I am a designer based in Vienna. My practice spans exhibition design, objects, and writing, with a particular curiosity towards what designed things carry beyond their function: the stories they tell about the people and systems who made, used, borrowed, gifted, explained, altered, destroyed or misunderstood them.
Narration and fiction are central to my practice. Stories play an important role in how we understand the world, yet in design they are often left to the task of selling things. I’m trying to use this potential differently: for reflection, criticism, imagination and pleasure.
My work has been commissioned and collected by institutions including the MAK Vienna, and exhibited internationally at the Vitra Design Museum, Design Museum London, Jerusalem Design Week and the Triennale di Milano, among others. In 2018, I was included in the European Forbes 30 Under 30 list.
I hold degrees in Mechanical Engineering from TU Wien and Industrial Design from the University of Applied Arts Vienna, where I studied with Fiona Raby and Anab Jain.
I currently program the design section at Forum Stadtpark.
Arnsteingasse 16a/1
1150 Wien
Austria
+43678 1218197
studio@johannapichlbauer.com
Narration and fiction are central to my practice. Stories play an important role in how we understand the world, yet in design they are often left to the task of selling things. I’m trying to use this potential differently: for reflection, criticism, imagination and pleasure.
My work has been commissioned and collected by institutions including the MAK Vienna, and exhibited internationally at the Vitra Design Museum, Design Museum London, Jerusalem Design Week and the Triennale di Milano, among others. In 2018, I was included in the European Forbes 30 Under 30 list.
I hold degrees in Mechanical Engineering from TU Wien and Industrial Design from the University of Applied Arts Vienna, where I studied with Fiona Raby and Anab Jain.
I currently program the design section at Forum Stadtpark.
Arnsteingasse 16a/1
1150 Wien
Austria
+43678 1218197
studio@johannapichlbauer.com
Objects & Installations
Mounted Ceramics — A1043, Paris — 2026
Déjeuner Solitaire — Collectible Brüssel — 2026
Artificial Horizon — Vienna Design Week, Design in Gesellschaft — 2025
AUT Now — MAK Wien — 2024
Glass Mountain — Schloss Hollenegg — 2023
RUIN (Brio) — Kunstraum Super — 2023
Date<3Ding — Design in Gesellschaft — 2023
South Pointing Fish — Schloss Hollenegg — 2022
Mounted Ceramics — Schloss Hollenegg — 2022
10 Rammkatzen — MAK Wien — 2021
DIN2121 — wienwoche — 2021
Nostalgia Posthuman — Jerusalem Design Week — 2018
Exhibition Design & Scenography
Fahrrad und Hummer — MAK Wien — 2025–2026 Possessed Mountains — Forum Stadtpark — 2025
There will be! People! On the Sun! Soon! — MAK Wien — 2021
Curation
School of Maybe — Forum Stadtpark — 2025, 2026 Islands of Loners — Forum Stadtpark — 2026
BUILDING — Design in Gesellschaft — 2025
KNIT AND WEAVE — Schloss Hollenegg — 2025
All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace — Stiege 1zwei3 — 2024
Berggasse 19 — 74th Arts — 2024
CODING — Design in Gesellschaft — 2023
OFFSPRING — Viktoria — 2023
UNDING — Design in Gesellschaft — 2023
Suchagent: Schweren Herzens — Vienna Design Week — 2021
Märchen, Mythen und Materie — Ars Electronica Center — 2020
Speculative Design
Vienna Summer Scouts — Vitra Design Museum, Design Museum Gent, MAK Wien, V&A Dundee — 2017–2020 King GAFA And The Magical 0-1 Crop — Biennale for Change, Gewerbemuseum Winterthur — 2018
Beautification — Triennale Milano, Salone del Mobile, Biennale St. Étienne — 2015–2016
Interior Design
Ding!Dong! — Arbio — 2023Theater & Performance
Fuchs und Henne — Vienna Design Week — 2019Stadt der Temperamente — Vienna Design Week — 2019
Design Research
Social Play Technologies — Vienna Design Week — 2020SELECTED PRESS
https://www.kleinezeitung.at/zuhause/20211087/leihen-ist-das-neue-habenhttps://www.forbes.at/artikel/kuenstliche-maschinen
https://www.diepresse.com/18162335/offspring-eine-ausstellung-wie-ein-indoor-spielplatz
https://www.diepresse.com/20087043/design-aus-der-wahlheimat-stellt-man-sich-bei-der-arbeit-selbst-aus-wird-man-verwundbar
https://www.falstaff.com/living/news/new-faces-heterogenes-kollektiv