Bene Office Furniture

Gregor Eichinger, eichinger offices, Praterstraße 33/5

Gregor Eichinger’s designs are unmistakable for their particularly sensual quality and their reinterpretations of conventional use. His interest has always been focused on the urban scene and its spaces, such as cafés, restaurants and bars, as well as stores, galleries and offices.
Gregor Eichinger was born in 1956 in Wels in Upper Austria. He studied architecture at the Technical University of Vienna and worked in architecture firms, advertising agencies and film productions. In 1985, together with Christian Knechtl, he founded EICHINGER ODER KNECHTL (until 2005). Both architects became well known for their work on Café Stein (1985) in Vienna the Wrenkh restaurant. Other projects (selected): Shops for Helmut Lang in Tokyo, Kobe, Osaka, Paris; Unger & Klein Wine Shop, Vienna; Jewish Museum, Vienna; Café/Restaurant/Bar Palmenhaus Burggarten, Vienna; Austria’s contribution to Expo 2000 in Hanover; The Restaurant/Café Österreicher in the MAK, Vienna.
As of 2005, Gregor Eichinger runs "eichinger offices, büro für benutzeroberfläche". Project selection, all in Vienna: Fürn Shop; Song Shop; Atelier Erwin Wurm; preliminary draft, Shangri La Hotel; Galerie Mezzanin; Deep Space – drinking glass for Lobmeyr; Trialto Light, bridge at Schwedenplatz (project); villas and flats.
Teaching: Professor for Architecture and Design at the ETH Zurich (2004-2010); lectureships in Los Angeles and Vienna; currently the University of Applied Arts.
Numerous awards and prizes, including the Award of the City of Vienna for Architecture 2007; together with Christian Knechtl, the developer’s prize from the Austrian Architects’ Association (for Wrenkh); award from AZW Vienna for outstanding corporate architecture (for the Agency Haslinger, Keck).
Exhibition appearances and numerous public lectures, e.g. 2010 in MAK Vienna: Viennese Coffee Houses – The Genesis of the Species. This led to the project, "The Great Viennese Coffee House Experiment," which is running in the MAK Design Space until August 2011. Gregor Eichinger is acting as the "research director", working with design teams from Berlin, New York and Milan. The project should become manifest in a real coffee house in October.


Mr Eichinger, on the doors to your offices, in a beautiful typography set in relief, I read: eichinger offices. Why the plural form of office?

There might be more. At the moment, there is only this one here; it’s quite large.

True. Do you like that about your office?

Yes, it’s bright AND big.

What don’t you like?

That’s it not finished yet (note: furnished. Eichinger heads for a small niche established with a desk, kitchen utensils, coffee machine, etc.). The kitchen is still temporary. I love the basic outline of it though; it leaves so much open. It supplies oxygen for life and ideas.

Does that mean that you think of your office as a place of inspiration, of creativity?

Yes! It has to have something sensual. A kitchen. A quiet location. You have to be able to live in the space in such a way that you can experience everything. Then the office is the best place in the world.

Do you like to think that your office says something about you?

Yes, definitely. It should mirror interaction with people: attentiveness and empathy. I like people, and you should sense that here. Everyone should have their own personal space.

The office as a space: What significance do you assign to it? What functions do you ascribe to it?

Precise work. Working in teams. The office has "public openness" and at the same time "directedness" that constantly reminds you how you should be performing. Unlike a coffee house, which is free of that pressure. Yet the office, for me, has to have an inspirational power. And a research department.

Is this here something like your "main workstation"? Do you always like to work at the same place, or do you prefer a change of scenery?

Yes! I switch between my office, my atelier – which is currently in my apartment – and the coffee house. I have several workplaces. And several computers, because I don’t like to do everything on one computer: surf, write, edit photos. The computer is an important research tool for me. I like to collect images from the Internet for inspiration; I’m up to about 20,000 right now. I do that in my atelier, so at home. There are two computers there, and in the office I have one too – makes a total of three.

Once more, one at a time: office – atelier – coffee house. What role does the atelier play?

As a person who works creatively, I need a place where all of my resources are. The classic artist’s atelier is a place where the artist is surrounded by all of the things that inspire him: books, sculptures, art, stuffed things.

Stuffed animals?

Yes, all kinds of stuffed things. And: lots of horizontal spaces. I want an atelier with large tables so that I can lay out documents and see them – to see them all spread out next to each other.

How many tables are conceivable?

20 tables, because I work on about 20 projects at a time.

You named the coffee house as a "third" workplace. What do you do there?

The coffee house is the ideal extension of the office. Because the atmosphere there oscillates between work and letting go. The coffee house table also works as a desk because it’s highly communicative. Things can flow, ideas can develop. That’s exactly what is so important in the creative process.
For several years, my office was exclusively in the coffee house: 1983-85 in the Café Museum, before we founded Eichinger oder Knechtl, and then in the Café Imperial in 2002-03. Everything was in an upheaval at the time for me.

With all of your affinity for the café, it’s not surprising that you stumbled onto the "Great Viennese Coffee House Experiment" project at the Vienna MAK Design Space. What is the project about?

To find out what actually comprises the Vienna coffee house: the several unique qualities and precise rituals, the inspiring atmosphere – and what it will take to update the coffee house. Working in the café, for example, has been forgotten: people did business there, took care of correspondence, wrote, read. There was always this interaction between concentrated working and communication. Over the centuries, the café developed elements that now are flowing into office structures. For example, in open space with new space-shaping elements, with a spatial and substantial opportunity to communicate and inform yourself about what is happening in the outside world right now. People want informed employees. Also, the ways in which refreshments are prepared and served (the café integrates aristocratic table manners, after all) can be transferred to office situations. Or the attention paid to the guest, the customer or employees: in a café, you can be either a host or a guest. This has a lot to do with esteem. What happens between people has the greatest creative power.

Aside from the office – atelier – coffee house: Are there any other places or locations where you have particularly enjoyed working?

Concerts that have a very loud tapestry of sound. I can work well there, write, sketch. Otherwise: in cathedrals, in bars, on meadows.

Are there places where you would especially like to work?

Yes, but they aren’t located on this planet. I like to imagine worlds that have something of deserts, of the edge of a forest – in an immediate combination, very intense, almost erotic, sensual!

Are there places that you have to work but would rather avoid?

No. I only ever work at places of my own choosing.

Can you tell us about a "wow!" experience that you’ve had in or with an office?

Wow was the reaction of our client Edi Keck when he accepted the agency spaces for Haslinger, Keck after we prepared and implemented our design. We brought in completely new materials – untreated birchwood and furniture made of concrete. That was in 1993.

Do you prefer to work alone in your office or with others?

Definitely together with others. In my atelier, though, I prefer to be alone.

What is your favourite activity in the context of work?

Meeting people.

Are there any rituals that are important to you?

The flower delivery on Monday. That’s almost a spiritual moment. And surprising to see what comes each time.

What object is most important for you in your office?

A couch.

What’s your most personal object?

There are so many...

What is the most important tool for your work?

My writing tools. My fountain pen, my pencil. My ring, a tool of remembrance.

The thing you most wish for in an office?

That you can sleep in it.

How many hours a day do you spend in your office?

3 1/2 to 9 1/2.

Thank you for the interview. It didn’t take place in a coffee house, but rather in a restaurant with dumpling soup, dumplings with egg and a green salad.

Photos: DI Julia Frey, eichinger offices