Telegraf 7: Conversion by BEHF Architects
After spending the last decades in a deep sleep, a telegraph office under a preservation order which was built in the 19th century was converted into a contemporary office building.
The task was to create a new space for the headquarters of the real estate agency JP Immobilien.
Two halls with particularly high ceilings on the main floor represent the heart of this architectural project.
The centre of the architectural concept are two minimalistic glass boxes that serve as work space and seem to be detached from the existing historical inventory, looking like large pieces of furniture: A room-in-room construction, which was placed into the opulent telegraph halls featuring stuccos restored true to original, and colourful wall paintings. The room itself is a great highlight.
In the glass boxes, there are office spaces and conference rooms. On their upper surface, you find a neutral, multi-purpose event area which can be used as an open-plan office, for instance. From there, bridges go through listed walls and lead to service rooms that are available to everyone who works in the two main halls.
The minimalistic and elegant design reappears in different other areas of the building: For example, the entire surface of the entrance portals leading to the lift and to the offices are made of brass, while intarsias were installed on a terrazzo as floor designation. In addition, highly polished brass was fitted to the bottom view of the balconies facing the inner courtyard, so that the plants on the ground are being reflected.
Both, the design concept and the lighting concept, follow the principle of drawing attention to the historical substance as precisely as possible. In doing so, the basic motif of blurring boundaries always prevails.
Credits:
- Lighting design - Christian Ploderer
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