Interiors
Studio Comploj Art made of glass
Map
Opening Times
Monday to Thursday 10-17 h
Friday + Saturday 10-13 h
Address
Studio Comploj
Martinstraße 28
1180 Vienna-18. Bezirk
.How to get there
Contact
In the centre of Vienna, in an idyllic backyard, beautiful objects are created from glass. Robert Comploj runs one of the last glassworks in the country. He combines tradition with modern design to create unique glass objects.
One moment as liquid as honey, the next as hard as stone. Glass. Such a changeable, fascinating material, says Robert Comploj, founder of the glass manufactory Studio Comploj. There used to be many such glassworks in Austria. In recent decades, however, modern industrial products have increasingly displaced the craft.
Robert Comploj is keeping the old tradition alive. In the centre of Vienna, in a quiet backyard with tall trees, he runs one of the last glassworks in the country. At the front is a bright sales room, as simple as a gallery. Behind it is the large workshop.
This is where Robert Comploj and his young employees, who come to him from various countries, work to the accompaniment of loud music. You can watch them at work through the large glass front: How they scoop the glass out of the egg-shaped furnace in which it melts at 1100 degrees. How they blow it, mould it by hand or cut it to size with scissors.
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This is how large vases, wafer-thin glasses and curved glass objects are created. Timeless and modern, each piece is unique. They also make tree baubles for Christmas. These are also so timeless that you can leave them hanging all year round.
Robert Comploj is a trained carpenter. He taught himself the craft of glassmaking. He travelled the world for ten years, working in glassworks from America to Australia. Back home, he founded his Comploj Studio.
He calls what he does "Contemporary Glass Objects". The glassmaker combines centuries-old tradition with modern design - old patterns from the glass island of Murano, for example, can be found in abstract shapes.
If you want to try your hand at making the bright, red-hot glass yourself, the monthly workshops are highly recommended. There, you will learn all the basics of glassmaking - and also how strenuous this work is and how much skill is required for glass art.
