BWM Designers & Architects are a multi-national architecture office that operates throughout Europe. Their main areas of focus are architecture, interior design, culture and hospitality. Founded in 2004 and led by Erich Bernard, Daniela Walten, Johann Moser, Markus Kaplan and András Klopfer, the company and the 70-member team stand for a personal approach and a cooperative development process. Whether designing interior spaces, residential and urban construction projects, or museum and exhibition concepts, BWM Designers & Architects always work out a specific project’s unique formal language and the corresponding design concept in strategic workshops with the client.
The many outstanding projects of the past few years include the transformation of the 25hours Hotel from a 1970s student residence into a cool design hotel clearly rooted in the 21st century, the internationally recognised Hotel Topazz with its distinctive oval windows and chocolate-brown façade, the redesign of the shop, café and salon (Iconic Awards 2019: “Innovative Architecture – Best of Best”, German Design Award 2020: “Excellent Architecture – Winner”) in the iconic Hotel Sacher and recently the revitalisation of the hotel ensemble Grand Hotel Straubinger and Hotel Badeschloss at Straubinger Platz in Bad Gastein.
BWM Designers & Architects have also created innovative hospitality concepts that translate urban trends for the lifestyle sector. Some noteworthy projects are grätzlhotel, the budget hostel chain Wombat’s and the rebranding of the hostel giant a&o. Recent interior projects include the conception of well-known and innovative brands such as magdas Hotel, Hotel Indigo or Hotel Gilbert (dezeen awards longlist "Hotel and short-stay interior") as well as the redesign of Hotel Entners. BWM are also active as F&B designers and have refurbished the Figlmüller Bäckerstrasse restaurant ("The Most Beautiful Restaurants & Bars 2021"), the restaurant Kolm, Caffè Sacher Trieste or Mayer am Pfarrplatz.
BWM also won the realisation competition for the architectural design of the Austria Pavilion for Expo 2025 in Osaka. Further standout projects in the area of narrative design are the Austrian EXPO pavilion in Astana in 2017 (which won the distinguished Red Dot Award), the Austrian Literature Museum and the hdgö House of Austrian History (German Design Award 2020: “Excellent Architecture – Winner”, Iconic Awards 2020: „Innovative Architecture – Selection“) as well as the new design for a visitor’s centre at the Vienna State Opera or the library in the newly renovated Austrian Parliament.