news
  • 15.3.2024 – 13.10.2024
    new project , exhibition

    "Water Pressure - Designing for the future" an exhibition of the MK&G Hamburg and Jane Withers Studio – looks at the water crisis from a global perspective. We were commissioned to come up with an installation celebrating water. The result "vital rain" is part of the exhibition and will stay permanently in the museums yard.
    more soon

    MKG Hamburg - Water Pressure

  • april 2024
    new project

    For the glassware company Lobmeyr we designed "ident" - drinking set No.287

    Identical shape, identical height - five individual glasses.
    The series was unveilded during Milan Design Week.

    Lobmeyr

  • april 2024 - ongoing
    factory tour

    We designed the factory tour for Laufen in Gmunden with a lot of details and small installations to guide and inform local and international guests.

    Laufen Gmunden

  • 5.4.2024 - 14.7.2024
    exhibition

    "inWastement" glass series is on show at the Klimabiennale in Vienna at the "design with a purpose" exhibition.

    Klimabiennale Wien

  • 15.9.2023 - 21.7.2024
    exhibition

    HEIMATEN. An exhibition and survey and an attempt to break with conventional takes on Heimat. the exhibition was shown at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (MK&G) in 2022. Our specially commissioned piece 'riparian cloud' is now also on show in Molfsee.

    Freilichtmuseum Molfsee

  • 01.06.2024 - 30.03.2025
    exhibition, adapted project

    A utopian insect swarm based on our 'curiosity cloud' developed with 13 children from Dresden swirls during the Kinderbiennale in the Japanische Palais. The participatory process resulted in 24 fantastic, colourful insects.

    Children's Biennale "Planet Utopia"

  • 30.05 2024 - 13.10.2024
    new project , exhibition

    All in! Re-Designing Democracy - Every aspect of democracy has been designed, therefore it can be designed differently. A new "Themis" claims in the exhibition for rights for Nature.

    Bundeskunsthalle

  • 10.05. 2024 - 23.06.2024
    exhibition

    20th anniversary international exhibition and series of events. Our glass project "access" is part of the exhibition.

    design without borders

 Balancing between handcraft and technology, we create projects that depict nature, tell stories, raise questions and create atmosphere.

left to right: Johanna Dobrusskin, Florian Semlitsch, Katharina Mischer, Thomas Traxler, Sophia Stoewer, Christoph Heidebrecht

Katharina Mischer, Thomas Traxler and their team form mischer‘traxler studio. Based in Vienna they develop and design products, furniture, installations and more, with a focus on experiments, context and conceptual thinking.

Balancing between handcraft and technology, the studio envisions whole systems, new production methods and kinetic or interactive installations that question topics, tell stories or open up new ways of doing things. They examine, experiment, analyse and reject. Their results are often playing with uniqueness, and some of their projects are poetic records that interact with the viewer and evoke unexpected reactions. By using their outcomes as well as a mean of communication, the studio tries to show that Design can be functional, good and beautiful not just in objects but as well in the ideas they represent.

Katharina and Thomas already met whilst studying. They completed their BA-degrees in product and furniture Design at the NDC St.Pölten and at Kingston University London and continued to study in the IM-masters programme at the Design Academy Eindhoven. After graduating in June 2008 and several years of collaborating on various projects, Katharina and Thomas founded mischer‘traxler studio in 2009.

 

Projects have won several awards, while the studio was honoured with the ‘Designer of the future award’ by Design Miami/Basel and W-hotels in 2011, with the ‘Young talent award’ by the Be-open foundation in 2014 and with the Swarovski Design Medal 2016 by Swarovski and the Vienna Design Week.

mischer’traxler studio  give frequently talk about the studio’s work and lead workshops in various Universities and Institutions. In 2014 and 2015, Thomas and Katharina were directing the master course ‘European Design Lab’ at IED Madrid. In 2016, they were teaching a guest term at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and in 2017 they were guest professors at the 
Kunsthochschule Kassel in Germany. In the most recent years they taught at the space&designstrategies at the Kunstuniversity Linz, Austria.

 

impression of the studio

exhibition view of the exhibition at Mario Mauroner Contemporary Art

so far the studio collaborated with various companies,
galleries and institutions including:

Maison Perrier Jouët Champagne, Hermés, Nodus, PCM Design, Kvadrat, Alcantara, Victor Hunt Designart Dealer, Carwan Gallery, Mario Mauroner Contemporary Art, Design Miami, MAXXI Museum, Design Museum Holon, MAK Vienna, Kunstgewerbemuseum Schloss Pillnitz, Vienna Design Week, Form (Australia), Biennial of Design in Ljubljana, Kunsthaus Wien,…


some of our most memorable exhibitions

curiosity cloud – NY adaptation at the Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York 2019 / LeveL – the fragile balance of utopia at the MAK in Vienna in 2017 / “in relation”, solo show at Mario Mauroner contemporary art in 2017 / curiosity cloud for Perrier-Jouët at the Victoria&Albert Museum London in 2015 / ephermerā for Perrier-Jouët at Design Miami in Miami in 2014 / “lightopia” exhibition by Vitra Design Museum – travelling exhibition 2014 – 2018 / “hyperlinks: Architecture & Design” at the Art Institute Chicago in 2011 / a full list can be found here

 

 a selection of objects in permanent museum collections

the idea of a tree process and object at the MAK Vienna / relumine and the idea of a tree benches at the Vitra Design Museum / the idea of a tree objects at the Art institute Chicago / cuprum at the Kunstgewerbe- museum Schloß Pillnitz / nocturnal cloud at MUDAC Lausanne / riperian cloud at MK&G Hamburg /
a full list can be found here


a selection of recognitions

“Designer of the future award” by Design Miami and W-hotels in 2011 / “Austrian Prize for the Advancement of Experimental Design” in 2009 / “Wallpaper’s 20 under 40” in 2015 / “Swarovski Design Medal 2016” by Swarovski and Vienna Design Week 2016 / a full list can be found here

we are supported by a small, but great team

Currently our team consists of Thomas Traxler and Katharina Mischer, supported by the wonderful Designer Sophia Stoewer. Programming and electro technical support comes from Simon Laburda (DKIA) and his team.

a big thank you as well to all the great people who were involved in the studio in previous years and which we enjoyed getting to know a bit better: Dimitrije Andrijević, Elena Bangel, Johanna Dobrusskin, Elisa Polner, Julia Habarda, Christoph Heidebrecht, Monja Hirscher, Lena Hoyos, Lilian Onstenk, Adinda Rensen, Stephan Jäger, Leonarda Spassova, Johannes Nortmann, Clarissa Kellermann, Claire Garcia-Webb, Bernd Van Riel, Maria Bauhofer, Theresa Ohm, Anais Bourcier, Eva Ohrhallinger,  Anouk Buntsma, Alissa Freilinger, Stefanie Rittler, Florian Semlitsch, Milan Stein, Benedikt Steiner, Zoe Hough, Julian Heckel, Isaac Monté and Greta Hauer.

left to right: Christoph Heidebrecht, Johanna Dobrusskin, Simon Laburda, Katharina Mischer, Thomas Traxler, Marlen Jachek, Sophia Stoewer, Florian Semlitsch