Tiny Workspaces

Cabanas Kuchelau

If it were clear night, you would be sitting on one of the two decks with the bluish shimmering laptop in the folding deck chair and let your soul dangle a little while you are still writing the very last mail. But now it is daytime and warm and sunny. No problem: A complete cabana is available, equipped around the clock with the same recreational value as a small vacation cottage, the type of which is ultimately available here – modularly designed and executed as a simple and easily dismantled construction in wood frame construction with cross-laminated timber elements and a steel frame.

17 of the neat architectures lie in a row, loosely arranged, integrating a tree. They were made of wood in an environmentally conscious manner, native and from the neighborhood, and also elevated so as not to interfere with the sensitive biotope while avoiding soil sealing and disturbance of the slope plants.

Directly on the shore

Water as a free visual, climatic and psychological refreshment factor is abundant on the banks of the Kuchelau harbor, a long stretch of water parallel to the Danube near Vienna, below the Leopoldsberg. The vineyards of Grinzing are pleasantly close by. But here, too, the primary focus is on working – albeit in a particularly original, but by no means less functional office architecture. And for all professions: from dynamic start-ups with four workstations and a meeting room to intimate writers’ residences. After all, downstairs there is an office with a kitchenette and terrace as well as a small bathroom and an additional room; above this floats a maisonette-style gallery that is ideal for use as a retreat zone.

An external staircase leads up to the roof terrace with distant views. As a special, charming interpretation of “home office”, the cabana principle thus gains in feel-good quality not only because of its positively connoted context and the formal reference to the wooden boat hull, the boathouse or the houseboat, but is also convincing because of its multimodal interior spaces. Recreation here is, as it were, an atmospheric part of the working day.

What do you consider to be the fundamental qualities of a good workplace?

Andrea Probst: We have to keep in mind the new reality of the modern working world. It has changed, and employees are demanding more self-determination. This form of decision-making freedom also benefits the company, because it promotes the employee’s creativity, innovative spirit, knowledge and productivity. If possible, an employee should be able to decide for himself which room concept is the ideal setting for him to use his knowledge to solve his task. Whether focused work in places of retreat and well-being or collaborative work in meeting and communication zones – the task of architecture and interior design is to provide this.

Do you see any comparability in space design for living and for working?

Three important places categorize our living spaces: our homes, our workplaces, and any meeting spaces outside these areas. In any case, the use of modern communication tools has helped these areas to merge into each other. In the office, we sometimes organize private tasks; at home, we often check professional e-mails. It is no longer a matter of a clear separation of living spaces, but rather a skilful combination of spatial concepts. The workplace does not end at the entrance door to the office. This development must be incorporated into our planning in the future.

Which functional aspects do you consider to be the decisive ones in the future development of workspaces?

Workplaces today are “networked” and therefore location-independent – there is no need for a physical gathering to interact and work together. This independence and also self-determination are creating new work models. Work can now take place anywhere, combined with other functions – such as living or recreation.