Students: Abhishek Blesson Manuel Alex Sahayam, Emma Schwarz, Kimia Lotfi, Malika Sungatullina
Situated in the heart of Vienna’s busiest shopping street, Lamarr reclaims an abandoned retail shell and transforms it into a cultural and productive public space. Once Vienna’s first grand department store and later a cherished furniture store, the site’s history is woven into the design, a vertical market and workshop that celebrates reuse, making, and participation. Instead of another consumerist mall, the project proposes a breathing space centered on the processes behind products. A monumental staircase carves through the building’s core, acting as circulation, public realm, and urban stage. Each flight introduces different zones for rest, play, exhibition, and performance, encouraging diverse rhythms of use and movement.
Materiality is informed by the site, concrete slabs from the demolition are reused, paired with reflective surfaces and soft partitions to create a layered, vibrant spatial experience. The program spans from ground-floor markets and cafés to upper-level workshops, showrooms, and DIY spaces, addressing the full lifecycle of furniture, from discarded pieces to high-end design. By collapsing the distance between production and presentation, the building becomes a place where craft is shared, developed openly, and shaped by public interaction
