Bene Office Furniture

SOLID architecture, Wiedner Hauptstrasse 108 / 5

Christine Horner, born in 1972 in Salzburg, and Christoph Hinterreitner, born in 1970 in Vienna, founded SOLID architecture together in Vienna in 2000.
Christine Horner studied architecture at the Technical University of Vienna and the Ecole de la Villette, and she also worked at architecture firms in Washington, DC, Darmstadt and Paris.

Christoph Hinterreitner studied architecture at the Technical University of Vienna, the Technical University of Graz and RWTH Aachen; he has worked at architecture firms in Vienna and Cologne, as well as at Feichtinger Architectes in Paris.

SOLID architecture’s points of departure for design are the client’s needs and the space. They build solutions that offer optimum functionality and architectonic quality given the available resources, based on a clear spatial concept. A few examples of their work are the Austrian pavilion at Expo Zaragoza 2007, the Brücke Rennweg in Vienna 2009, or most recently the interior architecture of the new Bene Showroom on Neutorgasse in Vienna.


The office as a space: what significance do you assign to it?

Christoph Hinterreitner (CHI): For us, the office is primarily a meeting point, a place where we can work on projects together.
Having this kind of space was and is very important for us. The main reason for opening our office in Vienna was that office space is very affordable in comparison with other European cities, and the city in general is very spacious – Paris, for example, is three times as dense as Vienna.


Do you like to work constantly at the same place, or do you like a change of "scenery"?

Christine Horner (CHO): At the beginning, our office was very flexible, not tied down to one place. We studied and worked for a few years abroad, most of that time in Paris. We wanted to maintain this international flavour after founding our office in Vienna. In the first years, for example, we once moved our office for three months to Rotterdam, and we formed work groups with former colleagues from Italy and Belgium.

CHI: Working together from different places on one project, purely through digital media, wasn’t a good long-term solution for us. Working all over Europe as an architect also requires a lot of expertise about the building culture in each respective country. We had this experience when we were building the Austrian Pavilion for the Zaragoza Expo (2007). We implemented this project from start to finish together with two partners from Vienna, including the building permits. We often found ourselves faced with obstacles that we wouldn’t have been able to overcome without advice from our friends in Spain.
We learned to value working at a fixed location, and to value the continuity and experience that this gives us. And we can build on that.


You mentioned that Paris is a "dense city". How is this scarcity of space manifested in how work is done in Parisian offices?

CHO: The urban density of Paris isn't just obvious in the rents and the close proximity of the offices, but also in certain rituals. For example, people often go to restaurants for lunch. A lot of restaurants are easily accessible from the office. This "bistro culture" is even promoted by the public purse; French salaries are paid out in part in the form of vouchers for restaurants. Going out to lunch with colleagues is a fixed component of work culture.


What differences did you notice between Vienna and Paris in terms of everyday work?

CHO: In the offices where we worked, there wasn’t a strong boundary between office time and private time. Work often continued into the evening, into dinner together, where we continued talking about the current project.

CHI: In my experience in Paris, there is a very strong focus on innovation, invention and design.
In general, an employee’s personality is much more on display than here in Austria. You can see that in the way some people consciously represent themselves to others; they permit themselves a certain carelessness or extravagance.


That makes me think of Philippe Starck or Jean Nouvel – you too?
CHI/CHO laugh.


Have your international experiences affected your current work situation?

CHI: Drinking coffee and having lunch together with our employees is a fixed part of our everyday office culture, even if we seldom go out to a restaurant. In addition to professional cooperation, we also value our employees as human beings.

CHO: We maintained the "density of Paris" in Vienna insofar as working and living are very closely correlated at our firm; both areas are located on two adjacent floors of the same building. This proximity creates a lot of synergies – and quick access at all times to our office infrastructure.


Do you have the feeling that your office says something about you?

CHO: I think that the office design provides information about how and in what atmosphere people like to work. For our office, it was important to create a friendly, bright and linear atmosphere - qualities that we also try to translate into our projects.

CHI: In my experience, an office’s design doesn’t say anything about the quality of work that is performed there. The most amazing things can be created on a piece of chipboard perched atop two cases of beer.


Do you have a "primary workspace", and – if yes – where is it?

CHI: Our main workplace is the desk in our office.

CHO: Both of our desks are located at opposite ends of the office, with the greatest possible distance from each other. Between these two poles, there are zones for communication, for the creative work done in our office. There’s space for meetings, talking with our employees, etc. The desk is the place for work that requires concentration.


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

CHO: That’s the nice thing about architectural work: we switch between concentration work and team work all the time.


Are there any places or locations where you particularly like to work?
CHO: Our office and on the train.


Are there places where you would especially like to work?
CHI: In Switzerland’s panorama train from Vienna to Zurich.


What is the most important object in the office?
CHI: The most important object in our office is our PC – very pragmatic. We wouldn’t be able to work without a computer.


What is your most important tool for your work?
CHO: The mouse and the keyboard.


What's the most personal object in your office?
CHI: I find that the most meaningful objects for me are the product samples and project models for things that are already under construction. These models are the only physical connection in our office between the things that we design and work out on paper and the place – the construction site – where our designs become reality.


What is your favourite activity in the context of work?

CHI: Designing on the basis of working models.

CHO: Designing. The design phase of a project is a pretty emotional phase for us – architecture is an affair of the heart. The most beautiful moment is when we have finally found a way to solve all of the problems and get the project rolling together.


How many hours do you spend in your office?

CHO, CHI: For us, it is difficult to separate private time and office time.

Thank you for the interview.