Architect：smartvoll

Location：Spittelau, Vienna, Austria

Project Year：2021

Category：Offices

“We want you to feel comfortable”

The understanding of what a brand is has changed dramatically in recent years. Whereas a color and a logo were once all it took to represent an entire company, today a brand is seen as a special world and a unique culture. The corporate architecture of Wiener Stadtwerke’s new Service Point, designed by smartvoll Architekten, responds with excellence to this complex evolution. The space now clearly communicates: “You are warmly welcome, and we want you to feel comfortable.”

Dimitar Gamizov

When architects design the interiors of high-priced hotels or shops, they start by examining the needs of the guests or customers and then implement their insight and empathy in a way that modulates emotional ambience, cultural atmosphere, and social experience with delicate gradations. This is precisely the approach that smartvoll architects chose for the design of the service center of Wiener Stadtwerke, the utilities company of the City of Vienna, for the modern redesign of what was once the Wien Energie customer service center. It has been transformed into a brand touchpoint, flagship store, and paradigm of corporate architecture for the entire Wiener Stadtwerke.

Dimitar Gamizov

Feeling good is our guiding principle

The Wiener Stadtwerke’s new customer service center in Spittelau is named Service Point and, since its redesign, is now home to no fewer than five municipal companies: Wiener Netze (gas & electricity), Wiener Linien (public transport), Wiener Lokalbahnen (local trains), WiPark (parking), and Bestattung Wien (funeral home). The outer loop of the floor plan leads visitors from the reception to a café, immediately setting the mood for the guiding principle adopted by smartvoll and the City of Vienna: caring for the well-being of their citizens to a degree that has rarely been seen before.

Dimitar Gamizov

“At a time when major corporations are scaling their customer service down to call centers, our client’s successful elevation of the quality of their service becomes even more impressive. Our design gives this service growth a physical presence, while adding a certain feel-good factor,” says Christian Kircher of smartvoll.