Contract - January/February 2014 - 122

interiors awards

retail

Client
Universalmuseum
Joanneum GmbH
and the City of Graz

Location
Graz, austria

INNOCAD
"This intervention creates a great dialogue and a sense of respect
and cohabitation between old and new. The fact that one can buy
items there is secondary to the experiential beauty of the space.
It elevates retail to art." JUrY

By John Czarnecki
Photography by
Paul Ott

the Zeughaus, or armory Museum, in Graz, austria,
was built in 1642 and is the most well-preserved
original armory in the world. Containing about
32,000 arms and military equipment from the late
15th to the early 18th centuries, the museum holds
items that remain stored and organized as they were
more than 300 years ago.
in recent years, the armory Museum acquired
Graz tourism as a commercial partner, and sought
to make the most of the significant home that it has.
a design competition was launched for the redesign
of the Cannon Hall at the museum to become both a
retail space and welcoming center for both entities,
with seven european firms invited to submit design
schemes, including Graft from Berlin, nL architects
from amsterdam, and sUPerPooL from istanbul.
the winner was a Graz-based firm, innoCad, which
developed a plan that fully considered the local
context that it knew well. innoCad led the project
and collaborated as part of a design collective
122

called 13&9, which includes other Graz-based
designers of furniture, fashion, accessories, light,
sound, and art concepts.
innoCad served two clients: the City of
Graz for the tourism center, and the austrian
government for the museum component. Graz has
been designated by UnesCo as a City of design,
thanks to its significant cultural heritage and
creative scene. "it was very important for us,
knowing Graz is a City of design," says Martin
Lesjak, a partner in innoCad. "the space is like
the business card of the city; it is very important
for the city. and we were very glad to win against
high-quality firms."
originally, Cannon Hall was exactly as its
name implies: a room for storing cannons in medieval
times. innoCad first removed whatever previous
insertions were made to the space over time to
clear the way for a new information center for Graz
tourism and as an entrance for the armory Museum
upstairs. the innoCad design encompasses a main
room and two smaller rooms for display and school
gatherings and workshops.
inspiration came from the Murnockel, a round
rock used to pave streets and build buildings in
medieval times that remains a symbol of the Graz
region. the rock inspiration manifested as round
formations that define the interior of the Cannon
Hall, and the designers affectionately call the
interior "rolling stones." designed in three
dimensions using rhino 3d modeling software,
and constructed of painted plywood cut in CnC

machines, there are three large and two small round
forms-or stones. the round-form installations
serve as shelving, infrastructure, back office, and
storage spaces. the largest-22 feet wide and 13
feet tall-is the retail component of the hall with
shelves for display. Heating, air conditioning, and
lighting are all integrated within the installations;
Led lights are inserted within channels in the
inch-thick shelves. images in motion are projected
onto the ceiling from eight laser light projectors. one
of the projected images is simulating running water
because water is important to the history of Graz.
the project was completed in an incredibly
short time period-the competition was in June 2012,
construction was finished in January 2013, and
the space opened in March 2013. the austrian
government expects at least a half million visitors
will come through Cannon Hall every year.
Besides winning an interiors award, the
project is receiving accolades in europe. in the
Leading european architects Forum (LeaF) interior
design awards, it won both the Public Building of the
Year award and was recognized as the 2013 overall
winner. this ingenious interior exemplifies the
power of place, and design juries and the general
public recognize that. c

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