Bachelor's Thesis

Coffee for everybody?

Red Dot Design Award for Johanna Kurz

 
Red Dot Design Award für Johanna Kurz

Urban life is defined by encounter and exchange with people. The quality of a city is dependent on the design of public space and the diverse use of it. In this area public life takes place: We spend our free time here, celebrate parties and meet friends. As a link between public space and economic and private interests, the ground floor in inner-city areas is especially important.

In Graz, like in many other cities in Central Europe, this zone is dominated by retail and gastronomy – first and foremost street cafés. Cafés do not only support an attractive and vivid cityscape, but provide a meeting point, a place to chill out, a working space and much more. As diverse as the usage is also the typology "coffeehouse". At a coffeehouse culture and consume, strangers and friends, design and coincidence meet. This Bachelor's thesis in Information Design examines the café in a cultural and urban context, its social meaning, as well as the development and renaissance of the coffeehouse.

Text & Photography: Johanna Kurz