Vienna Tourist Center Designed to Reflect City’s Sense of Invitation and Artistry

After winning a competition to redesign the Tourist Center in Vienna, the Delugan Meissl Associated Architects have blueprinted and carried out a design that is reflective of Austrian hospitality, history, and the city as a hub of creativity.

At the Tourist Info Center in Vienna, Austria, visitors are met with the image of Sigmund Freud, the famed psychoanalyst and one of the city’s most celebrated residents. Vienna is a city rich in culture and history, but is quickly and excitingly becoming a hub of art and modern culture.

Flocks of tourists come to Vienna to soak in the richness of the history, and to observe and engulf themselves in the vibrant and exciting crossroads of art and modernity the city has become. With this is mind, the design firm DMAA designed the tourist information center, the hub of tourist traffic, with the inflections and nuances of what the city has to offer. At the front, a bright, beaming neon sign invites the visitors to the city to come in and inquire about what the city has to offer. Set against a white background, the neon sign beacons out whether it be night or day, allowing visitors to find expert help whether they are on a hunt for opera music and art galleries, or hope to invest their evenings in the club scene.

The main focus of the interior is a large, brazen, wall with beaming lights, filling the minimally furnished area with light. 445 LED lights illuminate the golden color of the wall from which tourists can snag brochures on all areas of interest before lounging on small, pristine, white window seats, or the modernist sectional that occupies the center of the space. If the brochures aren’t given exactly what info is needed for the best trip, guests are welcome to use one of the iPads that are mounted on the sectional as well (what’s more modern than a sectional with installed iPads?). With minimal furnishing, along with a mostly light palette, the space is allowed to reflect light abundantly, and using this, the design firm also places a large, circular lamp above the help desk. Much like the neon out front, this unmistakable presence invites guests to seek guidance on how to explore and have the best Viennese experience.

The open, luminescent environment of this center was designed with the intention of reflecting what makes Vienna a worldly city. The intentional design aspects that show the inviting nature of the city, paired with the aesthetically modern touches show that the city, vibrant and evolving, has a little something for everyone.