With the opening of Vienna’s largest and most elegant Café in 1873, Franz Landtmann founded the Viennese coffee-house institution. Even today, the reputation of this coffee house as a “Viennese Institution" stays alive and is filled to the brim from morning ‘til evening. The desire to expand the establishment by adding an attractive winter garden was a clear choice but fulfilling this complex job in such a prominent location was a very delicate issue.

The winter garden was designed by Wehdorn architects in collaboration with the City of Vienna and borough officers, taking into account the historical significance of Café Landtmann for the inner city of Vienna. For the architects it was important that the new winter garden has a design which looked to the future but which also had an interior which traded its historical elegance with the present: The dark grey steel construction, the neutral solar-control glass, the exclusively for Landtmann hand-made terrazzo floor, the wood cladding in dark nut and the comfortable armchairs show that true elegance is timeless.

The stringent requirement for comfort and year-round use of the 90 m² winter garden necessitated efficient solar control glazing together with best thermal insulation. This allowed an economic operation of the air-conditioning. The envelope consists of a support structure in steel with structural glazing bonded insulated glass without external restraints. An automatic telescopic sliding door opens to the inner foyer which protects the guest from cold air in winter. The adjoining street café is protected by a 30 m long point-fixed glass canopy.

(Photos 1, 5: Café Landtmann; 2, 7, 8, 9: Hayek; 3, 4, 6: Wehdorn Architekten)