When the city railway was built in Vienna in the 1890s, an artistic concept was envisaged. Ultimately, the architect Otto Wagner won the bid. With his aesthetic design, Wagner has not only significantly shaped the appearance of the underground in Vienna, but indeed of the whole cityscape right through to this very day. Wagner’s stations, bridges and balustrades are still listed buildings today and are tourist attractions in the Austrian Capital.
Together with the five elements and the suppliers framsohn Frottier, Könitz Porzellan and Skarpeta, the Wiener Linien designed bau.Art – the Collection, which was distinguished with a Promotional Gift Award in the category Merchandising. Particularly, the Austrian juror Martin Zettl was impressed about the way the collection picked up on Wagner’s aesthetics. The unmistakable, green wood-panelled walls and the chessboard pattern of the floor tiles of the train stations was chosen as the key motifs.
The bau.Art espresso cup for instance is designed in the striking Otto Wagner panelling style, the matching saucer displays the tile pattern that is additionally haptically underlined by a relief embossing. The black and white diamonds of the floor tiles are also represented on a high-quality, cotton hammam towel that is woven in Austria. The design language finds its consistent continuation in the sock set. One pair is a reproduction of the wall panelling, the other pair is based on the tiles. Even the cardboard packaging is designed with great attention to detail and displays architectural elements of the Otto Wagner style.
the five elements GmbH
www.thefiveelements.at
