House in the Woods
Weidling, Austria
Single family home
November, 2023
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Location: Weidling, Austria
Principal use: single family home
Total floor area: 620 m2
Site area: 6000 m2
Number of stories: 2
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Christina Haslauer, Katia Simas, Liliane Herberth
Nagano
Vienna, Austria
Restaurant
December, 2022
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Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: restaurant
Total floor area: 200 m2
Number of stories: 2
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Christina Haslauer, Elif Sanem Özmen
Photos: Vilma Pflaum
NASCHMARKT
Open market & Park
Vienna, Austria
Competition April, 2023
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Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Open market & Park
Site area: 22,000 m2
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Ondřej Mráz, Katia Simas, Liliane Herberth, Elif Sanem Özmen
In collaboration with Studio Den
In collaboration with Anna Paul
Landscape Architecture: Bureau B + B
In collaboration with
Korbwurf Landschaftsarchitektur
Structural Engineering: Werkraum Ingenieure
Stadtkino & Ludwig+Adele
Vienna, Austria
Cinema/Restaurant
Completed November 2022
Stadtkino is one of Vienna’s most important art house cinemas. Ludwig & Adele is a restaurant run by one of the city’s most exciting gastronomy teams. The stellar combo plus the Albertina Modern Museum occupy the historic Künstlerhaus, one of the first buildings on the Ringstrasse, steps away from the Wiener Musikverein, the Wien Musem, the Kunsthalle, and the Secession, all in all adding up to one of the capital’s most vibrant cultural clusters. The western ancillary exhibition hall was converted into a cinema in the mid-century. To accommodate the new program, the original hall was divided in two floors. The upper, more generously proportioned floor houses the cinema while the ground floor, more squatly proportioned, houses the foyer, restaurant, and kitchen. The main entrance was shifted to the side, away from the ornamental portico. A double height vestibule was added in a Modernist style. Our design for the ground floor had to contend with two challenges: to respond to the awkward spatial qualities resulting from the original cinema conversion seventy years ago, and to organize a space shared by two, very different tenants. Without creating absolute boundaries that would sacrifice the openness of the space, the plan locates the restaurant and the foyer in distinct zones relative to a crossing of circulation axes leading from the entrance to the cinema. Floor, wall, and ceiling surfaces, as well as shared infrastructure such as light fixtures and signage are uniform. Columns and beams along the two main structural axes are clad in mirrored panels in order to diminish the presence of static elements as well as to distort the perception of the space. To reinforce difference and location in program, furnished elements perform as particular insets, coded in a specific material palette and geometry. The cinema counter is a rounded volume curving bellow a structural beam, clad in blue mirrored strips. Modular, stackable benches in the shape of circle segments, articulated in blue leather and blue waffle board, populate the foyer waiting area. The benches can be arranged in a variety of configurations and can be packed away as a stack in an existing hallway niche of a complementary shape. The restaurant, by contrast, is composed of oak benches, tables, and chairs with upholstered tubular accents in light brown. The bar and the service stations are a mixture of oak and beige corian. A cantilevered, metallic DJ booth, shared by both tenants presents itself as a material anomaly between two worlds.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Cinema/Restaurant
Total floor area: 350 m2
Number of stories: 2
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Ondřej Mráz
Photos: Vilma Pflaum
Multifunctional Center
St. Johann im Pongau, Austria
Competition January, 2023
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Location: Roggendorf, Austria
Principal use: Kindergarten, Senior Citizen Center, Medical Practice, Community Kitchen, Offices
Site area: 12,700 m2
Total floor area: 9,500 m2
Number of stories: 4
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Ondřej Mráz, Katia Simas, Christina Haslauer, Liliane Herberth, Elif Sanem Özmen
Structural Engineering: Werkraum Ingenieure
Climate & Environmental Engineering: JIRA ZT & SV GmbH
Tsuki
Vienna, Austria
Restaurant
Completed November, 2022
Tsuki is the second design iteration for a Japanese tapas restaurant in Vienna’s inner city. Unlike its predecessor which used material restraint, reminiscent of traditional wooden onsen interiors, this version does quite the opposite, taking its cue as much from gilded age opulence as it does from contemporary juxtapositions in color and texture. The interior is approached as a tableau of atmospheric scenes defined through the application of a rich material palette, one which at first glance may seem incongruous but through the experience of the space presents a clear sequence. The bar/entrance immediately shows three of the repeating material elements: various metallic panels, stone surfaces, and a horizontal chandelier made of walnut, steel, and small frosted glass tiles. The bar itself breaks from the material index as an anomalous block in pink corian. The kitchen and prep areas are concealed behind a brushed stainless steel wall. As you enter, a clear division is marked between the bar and the back stair and bathrooms. These back areas are coded in dark green mosaic tiles and green glass and stand apart from the main rooms along the facade. The stair leading up to the dining room curves around the primary structural wall, switching back to the floor above and is dominated by a vertical chandelier that uses the same material kit as the horizontal version on the ground floor. The main dining room is organized around a mirrored coffered ceiling where the vertical surfaces are lighted from behind and use the chandelier construction as a continuous ornamental accent, again repeating the underlying material theme of the project in a different shape. The same applies to the walls of the dining room. Each wall surface features a particular material, either repeated or newly introduced: brushed stainless steel, purple anodized aluminum, stained oak, black tiles. The floor is a black stone carpet, made of small dark pebbles, fused together with a coat of epoxy. Leather benches, walnut tables and chairs, and a granite service volume populate the space, adding further richness to the interplay of the surrounding material planes.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Restaurant
Total floor area: 150 m2
Number of stories: 2
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Katia Simas, Anastasia Shesterikova, Ondřej Mráz
Photos: Vilma Pflaum
House O
Klosterneuburg, Austria
Restaurant
December, 2022
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Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: restaurant
Total floor area: 350 m2
Number of stories: 1
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Elif Sanem Özmen
O.A.X.
Vienna, Austria
Corporate Lobby
June, 2022
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Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Corporate Lobby
Total floor area: 400 m2
Number of stories: 2
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Katia Simas
Sang Sang Hietzing
Vienna, Austria
Restaurant
June, 2022
Like their first location on the Gumpendorfer Strasse in Vienna’s 6th district, Sang Sang H marks a generational shift in a family business where the sons take over the helm from the parents to continue one of the city’s first and much loved Korean restaurants. Sang Sang H is located in Vienna’s hilly and residential 13th district and faces the entrance to the Schönbrunn Zoo and palace grounds. The restaurant occupies a compact polygonal garden pavilion, part of an ensemble of modular volumes along the street built in the late 1960’s. The design is as much an exercise in tight functional packing as it is an expression reinforcing the original geometry. After testing several iterations, we settled on a scheme that splits the kitchen from the bathrooms with the dining area in the center. A reduced material palette of red-tinted concrete, brushed aluminum, and walnut allows for the clarity of the geometry to come through. The renovated façade features large windows with views to the busy pedestrian life along the Hietzinger Hauptstrasse. Above the bar a shelving unit wrapped in a taut membrane doubles as a large lantern. In combination with a red neon sign mounted on the façade, the light objects beckon passersby to enter the illuminated pavilion.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Restaurant
Total floor area: 70 m2
Number of stories: 1
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Christina Haslauer, Prima Mathawabhan
Photos: Vilma Pflaum
Roggendorf Raststation
Roggendorf, Austria
Competition
October, 2021
Honorable Mention
The competition brief called for proposals to rethink the future rest stops along the Austrian highway system, using the existing Roggendorf stop as a prototypical case. We devised a modular set of reconfigurable volumes based on simple geometric tiles that distribute the specified programmatic and environmental parameters in a variety of configurations. Besides integrating new functions such as drive-through gastronomy, automated services, photovoltaic surfaces, and an increase in parking areas, we thought it necessary to re-think the experience of pausing along the highway in more general terms. The design choreographs a radical transition in experience from the confines of a moving vehicle to the expansiveness of an elevated landscape that affords views of the rural Austrian countryside as well as the stream of fast-moving traffic along the highway. Between these two extremes are more insular experiences such as dining and play.
Location: Roggendorf, Austria
Principal use: Rest Stop
Site area: 5,000 m2
Total floor area: 800 m2
Number of stories: 2
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Ondřej Mráz, Katia Simas, Christina Haslauer
Structural Engineering: Werkraum Ingenieure
Climate & Environmental Engineering: JIRA ZT & SV GmbH
Babo
Vienna, Austria
Restaurant
January, 2022
For Berliner Babo’s new location on the Mariahilfer Strasse, we arranged the plan around a desire to draw a strong contrast between the street-facing space and the back rooms. Past renovations to the 19th century storefront progressively maximized apertures to the street. A recently added glazed façade was installed as a casing over the exterior wall. Together, these two factors add a high degree of visibility from the pedestrian thoroughfare. As such we wanted to attract attention with an economy of moves. While the back areas, which house the kitchen, take-out counters, and elevated group dining room are painted entirely in black, have black cementitious floors, and are accented in rough black stone surfaces and black furniture elements, the front is bright and glistening. The floor is a homogeneous beige cementitious surface. The ceiling is sprayed in white acoustic foam and serves as the background for exposed ductwork, horizontal radiators, and light bands, all in complementary shades of white. Walls are clad in galvanized checker steel sheets, reflecting and refracting the play of light from the busy shopping street outside. A stainless steel high table with a tree at the center adds a counterpoint to the otherwise industrial materials in the space. Other furnishings in the front room are a mixture of plywood seats with galvanized steel frames and built-in sand stone benches with clay-toned leather upholstery. The linear light fixtures, whether horizontal on the ceiling or vertical on the walls, are as much functional as they are graphic elements. The space is meant to house rotating artworks that speak to Berlin as an epicenter in the world of contemporary art.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Restaurant
Total floor area: 140 m2
Number of stories: 2
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Katia Simas
Photos: Vilma Pflaum
Festspielhaus St. Pölten - Café
St. Pölten, Austria
Café
June, 2022
This low-intervention design for the café at the Festspeilhaus in St. Pölten is based on a set of modular seats and benches that are designed to be arranged in a variety of configurations, enabling the space to host different functions. The set has to two basic modules: a single seater and a bench for two. Each module has a removable backrest and swivel table. In their simplest configuration, the modules can be bundled together to form a stage. In their most diffused application, the seats can begin to populate the café, outdoor terraces, foyer, and lobby spaces in fun and unpredictable ways that encourage social interactions. The modules are composed of a welded aluminum base volume with upholstered black leather strips, powder-coated steel legs, backrest fames, and swivel tables, and three different upholstered backrest extrusions. While the design pays homage to the material palette and coloration of the Festspielhaus as it was originally designed by the architect Klaus Kada, it also departs from its austere and technical aesthetic and attempts to find a connection to the playful graphic work of studio Vie who were recently commissioned to revamp the identity of the institution. The space itself is only cosmetically transformed by shifting the existing wall colors to muted tones of black and gray. A three-dimensional neon light sculpture designed to adapt a studio Vie motif into a spatial form, occupies the large double height volume.
Location: St. Pölten, Austria
Principal use: Café
Total floor area: 100 m2
Number of stories: 2
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Katia Simas, Ondřej Mráz
Graphic Design: studio VIE
Penthouse P
Vienna, Austria
Residence & Event Space
September, 2022
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Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Residence & Event Space
Total floor area: 800 m2
Number of stories: 2
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Ondřej Mráz, Liliane Herberth
House T
Vienna, Austria
Single family home
April, 2022
Set back from the street, the house presents a three-tiered elevation: plinth, glass, and gable. The shared areas occupy the upper floor and are left as open as possible. Large sliding glass panels open to the garden and street, with the neighboring park beyond. The bedrooms and study are on the ground floor with direct access to the back garden. The basement houses and office, sauna, and small gym.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: single family home
Total floor area: 390 m2
Site area: 520 m2
Number of stories: 4
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Katia Simas, Ondřej Mráz
Laolao Central
Vienna, Austria
Restaurant
Completed April, 2022
Riding on the success of their first location on the busy Mariahilfer Strasse in Vienna’s 7th district, the Laolao group decided to get a foothold in the city center. Laolao Centrale occupies a small storefront in the Hochhaus Herrengasse, Vienna’s first tall building from the 1930’s. In keeping with the culinary concept of high quality homemade Chinese noodles and gyoza, we wanted to bring the street into the building, and not just any street but the energy and atmosphere of the Asian night market. The narrow space is organized around three furniture volumes, two of which directly reference night market stands. The third volume houses the cashier and a drink vitrine and is clad in the same cementitious spackle covering the floor and walls. The uniformity of the surrounding surfaces creates an opportunity for the market stands to sand out. They are free-standing, stainless steel constructions, partially covered in steel mesh and colorful neon graphics. They act as small stages, visible from the street, where the gyoza and noddle chefs can show off their craft. An understated seating area with bolted steel tables and lean-to stools accommodates a handful of guests on the go.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Restaurant
Total floor area: 40 m2
Number of stories: 1
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Ondřej Mráz
Photos: Vilma Pflaum
House O
Klosterneuburg, Austria
Single family home
August, 2021
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Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: single family home
Total floor area: 280 m2
Site area: 800 m2
Number of stories: 4
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Christina Haslauer, Maythisa Yenchit
Ebi am Wienerberg
Vienna, Austria
Restaurant
Completed March, 2022
Ebi W takes over the large, double-height foyer of the storied mid-century Philips Turm by Viennese architect Karl Schwanzer. The generous room proportions, pierced in the middle by a glazed elevator posed both a problem and an opportunity. In order to tame the volume and the openness of the space, we developed a large light sculpture that dominates the room and provides the anchor points for the seating layout. The light sculpture is also a marker, seen through large glazed façade panels from busy multilane road that runs next to the building. Three seating areas mark different dining environments. Along the façade, irregular raspberry colored tables and chairs are arrayed in a line. In the center of the room, an elevated travertine platform holds a large linear bench and monolithic wood chairs that move sideways along a track on the base. Towards the back another raised platform clad in dimpled steel floor panels sets the stage for metallic niches, stainless steel tables and chairs, and accents of firehouse red upholstery. The light sculpture collects these diverse areas under its illuminated figure. The perimeter of the space is divided in two material zones along a datum: the upper clad in wavy black epoxy panels, the lower in brushed aluminum.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Restaurant
Total floor area: 286 m2
Number of stories: 1
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Ondřej Mráz
Photos: Vilma Pflaum
Villa E
Vienna, Austria
Villa Renovation
August, 2021
Villa E in the hills of Vienna’s Grinzing neighborhood entailed a complete gut-renovation of the top floor of a 19th century villa. The patterned wood Tafelparkett floors, combining small ash and oak tiles, pay homage to decorative fin-de-siècle floors. The kitchen features a material datum line separating storage areas and a colorful granite island.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: single family home
Total floor area: 200 m2
Site area: 800 m2
Number of stories: 2
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Christina Haslauer
Photos: Vilma Pflaum
Avventi Foltin
Vienna, Austria
Dental Practice
Completion April, 2021
Sometimes a design must react to unforeseen events that occur later in the process. In the case of our project for a dental practice in Vienna’s 5th district we had to adapt our initial design during an early phase in construction upon discovering the original 19th century stucco ceiling, hidden behind a dropped ceiling and layers of paint, soot, and grime. The practice occupies a generous corner space with large arched windows at the ground floor of a typical Viennese Gründerzeit building. We wanted to take advantage of the proportions, the corner condition, and the access to natural daylight to create as open a situation as possible, given that dental practices, by the very nature of their work, require separate rooms for individual patients. The dental rooms are contained within cubic volumes open on the top and to the street-facing sides so that the ornamental ceiling and the clerestory views of outdoor trees are visible during a patient’s treatment. In contrast to the restored ceiling’s decorative textures, the new spatial elements are monochrome surfaces or unadorned raw materials. The dental room boxes are clad in polished stainless steel strips reflecting the immediate surroundings. The walls are raw plaster surfaces, the floor a polished screed. And array of simple chairs and an entry desk are built in solid oak. The entry vestibule is a light steel construction with glass. The previous façade was replaced with large fixed glazed panels divided between a transparent arched clerestory above and translucent panes that provide privacy from the street and a surface for a graphic composition. Behind the main room an interior corridor leads to smaller rooms such as the x-ray booth, labs, staff rooms, and offices.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Dental Practice
Total floor area: 260 m2
Number of stories: 2
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Anastasia Shesterikova, Ondřej Mráz
Photos: Vilma Pflaum
Mochi am Markt
Vienna, Austria
Restaurant
Completed April, 2021
By the time the well-established gastronomy team from Mochi – known for their exciting take on Japanese food – approached us for a new concept we had just emerged from the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. The team wanted to convert a café prominently located at the heart of the Vorgatenmarkt in Vienna’s 2nd district into a restaurant pop-up. It was late 2020 and none of us had a clear idea what the future had in store, much less how design and hospitality would react. As a response to the uncertainty of the moment, we decided to focus our attention on a low budget furnishing concept that would take into consideration a sense of well-being in a time of social distancing without sacrificing the communal aspects of dining out, especially in a quintessentially public space: a market. In addition, the design also needed to communicate playfulness and joy, which were in high demand after a long lockdown. The space is organized in rows of custom-made modular benches, each catering to varying sizes of dining groups. The bench backs are purposely taller than needed to create a partial encapsulation of the dining table, a way to make a clear division between dining groups. Vertical acrylic twin-wall panels further add to the dining perimeter yet maintain an openness through their translucency. The assembly concept for the benches reduces volume and material as a way to avoid excessive clutter. Much like a house of cards, the benches are formed by leaning and intersecting planes of dark blue MDF boards. The size and weight of boards, with the aid of spacers, provide stiffness. Along with dark petroleum painted surfaces, the existing floor screed, bare bulb pendants covered in coffee filters, and a busy open kitchen/bar, the space presents a low-tech environment alternating between two experiences: At head height, while entering a moving through the space, the hustle and bustle remains in clear sight. However, when seated an intimate dining experience emerges where the benches provide a shoulder high datum of semi-privacy.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Restaurant
Total floor area: 160 m2
Number of stories: 1
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Christina Haslauer, Maythisa Yenchit
Photos: Vilma Pflaum
Bus Terminal / Fernbus Terminal
Vienna, Austria
Competition
August, 2020
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Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Bus Terminal, Hotel, Offices
Site area: 32,000 m2
Building area: 10,000 m2
Total floor area: 36,000 m2
Number of stories: 26
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Ondřej Mráz, Katia Simas, Christina Haslauer, Zach Beale
In collaboration with Karpf Khalili Architects
Structural Engineering: Werkraum Ingenieure
Climate Engineering: Exikon Skin
Evironmental Engineering: Thermo-Projekt
Fire Proofing: IMS Brandschutz
Triiiple Salon
Vienna, Austria
Restaurant
November, 2020
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Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Restaurant
Total floor area: 250 m2
Number of stories: 1
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Christina Haslauer, Anastasia Shesterikova, Katia Simas
High School / Bundesgymnasium
Völkermarkt, Austria
Competition
February, 2020
Damit das neue Schulgebäude einen Bezug zu den umliegenden Schulgebäuden herstellt, und sich städtebaulich integriert, wird der 4-geschossige Gebäudeblock auf 4 kleinere Volumen aufgelockert, welche die unterschiedlichen Unterrichtszonen bilden. Dadurch werden großzügige Freiräume, Leichtigkeit und Offenheit geschaffen und gleichzeitig architektonische Akzente gesetzt. Diese 4 Blöcke werden durch die Verkehrsflächen und Gemeinschaftsräumen miteinander verbunden und erschlossen. Das Gebäude kommuniziert natürliche und nachhaltige Materialien und lässt die Grenzen zwischen Innen- und Außen verschwimmen. Es öffnet sich nicht nur zum restlichen Schulcampus, sondern spiegelt auch die Offenheit der Gemeinschaft wider. Kleinere und größere Freiräume erstrecken sich durch die gesamte Architektur und ermöglichen nicht nur eine gute Belichtung, sondern auch einen durchgängigen Bezug zum Außenraum. Auf Straßenniveau wird eine klare Eingangssituation von der Pestalozzistraße mit einem großen, teilweise überdachten Vorplatz geschaffen. Dieser soll den Schulcampus Völkermarkt zu einer Einheit verschmelzen lassen und für alle zugänglich sein. Direkt beim Haupteingang befindet sich die zentrale, lichtdurchflutete Garderobe, die sich zu einem Innenhof öffnet und als effektive Schmutzschleuse dient. Zusätzlich verläuft eine weitere Erschließungsachse von Nord nach Süd, die eine direkte Verbindung zum Parkplatz und den umliegenden Straßen hat. Diese Eingänge, welche direkt bei der Verwaltung und dem Lehrer-Cluster situiert sind, und ein separater Nebeneingang für die Anlieferung, verhindern funktionale Überschneidungen. Das Gebäude, kann von allen Seiten betreten werden. Durchdachte, gezielte Durchwegungen am Schulgelände und die Zugänglichkeit des Gebäudes ist nicht nur für die Schüler des Gymnasiums von Vorteil, sondern auch für den gesamten Schulcampus und die Bewohner der Stadt.
Location: Völkermarkt, Austria
Principal use: High School
Site area: 10,000 m2
Building area: 3800 m2
Total floor area: 15.000 m2
Number of stories: 7
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Christina Haslauer, Maythisa Yenchit
Landscape Architecture: Lindle + Bukor
Structural Engineering: Werkraum Ingenieure
Climate Engineering: Bauklimatik
Fire Proofing: IMS Brandschutz
Le Cha (D)
Vienna, Austria
Tea Shop
October, 2020
The second Le Cha boba shot occupies a kink on the ground floor of the Donauzentrum shopping center. Unlike its forerunner near the busy Mariahilferstrasse – a space that reduces the presence of the kitchen to a minimal aperture in an otherwise white room dominated by fluffy white bench noodles and neon ceiling lights reflected on a mirrored cornice – the second iteration of the Le Cha chain attempts to present a black, or rather, blue hole in the middle of the bleached-out mall atrium. The kitchen occupies most of the retail space: a polygonal offset of the surrounding walls, clad in indigo back-painted glass. A strip of red glass reveals views into the boba laboratory within. The walls are clad in blue mdf panels interrupted by a horizontal strip of red led light, a datum cutting the blue space at the midpoint of the kitchen glazing.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Tea Shop
Total floor area: 50 m2
Number of stories: 1
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Katia Simas
Photos: Vilma Pflaum
Werkstatt
Vienna, Austria
Restaurant, stage, pumptrack, graden
August, 2020
The Werkstatt will be the newest addition to the rich cultural, leisure, and dining attractions on the Wolfgang Schmitz Promenade on the Danube canal. It is composed of two plots nearly 100 meters in length and 5-6 meters in width. With these long and narrow proportions in mind, the design attempts to integrate itself seamlessly into the fabric of the Donaukanal, taking into account dynamic vectors of bikers, pedestrians, and infrastructure, and provide a pause of sorts from the speed and movement by creating an oasis in the middle of the city. The structure is organized along a linear arrangement of functions and programs. It is split in two volumes covered by wooden roof canopies that are accessible to the public functioning as a Stadtoase. The usable surface area of the site over two floors is split between non-commercial areas exterior dining areas and an interior dining room and service functions such as the kitchen, bar, and bathrooms. On the eastern edge, opposite of the Badeschiff, a generous Pumptrack emerges from the ground. Simple geometric shapes in tinted concrete and wood create a modulated surface ideal for fans of scooters, bikes, and skateboards to learn new skills. The Pumptrack can also be used as a Urban Stage, a place for cultural events such as small concerts, cabaret nights or theater. A movable mesh curtain provides both a safe barrier between the track and the sidewalk and also performs as a backdrop for stage functions. On the western edge of the site, a small garden area with reclining surfaces opens up to a large dining deck. The deck is connected to a closable dining room with sliding glass partitions. Interior and exterior dining areas are serviced by a bar and kitchen housed in a discrete volume clad in metallic panels. The service functions also perform as street take-away areas, thus activating the sidewalk with pedestrian activity. Moving towards the Pumptrack from the take-away areas, one encounters a smaller dining deck under the shade of an existing willow tree. In contrast to the dynamic ground-floor programs, the upper terrace is a relaxing Stadtoase composed of large, planter-islands filled with endemic grasses and reeds that require reduced maintenance and remain attractive year round. The upper garden terraces bring a small part of the natural habitat of the Danube to the center of the city.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Restaurant, stage, pumptrack, garden
Total floor area: 800 m2
Number of stories: 2
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Katia Simas, Zach Beale, Christina Haslauer
Tokki
Vienna, Austria
Restaurant
November, 2020
Tokki will be the premier dining destination for innovative Japanese cuisine in Vienna‘s inner city. The restaurant, split between two floors, is further divided in three zones. The first zone is dominated by a large, roughly cut stone bar counter that operates as a sake bar and waiting area. The surrounding walls are painted in charcoal gray, the floors are gray slate tiles, creating an atmosphere of immersion and intimacy. The kitchen is partially visible through a wooden screen, an element that will repeat itself in the dining rooms. Opposite of the kitchen, on the other side of the sake bar is the first of two dining rooms. The second dining room occupies the upper floor. The dining rooms are clad almost entirely in a wooden latticework, atmospheres that communicate serenity and warmth. The ambience of a Japanese onsen comes to mind as light planes emit a diffused glow, blurring the edge between facade and inner wall. Custom benches and seating niches as well as stand alone tables allow for a range of seating possibilities despite the tight dimensions of the existing space. In addition to the rhythmic wooden lattice, the floors are composed of a dark face wood parquet, the table surfaces are brushed aluminum, and the upholstery a muted clay-colored textile, adding a dash of color to the otherwise natural materials. As a linking reference to the sake bar, a rough cut stone console is placed in the middle of the room in the upper dining room. Since the latticework wraps around the entire dining space, when viewed from the exterior, the atmosphere reveals itself in fragments, as seen through a screen.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Restaurant
Total floor area: 150 m2
Number of stories: 2
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Katia Simas, Anastasia Shesterikova
Practice FA
Vienna, Austria
Dental Practice
October, 2020
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Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Dental Practice
Total floor area: 260 m2
Number of stories: 2
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Anastasia Shesterikova, Ondřej Mráz
Opernpassage
Vienna, Austria
Restaurant
May, 2020
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Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Restaurant
Total floor area: 70 m2
Number of stories: 1
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Ondřej Mráz
Photos: Bengt Stiller
J. Hornig Extension
Vienna, Austria
Café
Completion June, 2020
Located in the heart of Vienna’s 7th district, the J. Hornig extension adds a large space to the flagship store/café that we designed and completed in 2017. The extension takes over a generously proportioned room once used as an antique furniture showroom. Since most of the core functions of the café are already accounted for in the original space, the extension serves as an additional seating room and houses a training area with a large coffee roaster in the back. In order to preserve the tall ceilings yet bring a degree of intimacy and comfort to the space, we organized the design around two concepts, the first is in section, the second in plan. We introduce a strict material datum at the midpoint of the walls. The upper section is a uniformly white space sprayed with a rough acoustical foam. Linear polished stainless steel light casings create a continuous source or warm, indirect light. The lower register is marked by a transition to black glass. The plan of the seating arrangement marks the second organizing concept. We drew and catalogued a series of traditional Viennese coffee houses and developed our plan based on an understanding of the typology. Low seating niches, a central spine of loose chairs and a table surface, and a band of high seats along the façade are all based on 19th century Viennese precedents. We reinterpreted these precedents with our own approach to materiality and form.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Café
Total floor area: 150 m2
Number of stories: 1
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Christina Haslauer, Katia Simas
Photos: Vilma Pflaum
Co-Working Kitchen
Vienna, Austria
Co-Working Kitchen Prototype
April, 2019
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Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Restaurant
Total floor area: 230 m2
Number of stories: 2
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Uwe Brunner
Le Cha (S)
Vienna, Austria
Tea Shop
August 2020
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Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Tea Shop
Total floor area: 80 m2
Number of stories: 1
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Katia Simas, Yeon-Kyu Lee
Photos: Vilma Pflaum
Wrapstars (N)
Vienna, Austria
Restaurant
September, 2019
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Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Restaurant
Total floor area: 130 m2
Number of stories: 1
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Deniz Önengüt
Mae Aurel
Vienna, Austria
Restaurant
July, 2019
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Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Restaurant
Total floor area: 140 m2
Number of stories: 1
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Deniz Önengüt
House-Gallery Boafo
Accra, Ghana
Private Home/Artists Studio/Gallery
January 2020
We were asked by the artist Amoako Boafo to develop a hybrid typology that brings together a home, a painter's studio, a gallery, and facilities for three artists-in-residence. The project was motivated by the artist's desire to return to Accra with the mission of bringing a newfound energy to the city's art scene. A lack of contemporary art venues and opportunities for exchange between local and foreign artists was as important to Mr. Boako as his need to establish his studio in his homeland after long periods of being abroad. The house is a located in Accra's Osu neighborhood, an area defined by an orthogonal city grid and access to the seaside. The house consists of two volumes interacting through slight shifts in geometry. The artist's house and studio occupy one volume while the residences, dining areas, and public gallery occupy the other. At the center of the courtyard, a circular stair leads from the pool to the public gallery. By hybridizing public and private programs, the house had to become something new, something more that a mere dwelling. Rammed earth walls and galvanized steel platforms and railings combine to form a sculpted environment that is at once rigid yet earthbound and free.
Location: Accra, Ghana
Principal use: Private Home/Artists Studio/Gallery
Site area: 550 m²
Building area: 250 m²
Total floor area: 600 m²
Number of stories: 2
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Ondrej Mraz
LKW Walter
Laxenburg, Austria
Canteen
Invited Competition
August, 2018
For many years, a triangular patch of green with birches, willows, and a reflecting pool has been a small oasis in the middle of LKW Walter’s expansive industrial park in the suburbs of Vienna. The logistics company chose the site for a new canteen. Our design attempts to preserve the bucolic qualities of the green island while introducing new construction. The building creates a hard edge along the parking areas – a clear demarcation between two very different environments. The garden façade meanders around existing trees. Large glass panes reveal panoramic views of the arboretum and garden. The roof pulls upward at the kitchens and at the far end of the dining area, allowing for a gallery with private meeting rooms. The interior is defined by the curved glass façade and a saddle-shaped roof, clad in wood battens.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Canteen
Site area: 4000 m²
Building area: 1500 m²
Total floor area: 2000 m²
Number of stories: 2
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Carina Zabini, Uwe Brunner Katia Simas, Anna Salakhova
In collaboration with Uedl GmbH
Museum für angewandte Kunst
Vienna Biennale 2019 Exhibition Design
‘Space & Experience: Architecture for Better Living’
Vienna, Austria
May 2019
As part of the Vienna Biennale for Change – unique in that it features architecture, design and art simultaneously – the exhibit ‘Space & Experience: Architecture for Better Living’, curated by Nicole Stoecklmayr, suggests a way forward for architects and designers by braiding together the interconnected themes of ecology, materiality, community, and atmospherics. The exhibit showcases a wide range of projects, from the speculative to the pragmatic; from the surface of the moon to a tiny Berlin apartment. The exhibit was in large part sponsored by Wienerberger, the storied Viennese brick manufacturer and their sister company Pipelife, which produces plastic pipe systems for water, energy, and power distribution. The MAK museum itself, along with many of Vienna’s most iconic 19th century buildings, is constructed, clad and decorated with Wienerberger bricks. For the exhibition, we wanted to use and manipulate actual Wienerberger and Pipelife products as base materials for design. The exhibit is divided in two zones, the arcade gallery at the entrance of the museum and the works-on-paper hall, otherwise known as the Kunstblättersaal. For the entrance arcade, we developed five conical pavilions that feature ‘beaver tail’ glazed roof tiles, famously used on the colorful roof of Vienna’s St. Stephen’s Cathedral. Each pavilion has a distinct combination of colors that correspond with the curatorial themes of the exhibit. The tiles are inverted so that the glazing covers the inner surface of the cone. Each pavilion is composed of nearly 300 tiles illuminated by lighting strips and suspended on a steel corset on thin columns. At the oculus of each cone, a cylindrical speaker designed for conical projections plays an overlaying of guitar drones and loops, composed specifically for the exhibit by the Viennese musician and composer Aras Levni Seyhan. The pavilions are thought of as an atmospheric preamble that prepares the visitor for the selected architectural projects in the Kunstblättersaal. Normally used to exhibit and store works-on-paper, the Kunstblättersaal was a particular challenge due to the presence of fully stacked floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and large windows along the façade wall. In an attempt to neutralize the room, we installed a perimeter of white, 4 meter long polypropylene water pipes, clipped on a timber under-construction. With a 1.5 cm gap between each element, the pipes create both a sense of rhythm and give hints at the world of books and windows behind. More practically, the pipe walls provide an uninterrupted surface to exhibit the 23 selected architectural projects. Due to the fact that the pipes are clipped to the timber via detachable clamps, the entire pipe perimeter will be reused and sold by the manufacturer. The brick pavilions will remain as part of the permanent collection of the museum.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Exhibition Design
Total floor area: 8300 m2
Number of stories: 1
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Uwe Brunner, Marko Maric, Anya Salakhova
Curator: Nicole Stoecklmayr
Sound Art: Aras Levni Seyhan
Sound Engineering: Michael Lorenz Solutioncy
Light Design: Peckal Agency/ FLOS
Photos: Bengt Stiller
Mayrhofen Train Station
Mayerhofen, Austria
Competition, Honorable Mention
October, 2018
Mayrhofen is the last stop in the Zillertalbahn railway line, connecting rural Tyrolean villages, popular as ski and hiking destinations, with the main rail line leading to Innsbruck. The Zillertalbahn is famous for its continued use of steam engine trains operating on a small track gauge. The small train station is composed of three, slightly shifted, parallel timber volumes. The volumes act as massive frames containing a linear array of timber cross beams. The frames rest on cubic stone monoliths of various proportions. The train station is part of a general urban plan that aims to reroute vehicular traffic below grade allowing for more generous open spaces around the station. The plan also integrates tourist and regional busses at grade with easy access to the station. In an attempt to minimize the impact of the station at the village scale, the design uses a reduced geometry of horizontal figures along with a material palette that references autochthonous building techniques.
Location: Mayrhofen, Austria
Principal use: Train Station
Site area: 5000 m2
Building area: 1000 m2
Total floor area: 2000 m2
Number of stories: 3
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Deniz Önengüt, Uwe Brunner, Carina Zabini, Katia Simas, Christina Haslauer
Landscape Architecture: Lindle + Bukor
Structural Engineering: Werkraum Ingenieure
Climate Engineering: Exikon, Ulrich Pont
Fire Proofing: IMS Brandschutz
Traffic Engineering: Novaplan
Sang Sang
Vienna, Austria
Restaurant
August, 2019
Sang Sang is a family-run Korean restaurant in Vienna’s 6th district - one of the first in the city and beloved for its fantastic dishes. The mantel was recently passed on to the next generation, and with that a new approach to the space. We decided to open the seating around a datum line of red-hued MDF panels. Together with the red MDF, the materials, furnishings, and lighting fixtures combine soft tonalities with clean lines and spatial divisions. The main dining room is lined with hand-drawn wall murals. In homage to the great Jean Giraud aka Moebius, we produced hybrid drawings that mix our own sketches with elements from the graphic novel the Incal. The drawings were then translated on the wall with acrylic markers by the deft hands of @burgsilber22
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Restaurant
Total floor area: 150 m2
Number of stories: 1
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Christina Haslauer
Photos: Bengt Stiller
Dreyhausenstrasse School
Vienna, Austria
Competition, Honorable Mention
March, 2019
A new school on the Dreyhausenstrasse in Vienna’s 14th district will be wedged between two party walls and a tight courtyard that is linked to an existing school building dating from the beginning of the 20th century. Our proposal is based on a series of interior and exterior terraces that de-materialize the compressed building mass. While the street façade retains a taught geometry with exceptional punctures and cut-outs, the courtyard façade features an unravelling fire stair that culminates in a gestural rooftop playground. Along the fire stair, generous terraces lead to learning clusters in the building. The ground floor is organized around a multi-purpose hall, cafeteria, and library. Sport facilities are below grade and along with the ground floor program can be used during off-hours by the community.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: School
Site area: 2000 m2
Building area: 1600 m2
Total floor area: 8300 m2
Number of stories: 7
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Deniz Önengüt, Uwe Brunner, Carina Zabini, Christina Haslauer
Landscape Architecture: Lindle + Bukor
Structural Engineering: Werkraum Ingenieure
Climate Engineering: Exikon, Ulrich Pont
Fire Proofing: IMS Brandschutz
Talstation Schafbergbahn
St. Wolfgang, Austria
Competition
July, 2019
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Location: St. Wolfgang, Austria
Principal use: Train Station
Site area: 5000 m2
Building area: 1000 m2
Total floor area: 2000 m2
Number of stories: 3
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Carina Zabini, Katia Simas, Christina Haslauer, Ondrej Mraz, Anya Salakhova
Structural Engineering: Werkraum Ingenieure
Fire Proofing: IMS Brandschutz
Thalersee Restaurant
Thal bei Graz, Austria
Competition
February, 2020
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Location: Thal bei Graz, Austria
Principal use: Restaurant and recreational area
Site area: 5000 m2
Building area: 800 m2
Total floor area: 1800 m2
Number of stories: 3
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Carina Zabini, Ondrej Mraz, Christina Haslauer, Yeon-Kyu Lee
Una
Innsbruck, Austria
Restaurant
August, 2019
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Location: Innsbruck, Austria
Principal use: Restaurant
Total floor area: 250 m2
Number of stories: 1
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Katia Simas, Anna Salakhova, Uwe Brunner, Chrsitina Haslauer
Vöslauer Headquarters
Bad Vöslau, Austria
Offices & Café
July, 2017
A third phase in the development of Vöslauer Mineral Water’s new headquarters was brought about by the removal of previous parking requirements. The elimination of vehicular traffic within the site allows a direct link between the office spaces in the new building and the renovated pavilion thus giving an impression of an uninterrupted work environment. The two buildings are connected by a glass lounge intended for team meetings. The new building is partially nestled in the northern slope of the site. It reflects the proportions of the Palladian pavilion as a nine square structural grid with a large skylight in the center. Both buildings are of equal height. The generous room height enables the placement of a gallery with communal functions. In contrast to the classical, stuccoed facades of the pavilion, the new building is articulated by a rhythmic façade of tightly arrayed stone jambs that reach from floor to parapet.
Location: Bad Vöslau, Austria
Principal use: Office & Café
Site area: 1000 m2
Building area: 200 m2
Total floor area: 1500 m2
Number of stories: 4
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth,
Structural Engineering: Werkraum Ingenieure
Climate Engineering: Exikon
House D
Vienna, Austria
Single Family House
July, 2018
Part renovation, part new construction, the design attempts to preserve the character of the original ‘Dreikanthof’ typology while making room for contemporary sensibilities. Due to a combination of zoning requirements and site limitations, the house stays true to the existing footprint, a stunted ‘U’-shape with street frontage, an inner court, and an expansive sloped garden with a fruit orchard leading to the edge of the city and the Vienna forest beyond. Protected under historic preservation, the street-facing facades are restored to their original state. The interior is gutted and re-organized into two autonomous apartments. A sundeck marks the gap in the roofline between the renovated part of the house and new construction, visually separating the two sections as well as lightening the presence of their building mass. The new house has the bedrooms on the ground floor around the inner court. The second floor is a single living space with a large band of glazed surfaces facing the garden, pool and wooded hills.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: single family house
Site area: 8,500 m2
Building area: 350 m2
Total floor area: 700 m2
Number of stories: 2
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Uwe Brunner, Ondřej Mráz, Carina Zabini, Alina Razgoniaeva, Anna Salakhova, Clara Fickl, Christina Haslauer
Laolao
Vienna, Austria
Restaurant
October, 2019
Laolao is a restaurant in Vienna‘s 7th district on the busy Mariahilfer shopping street. It specializes in hand-made noodles and authentic Zhejiang cuisine. The design focuses on expressing a raw materiality and clear lines while still creating an atmosphere marked by warm tones and and a differentiated seating landscape where one can find hidden niches and corners. It provides a respite from the relentlessness of the surrounding commercial district. The walls and ceiling are articulated by rough sprayed plaster, giving the impression of a large grotto. During construction, original 19th c. ceiling frescoes were exposed after being hidden by a series of dropped ceilings. Furnishings are a mixture of wood and leather. The central kitchen is open and defined by industrial materials: stainless steel, raw steel plating and stone. The bathrooms are in defined by individual timber cabins and a large granite stone basin.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Restaurant
Total floor area: 350 m2
Number of stories: 2
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Carina Zabini, Christina Haslauer, Uwe Brunner
Photos: Bengt Stiller
Austria Campus Dining Facilities
Vienna, Austria
Dining Halls & Bistros
Invited Competition, First Place
April 2016
To support the infrastructure of the new Austria Campus in Vienna’s second district, a sprawling assembly of mixed-used buildings, nine thousand square meters of dining areas are distributed between two large canteens, two bistros, a café, a diner, and a restaurant. To design seven distinct spaces, each with a separate identity and atmosphere, yet maintain a constant, identifiable thread between them demands finding a balance between uniformity, modularity and exception. Uniformity and modularity are required by demands in budget and construction logistics as most of the spaces will be realized simultaneously. A rule set was established that allows for shifts in materiality, function, and proportion. However, the rule set is meant to be broken or ignored by introducing irregularities in seating types, lighting, or room divisions. The large dining halls are stacked in a building core, surrounded by commercial spaces and a conference center. Placed deep in the building, separated from the façade by other program, the halls become immersive environments. Creating a comfortable atmosphere was as important as ensuring a clear spatial orientation in what could easily be a very disorienting space. For each hall an archipelago of seating islands defined by ceiling loovers, benches, or glass walls, reduces the vastness of the space by introducing a human scale, and directs flows to the food stations without disrupting the dining experience.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Dining Halls & Bitros
Total floor area: 9,000 m2
Number of stories: 2
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Deniz Önengüt, Carina Zabini, Clara Fickl, Uwe Brunner
Photos: Bengt Stiller
Sporttagungszentrum Graz-Liebenau
Graz, Austria
Competition, Honorable Mention
January, 2020
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Location: Graz, Austria
Principal use: VIP meeting lounge
Site area: 3000 m2
Building area: 1000 m2
Total floor area: 1700 m2
Number of stories: 3
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Carina Zabini, Christina Haslauer, Ondrej Mraz, Prima Mathawabhan
Structural Engineering: Werkraum Ingenieure
Climate Engineering: Bauklimatik
Shouko
Vienna, Austria
Restaurant
October, 2018
Shouko is a Ramen restaurant in Vienna’s 9th district on the ground floor of the Apothekerhaus, a 19th century building where the official chamber, union, and publishing house for local city pharmacies have their offices. The restaurant is divided in two storefronts. The main space features a dining area and open kitchen specializing in Japanese ramen. A smaller space on the other side of the building’s main entrance operates as a take-out counter. Both spaces were conceived to operate from lunch to dinner. It was important to create an environment that would be bright and welcoming for lunch patrons, a large part of whom come directly from the Apothekerhaus. Inspired by traditional Japanese noren – fabric dividers hung between rooms – both spaces are defined by a field of 50x50 cm banners suspended from the ceiling. In the restaurant the banners start from a regular grid around the open kitchen and shift towards an irregular organization in the dining area. The banners are all hand-painted with a gestural red streak as a way to introduce an irreproducible irregularity. The banners bend the corner of the restaurant and lead to an interior courtyard that extends the space seasonally. At the core, a taught, brushed aluminum volume houses the kitchen and open ramen counter. As the volume turns the corner, wooden dining niches appear to be carved out of the aluminum solid. Slightly below the banner field, a grid of bespoke hemispherical up-lights illuminates the ceiling plane. Lime stained bricks walls, pickled oak floors, and white granite counters add to a de-saturated environment where the play of light and fabric interact.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Restaurant
Total floor area: 250 m2
Number of stories: 1
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Uwe Brunner
Photos: Bengt Stiller
Institute of Science and Technology
Klosterneuburg, Austria
Visitor Center
Competition
June, 2018
Four intersecting curves divide the site into a patchwork of patterns. The curves act as incisions that push and peel a constructed topography resulting in a series of distinct yet interrelated areas. Built program splits the site diagonally between a sunken courtyard anchoring the western corner of the site and a lawn with a grouping of existing pines on the eastern edge. The building mass ramps downward to meet grade allowing for a large, inclined sun terrace. At the opposite end, the visitor center occupies the topographical apex, where a major crossing of vehicular and pedestrian traffic meets the site boundary. Once inside the visitor center, stairs lead to a lower floor housing a large exhibition space and seminar rooms. The exhibition space opens to the sunken courtyard, reserved for interactive exhibits and sculptures.
Location: Klosterneuburg, Austria
Principal use: Visitor Center
Site area: 2,750 m2
Building Area: 500 m2
Total floor area: 1,500 m2
Number of stories: 2
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Deniz Önengüt, Alina Razgoniaeva, Uwe Brunner
Heidelinde & Markus Lang
Stein an der Donau, Austria
Wine Press
Completion June 2017
Mr. & Mrs. Lang are vintners producing exceptional organic wines from their vineyards terraced above the Danube at the beginning of the Wachau valley. Mr. Lang comes from an engineering background and commissioned us to reinterpret a traditional manual timber wine press in contemporary terms. Wine presses of this kind stem back to the Roman Empire. The Roman-style presses were made from single trunks and were built until the turn of the last century. Many such presses are still used by local wine growers, some dating back hundreds of years. We replaced the timber with a concrete and steel structure and re-used industrial elements (a salvaged I-beam and a crank used for a German river lock on the Rhine ). The press sits on an old fruit orchard above an air-raid tunnel built by locals during the war. The Austrian state had no idea what to do with the abandoned tunnel so our client bought it for a meager amount and placed his wine cellar inside. The wine is pressed directly into barrels in the cellar through a hose that is drilled through the rock. The I-beam is attached to a 6 ton concrete counterweight and is supported by a reinforced concrete framework. The grapes are pressed in a custom made stainless steel barrel. The pressed juice flows in shallow trenches engraved on the concrete base that lead to a long funnel. The mechanical components are covered by a cantilevering, partially louvered roof thus blurring the line between machine and building.
Location: Stein an der Donau, Austria
Principal use: Wine Press
Site Area: 600 m2
Building Area: 50 m2
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Lea Artner
Photos: Bengt Stiller
Cohen
Vienna, Austria
Restaurant
Completion May 2018
Cohen occupies a corner ground floor space in the recently completed Quartier Belvedere development, flanked by Vienna’s Central Train Station and the Erste Bank Campus. The restaurant specializes in Levantine cuisine and will cater primarily to businesses and commuters. The design attempts to find a balance between the geographical origins of the cuisine, rooted in the Eastern Mediterranean, with the newly minted Quartier, a grouping of stout, cubic business towers. Hand-glazed tiles divide the space in two areas. Red-hued tiles in a herringbone pattern surround the dining areas. Green rectangular tiles define the bar and open kitchen. Between the two areas an open scaffold of metal and wire mesh glass display dishes, jars of pickled vegetables, and bottles of olive oil and arak. A continuous wooden bench lines the walls of the dining area, and contains clusters of wooden chairs and tables. A chain of pendant lights run parallel to the bench, breaking down the height of the room with a zig-zag pattern of cables and lines.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Restaurant
Total floor area: 120 m2
Number of stories: 1
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Clara Fickl, Carina Zabini
Photos: Bengt Stiller
Wrapstars
Vienna, Austria
Outdoor Food Court
July, 2018
Visible from multiple perspectives, a new food court around the Adria glasshouse invites an attitude of playfulness and informality. Segmented spheres, some perforated and colorful, others solid and reflective, are inscribed in a light structural grid that delineates the site. The spheres mark dining areas, provide sun shade, and at night illuminate the Danube like a constellation of luminescent orbs. On one side of the glasshouse, movable, modular stations can assemble in various formations to accommodate a variety of gastronomical possibilities: markets, food festivals, catered events, etc. On the other side, a permanent, partially enclosed dining area can operate year-round.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: outdoor food court
Site area: 8,500 m2
Building area: 350 m2
Total floor area: 700 m2
Number of stories: 2
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Uwe Brunner, Carina Zabini
The Birdyard
Vienna, Austria
Restaurant & Cocktail Bar
September 2017
Spread between three floors, The Birdyard is based on a three-act spatial choreography that begins at the street. Large arched storefront windows reveal a bright split-level bistro, a Spartan, grayscale space defined by white walls, black furnishings and rigid strip lighting. The poverty in color sets the stage for a mesmerizing display of richly textured tapas and mezes constantly emerging from the kitchen. The second act is the kitchen itself. Open to the bistro on both levels and clad entirely in stainless steel, the kitchen appears mechanical in nature, a gastronomical laboratory. The kitchen acts as a buffer between the front bistro and a subterranean bar. As if an extension of the kitchen’s mechanical systems, a stainless steel stair leads down to a large basement space. Diametrically opposed to the bistro, the bar is dark and saturated in color. Floor to ceiling, hand painted murals depicting birds and foliage at a magnified scale create an immersive environment, an ant’s eye view of the world. Back-lighted tables and bar counters are illuminated beacons in the dark. The bathrooms are divided from the rest of the space by a freestanding curved wall clad in stone and mirror strips. A roughly carved cylindrical stone basin, calling to mind an ancient baptismal font, is displayed at the center.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Restaurant
Total floor area: 320 m2
Number of stories: 3
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Deniz Önengüt, Charlotte Krause, Clara Fickl
In collaboration with: Atelier Olschinsky
Wall Art: Saddo
Photos by Atelier Olschinsky
Neugestaltung Schwedenplatz
Vienna, Austria
Plaza Renovation
Competition, Third Place
November, 2015
Historically, Vienna’s Schwedenplatz and the now defunct Rotenturm Gate was the point at which the medieval city met the riverine environment of the Danube. Contemporary Schwedenplatz continues to be the first point that the Danube makes itself present in the center via the Donaukanal, now configured as a linear park peppered with kiosks, eateries, playgrounds, and vast surfaces for graffiti art. To redesign the plaza is to touch a major nerve at the core of the capital’s urban identity. To complicate matters further, a busy road dissects the plaza, separating it from the canal. In addition to the vehicular traffic, several major tram, bus, and subway lines braid themselves through the plaza. Our design’s ambitions are simple: to physically connect the plaza to the canal, to untangle the public transport knot, and to create a recreational park that responds to seasonal shifts. The park is composed of an archipelago of planted islands that bring the flora of the Danube to the city. The islands are arranged on a homogeneous pavement that undulates slightly, giving the impression of natural irregularities. A wide path peels away from the plaza becoming a curved bridge that brings bikers and pedestrians to the canal without having to negotiate the road. Rather than provide an efficient crossing to the canal, the bridge functions as a long promenade and encourages a slower tempo of movement. On the opposite side of the plaza, the seed shapes of the park islands are translated into a series of roof canopies that mark tram and bus stops.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Public Square, Public Transit
Site area: 42,000 m2
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Kristina Zaunschirm, Deniz Önengüt
Structural Engineering: Werkraum Ingenieure
Climate Engineering: Bauklimatik
Landscape Architecture: Korbwurf Lanschaftsarchitektur
Light Consultant: Lichtkompetenz
Universität für Bodenkultur Wien
Vienna, Austria
University Building
Competition
September 2017
A university library, seminar rooms, offices, doctoral research rooms, an archive, and a café are tightly bundled in a taught cubic volume that negotiates a site cramped by existing building adjacencies and set-back lines. The scheme nevertheless allows for moment of openness and spatial generosity. A central atrium cleaves the volume in half revealing roof terraces and vertical gardens and provides passive ventilation for the entire building. The library expands in height and is expressed in the façade as glazed area, a gaping void interrupting the continuity of the cladding. The top two floors are composed of six large timber trusses with composite slabs running in between. The bottom floors are organized around a timber column grid. The structural core is a prefabricated composite structure. The façade is clad in continuous ribbons of wooden loovers, becoming sparser to accommodate for fenestration.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Library, Seminar Rooms, Office Space
Site area: 2000 m2
Building area: 1200 m2
Total floor area: 4600 m2
Number of stories: 5
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Deniz Önengüt, Carina Zabini, Clara Fickl, Charlotte Krause
Structural Engineering: Werkraum Ingenieure
Climate Engineering: Bauklimatik
Feuerwache Landstraße
Vienna, Austria
Fire Station
Competition
August, 2018
Logic dictates that a fire station of this scale, on a site with very little flexibility, requires a compact solution. Our design began with precisely such a strategy: a compact and spatially efficient cubic volume. However, the atmospheric realities of the site require another approach. The noise of a looming highway overpass was the main reason for decoupling the mass. The boarding rooms are arranged in a bar at the opposite end of the site from the highway overpass. The bar is detached from the main tuck hall with a garden buffer zone. The building is further separated by distinguishing the truck hall as an autonomous volume, engaged to the main public functions. The tower is fully disengaged from the building but maintains a material consistency. The façade is a mixture of colored concrete, aluminum, and tinted glass; each material working in a chromatic union of reddish hues.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Fire Station
Site area: 5000 m2
Building area: 1000 m2
Total floor area: 2000 m2
Number of stories: 3
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Deniz Önengüt, Uwe Brunner, Carina Zabini, Katia Simas, Christina Haslauer
Structural Engineering: Werkraum Ingenieure
Climate Engineering: Exikon, Ulrich Pont
Park Macht Platz
Vienna, Austria
Experimental Urban Installation
TEAM WIEN
August, 2017
Tzou Lubroth Architekten are founding members of TEAM WIEN, a design collaborative investigating the future of communal life in cities. Our experiments and interventions interrogate the way we work, play, and coexist in an urban environment. Our debut project, Park Macht Platz, is a prototype that deals with a new approach towards work as a mode of production and social exchange. Park was constructed as a temporary installation, occupying a central section of a parking lot at the end of Vienna’s Naschmarkt. Five timber modules arranged in a linear grid, act as containers for social transactions. The otherwise underused parking lot – an asphalt clearing surrounded by ornate 19th century facades – is temporarily reactivated as a public space programmed for non-commercial, social exchange. During a span of four weeks, Park Macht Platz hosted seminars on urbanism, furniture-building, silk screen printing, and animation workshops, public dinners, concerts, poetry readings, and table tennis tournaments. Between events, the timber modules provided a landscape for informal gatherings and activities. The design, financing, permit process, construction, and programming for the installation were part of a coordinated effort between TEAM WIEN and their collaborators. The installation was the result of a larger design process that focused on rethinking a long axis that joins the city center to the Schönbrunn Palace along the Wien River. Park Macht Platz formed part of the 2017 Vienna Architecture Biennale.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Non-commercial, re-activated public space
Site area: 42,000 m2
Design: TEAM WIEN
Structural Engineering: Werkraum Ingenieure
Construction: Nut & Feder
In collaboration with: Sudden Workshop, IBA, Viadukt, MAK, StadtFabrik
Photography: Zara Pfeifer
Vöslauer Headquarters
Bad Vöslau, Austria
Offices & Café
May, 2017
For a subsequent phase in the development of Vöslauer Mineral Water’s new headquarters, the company decided to look into alternative locations. A prominent site in central Vöslau, adjacent to the well-known thermal baths was chosen. The site features a 19th century pavilion with Palladian proportions that was long used as a restaurant and café and a small carriage house in disrepair. A new building is positioned along the norther slope to accommodate extra office space and a large parking garage. The new building docks on to the old via an enclosed footbridge. The new office spaces float over the parking volume creating a generous outdoor deck overlooking the grounds. The deck can be used for seasonal events and gatherings. In contrast to the ornate stuccoed facades of the pavilion, the new construction is articulated by a taught, technical skin. The parking floor is camouflaged in the slow with vertical planting.
Location: Bad Vöslau, Austria
Principal use: Office & Café
Site area: 1000 m2
Building area: 200 m2
Total floor area: 1500 m2
Number of stories: 4
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Clara Fickl, Charlotte Krause
Structural Engineering: Werkraum Ingenieure
Climate Engineering: Bauklimatik
Expo 2018, Dubai
Dubai, UAE
National Pavilion
Competition
April, 2018
The pavilion serves the singular purpose of bringing people together through technology. In direct opposition to the hermetic experience of a smart phone or tablet, or the immersive environment of augmented reality, the pavilion becomes a physical space activated by communal proximities. Pressure sensors on the floor activate projected images displayed on a concave ceiling surface. The resolution of the image is directly proportional to the amount of activated floor sensors: the more people congregate, the sharper the image. The projected content is provided by live feeds from cameras in different locations in Austria. Conversely, the viewing audience at the Expo is broadcast back to the various Austrian camera pods thus enabling a live visual link between the pavilion and the source locations.
Location: Dubai, UAE
Principal use: National Pavilion
Site area: 3,000 m2
Building area: 1,000 m2
Total floor area: 1,500 m2
Number of stories: 2
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Deniz Önengüt, Carina Zabini, Uwe Brunner, Alina Razgoniaeva
Structural Engineering: Werkraum Ingenieure
Consultant: Galo Moncayo
J. Hornig Flagship
Vienna, Austria
Café & Roastery
Invited Competition, First Place
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. The flagship store would have to be a special kind of hybrid, part store, part roastery, part living room. 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 Vienna’s rich coffee culture but also challenge it with something new. The space was formerly a Konditorei with fluted columns as room dividers, wood paneling and travertine stone floor tiles. We salvaged the worn travertine floor and sections of the wood paneling. Traces of the old space provided us with an opportunity for contrast. New elements are marked by a soft color palette of white, gray, pink, and beige. 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 geometries. The space is divided into three zones, each reflecting programmatic shifts from fast to slow areas. The entrance area, oriented towards the street, is a fast space and features old wood paneling now painted in a neutral white. The middle section is fashioned as a living room with a variety of seating options. The back area is a slow zone, divided from the rest of the space by a glass wall behind which stands an industrial coffee roaster. A dropped ceiling of perforated polished stainless steel panels connects the three areas together, adding reflectivity and a play of light. A pink glass wall separates the main space from the bathrooms and the dry storage. The bathrooms are mechanical boxes clad in brushed stainless steel.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Café & Roastery
Total floor area: 120 m2
Number of stories: 1
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Deniz Önengüt
Photos by Atelier Olschinsky
Vöslauer Headquarters
Bad Vöslau, Austria
Offices & Visitor Center
Invited Competition, First Place
October, 2016
Vöslauer Mineralwasser’s headquarters occupies a cramped multistory building docked to a large bottling hall. Having outgrown their current situation, the company is looking to expand their office spaces and visitor center without interfering with existing site logistics of the larger facility. The design is driven by an attempt to reduce costs to a minimum and to phase the construction in a way that allows for continuous occupancy. The existing structure is gutted and repurposed for an expanded visitor center and canteen. A steel and glass volume containing the office spaces tops the existing building with a dramatic cantilever.
Location: Bad Vöslau, Austria
Principal use: Office & Visitor Center
Site area: 1000 m2
Building area: 200 m2
Total floor area: 1500 m2
Number of stories: 4
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth
Structural Engineering: Werkraum Ingenieure
Climate Engineering: Bauklimatik
Grundäckergasse School
Vienna, Austria
Elementary & Middle School
Competition
June, 2018
The ground floor of the school and the surrounding play fields are organized by a scheme of scattered, programmatic islands: an archipelago of activities that extends from the heart of the building to the exterior. The social core of the building, an inner court with a large stair at the center, is bounded by four pill-shaped volumes housing a library, gym, cafeteria, and administrative offices. The ground floor presents itself as a non-hierarchical space. Rounded walls and multiple entrances all lead to the central stair. In contrast to the organic qualities of the ground floor, square classroom clusters are pin-wheeled along a volumetric grid. By rotating and re-orienting the position of the cluster relative to circulation cores and loggias, each floor presents a distinct quality.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Elementary & Middle School
Site area: 11,000 m2
Building area: 3,200 m2
Total floor area: 10,000 m2
Number of stories: 6
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Carina Zabini, Uwe Brunner
Structural Engineering: Werkraum Ingenieure
Climate Engineering: Bauklimatik
Landscape Architecture: Lindle Bukor
Fire Proofing: IMS Brandschutz
House H
Vienna, Austria
2 Family House
September 2016
Confined to a narrow, shady site, wedged between a party wall and a row of tall pines, House H attempts to make the best out of these inauspicious site conditions. The house will be shared between two families. The larger unit faces the street while the smaller unit has access to a long garden in the back. The units mirror each other, varying only in proportion. Common spaces are on the ground floor and, when possible, are bounded by a glass facade. Bedrooms and work spaces are arranged on the second floor. Each unit has access to a generous roof terrace. The building mass reflects the necessities imposed by site restrictions and local building code. In an attempt to break with the mass's pragmatism, the wooden paneling from the facade migrates inward and is visible through the glazed surfaces. As such, the building appears to be composed of interacting opaque and glazed volumes.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: 2 Family House
Site area: 500 m2
Building area: 125 m2
Total floor area: 330 m2
Number of stories: 3
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Clara Fickl
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 be 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 defined by a triangular 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 the 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
House C
Klosterneuburg, Austria
Weekend house
August 2016
Intended as a weekend retreat, this small house sits on the top of a long, sloped site facing the surrounding vineyards of Klosterneuburg. The house will replace an existing structure unfit to accommodate a family of four on overnight stays. The ground floor, embedded in the slope and camouflaged by a wall of ivy, houses the mudroom, work spaces, and bedrooms. The upper floor, slightly cantilevered, reads like a garden pavilion. Our goal was to minimize the impact of the structure on the landscape. The upper floor, housing the living room and kitchen, is a timber structure clad in an operable perforated metal facade and. Since the house is not in continuous use, occupied only on weekends or during holidays, we establish an alternating reading between open and closed conditions. When closed, the upper volume appears monolithic and static. When open, the metal facade reveals sliding glass doors and large windows that open to generous living spaces. Mechanical, yet delicate, the layering of wood, glass, and perforated metal give the impression that the house rests lightly over the landscape
Location: Klosterneunurg, Austria
Principal use: Weekend House
Site area: 1400 m2
Building area: 100 m2
Total floor area: 200 m2
Number of stories: 2
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth
Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien Mensa
Vienna, Austria
University Dining Hall
Invited Competition, First Place
Completion October 2013
The dining hall for the new Vienna University of Economics and Business occupies a large ground floor space in the Hörsaalzentrum. Although connected to the life of the campus, the Mensa reads as a separate environment, a place where students can find a break from their academic activities. To accentuate the break from the seminar room or 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. 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 in four zones, each characterized by a separate seating type that corresponds to particular uses and lighting conditions. All furnishing are 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. A digital payment system allows for a space that is absent of long lines and enclosed serving areas.
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
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 Gumpendorfer Straße. The Lui family prides itself on cooking family recipes that one would be hard-pressed to find outside a traditional Chinese home kitchen. Our aim was to create a comfortable dining environment that compliments their family traditions. At the center of the space, the bar is clad in riveted stainless steel. The riveting’s slight deformations on the steel surfaces create warped reflections that bring to mind the irregularity and inexactitude of an earlier 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 makes vague references to another time. The riveted bar 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 exposed brick walls. 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
Photos by Atelier Olschinsky
Museum des 20 Jahrhunderts
Berlin, Germany
Museum
Competition
August 2015
Any new intervention in Berlin’s Kulturforum entails dealing with a loaded site. Our design for a new museum dedicated to twentieth century art is itself negotiating the polar swing of two architectural icons of the period in question: Mies van der Rohe’s Neue Nationalgalerie and Hans Scharoun’s Philharmonie. Rather than add to this ensemble with yet another singular object, our design presents a more diffused strategy: a grouping of discrete masses, packed around a ramp that enters the building becoming the central circulation core linking a continuous loop of gallery spaces. From the exterior, the masses are closed, stereotomic objects, each distinct only through subtle shifts in wall angles and corresponding façade striations. From the interior, the masses, housing individual galleries, are linked together via interstitial, glazed connectors, affording the visitor brief pauses between exhibits and glimpses of the outside world.
Location: Berlin, Germany
Principal use: Museum
Site area: 10,000 m2
Building area: 5000 m2
Total floor area: 16,000 m2
Number of stories: 4
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Kristina Zaunschirm, Deniz Önengüt, Lea Artner
In collaboration with Parsa Khalili
Landscape Architecture: Korbwurf Lanschaftsarchitektur
Technopark
Zurich, Switzerland
Dining Hall
November 2016
The client’s explicit wish was to find a way to service up to eight hundred meals a day without disrupting movement through the atrium on the ground floor. Additionally, any new intervention had to seamlessly fit to the austere context of exposed concrete and wood paneling. Our design thus remains architecturally unobtrusive not only in terms of flows and movement but also in terms of form and materiality. As an exercise in spatial camouflage, the dining zones are distinguished by subtle changes in furniture types and materials. Large glazed lanterns acting as spatial markers are the only exception to a rule of ‘fitting in’.
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
Bildungshaus Wolfsburg
Wolfsburg, Germany
Elementary & Middle School, Library
Competition, Honorable Mention
Februrary 2014
An elementary school, middle school, community library, café, and administrative offices spiral around a central atrium biased to the north of the site where a traffic intersection defines the end of one of the city’s main axes. The spiraling program opens up to the south creating a series of stepped terraces that favor a large park housing major cultural buildings. As a result, the terraced massing allows the building to negotiate two conditions at once: an urban edge and an extension of landscape. The border between park and school are effectively blurred as they braid and spiral around each other.
Location: Wolfsburg, Germany
Principal use: Elementary & Middle School
Site area: 10,000 m2
Building area: 5000 m2
Total floor area: 16,000 m2
Number of stories: 6
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth
In collaboration with GP architektur (Georg Pamperl, Paul Mayr)
Structural Engineering: Werkraum Ingenieure
Climate Engineering: Bauklimatik
Landscape Architecture: Korbwurf Lanschaftsarchitektur
Miranda
Vienna, Austria
Cocktail Bar
Completion July 2015
Miranda was born from both pragmatic and nostalgic impulses. When our architectural practice 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. The bar opens to the street, revealing a pale color palette of greens, pinks, blues and yellows. The room is dominated by long, green granite bar at counter height, allowing guests to feel as if they were part of the drink –mixing alchemy. The industrial herringbone oak flooring was left intact and references the space’s original 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 openings, 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, creating a playful overlapping of color planes. Polished, perforated stainless steel panels are clad around the bar below the stone counter and reappear in the bathrooms and exterior signage. Three platforms composed of metal flooring and powder-coated steel mesh create a terraced garden along the street. The bar pays homage to tropical modernism, to clean lines and vibrant colors, but also nods at local design precedents such as Josef Frank’s illustrative fabrics and Adolf Loos’s use of chromatic stone. With Miranda we hint at the tropics while staying 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
Liu Liu
Vienna, Austria
Restaurant
Completion October 2017
The restaurant is conceived to be busiest at lunch, catering to nearby office spaces and schools. Due to limits in natural light as a result of a deep façade and unfavorable exposures, the interior attempts to communicate a bright, warm atmosphere. A band of off-white powder-coated corrugated panels bands the space adding texture and rhythm. The panels are offset from the wall and contain a continuous light strip acting as a datum line between wall and ceiling. The L-shaped space is segmented in specific zones by structural arches and large cubic lanterns. The entrance zone is a buffer zone between an informal dining area furnished with high tables and a more formal area defined by built-in upholstered niches. The reduced material palette of whites, light grays, and wood textures is intermittently accented by light green accents in the bar and the restrooms.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Restaurant
Total floor area: 180 m2
Number of stories: 1
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Carina Zabini, Clara Fickl
Photos by Bengt Stiller
Meenie Miney & Mo
Vienna, Austria
Stools & Bench
March, 2016
The 3 furniture pieces were made as part of a project conceived and organized by Mark Neuner from Mostlikely and Sudden Workshop.
It should be said from the start that we were not interested in the particular qualities of the material itself. We felt that wood, in this state, has been and will continue to be tested for all its structural and aesthetic potential. We used the material, constrained to dimensions provided by the workshop, as a vehicle to focus on other interests: 1. Proportion, 2. Mass, 3. Figure and 4. Color. The four figures (only 3 were built) were intended as variations on a single proportional scheme of alternating horizontal and vertical elements. Mass is simply created by total redundancy, which in turn provides structural stability: only by making the figures ‘fat’ can they be stable. The figures are purposely over-dimensioned. Not everything has to be elegant. We often find a sense of relief when confronted by awkward, in this case, ‘stumpy’, ‘thick’ things. Although current trends have rekindled an interest in ‘color-for-color’s-sake’, architects generally tend to avoid taking an aggressive position on color, often allowing the materiality to dictate the palette or playing a safe game of ‘shades of grey’. We love color! We love its subjectivity, its controversy, but mostly, its ability to create figures. The four figures have alternating color schemes on each face. Due to the construction technique the figures only have two faces. The color is meant to accentuate the awkwardness of the figures but also to help you forget that the objects are made of wood. Since we were mostly interested in the figural quality of the pieces and less in the potential of the material itself, it was clear from the beginning that the construction technique needed to be easy, stupid even. We used a single format (194 x 19 x 4000 mm) that only required 90 degree cuts. Once the first profile was made, to assemble the complete figure required only stacking that same profile twelve times and screwing it together.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Stools & Bench
Materials: Timber boards
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Deniz Önengüt
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 program a circular 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. Our client, responsible for a large food court adjacent to the rotunda, wanted a feature that would cater to travelers shortly before their departure. We designed a radial bar, ideal for a last minute snack and drink, where travelers 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. A central bar and a concentric bench are clad in dark green granite. Eighteen bent light strips on the rotunda are mirrored in a second tier of lights hanging directly over the bar area. The strips are further traced on the surface of the bar, floor, and outside edge of the bench, creating a third, base tier of light. The three light tiers are programmed LEDs that respond to different conditions such as operational hours, times of high frequency, and ambient light. The 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.
Location: Vienna International Airport
Principal use: Center Bar
Total floor area: 100 m2
Number of stories: 1
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Kristina Zaunschirm
Photos by Stefan Zenzmaier
Kastor & Pollux
Vienna, Austria
Hair Salon
Completion August 2015
The hair salon occupies a storefront in a palatial Gründerzeit house in Vienna’s first district. Due to generous room heights, support functions such as washing booths, changing rooms, and staff social areas are arranged between a split-level in the back of the space. This allows the main room to take full advantage of the spatial proportions. The main room is bounded by a curtain that can be drawn over large window panes along the façade creating an immersive atmosphere. The curtain’s soft edges contain a collection of simple, monolithic furniture elements clad in stone or steel. A large circular chandelier marks the waiting area. A cubic steel product shelf defines the border between the service counter, stair, and waiting area. The salon booths are arranged along the side walls, each facing mirrored volumes resting on a stone base. As if dipped in tar, the back functions on both levels are articulated in black, muted surfaces.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Hair salon
Total floor area: 110 m2
Number of stories: 2
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Kristina Zaunschirm
Photos by Atelier Olschinsky
RamienGo
Vienna, Austria
Restaurant
Completion October 2012
RamienGo is a restaurant in Vienna's newly renovated Wien Mitte train station and shopping center and occupies part of a larger food court on the first floor. It features a hanging ceiling installation composed of 466 aluminum tubes. Each aluminum tube represents a distinct curve. The 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. 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 commercial stimuli, but it also provides a porous enclosure that separates the restaurant from the rest of the noise. Above the hanging 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 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.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Restaurant
Total floor area: 230 m2
Number of stories: 1
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth
Consultants: Quirin Krumbholz (Madame Mohr)
Peter Mattle (Pemat AG)
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. The first installation describes an inverted mountain landscape through the manipulation of a single geometric tile. The patchwork of tiles shifts in tone creating two interwoven color gradients, 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 plane. 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.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Bar
Total floor area: 100 m2
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth
Photos by Stefan Zenzmaier & Jochen Fill
Vienna International Center
United Nations Office in Vienna
Vienna, Austria
Catering Facilities
Invited Competition, First Place
Completion April 2015
The seat of the United Nations in Vienna is one of the most iconic buildings in the Austrian capital, a reminder of utopian visions from another era, out of place in a less idealistic present. Since its construction in the mid 1970’s, the main dining facility had not been renovated and as such preserved most of the original plywood paneling and light fixtures. Our design recycles most of the paneling, repurposing it to meet contemporary acoustic requirements. The panels are stained or painted to correspond to a new zoning strategy that creates three distinct atmospheres. The main dining hall is well lighted, warm in its tonality, and punctuated by moments of bright color. In contrast, the bar is dark hued and subdivided in more intimate areas. The restaurant stands out through a combination of glossy red surfaces, glass partitions, and grey wooden furnishings. The floor plan is reworked and optimized to reflect current needs for more flexible systems as well as changing cultural attitudes towards collective dining.
Location: United Nations, Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Catering Facilities
Total floor area: 3,500 m2
Number of stories: 1
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Kristina Zaunschirm
Private Residence
Vienna, Austria
Penthouse Renovation
Completion March 2010
What started as a modest refurbishment of a penthouse apartment in the hills of Vienna’s 19th district quickly became a major renovation, largely due to an enthusiastic and close working relationship with the client. The space was originally planned for two separate apartments divided by a dark vestibule. The smaller of the two apartments was unoccupied and used as extra storage space. Our design removes most of the non-structural walls and merges the two dwellings. The space is reorganized through a clear division between common and private areas. A generous vestibule buffers the bedrooms from the living room/kitchen area. A built-in storage cabinet running the length of the vestibule acts as a spine from which the two areas are accessed. Large, single pane windows running from the floor to just below the ceiling height take advantage of unobstructed views of the city skyline. A unified material palate runs through the entire space, keeping most surfaces in related tones of gray. All floors and wet walls are monolithic cement-based surfaces. The built-in cabinetry is faced with brushed and stained oak boards. Incandescent light rods are periodically built into the cabinetry or engaged in the walls to provide a warm atmospheric glow.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Private residence
Total floor area: 200 m2
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth
Photos by Stefan Zenzmaier
Cube Siemens
Zurich, Switzerland
Organic Canteen
September 2015
In its current state, the Siemens canteen in Zurich follows a drab and predicable program. Customers queue in front of meal counters only to queue again at the cashier, then search for an available seat among an anonymous landscape of tables and chairs. Working closely with landscape architects and botanists, our design proposes a radically different approach to the corporate dining hall. To start with, customers move freely in a cashless space, eliminating the need for cashiers, queues, and strict distinctions between purchasing and seating areas. The meal stations are mobile modules that perform more like market stalls. The market can congregate or disperse depending on a particular gastronomical concept. Augmented flexibility is also translated to the seating areas, no longer undifferentiated fields but rather heterogeneous zones with varying degrees of intimacy that are able to react to the various market stall conditions. However, all attempts at spatial flexibility are at the service of a more radical shift in re-thinking the canteen. Interior surfaces and exterior roofscapes and gardens are repurposed as growing zones, with the goal being to cultivate up to 90% of the produce required by the kitchen. In this way, the canteen becomes a place to meet the grower of your food as well as a project that taps into larger ethical questions of sustainability in design.
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
Principal use: Canteen, restaurant
Total floor area: 1,500 m2
Number of stories: 2
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Kristina Zaunschirm, Lea Artner, Deniz Önungüt
Landscape Design: ecosphere.institute & Green4Cities
Penthouse R
Vienna, Austria
Penthouse Renovation
March 2012
The penthouse renovation is part of a refurbishment of an impressive 19th century Palais, reconfigured to accommodate luxury apartments. The 400 m2 penthouse takes advantage of the building's commanding height over neighboring structures by highlighting unobstructed views of the city center, the Rathaus, and the Weinberge. The plan is organized around a large, rectangular space with a glass wall leading to the main balcony. Four spaces of near equal footprints spoke off the main space and house the kitchen, the bedroom, the main bathroom, and the guest room. What appears rational in plan is quickly convoluted by a complicated roof landscape. The ceiling's various pitches create irregular and unruly spaces and a dearth of vertical surfaces. Fortunately, the future occupants were inclined to live with as few walls as possible. In order to give specific identities to various spaces, three long, waist-high storage cabinets are placed along the cross grain of the floor plan. The storage cabinets bound spaces without enclosing them. A living room, a dining room, and a vestibule are created by establishing clear borders. The storage units also ease the client’s desire for an uncluttered environment and serve alternatively as display pedestals for their art collection. In order to reduce the impression of irregularity in the ceiling, all surfaces are finished in the same gray cementitious spackle. The texture of the spackle blurs the borders between floor, wall, and ceiling, creating a uniform shell instead. The bathrooms are clad in stone, the cabinetry in a rough wood paneling. Hints of stone and wood are visible from most places in the house.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Private residence
Total floor area: 400 m2
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth
Baburu
Vienna, Austria
Bubble Tea Shop
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 acrylic 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 on the vertical plexi surfaces as well as the stainless steel floor. A window to the back gives customers a view into a Spartan kitchen and prep-area dominated by stainless steel working counters and cabinets.
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
House M
Gattendorf, Austria
Weekend House
November 2011
This small house sits on the top of a long, moderately sloped plot along the Leitha River. Fruit trees of various types pepper the lot; a large vegetable garden dominates the southern half. The client is an avid gardener and wants a comfortable place where he and his family can spend summer weekends. The house will replace an existing structure unfit to accommodate a family of four on overnight stays. In order to keep costs low, the enclosed and insulated areas are minimized, whereas the open and uninsulated areas are generously proportioned. The fact that the house is seasonally occupied, remaining vacant during the cold months, allows for minimal insulation. Two taught volumes positioned in an L-form define the enclosed/insulated areas. These are placed on a rectangular concrete plinth that steps down to the garden. The larger volume houses two bedrooms and a garden shed. The smaller volume houses the bathroom and the kitchen. The two volumes open up to a deck/living area with large sliding barn doors. The deck is partially covered by a light roof structure and is wrapped in a folding glass facade with movable curtains. When open, the living area spills into the remaining deck. When the glass facade is closed, it completes the cubic shape framed by the two volumes. By simple operations of sliding doors and folding glass panels, the house alternates between an open, porous condition, and a compact, enclosed one.
Location: Gattendorf, Austria
Principal use: Weekend House
Site area: 1,000 m2
Building area: 90 m2
Total floor area: 90m2
Number of stories: 1
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth
Kunsthistorisches Museum Café
Vienna, Austria
Museum Café
Invited Competition
October 2015
As one of the most recognizable buildings along Vienna’s Ringstrasse, home to one of the most important art collections in the world, modifications to the Kunsthistorisches Museum are a delicate matter. To complicate things further, the museum’s café is prominently situated under an octagonal dome crowning the building. The design is organized around a series of polished brass halos hanging imperceptibly from the dome’s structure. The halos, which function as large chandeliers, reinforce the centrality and proportion of the domed space. Because of their concentric position relative to the central axis, they inscribe an inversion of the dome leading to the oculus at the center of the room. All other elements the room, such as benches, vitrines, and tables, are secondary circles or ellipses.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Café, restaurant
Total floor area: 400 m2
Number of stories: 1
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Lea Artner
Bildungscampus
Vienna, Austria
Educational Campus
Competition
September 2010
The Bildungscampus, housing a kindergarten, an elementary school, and a middle school, is part of a master plan in Vienna's 12th district that features the new central train station. The campus plugs into the southwest corner of the new urban plan. It is flanked by new housing complexes on two sides. The northern edge of the site faces a large park that acts as the main recreational zone for the new development. The campus borders existing neighborhood fabric towards the south. The building mass continues the urban edge of the proposed housing along the perimeter of the block. At a major intersection on the corner of the site, the building pulls back opening itself to the neighborhood, revealing glimpses of the park beyond. The offset from the street creates a large forecourt and sets the stage for a half-submerged gymnasium volume intended for shared use between the school and the community. The building is organized around a central courtyard. Between the first and second floors, the building lifts to expose a roof garden. The outer facade is striated in irregular vertical panels that respond to light requirements in the classrooms clusters. The inner facade is a colorful, fully glazed surface that activates the inner court and the circulation spaces that bound it. The various age groups are arranged vertically, with the youngest students around the inner court and the older students in the upper levels. Although operationally autonomous, the different schools nevertheless share common spaces and are visually connected.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Educational
Site area: 20,000 m2
Building area: 8,000 m2
Total floor area: 15,000 m2
Number of stories: 4
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth
J. Hornig Flagship Store
Vienna, Austria
Coffee Shop & Roaster
November 2015
J. Hornig, the famous Styrian coffee roaster, considered different city neighborhoods during their search for a permanent home in Vienna. Each flagship store prototype takes into account the characteristics of four hypothetical sites. The sites vary in size and are situated in four distinct urban conditions. Each prototype has a direct relationship to the street and incorporates a separate space that functions either as a roasting room or a greenhouse for coffee plants. The proximity of the store to the city center, a public transportation hub, or a quiet residential area provided for radically different atmospheres and material choices. The prototypes were a preliminary study leading up to an eventual design for a flagship store in Vienna’s 7th district, completed in March, 2017.
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
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 plugs into the area’s bustling energy. The space is located directly on a sunny corner of the market square. The restaurant 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, open, and uncluttered. A nine meter long bar faced with polished stone acts a functional spine and separates the two main dining areas. A palette of warm colors and textures is achieved by presenting materials in a raw, unadulterated state. 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
Bildungscampus Nordbahnhof
Vienna, Austria
Educational Campus
Competition
December 2015
By breaking away from the rigid city block structure of the Nordbahnhof neighborhood development, the Bildungscampus stands out as a spatial anomaly. No longer contained by the building envelope, the edge condition defining city block versus street is purposely blurred, inviting the neighborhood to actively interact with the resulting landscape. Lifted at the center to create a hill, the city block becomes a dynamic terrain composed of sport fields, gardens, playgrounds, and performance surfaces. The raised landscape also functions as a building plinth, housing the school’s main communal program. Classroom clusters are arranged around a stacked sequence of rounded triangles floating above the raised landscape. The upper building meets the plinth at four rounded cores, each containing a part of the art program. The school is conceived as the heart of a new community and as such is articulated by exceptional qualities that purposely break the rules of the surrounding morphology.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Educational
Total floor area: 17,000 m2
Number of stories: 5
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Kristina Zaunschirm, Deniz Önengüt, Lea Artner
Ramien Deli
Vienna, Austria
Restaurant Prototype
March 2010
We were approached to develop a restaurant prototype that can be easily adapted to various public spaces, ranging from a university campus to a commercial center to a train station. The dining area is divided between mobile (take-away) and stationary (seating) users. The proportions between the two users vary according to a specific site. For instance, a train station may require a larger amount of mobile users while a university campus would need more stationary users. A pinched, quarter tauroid is applied to divide the spatial functions. The resulting arched entrances along the storefront determine the flow of users.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Restaurant
Total floor area: variable / site specific
Number of stories: 1
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth
Neon
Vienna, Austria
Restaurant
Completion April 2008
Beginning at the turn of the millennium, 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 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 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 outside. With 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, white steel mesh, and neon tubes that are constantly fluctuating in brightness with programmed dimmers gives the impression of a pulsing, breathing machine.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Restaurant
Total floor area: 345m2
Number of stories: 2
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth
Graphic design: Maria Prieto Barea
In collaboration with Conrad Kroencke
Photos by Stefan Zenzmaier
Nominated for Adolf Loos Staatspreis für Design 2009
Finkh
Vienna, Austria
Restaurant
Completion April 2008
Located in Vienna's 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.
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
Rocking Chair
Material: Steel and leather
Date: 2004
Carey Island
Changsha, China
Entertainment Complex
June 2009
The proposed entertainment and leisure complex is part of an existing master plan for a green zone north of Changsha. The main aim of the facility is to act as a focal point, attracting local residents of new housing communities currently under construction as well as city dwellers in search of a weekend retreat. The buildings are located along the edges of an artificial island, taking full advantage of the water and the views to the wooded hills surrounding the site. The complex is composed of three cubic masses clad in a modulated brick facade. Due to severe limitations in building techniques and access to sophisticated materials, grey bricks, ubiquitous in the region, were chosen as the main facade element. The facade's fenestration pattern plays with a solid/void inversion between glazed and opaque areas. The dimension of glazed surfaces varies to accommodate different programmatic requirements. From the onset, the buildings did not have a fixed program. Here, the idea of multi-functionality is taken to the extreme. The buildings are repositories that change at the whim of the investors behind the project. Currently, buildings will house several restaurants, a brewery, a wine cellar, private dining rooms, a ball room, hotel suites, mahjong gaming rooms, and a spa. The central plaza results from an intersection of three areas – a reflecting pool, a platform, a garden – and is bound by a circulating driveway.
Location: Chang-sha, Hunan, China
Principal use: Entertainment Complex
Site area: 16,000 m2
Building area: 3,500m3
Total floor area: 8,500m2
Number of stories: varies
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth
Uandi Eco-Retreat
Andaman Islands, India
Ecological Hotel & Spa
February 2009
The Andaman Islands have managed to avoid the rapid development of its coasts to large-scale tourism. The Eco-retreat on Havelock – one of the few islands open to travelers – is perched on a hill, surrounded by jungle. The program is distributed throughout the site in small structures in order to preserve the natural tree coverage. The structures are wrapped with movable screens, curtains, and shades, remaining porous to the environment. Areas of the site that were previously used as palm plantations are cleared to accommodate the main service facilities, dining hall, and pool. The residences, a yoga pavilion, and massage therapy rooms are woven around mature tropical trees. A meandering path connects all of the structures to each other as well as to the surrounding gardens. At night a lighted path creates a discernable figure on the slope. In an attempt to minimize the use of imported materials, the structures are largely composed of local wood, baked brick, and palm fronds. Measures to prevent erosion such as the use of concrete footings and plinths, an attention to the natural watershed through existing streams, and intelligent planting and preservation of flora were also integral to the design.
Location: Havelock Island, Andaman Islands, India
Principal use: Ecological Hotel & Spa
Building area: 4,000 m2
Total floor area: 8,000m2
Number of stories: varies
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Sarah Schneider
KMPM Center
Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Maritime & Pop Music Center
Competition
June 2010
The KMPM Center features a modulating landscape that integrates building and infrastructure in a braided pattern. The scheme is sensitive to its condition as a threshold separating city and sea. The distribution of program and the interaction between enclosed and outdoor spaces blur the borders between natural and artificial environments as well as between public and private areas. The center is composed of three main buildings. The central building houses a large performance hall and is positioned at the nucleus of the site. Across the river, small performance halls and a museum dedicated to popular music share a building. On the opposite side of the bay, a center for marine culture provides a long frontage where passersby can steal glimpses at the displayed yachts and ships. The building geometries respond to specific site conditions on the ground and to their role as visual gateways into the city. As it bends around the bay, the landscape raises and depresses to accommodate pedestrians, bikers, plantings, and the buildings themselves. The bands weave through the entire site and are capable of continuing along the perimeter of the city as part of a future expansion of a potential green belt
Location: Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Principal use: Maritime Cultural and Pop Music Center
Site area: 120,000 m2
Building area: 20,000 m2
Total floor area: 70,000 m2
Number of stories: varies
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth, Kriszti Nagy
Structural Engineering: Werkraum Ingenieure
Acoustic Consultants: Vatter & Partner
Climate Engineering: Bauklimatik
Karl-Franzens Universitätsbibliothek
Graz, Austria
Library Expansion & Renovation
Competition
August 2015
The expansion and renovation of the Karl-Franzens library in Graz is as much a project about adding to an already multi-layered building program spanning nearly two centuries as it is about untangling a programmatic knot resulting from multiple functions meeting at one, central point. Our proposal places two symmetrical building volumes acting as bookends to the central reading rooms and rare book library. Administrative and student functions are separated at opposite ends of the site, coming together in circulation areas at the base of the building. The stacks are concentrated below grade along with a large lecture hall. Social rooms, reading rooms, and offices are organized along the perimeter to take advantage of natural light. A generous glass volume connects the library ensemble to the main university block onto which it docks, transforming what are currently underused courtyards into a main circulation axis that doubles as a meeting place for students and faculty. In an attempt to reduce the perception of mass in the new volumes, the facades are clad in modulating vertical louvers. Each of the new volumes is organized around a central, spiraling stair.
Location: Graz, Austria
Principal use: University Library
Site area: 5000 m2
Building area: 5000 m2
Total floor area: 15,000 m2
Number of stories: 5
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio Lubroth,Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio Lubroth, Kristina Zaunschirm, Deniz Önengüt, Lea Artner
Structural Consultant: Werkraum Ingenieure
ShangaiTan
Vienna, Austria
Restaurant
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 modern restaurant dedicated to Shanghai cuisine. 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.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Restuarant
Total floor area: 180 m2
Number of stories: 2
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou
Photos by Hannes Jirgal
Octapharma
Vienna, Austria
Canteen
Invited Competition, First Place
Completion January 2014
'Oben' is the newly renovated company restaurant for Octapharma's Vienna campus. The design focuses on bringing a human scale to an industrial hall. The space is scaled down through material zones, acoustical modifications, and a lighting design that corresponds to changing environmental conditions. Shifts in materiality define the various areas in the hall. The meal stations are composed of hard surfaces of colored granite and clear powder-coated steel. Under the large vaulted hall, the main dining area is furnished in solid oak and leather. Two winter gardens are positioned along the perimeter and are marked by homogenous stained wood surfaces. Opposite of the meal stations, shallow space with communal tables and wood paneling allows for more intimate gatherings. A private dining room is separated by a glass wall and curtains. 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
Giraffe House, Schönbrunn Tiergarten
Vienna, Austria
Winter Garden & Restoration
Invited Competition, Finalist
November 2008
As the world's oldest zoo, additions to the Schönbrunn Tiergarten are a delicate matter. Renovations to the existing giraffe house would go largely unnoticed by the general public. The proposed winter garden is a new structure and as such has to contend with the radial plan of the imperial menagerie. Rather than conceal the winter garden in its context, we expose its difference through materiality, structure, and by the way it interacts with existing buildings on the site. An irregular ceiling structure branches out from five columns and is contained within a taught, glazed volume. The columns are derived from a giraffe's feeding habits and store hay at the point where they branch, thus creating for the visitor an abstracted silhouette of how the animal would actually feed in the wild. During cold months, visitors can walk around the winter garden perimeter to view the giraffes or enter it through an existing building engaged below the new structure. In the summer large sliding panels on the facade allow the animals to have free access to the surrounding grounds. The north facade of the winter garden bends to avoid a mature oak.
Location: Vienna, Austria
Principal use: Giraffe exhibit extension
Site area: 3500 m2
Building area: 300 m2
Number of stories: 2
Design team: Chieh-shu Tzou, Gregorio S. Lubroth
In collaboration with Wehofer Architekten
Kaffeekueche
Vienna, Austria
Coffee shop
Invited Competition, First Place
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
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