haubenlokal.

Was aber macht den Unterschied zwischen guten und sehr guten Lokalen? Wir sind in der glücklichen Lage, wiederkehrende Kunden zu haben. Daraus formulieren wir unseren Anspruch an die tägliche Praxis als Architekten. Ein anhaltendes, geschäftiges Treiben zu schaffen, ist der leitende Gedanke in der Gestaltung von Erfolgskonzepten in Retail und Gastronomie. Architektur als sozialer Akt bedeutet – gerade in der Gastronomie, wo es um das Zusammentreffen von ästhetischen und kulinarischen Reizen geht – dass Erlebnisse geschrieben werden. Essen und Trinken sind Emotion. Wir schaffen die ästhetische Klammer und machen aus Gästen Stammgäste, aus Kunden Stammkunden. 

Als Besitzer von drei arrivierten Lokalen kennen wir alle Facetten eines Betriebs. Diese Expertise erlaubt es uns, Gastronomie ganzheitlich zu erfassen. Lokale sind nicht nur Orte, die Gäste wieder und wieder ansteuern, sondern auch Arbeitsplätze für viele Menschen. Optimale Planung geht deshalb auf die Analyse von Arbeitsschritten und sich wiederholende Abläufe ein. Über die Jahre haben wir eine charakteristische Palette an Materialien definiert, die nicht nur optisch brillieren, sondern sich für den Gastro-Betrieb durch Effizienz, Langlebigkeit und Robustheit qualifiziert haben. Architektur setzt sich dann erfolgreich durch, wenn mit den Mitteln der Gestaltung die Persönlichkeit eines Raumes herausgearbeitet wird. Ganz egal ob hole-in-the-wall oder Großkantine, wir arbeiten mit der Essenz einer Adresse.

J. Hornig Flagship
Vienna, Austria
Café
Completion March 2017

The design for J. Hornig's flagship store in Vienna was won in a closed completion. The original competition brief was site-less as the client had yet to find an exact location for the store. The initial designs were thus prototypical and experimental by nature. As a result, this early design phase afforded us an unusually close working relationship with the client as we fine-tuned our ideas. It was our goal to create a space that was at once modern, warm, and youthful without being predictable or standard. It was also important for us to represent the company as both an established player but also a forward-thinking and contemporary presence in the market. J. Hornig has positioned itself as progressive coffee roaster, with deep ties to coffee bean farmers around the world and a keen understanding of how to roast and brew a high quality drink. Our design process was governed by the ambition to place J. Hornig at the center of this scene by embracing the company's combination of experience and innovation. It was clear to us that the flagship store would have to be a special kind of hybrid, part store, part roastery, part living room. It would have to speak to the company's past as well as to its future visions. It would have to function simultaneously as a neighborhood coffee shop and a flagship store for the company’s various brands and products. It would have to respond to the Viennese environment but also challenge it with something new.

By the time the store found its home on the corner of Siebenstergasse and Kirchengasse in Vienna's busy 7th district, we had developed a design strategy that reflected this hybrid program. The space was formerly a Café/Konditorei with fluted columns as room dividers, wood paneling in high relief, travertine stone floor tiles. Rather than search for a clean slate by gutting the space blank, we used parts of the existing ornament to root our design in a past. We decided to leave the worn travertine floor and sections of the wood paneling. Traces of the old space provided us with an opportunity for contrast. The new elements of the space are marked by a soft color palette of white, gray, pink, and beige. However, the softness in tone is applied on industrial materials creating a tension between warm colors and cold surfaces, between soft lines and hard forms. Raw oak, glass, white powder-coated steel, and perforated polished stainless steel maintain strict and minimal geometries. The space is divided into three zones, each reflecting programmatic shifts from fast to slow areas. The entrance area with a take-away counter and a high cubic volume for customers drinking ‘on the run’ features the old wood paneling now painted in a neutral white. This is a fast space, oriented towards the street intersection. The middle section is fashioned as a living room with a variety of seating options. It was important to arrange a space that would be attractive to both individuals and groups. In general, the seating is communal and should encourage interaction between guests. Wooden niches along the facade are aligned with the windows providing ideal seats for street voyeurism. The back area is a slow zone, divided from the rest of the space by a glass wall. The room is entirely dominated by an industrial coffee roaster. The roaster is presented as a valuable artifact, a reminder that J. Horning’s coffee comes from years of roasting expertise. Perhaps the most conspicuous element in the space is the dropped ceiling made entirely of perforated polished stainless steel panels. The machinic nature of the ceiling is an unexpected presence. The reflectivity augments the perception of space and adds to a play of light and movement. The industrial qualities of the ceiling are mitigated by the warmth of the wood furnishings, the irregularity of the stone floor, and the white and gray surfaces. A pink glass wall separates the main space from the bathrooms and the dry storage. Like the ceiling, the unexpected bluntness of the colored wall is set against the soft textures of stone and wood. The bathrooms are mechanical boxes clad in brushed stainless steel. The steel lightly reflects the pink tones of the glass wall. Our design takes flight from current attitudes in architecture, fashion and graphic design, where the smooth and the hard, the jagged and the curved are often intertwined. We are also interested in pairing the old with the new and as such the space pays tribute just as much to the long history of coffee drinking in Vienna as it does to the youthful energy of the moment.

Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Café
Total floor area: 120 m2
Number of stories: 1
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Deniz Önengüt
Photos by Atelier Olschinsky

Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien Mensa
Invited Competition, First Place
Vienna, Austria
University Dining Hall
Completion: October 2013
 

The dining hall for the new Vienna University of Economics and Business occupies a large, ground floor space in the Hörsaalzentrum - a corten steel clad building that houses the main lecture halls and seminar rooms. Although connected to the life of the campus, the Mensa reads as a separate environment, a place where students can find respite from their academic activities. To accentuate the break from the classroom and lecture hall, the Mensa references the natural world outside the newly minted campus. Nature is interpreted as an opportunity to create the perception of environmental change. Nearly all of the opaque walls in the space are clad floor to ceiling in glass panels with a printed panorama of an abstracted forest landscape. The panorama was commissioned to the Austrian artist Markus Leitsch, who rendered an image recognizable as a forest yet strangely suspended between graphic and realistic states. The glass panels are back-lighted with programmed LED strips that change in tone and intensity during the course of the day, reflecting changes in daylight and seasonal conditions. A student that enters the Mensa in the morning will encounter a different environment in the afternoon. The atmospheric changes are not perceptible over the course of minutes but over the course of hours. To emphasize the light qualities of the wall paneling, the ceiling, columns, and floor surfaces are black, gray, and unadorned. The dining area is divided into four zones, each characterized by a separate seating type that corresponds to particular uses and lighting conditions. All furnishing in the hall is made of solid wood stained in different tones. The meal stations, on the other hand, are all concentrated in a curved volume clad in anodized aluminum panels. The volume operates like a large market stall with each meal station having a separate opening.  When the stations are not in use, large mechanical panels slide over the openings creating a taut metallic object. The Mensa is fully digitized and paperless. Students use their ID cards to pay at each of the meal counters. The flexibility of the payment system allows for a space that is absent of long lines and enclosed serving areas. Students are free to move at will from station to station and have a choice of dining areas to populate, while being surrounded by a space that is constantly shifting and changing its atmospheric qualities.

Invited Competition
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: University Dining Hall
Total floor area: 2,000 m2
Number of stories: 1
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Anna Psenicka
Art Consultant: Markus Leitsch
Photos by Stefan Zenzmaier

Technopark
Zurich, Switzerland
Dining Facility
November 2016

Das Technopark - Gebäude definiert sich durch seine Schlichtheit und ein rhytmisches Zusammensetzen verschiedener, klarer Linien. Simple, interessante Details rücken hier in den Vordergrund. Diese Formensprache fließt auch in den Entwurf des neuen Betriebsrestaurants ein, welches als Highlight hervorsticht und trotzdem optimal mit dem Gebäude harmoniert. Vier Lichtboxen werden angebracht und definieren durch ihre bewusste Platzierung Zonen, jeweils unter der Konstruktion, als auch dazwischen

Location: Zurich, Switzerland
Principal use: Dining Hall
Total floor area: 800 m2
Number of stories: 1
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Clara Fickl

Vienna International Center
Catering Facilities
United Nations Office in Vienna
Vienna, Austria
Catering Facilities
February 2014

Location: United Nations, Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Catering facilities
Total floor area: 3500 m2
Number of stories: 1
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Kristina Zaunschirm

Miranda
Vienna, Austria
Cocktail Bar
Completion July 2015

Our architectural practice recently relocated to a larger space. Rather than give up our old address – a lovely storefront on the Esterhazygasse – we decided to transform it into a small cocktail bar. Alas, Miranda was born from both pragmatic and nostalgic impulses. It was the perfect opportunity to create an environment quite opposite to the first bar we designed and own, ‘If Dogs Run Free’. Miranda is Dogs’s brighter more colorful little sister. While Dogs is dark and immersive, Miranda is open to the street, revealing a pale color palette of greens and pinks, blues and yellows. She’s the newest addition to the growing and tightly-knit neighborhood on the Esterhazygasse. The room is dominated by a 6.5 meter long green granite bar. The idea was to create a kitchen counter, a place where people gather to mingle and drink but also to watch the alchemy of drink-mixing in action. The original industrial herringbone oak flooring was left intact and references the space’s use as a woodshop at the turn of the 20th century. Plush leather stools surround the bar and three small round tables along the façade. The façade is organized around four arched bays, each with glass doors that open to the street. With the exception of a large illustration featuring a dense jungle scene, the walls, partitions, bar counter and lighting fixtures are reduced to single colors. This creates a playful overlapping of color planes in space. The back counters and shelving are all stainless steel. Polished perforated stainless steel panels are clad around the bar below the stone counter and reappear in the bathrooms and exterior signage. Three 6 x 2 meter platforms composed of metal flooring and powder-coated steel mesh create a terraced garden along the street. The bar pays homage to tropical modernism, a time when clean lines and bright colors co-existed, as well as local design icons such as Josef Frank’s illustrative fabrics and Adolf Loos’s use of chromatic stone. With Miranda we want to hint at the tropics but be firmly rooted in Vienna.  

Location: Vienna. Austria
Principal use: Cocktail Bar
Total floor area: 70 m2
Number of stories: 1
Design Team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth
Photos by Atelier Olschinsky

Mama Liu & Sons
Vienna, Austria
Restaurant
Completion October 2014

We were approached by the Liu family to rethink their restaurant on a prominent corner of Vienna’s hip and busy Gumpendorfer Straße. The new design was conceived in close cooperation with Atelier Olschinsky, who developed the graphic design and corporate identity. Our aim was to create a comfortable and warm dining environment where the hand-made quality of the food is prominently featured. The Lui family prides itself on cooking dishes that one would be hard pressed to find outside a traditional Chinese home kitchen. At the center of the space, the bar is clad in riveted stainless steel panels that reflect the wood and brick surfaces of the dining area. The riveting’s slight deformations on the steel surfaces create warped reflections that bring to mind the irregularity and inexactitude of a bygone industrial age. A painted mural on a brick wall and an antique carved wood panel also reference a past without being specific about a time or a place. The goal was to establish a space that is at once modern in its lines and flows but that also speaks to a notion of the past. The riveted bar at the center reveals views to a prep kitchen where Mama Liu and her sons roll out dumpling dough and fold gyozas. The dining area is composed of solid wood furnishings, dark gray surfaces, and the building’s original brick walls, which were covered by a century’s worth of plaster and stucco. Diners can sit along a row of medium sized tables, at large communal tables, or along the bar to catch glimpses of the family at work.         

Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Restaurant
Total floor area: 170 m2
Number of stories: 1
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Kristina Zaunschirm
Graphic Design / Mural: Atleier Olschinsky
Photos by Atelier Olschinsky

Center Bar, Pier West, Vienna International Airport
Vienna, Austria
Center Bar
Completion November 2014

As part of a general renovation of Vienna International Airport’s Pier West Terminal, we were asked to create a program for a 100m2 area directly underneath a large rotunda from which a series of departure gates are arranged likes spokes on a wheel. Prior to the renovation, a cast iron sculpture dominated the radial space and the gates were closed off by individual security checks. The renovation eliminated the security checks thereby opening up the space to free movement from gate to gate. Our client, responsible for a large food court adjacent to the rotunda, wanted to have a feature that would attract travelers shortly before their departure. We designed a radial bar, ideal for a last minute snack and drink, where travelers can sit at the center of the terminal activity. The design makes use of the existing geometry, integrating the subdivisions of the rotunda in the partition of the structure and lighting concept. The central bar and the concentric bench are clad in dark green granite. The 18 bent lighting strips on the rotunda are mirrored in a second tier of lights hanging directly over the bar area. The 18 strips are further traced on the surface of the bar, floor, and outside edge of the bench. These base strips are integrated in the stone cladding. The three lighting tiers are programmed LEDs that respond to different conditions such as operational hours, times of high frequency, and ambient light. The lights strips can create an illusion of rotation or elevation as the colors shift from strip to strip or tier to tier. At the center of the bar, a cylindrical shelf illuminates bottles and glasses.

Client: Do&Co Airport Hospitality GmbH
Location: Vienna International Airport
Principal use: Center BarTotal floor area: 100 m2
Number of stories: 1
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Kristina Zaunschirm
Photos by Stefan Zenzmaier

Kunsthistorisches Museum Café
Vienna, Austria
Museum Café
October 2015

Als eines der bedeutendsten historistischen Großgebäude der Ringstraßenzeit und eines der größten und wohl bekanntesten Kunstmuseen der Welt bietet das Kunsthistorische Museum Wien einen eindrucksvollen Rahmen für das Museumscafé. Zentral beim Entwurf war folglich der Anspruch, eine zeitgemäße Innenraumgestaltung unter Rücksichtnahme auf die reiche Bandbreite an vorhandenen historischen Gestaltungselementen zu konzipieren. Die runde Tischform der Möblierung ermöglicht eine freie, lockere Aufstellung im zentralen Sitzbereich undhilft, die strenge Symmetrie des Raumes ein wenig aufzubrechen. Die Sitzplatzanzahl pro Tisch variiert: Es sind sowohl Tische für 2 und 4 Personen als auch Tische für größere Gruppen von bis zu 8 Personen vorgesehen. Die größeren Tische fungieren als Gemeinschaftstische, die auch gleichzeitig von Personen genutzt werden können, die unabhängig voneinander das Café besuchen. Rund um die zentrale Balustrade befinden sich radial angeordnete Einzelsitzplätze. Diese können untertags auch als Arbeitsplätze - zum Lesen oder Surfen – von Einzelpersonen oder kleineren Gruppen genutzt werden. Die Sitzbänke im Fensterbereich stellen eine weitere Form von Sitzmöglichkeit dar. Sie sind abgeschirmter und privater und laden zum längeren Verweilen – bei natürlichem Licht, direkt an den großen Fenstern – ein. Eine weitere intimere Sitzgelegenheit bieten die beiden Nischen in den Ecken des Raumes mit jeweils 6 Sitzplätzen. Die Lage der Bar und des Shops wird im vorliegenden Konzept beibehalten. Im Fall der Bar erfolgt dies angesichts der räumlichen Nähe zur bestehenden Küche. Die einzige Veränderung in diesen Bereichen betrifft – neben der neuen Möblierung - den Verbau hinter der Bar, der einen Rundgang bislang unmöglich machte.  Durch das Entfernen des Verbaus werden, abgesehen von einer durchgehenden Zirkulation, die Blickachsen auf die in der Ecke positionierte Statue wieder wirksam gemacht. Die Neugestaltung des Museumscafés zeichnet sich durch die Verwendung von qualitativ hochwertigen Materialien aus. Die Messingverkleidungen der Möbel stellen eine Fortsetzung der bereits vorhandenen Goldverzierungen im Museum dar. Die ringförmigen Beleuchtungselemente sind ebenfalls aus Messing gefertigt und wirken durch die dematerialisierende Wirkung des spiegelnden Messings dezent. Die ringförmige Form der Beleuchtung ermöglicht eine gleichmäßige Ausleuchtung des Raumes, was in der momentanen Gestaltungsform des Cafés nicht gegeben ist. Nicht nur die zentralen Beleuchtungselemente nehmen Bezug auf die radial ausgerichtete Grundrissform des Raumes, auch in den Nischen und entlang der Sitzbänke an den Fenstern wird die Ringform fortgeführt. Durch das dunkle Rauchglas der Tischoberflächen ist das den Raum maßgeblich strukturierende Muster des Marmorbodens weiterhin sichtbar und wird nicht unterbrochen. Gleichzeitig wird auch die Kuppel und Deckengestaltung im Glas gespiegelt und somit ihre Wirkung im Raum verstärkt. Dem Farbschema des Museums folgend - welches jedem Raum jeweils eine bestimmte Farbe zuordnet – erhält auch das Café durch die mintgrünen Sitzbezüge eine klare Identität innerhalb der Museumsräume. Zusammen mit dem Messing wirkt die Sitzlandschaft somit freundlich und einladend. Das Ziel des Entwurfes ist es, eine große Bandbreite an Raumerlebnissen für den Besucher zu bieten. Dank der gebotenen Vielfalt an Sitzmöglichkeiten kann der Cafébesuch individuell an die jeweiligen Bedürfnisse angepasst werden. Außerdem garantiert die runde Tischform genügend Flexibilität bezüglich der Aufstellung, welche zum einen locker verstreut und zum anderen auch axial am Bodenmuster ausgerichtet erfolgen kann. Dies ist vor allem für den wöchentlich am Donnerstag stattfindenden „Gourmet-Abends“ relevant, für welchen ein Aufstellungsvorschlag ausgearbeitet wurde.

Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Café, restaurant
Total floor area: 400 m2
Number of stories: 1
Design team: Chich-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Lea Artner

RamienGo
Vienna, Austria
Restaurant
Completion October 2012

RamienGo is a restaurant in Vienna's new Wien Mitte train station and shopping center. It is the latest outlet of the well known Ramien group, famous for their contemporary approach to Souteast Asian and Chinese cuisine. The restaurant occupies part of a larger food court on the first floor of the shopping center. It features a hanging ceiling installation composed of 466 aluminum tubes. Each aluminum tube represents a distinct curve. The 3D, free form bends were fabricated off-site with CNC tube bending machines specifically fitted for this project. The tubes are powder-coated and capped with a round end. They are attached to a steel beam that hangs from the concrete slab, spanning a total length of 33 meters. The steel beam acts a structural 'spine' for the aluminum tubes and bends in relation to the overall shape. At one end, the spine flips, bends down and warps around a thick concrete column, torquing the aluminum tubes nearly 90 degrees, and in the process, opening the shape to passersby. The shape and color of the ceiling pays homage to the existing design identity of the Ramien restaurants. It is also the outcome of a larger design process that began as a prototype study (see RamienD). However, what started as a prototype also had to adapt to a very specific site. A key aspect of the design is the way the geometry is expressed. Rather than render the shape a seamless shell, it was important to expose the structural components and the mode of fabrication. The shape is not only an eye-catcher in an environment where the senses are overloaded with other stimuli, but it also provides a porous enclosure that separates the restaurant from the rest of the noise. Above the tubes, the ductwork is purposely left exposed. Spot lighting is attached to the steel spine. Below the tubes, the restaurant is delineated by a grey poured epoxy floor and a shallow steel railing. Structural concrete is left exposed. The kitchen is a functional stainless steel block. The furnishings are a combination of Corian table tops, wooden benches, and bleached wooden chairs. 

Client: Yang & Ngo GmbH
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Restaurant
Total floor area: 230 m2
Number of stories: 1Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth
Consultants: Quirin Krumbholz (Madame Mohr), Peter Mattle (Pemat AG), Rainer Schmircher
Photos by Stefan Zenzmaier

RamienGo Erste Campus
Vienna, Austria
Restaurant
December 2014

The restaurant occupies a curved ground floor space in the recently completed Erste Bank Campus. It features a large graphic tapestry depicting illustrated jungle scenes. By taking advantage of a glazed façade exceeding 8 meters in height, the image is meant to me visible from afar. For diners at the restaurant who experience the tapestry at close range, the images become unarticulated patches of color. The ground floor is articulated by grid of black and white tiles. A large concrete and stone bar dominates the main dining area. Seating niches are clad in upholstered leather. The kitchen is concealed behind a curved tapestry wall. A generous steel stair leads to a mezzanine with private dining rooms and a lounge.     

Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Restaurant
Total floor area: 700 m2
Number of stories: 2
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth

Cube Siemens
Zurich, Switzerland
Organic Canteen
September 2015

Wie die meisten Betriebsrestaurants ist auch der CUBE in Zürich in seiner derzeitigen Gestaltung ein großer homogener Raum mit wenig räumlicher Differenzierung und Abwechslung für den Besucher. Zentral für den vorliegenden Entwurf ist es daher, vielfältige Zonen zu schaffen, die sich durch ihre Materialität und Möblierung voneinander unterscheiden und ein breites Spektrum an Atmosphären bieten. Neben der Erschaffung unterschiedlicher Bereiche steht vor allem auch das Konzept einer Organic Canteen im Vordergrund. Nach dem Motto „Meet the grower“ werden gezielt Gestaltungselemente eingesetzt, die nicht nur optisch den Eindruck eines natürlichen Umfelds erwecken, sondern vielmehr auch aktiv in den Küchen- und Shopbetrieb eingebunden werden. Die Green Wall, die den Service Kern einrahmt und als Backdrop für die Market Zone dient, bietet die Möglichkeit zum Anbau von Salaten, Kräutern und Blumen, die sowohl in der Küche zum Einsatz kommen als auch vom Besucher selbst zur Verfeinerung seiner Mahlzeiten verwendet werden können. Weiters besteht die Möglichkeit des Verkaufes der angebauten Produkte im Shopbereich. Hinter dem Gestaltungskonzept steht also die Idee eines zeitnahen Konsums frischer Produkte und eines nachhaltigen - quasi autarken – Versorgungszykluses. Aufgrund der Mobilität der einzelnen Stationen bleibt eine große Flexibilität hinsichtlich der Nutzung des CUBEs gegeben. Das Restaurantlayout kann problemlos für Veranstaltungen und unterschiedliche Marktszenarien adaptiert werden. Der CUBE bietet somit eine große Bandbreite an Raumerlebnissen für den Besucher, der seinen Aufenthalt dank der gebotenen Vielfalt individuell an seine Bedürfnisse anpassen kann, wodurch der Rechargeaspekt für die Mitarbeiter qualitativ hochwertiger wird. Es gibt drei Eingänge aus verschiedenen Richtungen, wobei sich durch die unterschiedlichen atmosphärischen Zonen dem Besucher jeweils immer ein ganz anderer „erster Eindruck“ bietet. Der jetzige Eingangsbereich wird neu konzipiert und die starre Trennung von Ausgabe- und Sitzbereich aufgehoben. Der Gangbereich, der während der Zeiten mit besonders vielen Besuchern als Wartezone und Empfangsbereich dient, wird in der restlichen Zeit als Shop genutzt. Die Stationen sind so gestaltet, dass die jeweils den Shopbereich zugewandte Seite für die Produktpräsentation und –aufstellung genutzt werden kann.

Location: Zurich, Switzerland
Principal use: Canteen, restaurant
Total floor area: 1,500 m2
Number of stories: 2
Design team: Chich-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Kristina Zaunschirm, Lea Artner, Deniz Önungüt

Landscape Design: ecosphere.institute & Green4Cities
Lisa Maria Enzenhofer, Berhard König, Berhard Scharf, Michela Thaler

'Oben' is the newly renovated company restaurant for Octapharma's Vienna campus. Won in a closed competition, the design focuses on bringing a human scale to an industrial hall. The space is organized around a rational plan that creates clear flows between the dining room and the meal stations. The space is scaled down through the application of a differentiated material palette, acoustical modifications, and a lighting design that corresponds to changing environmental conditions. A distinct series of material shifts determine the various areas in the hall. The meal stations are composed of hard surfaces of colored granite and clear powder-coated steel. Directly under the large vault, the main dining area is furnished in solid oak and leather. Two winter gardens are positioned along the perimeter and are marked by homogenous wood surfaces stained in a dark hue. Directly opposite of the meal stations on the other side of the main dining area is a shallow space with communal tables and wood paneling intended for more intimate gatherings. A private dining room is separated by glass and a curtain. The restrooms continue the same material language as the meal stations and feature large, custom-made basins in colored granite. To accommodate night operations on the campus, the dining room features a light installation at the bases of the vault. The light can be programmed to respond to seasonal lighting conditions and can accommodate specific events.

Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Canteen
Total floor area: 800 m2
Number of stories: 1
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Kristina Zaunschirm, Anna Psenicka

Neon
Vienna, Austria
Restaurant design + Corporate Identity
Completion April 2008

For over a decade, Otto Wagner's 19th century elevated rail line around the Gürtel in Vienna has been progressively redeveloped by occupying the lower vaulted spaces. The 'Gürtelbögens' generous brick interiors, home to trendy clubs, rock bars, and restaurants, have come to define a central part of Vienna's night life. We were approached by a young restaurateur to design two vaults at the far end of the line where a recently completed business center was starting to fill with tenants. Unlike the neighboring vaults which open to a large courtyard, the given vaults are compressed in an alley.  Furthermore, one of the vaults is obstructed by a large stair tower used by the business complex above, blocking light and views to the outsideWith these dark and narrow conditions in mind, invisible to the intersection of several major roads and rail lines around the site, we wanted to make the cavernous spaces glow from within. The sparse interior, defined by the interaction of concrete, a white steel mesh, and neon tubes that are constantly fluctuating in brightness with programmed dimmers gives the impression of a pulsing, breathing machine.

Client: Sajado Chen GmbH
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Restaurant
Total floor area: 345m2
Number of stories: 2
Particulars: Reinforced concrete, brick, prefabricated steel panels, neon lighting
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth
Graphic design: Maria Prieto Barea
Photos by Stefan Zenzmaier
Construction Management: Chieh-shu Tzou, Conrad Kroencke
In collaboration with Conrad Kroencke
Nominated for Adolf Loos Staatspreis für Design 2009

Yppenplatz
Vienna, Austria
Restaurant
Completion July 2011

With an open air market, small art galleries, and a growing number of restaurants, Yppenplatz is the unquestionable heart of Vienna’s 16th district. Our design for a café/bar intends to plug into the area’s newfound energy. The space is located directly on a sunny corner of the market square. It is programmed to operate from the late morning until the late evening, from brunch and afternoon coffee to late night drinks. Like a traditional Viennese Kaffeehaus, the space is generous and open. A long bar faced with polished stone is the main element in the space. A palette of warm colors and textures is achieved by expressing the materiality of the various surfaces: wood, stone, steel, plaster. Hanging tubular incandescent lights add to the warmth of the environment.

Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Restaurant
Total floor area: 180 m2
Number of stories: 1
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth
Photos by Stefan Zenzmaier

If Dogs Run Free
Vienna, Austria
Bar
Completion May 2012

If dogs run free is a bar on the Gumpendorfer Straße in Vienna's 6th district co-owned by an actress, a restaurateur, a graphic designer, and two architects. The bar was conceived as a neighborhood watering hole; a place where students, neighbors, and the after-work crowd get together to enjoy a good drink. The name, like the space itself, is meant to invite fantasy. The generously proportioned 80m2 space is modeled after a black box theater with the main focus on the ceiling plane rather than on an actual stage. In addition to its function as a bar, the owners wanted to provide a space where people have access to new ideas in art and design outside the traditional context of a gallery or the academy. The ceiling plane is reserved for artists and designers to create site specific installations intended as annual fixtures revolving around the theme Mensch und Natur. The first installation was designed and built by the owners. It describes an inverted mountain landscape through the manipulation of a single geometric tile. The patchwork of tiles shift in tone creating two interwoven color gradients. The landscape is multiplied by mirrors attached to the wall behind the bar counter. Below the ceiling, dark, unadorned surfaces are used to emphasize the presence of the ceiling installation. The walls are spackled with a blend of plaster and black house paint. The floor is poured asphalt. All furnishings are a mixture of steel, black MDF boards, and dark, stained oak. The lighting is a flexible system of stage spots and construction strobes.

Baburu
Vienna, Austria
Bubble Tea Shop + Corporate Identity
Completion September 2011

This tiny 25 m2 bubble tea shop is tucked away in a back corner of Vienna’s busy Schottentor tram and subway station. In 2010 Vienna’s Historical Preservation Board implemented a plan to restore the sleek mid-century style that was lost over the last five decades. The new guidelines prevent shop storefronts from opening directly to the busy flow of commuters. Instead, customers have to enter the shop through a glass façade. All signage has to be placed inboard of the façade. Due to the limits of the new regulations and an inconspicuous location, the design’s main motivation was to find a way to attract the attention of passersby. Beginning at a height of 2.10 meters from the ground, radiant plexi glass panels wrap the upper portion of the space. A dropped ceiling of the same material is sub-divided into small triangles bound at their vertices with zip-ties and hung at irregular intervals. The polychromatic effect reflects off of the vertical plexi surfaces as well as the stainless steel floor.  A window to the back gives customers a view into a kitchen and prep-area dominated by stainless steel working counters and cabinets.

Client: Wang
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Bubble Tea Shop
Total floor area: 25 m2
Number of stories: 1
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth
Photos by Stefan Zenzmaier

Finkh
Vienna, Austria
Wirtshaus design
Completion April 2008

Located in Vienna's increasingly vibrant 6th district, adjacent to an experimental theater, Finkh is a small restaurant dedicated to fine Austrian cuisine. It occupies a seventy square meter space once used as an engine-assembly workshop. Confined by a minute budget, the small restaurant tries to get as much mileage from inexpensive materials to convey a clear and intimate space. The raw plaster walls, painted OSB panels, and uniform white table tops provide a series of homogeneous surfaces that allow a motley collection of recycled chairs to interact. 

Client: Hohenegger&Fink OG
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Restaurant
Total floor area: 70 m2
Number of stories: 1
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou
Graphic design: Maria Prieto Barea

Photos by Stefan Zenzmaier

J. Hornig Flagship Store
Vienna, Austria
Coffee Shop & Roaster
November 2015

Zentral bei der Ideenfindung für das Gestaltungskonzept der J. HORNIG Flagshipstores war der Anspruch, dem Third Wave Coffee als einer dem Zeitgeist entsprechenden Art, Kaffee zu genießen, ein ebenso zeitgemäßes Raumdesign zu geben. Das Ziel des Entwurfs ist, bei einem hohen Wiedererkennungswert der Flagshipstores dennoch genügend Flexibilität zu garantieren, um das Design an die sehr unterschiedlichen Bezirke von Wien anpassen und den verschiedenen Ansprüchen des jeweiligen Zielpublikums gerecht werden zu können. Die einzelnen Entwürfe zeigen die Bandbreite an möglichen Erlebniswelten, die die Vielfalt der Marke J. HORNIG in Form eines Markenberührungspunktes in Wien repräsentieren könnten. Das vorgeschlagene Gesamtkonzept baut auf konstanten Elementen auf, die fixer Bestandteil der Ausstattung eines jeden J. HORNIG Flagshipstores sein sollen.      

Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Café & Local Roaster
Total floor area: varies
Number of stories: 1
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Kristina Zaunschirm, Deniz Önengüt, Lea Artner

Kaffeekueche
Vienna, Austria
Coffee shop design + Corporate Identity
Completion February 2007

Won in a closed competition, the Kaffeekueche coffee shop was designed to occupy a small corner in Vienna's busy Schottentor tram and subway station. The client was intent on applying his business philosophy of using quality, handmade goods to the architecture. This was translated into an intimate and understated space where few things are concealed from sight and where the haptic qualities of drinking and brewing coffee are exhibited. The storefront facade was developed as a foldable market stall, allowing the shop to be seasonally flexible. As a tight 23 square meter corner condition, the shop uses black surfaces to mute shadows thus amplifying the perception of space.  

Client: Kaffee Kueche
Location: Vienna. Austria
Principal use: Coffee shop
Total floor area: 25 m2
Number of stories: 1
Design Team: Chieh-shu Tzou
Photos by Stefan Zenzmaier
Nominated for Adolf Loos Staatspreis für Design 2007

ShangaiTan
Vienna, Austria
Restaurant design + Corporate Identity
Completion September 2005

Realized in a period when Chinese restaurants were on the losing end of the fashion trend due to their image as greasy spoons, we were approached with the challenge to design a high-end restaurant dedicated to Shanghai cuisine. Most responses to the negative stereotype surrounding the neighborhood Chinese joint came in the form of pan-asian restaurants that were self-consciously modern and sleek, if not surgical in their style. Rather than follow that line, we decided to approach the design through hyperbole. The restaurant was intended as a nocturnal place, open for dinner and after-hours meals. Through the selection of a few objects that act as universal symbols of Chinese-ness, such as the lantern and the screen, and by multiplying their presence in the space beyond the practical, creating a field of lanterns and a maze of screens, we were able to produce an atmosphere at once recognizable but also strangely unfamiliar and disorienting. The added effect of mirrored walls and dampened black surfaces accentuate the presence of the objects. In the basement, enclosed booths divided by screens bring to mind an opium den bustling with secrets and intrigue.

Client: Yang & Ngo GmbH

Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Restuarant
Total floor area: 180 m2
Number of stories: 2
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou

Photos by Hannes Jirgal

RamienD
Vienna, Austria
Restaurant
March 2010 - Present
In progress

Client: Ramien
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Restaurant
Total floor area: variable
Number of stories: 1
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth