LOCATED IN…

the picturesque town of Bezau, Austria, lies the recently renovated Strubobuob – a home and garden workshop boutique brimming with everything from home accessories and metal utensils to garden tools and lawn ornaments. The cozy destination’s new look is thanks to local firm Innauer Matt Architekten that opted for a raw, material-centric design in a respectful nod to the site’s former incarnation as a metal repair shop.

The renovation / redesign centered around a small addition and an extensive interior revamp. The ground floor now focuses on gardening tools and decor, while the attic level is devoted to tableware. This intermingling of home and garden marks a new era for the Strubobuob brand which had previously been bifurcated into two locations – one for gardening goods and another for interior home wares.

Both the exterior and interior material palettes were kept to a raw minimum with black steel staircase and furnishings, ash wood and polished concrete floors, solid fir interior walls and a solid spruce facade. The prefabrication of the timber structure allowed for both high quality construction and shorter assembly time during the town’s quiet winter months. The birth of the attic level was particularly efficient in that it was lifted, fully intact, by crane and simply set in place.

While from the exterior, the shop’s gabled roof structure references the architectural traditions of its surrounds, its unique cross-shaped plan and wood-slat-skin sets it apart – bringing a unique sculptural openness to its interiors and inviting a dialogue between the timeworn and novel in this centuries old town.

Photography by Adolf Bereuter