Van den Berg

Spices enhance, aromatize, flavor, preserve, heal, improve digestibility, expel pests, mask inherent odors and tastes, ranging from spicy to mild, are pure or mixed, are made of all kinds of plants and their parts or minerals, are colorful, exotic, create a sense of long-distance excitement, polarize, are preserved and were even a means of payment – in short, it is hard to beat the world of spices in terms of richness, opulence, and intensity in all possible manifestations, colors and consistencies. And it was precisely this richness that inspired the design of the new Van den Berg spice company building and accounts for its current appearance: A lush clash of the most diverse colors, shapes, materials, surfaces, and plants. The building is a former carpenter’s workshop in the center of Graz and is situated at one of the city’s Secret Places. That means in one of those appealingly mysterious urban situations, which, on the one hand, is located centrally and in the middle of the city, and yet reveals itself to be almost undetectable and thus radiates the charm of a mysterious place for a small circle of insiders.