Art & Architecture

With the aim of designing a building for the headquarters of Austrian Post AG that meets the requirements of a modern office building and blends in harmoniously with its surroundings, the architectural firm Schenker Salvi Weber and feld72 completed the seven-storey office and commercial building ‘Post am Rochus’ in September 2017. Covering around 49,000 square metres, the multi-award-winning building offers outstanding conditions for contemporary working.

Art also played a role from the outset: with Peter Kogler, Brigitte Kowanz, Hans Kupelwieser and Constantin Luser, Austrian Post was able to commission established Austrian artists to create site-specific works that successfully correspond with the building.

Peter Kogler

For the two inner courtyards of Post at Rochus, Peter Kogler has created an installation of strips of printed glass panes that are adapted to the square shape of the courtyards as a continuous structure. On the one hand, this segments the wall surfaces, while on the other hand, the individual patterned strips connect across the rows of windows to create an overall visual impression that sets the façades in motion.

In one place, the wall appears to expand, only to contract again in another. A broad upward rhythm is followed by a change as sudden as a flock of birds taking flight. Formal shifts in the graphic grid challenge the viewer's perception, forcing them to adjust their gaze while still leaving it open to visions.

https://www.kogler.net

Brigitte Kowanz

With her permanent installation ‘Morsealphabet’, created especially for the headquarters of Post AG, Brigitte Kowanz interprets Morse code as a light code whose communication and information potential is represented as a ‘fluctuating combination of showing and hiding’, according to the light artist.

Parallel rows of neon tubes, taped off at corresponding intervals, form a linear rhythm of signs, which also experiences a vertical dynamisation through the changing colour values and allows the foyer to be experienced in a constantly new way.

https://kowanz.com

Hans Kupelwieser

Hans Kupelwieser created the kinetic sculpture ‘Wirbelsäule’ (Spine) for the atrium in the Post at Rochus building. In the form of 10 dented cylinders made of polished stainless steel, strung together on a metal rod, the over 15-metre-long sculpture winds its way up the light-filled space between the old and new buildings in a constant rotating motion.

It thus emphasises not only the vertical dynamics of the stairwell, but also the transition from old to new: in its reflections, it mirrors the vitality of the building and its users, creating a synchronous image of history and the present that continues into the future.

https://www.kupelwieser.at/

Constantin Luser

With his interpretation of the post horn for Post at Rochus, Constantin Luser pays homage to the former signalling instrument of the postillions. In reminiscence of the company logo, the sound installation ‘Stille Post’ (Silent Post) is an invitation to play and fill the event space with polyphonic timbres.

The 8-metre-long object consists of brass pipes, funnels and mouthpieces from brass instruments, which form a linear framework in the room, with the black bellows of ball horns appearing like note heads. Musical vibrations within the lines are created through audience participation.

https://www.constantinluser.com