1020 Wien / Vienna, Austria
Haidgasse 4/7+11
Introduction

Our work is a form of disquietude. What we have to say is mostly not the novel truth but some assumptions about the old ones. We do not strive for totality but for a sudden illumination of things which have been considered familiar for far too long.

As architects, we want to see all those well-known things appearing once in an extrinsic light and we want in turn to indicate the strange as part of ourselves. Thus, the old may offer something new and the very latest may demonstrate its aged face.

Our work is a bastardization of our contradictory time, emanating from an indecorous fusion of the arts, philosophy, sciences, technology, handcraft and pop culture. In a hopefully intellectually sharpened and simultaneously frisky form, this work is meant to offer objective cognition just as the result of a subjective regard and common insight alone in consequence of the individual view. Acting from this unsettled status between the diverse fields of architectural operations means that we will always be able to surprise the clients, the public and not least ourselves.

(This text is a free adaption of an Essay about Essayist by the Austrian Essayist Karl-Markus Gauß)

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Stiefel & Company Architects

Stiefel & Company Architects (formerly known as Stiefel Kramer Architecture) works in various scales across the whole field of architecture and urban planning. We conceive, design and realize buildings, terrains, structures and processes that reflect, convert, and mediate between the dynamic interplay of those natural and human forces that shape the constructions of the crust of the earth – and we inevitably construct their poetic conditions.

Our work has been exhibited internationally, most notably at the Architecture Biennale die Venezia (2006 and 2010) and at the Museum of Applied Arts MAK in Vienna (Stiefel & Company Architects – Faux Terrains, 2012).

Genealogy: since 2012 Stiefel & Company Architects (2012-2014 with Patrick Krähenbühl) / since 2003 Stiefel Kramer Architecture OG, Vienna/Zurich (2005 with Georg Kolmayr,  2011-2012 with Patrick Krähenbühl) / 2001-2002 stiefel wien-zürich (with Thomas Kramer) / 1997-2000 stiefel mit zazie (collaborations with bette mit zazie and haase mit zazie)

Current team:
Manuel Gruber, Armin Maierhofer, Lisa Penz, Anna-Elina Pieber, Hannes Stiefel 

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Hannes Stiefel

Hannes Stiefel is a Swiss architect based in Vienna. He was a draftsman and innkeeper in Switzerland before he studied Art History, Linguistics and Philosophy at the University of Zurich and Architecture at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and at SCI-Arc, Los Angeles.

Major awards were i.a. the Austrian Outstanding Artist Award for Experimental Architecture (1995), the Promoting Award of the City of Vienna (2007) and the Award of the province of Tyrol for Neues Bauen (new construction) (2012).

Hannes Stiefel is a liscenced member of the Austrian chamber of architects (Kammer der ZiviltechnikerInnen für Wien, Niederösterreich und Burgenland).

Hannes Stiefel lectures internationally. He has taught architectural design, experimental architecture in theory and practice, and ecology at universities in Austria, Switzerland, the USA, Canada and in Lebanon. In 2009-2010 he was the McHale Fellow at the State University of New York in Buffalo. Since 2013 he is a professor of Architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, where he directs the platform Ecology, Sustainability and Cultural Heritage (ESC) at the Institute for Art and Architecture (IKA). Hannes Stiefel was appointed Chair of the Institute for Art and Architecture in the fall of 2023.

Stiefel’s main research focus is The Environmental function of Architecture in every thinkable scale.

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Partners and Cooperations

Current: Bollinger Grohmann Ingenieure, Vienna/Frankfurt / hochform., Vienna / Land in Sicht, Vienna // former: ArchitekturConsult, Vienna / Urs Bette, Adelaide (Australia) / Sally Bibawy, Vienna / Jörn Aram Bihain, Bruxelles (Belgium) / Bollinger Grohmann Schneider, Vienna / Complizen Planungsbüro, Halle/Saale (Germany) / Coop Himmelb(l)au, Vienna / Ehrmann/Gruber, Vienna / Molly Hogle , Vienna / Georg Kolmayr, Vienna / Patrick Krähenbühl , Vienna / LAAC Achitekten, Innsbruck / Hans Lechner ZT e.U., Vienna / Stephan Lugbauer, Scheibbs/Paris (France) / Daniel Lüthi , Zurich (Switzerland) / Urs Meier, Zug (Switzerland) / Michael Murauer, Vienna / Luciano Parodi, Vienna / RetoPfenninger, Zurich (Switzerland) / Giulio Polita, Triieste (Italy) / raderschallpartner ag, Meilen (Switzerland) / Gabriele Schmäh, Zurich (Switzerland) / Dominic Schwab, Vienna / Martin Siegrist , Zurich (Switzerland) / Snøhetta AS, Oslo (Norway) / Susanne Zottl, Vienna

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Former team members

Veronika Bienert, Heinrich Büchel, Jacob Czinger, Christian Deschka, Christina Ehrmann, Ursula Ender, Edith Fritz, Ferdinand Fritz, Christopher Gruber, Andreas Haase, Nicholas Heep, Heikki Heer, Marc Hoffenscher, Gregor Holzinger, Jakob Kuba Jakubowski, Alexander Karaivanov, Daniel Kerbler, Saba Khalili, Tobias Klein, Georg Kolmayr, Thomas Kramer, Quirin Krumbholz, Daniel Lüthi, Natascha Madeiski, Alexander Matl, Valerie Messini, Alexander Mühlauer, Michael Murauer, Simon Oberhammer, Maki Ortner, Luciano Parodi, Giulio Polita, Stefan Rutzinger, Hannes Schafellner, Roman Siegle, Teresa Stillebacher, Dominik Strzelec, Valentine Troi, Christian Wassmann