ChatGPT ha detto:In the heart of Vienna’s First District, the new Mandarin Oriental Vienna is born from the finely tuned encounter between an icon of the Secession — the former courthouse designed by Alfred Keller in 1908 — and the narrative-driven sensibility of London-based studio Goddard Littlefair. A six-year collaboration that doesn’t simply restore, but reinvents the building, transforming it from a place of discipline into a space of hospitality and beauty.
Martin Goddard and Jo Littlefair approached the project as interpreters of early-20th-century Vienna, exploring the tension between order and rebellion that defined the Secession.

“Between conforming and rebelling there was a magnetic pull,” Goddard notes. This principle runs through the entire project: historic architecture preserved with precision, precious materials used with restraint, and contemporary interventions that feel organically rooted in the original structure.

The 138 guestrooms — conceived “as spaces to live in, not just pass through,” as Jo Littlefair explains — embody a refined residential atmosphere; while the restored central staircase, inner courtyard, and luminous public areas form a seamless dialogue between past and present. The studio also designed the 24 private residences adjacent to the hotel, translating the same design language into a more intimate key.
Mandarin Oriental Vienna is not merely an impeccable restoration: it is a new chapter in Viennese luxury — elegant, understated, and profoundly contemporary — where history and design blend without friction (credits: Mel Yates).