The historic premises of the restaurant inside the Museum of Applied Arts were impressively redesigned by the team of architects Eichinger oder Knechtl. As mediators between historical awareness and future-minded vision, the architects enriched the venerable hall with elements of modern interior design. Different spatial situations were created to accommodate the broad scope of culinary offerings, which range from coffeehouse to gourmet restaurant. The restaurant garden is a true insider’s choice and an oasis of peace at the heart of the city.

• Bauzeit: 2006
• PlanerIn: Eichinger oder Knechtl
• Building type: Hotel and restaurants
• Reachability: U3 Stubentor
• Accessibility: During business hours
• Foto: Christian Fürthner

The Post Office Savings Bank is a milestone of Viennese Modernism. One of Otto Wagner’s masterpieces, the elegant building on Ringstrasse with its impressive counter hall presents particularly innovative solutions to technical-structural details while fulfilling the highest aesthetic standards.

• Bauzeit: 1903-1906
• PlanerIn: Otto Wagner
• Client: k. k. Postsparkasse
• Building type: Banks and stock markets
• Reachability: U1/U4 Schwedenplatz, tram 2, stop: Julius-Raab-Platz
• Accessibility: During business hours
• Foto: Rupert Christanell

With the design of a Georgian specialty restaurant, Gregor Eichinger, the doyen of modern Viennese coffeehouse architecture, has once more shown his sure touch. A relaxed and pleasant atmosphere is created with the help of sophisticated but smoothly integrated, unobtrusive details. Despite the sensitive overall design of all areas, the necessary flexibility, too, has been ensured – swivel lamps safeguard direct illumination of all tables for various seating arrangements. Movable separators encourage patrons to create privacy between their own zone and the adjoining tables.

• Bauzeit: 2012
• PlanerIn: eichinger offices
• Building type: Hotel and restaurants
• Reachability: U1 Nestroyplatz, U1/U4 Schwedenplatz
• Accessibility: During business hours
• Foto: Christian Fürthner

This multifunctional building with a hotel and top-floor restaurant was erected on the site formerly occupied by the UNIQA company headquarters and sets a clear signal in Vienna’s Danube Canal area. With its remarkable volume, the striking glass cube blends both prominently and fittingly with the overall cityscape and the historic buildings across the Canal.

• Bauzeit: 2007-2010
• PlanerIn: Jean Nouvel, HNP architects
• Client: UNIQA
• Building type: Hotel and restaurants
• Reachability: U1/U4 Schwedenplatz
• Accessibility: The shopping arcade is publicly accessible
• Foto: Rupert Christanell

The Wien City ship docking station is more than just a pier for ships. Rather, the building creates the missing link between vibrant Schwedenplatz square and the peaceful bank of Danube Canal and thus offers an urban site on the water with a surrounding promenade. The building serves as a canopy for the waiting area of the city cruise ships and the Twin City Liner to Bratislava. Inside the structure, there is a 2-level café/restaurant with a pleasant view of Danube Canal. The interior of the café was designed to recall the Italian espresso culture of the 1950s.

• Bauzeit: 2009-2010
• PlanerIn: fasch&fuchs.architekten
• Client: Wiener Donauraum Länden und Ufer Betriebs- und Entwicklungs-GmbH
• Building type: Traffic
• Reachability: U1/U4-Schwedenplatz
• Accessibility: During business hours
• Foto: Christian Fürthner

As one of the first "modern-style" Asian eateries, Kiang I became THE 1980s cult restaurant and pioneered a design approach much in use 20 years later. The selection of materials – red lorry tarpaulin, plastic chairs, aluminium tables and plywood lining – combines with the glazed surfaces of the mirror-covered booths (which can be opened) to create a deliberately un-Viennese atmosphere.

• PlanerIn: Helmut Richter, Heidulf Gerngross
• Client: Thomas Kiang
• Building type: Hotel and restaurants
• Reachability: U1/U4 Schwedenplatz
• Accessibility: During business hours
• Foto: Rupert Christanell

The narrow marble portal opens into a small shop, with a winding staircase leading up to the spacious upper floor. The elegantly wood-panelled interior styled with Loos’ typical precision perfectly epitomises the atmosphere of British Belle Epoque gentlemen’s outfitters. In 1993, the premises were enlarged by Paolo Piva to include the neighbouring shop.

• Bauzeit: 1910-1913
• PlanerIn: Adolf Loos
• Client: Knize
• Building type: Commercial
• Reachability: U1/U3 Stephansplatz
• Accessibility: During business hours
• The American Bar (1908) designed by Adolf Loos presents a unique spatial concept that enlarges the tiny premises with amazing mirror effects.
• Foto: Rupert Christanell

As the first of its kind, the Kleines Café by Hermann Czech established a specific pub/café type that was later to be varied many times over. Covering only a minimal surface and extending over several levels, enriched by sophisticated details and mirror effects, recurring to elements of Vienna’s traditional coffeehouses and deftly reinterpreting them, the interior conveys the pleasant impression of a convivial, atmospheric, old-style café.

• Bauzeit: 1970
• PlanerIn: Hermann Czech
• Client: Hans Neuffer, Hanno Pöschl
• Building type: Hotel and restaurants
• Reachability: U1/U3 Stephansplatz
• Accessibility: During business hours
• Foto: Rupert Christanell

With its majestic palm-trees, this fifteen-metre-high space domed with a historic glass-steel structure (by Friedrich Ohmann, 1899) laid down a difficult stylistic challenge. The intelligent additions to the interior devised by the architects create a variety of distinct restaurant and bar zones without impairing the essence of the greenhouse.

• Bauzeit: 1998
• PlanerIn: Eichinger oder Knechtl
• Client: Barbara Böhm
• Building type: Hotel and restaurants
• Reachability: U1/U2/U3 Karlsplatz
• Accessibility: during business hours
• Foto: Rupert Christanell

Simple tables and wooden chairs, freely hanging lighting fixture cables and an unplastered front are juxtaposed with a constellation of Oriental tiles set in a historic cross vault. Also due to the large glazed surfaces on both sides, this individualistic, very successful mix of different styles creates exquisite moods at any time of day.

• Bauzeit: 2001
• PlanerIn: Lacaton & Vassal, Feldbacher & Seehof
• Client: Architekturzentrum Wien
• Building type: Hotel and restaurants
• Reachability: U2-Museumsquartier, U2/U3-Volkstheater
• Accessibility: During business hours
• Foto: Rupert Christanell

This building revitalised by BWM Architekten is used as a design hotel of the 25hours hotel company. A shiny blue glass addition augmented this former student hostel from the 1970s by 3 storeys. The spectacular lobby bar with roof terrace discloses a sensational view of Vienna’s historic city and is open to the general public. The interior design studio Dreimeta created a circus-inspired styling that extends throughout the lobby and all 219 rooms of the hotel.

• Bauzeit: 2010-2013
• PlanerIn: BWM Architekten, Dreimeta
• Building type: Hotel and restaurants
• Reachability: U2/U3 Volkstheater
• Accessibility: During business hours
• Foto: Christian Fürthner

A V-shaped layout divides the yellow-illuminated Asian restaurant near the Western Railway Station into two longitudinal sections, i.e. restaurant and bar. Kitchen, sanitary units and storerooms are situated in-between. A hidden surprise effect is created by the shiny red-and-white, avant-garde tatami room as an extravagant private facility.

• Bauzeit: 2003-2004
• PlanerIn: BEHF Architects
• Client: Hu cheng Long KEG
• Building type: Hotel and restaurants
• Reachability: U3/U6 Westbahnhof
• Accessibility: During business hours
• Foto: MA19

The lobby design of the Vienna Technical Museum with its “luminous sitting trees” done in white fibreglass and textiles unleashes an impressive spatial effect. Waiting museum visitors enjoy excellent functionality. At nightfall, the 16 slightly visually varied “trees” are transformed into striking light objects.

• Bauzeit: 2010
• PlanerIn: querkraft architekten
• Client: Technisches Museum Wien
• Building type: Museums and exhibitions
• Reachability: U4 Schönbrunn
• Accessibility: während der Geschäftszeiten
• Foto: Christian Fürthner

VinziRast-mittendrin is an innovative housing project where students and formerly homeless persons live, learn and work together. The project idea was inspired during the protests against access restrictions to Austrian universities in 2009, when students also opened the doors of occupied lecture halls to the homeless. This well-located Gründerzeit building rehabilitated by gaupenraub +/- accommodates 10 living communities for 27 residents, attractive shared spaces and a café/restaurant accessible to the general public.

• Bauzeit: 2012-2013
• PlanerIn: gaupenraub +/-
• Client: Verein Vinzenzgemeinschaft St. Stephan
• Building type: Residential
• Reachability: U2 Schottentor, tram 37/38/40/41/42, stop: Schwarzspanierstraße
• Accessibility: Cafe/Restaurant during business hours
• Foto: Christian Fürthner