Vienna-based architecture firm the next ENTERprise Architects has completed a catering pavilion in Grafenegg Castle Garden in Austria with a floating and undulated curved roof carried by slender steel columns. 

The pavilion - called Wolke 7 - has recently been awarded the Bauherrenpreis (Client Prize of the Central As- sociation of Austrian Architects) 2017. A decade ago tnE Architects created the Wolkenturm open air stage, one of Austria's most impressive concert stages and the central performance venue of the annual Grafenegg Festival. 

In 2015, the architects were commissioned by Grafenegg Kulturbetriebsgesellschaft m.b.H. to redesign the location which is used for catering to events and situated on the path between the Castle Tavern and the Wolkenturm.

Wolke 7 provides a place for culinary highlights and coming together in an open-air atmosphere, adds a new dimension to the synergy between the traditional and the contemporary in Grafenegg which reaches far beyond the catering infrastructure. The quality of the new architecture and the close, trusting relationship between the operating company and tnE Architects were decisive factors behind the award of the Bauherrenpreis for 2017.

With a roof that is supported by delicate steel columns and nestles between the trees likea leaf, Wolke 7 slips effortlessly into the historic parkland of Grafenegg’s castle grounds. The floor of the pavilion is created by the widening of the footpath to form a public space; the interaction between the hard ceiling and the soft ground awakens the feeling that one is entering a room.

The roof of Wolke 7 is defined by its in-situ concrete surface, which gently rises and falls twice as it translates its natural curvature into a structural principle. Derived from the position of the existing trees this sweeping form of the roof has an additional spatial quality and enables the catering pavilion to open in every direction while drawing attention to the bar as a place where one can linger, protected from the elements.

With a length of over 20 metres the counter of the pavilion consists of prefabricated concrete elements with integrated stainless steel cooling drawers and is used both for serving food and drink and as a stand-up bar for visitors to the park. 

It is complemented by the storage box with serving niches and the plain, sheet aluminium glasses cabinet – a spatial ensemble that is oriented in every direction, free of any sense of front or back.

"However, as well as inviting concertgoers to take some refreshment during intervals, the pavilion is also a contemporary architectural object which has become a fixed component of both the Grafenegg Castle Garden and its symbiosis between art and nature," said the architects.

"The resulting interplay between clumps of trees, open areas of grass and the design of the roof invites visitors to enjoy unfamiliar glimpses of the surrounding park and the Wolkenturm," they added. 

The jury of the Bauherrenpreis for 2017 emphasised that Wolke 7 is not only a catering pavilion that meets all the requirements of a gastronomic operation but also – fully in the tradition of the English landscape park – an extravagant folly that is also a pleasure to look at when it is not in use.

the next ENTERprise Architects was founded in 2000 by Marie-Therese Harnoncourt-Fuchs and Ernst J. Fuchs. Their projects range from buildings and urban design concepts to instal- lations, exhibition design and experimental interventions in urban space.  

All images © Lukas Schaller

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