Vienna Straw Room

The architectural studio heri&salli conceived the so called Vienna Straw Room for WIENER ESSIG BRAUEREI Gegenbauer. In the backyard of a Viennese apartment building, adjoined to the brewery and following the concept of recycling, reuse and further use, guestrooms have been set up. As decisive working material for the sleeping area, as well as the rest of the room, straw has been used.

In the former storage area of the brewery, covered by a ripped concrete floor from the 60s, 5 new guest rooms have been built.
A lot of materials that haven’t been used on different building sites of the last years (among others Wiener Gästezimmer, Wiener Hoflandschaft, Edelsaurer Laden, Edler Laden…see also www.heriundsalli.com) are put to use in this project.
The boundaries of the room and the sleeping areas have been defined with the help of construction steel grids which consequently have been filled with straw-thus the decisive room structure is created.
Cross profile panels, shelf panels, profiled glass and lighting fittings are mounted on or integrated in the grid structure- the structure functioning as a basis for different space forming walls. Lines, pipes and cables lie open inside the room.
The composition of the room is not only visible, it’s tangible, perceptible and smellable- an architectural moment of the senses.

Although the elite of ancient civilizations slept in beds, until the middle ages most people lay on the floor, separated from it maybe by a mattress or straw. And if it wasn’t the floor, then a simple bench or a trunk.

By means of the medium straw, as a historical element of a sleeping area as well as the settled communities in general, we discuss its use as a temporary getaway from daily routine.