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A wall full of awards and the motto ‘Together you can do more’ in the middle? Is that team spirit as a maxim?

Yes, it already began in our first office, a grocery store conversion. A wide range of works were required, from highbrow architecture to simple contruction work. It was important from the beginning not to judge and evaluate prematurely, because everything contributes to the mutual goal. We somehow learnt that subconsciously, and it has not been forgotten to this day.

What makes team spirit at AWG so special?

We are simply curious and motivated. We do not to merely conjure an apparently logical solution out of a hat. It also has something to do with the ongoing rejuvenating core of our team: understanding and togetherness are important. Of course, all that must be economically viable; but this team spirit is something all four of us look on with a certain pride.

How is the design work done as a team?

Right from the outset we were used to working in groups of four or five. It was highly rewarding and productive – and it still is. The large number of projects unfortunately resulted in us only being involved on the surface. Where we try to play a more intensive role is at the beginning. Every Friday we have a workshop day. We take our time, we have fun; we discuss competitions with the project teams and outline the strategies.

There has been an annex in Munich since 2016. How successful is the German-Austrian teamwork?

We have always liked the idea of a second branch in Germany. It simplifies many bureaucratic and administrative matters, and our clients like it. As far as mentality is concerned, we Austrians and the Bavarians are quite similar. But soberly assessed, we must say that cooperation, climate and success depend very much on personalities, and it is relatively unimportant where the person comes from.

You recently caused quite a stir with the Magdas Hotel, a project for people with a migrant background.

The Magdas is simply a highlight in the potpourri of projects we have worked on. A social-business model developed into something you might call social design, something that in fact has long-since established itself in publicly financed housing. We architects are aware from residential projects that design involves a social responsibility, and have known that since the failed satellite projects of the 1970s and 1980s. We must introduce a social aspect to living, and that has become firmly anchored in residential building of today.

In the recent past the focus of your activities has been on residential construction.

We have not actively pursued any form of specialisation. On the contrary: for a time we enjoyed not being specialised. In the meantime we may have acquired a slight penchant for residential building, surely as a result of our location and a certain image that Vienna enjoys in the international arena when it comes to publicly subsidised housing. These thoughts, learned and developed over the course of time, are often adopted in other countries. But otherwise we are glad to be able to engage in a broad spectrum of work.

PORTRAIT

Together you can do so much

For many years the theme of a German TV show was “Alles wird gut!” (Everything will be fine!). This theme was taken up by a team of architects inspired by Nina Ruge’s optimistic announcement at the founding of the studio in 1999. Today it is one of the established names in the young Austrian architectural scene. The four partners Andreas Marth, Friedrich Passler, Herwig Spiegl and Christian Waldner became friends during their architectural studies and had dreamed of a joint professional future. That became reality faster than anticipated, when their first competition success took the young architects by surprise even before they had graduated. The all-male team originally included a woman, Ingrid Hora, who later opted for a freelance career in art.

The founding partners of AWG: Andreas Mart, Herwig Spiegl, Friedrich Passler, Christian Waldner (left to right).

Today about 60 employees of AWG work on two floors of a building on the banks of the Danube Canal, not far from Jean Nouvel’s Sofitel hotel high-rise. Looking over Vienna’s city centre, the view extends from the cool Bathing Ship to the spire of the Stephansdom and is symbolic of the broad spectrum of the studio’s architecture. Their list of credits includes more than 50 projects at home and abroad. Their competencies range from city planning to shop fitting. Since 2016 they have also had a branch office in Munich – a by-product of a series of successes in competitions and nine ongoing projects in Germany, such as a residential complex in Prinz Eugen Park and Ludlstrasse, both in Munich, the Funke-Medien Zentrale in Essen, a school landscape in Hamburg and the administrative district office in Erlangen.

The AllesWirdGut team.

It all began in a former grocery store, a shop unit that was provisionally converted to an architectural practice, where the ‘gang of five’ came together for the first Tyrol project. Tyrol is also a binding element which the keeps the team together across international borders. Two of the members originate from northern and two from southern Tyrol – frontiers that have been overcome just like the four-year age difference. At university this was tantamount to a generation gap, but today it has long since been absorbed. In these beginnings Herwig Spiegl also sees the foundations of the excellent teamwork that has seen them through 17 years of conflict-free office routine and several jumps in scale. The group thrives on the input of various protagonists and on cooperation without hierarchies or specialisation. Despite the large number of ongoing commissions, this spirit is carried forward, and every week all four partners – as far as possible – come together for the Friday workshop to discuss design concepts with the team. All contributions are welcome and free-thinking is greatly appreciated. Thirteen different nationalities and a current average age of 34.75 are a guarantee of fresh ideas.

Open working climate – no or few hierarchies: typical of the philosophy of AllesWirdGut

They are ideas that have been realized in the redesign of the Open Air Festival Arena in St Margarethen and in the New Design University in St Pölten, in the open space of Innsbruck’s Maria-Theresien-Straße and in Austria’s largest passive office building in Krems. And, of course, in the numerous residential projects in which the AWGs have applied their pragmatic and innovative approach. According to their own definition, they are always in search of the ‘potential of the given context’. This applies to the multi-family dwellings in Gallgasse, the residential complex in Vienna’s ‘Seestadt Aspern’ and more of the same in Germany and Luxembourg. This experimental approach to the subject of living bore its first fruits in 2000, when they received the TurnOn the FutureVision-Housing Award, thereby criticising established notions of contemporary living and the standard production methods of the construction industry. Numerous awards were to follow: the Adolf Loos State Award etwa, the Promotional Award of the City of Vienna, the State Award for Architecture and Sustainability, and most recently a series of awards in the field of social design.

The experimental approach of AWG can be seen not only in the projects, but also in its working style.

Architects

AllesWirdGut
www.awg.com
2016 Berlin Award for Magdas Hotel
2016 Office founded in Munich
2013 State Award for Architecture and Sustainability
1999 Office founded in Vienna

Projects (selection)

Under construction: Head office Doppelmayr, Wolfurt
2015 Vocational School, Embelgasse, Vienna
2014 Centre for Technology and Design, St Pölten
2010 Kindergarten, Ternitz
2008 Open Air Festival Arena, St Margarethen
2007 Civil protection centre, San Candido
2001 Village centre, Fliess
2000 TurnOn, Experimental Housing Vision