Standort Tirol Special Edition Wellness

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[ specifically SEEN ]
The Healthy Scent of Pine
T he power of Swiss pine (German
Zirbe) and its positive effects on
humans have been known inTyrol
literally forever, and the soothing fra-
grance of its timber has been pervad-
ing the bedrooms and kitchens of its
farmhouses for centuries. And it was
also this fragrance which Benedikt
Handler wanted to bring into his
room – yet without the Swiss pine
bed.Together with his friends Carl
Simbruner and Nikolaus Stieldorf he
began experimenting with a Swiss
pine box and after a few prototypes
they had their room ventilator made
of the timber from the alpine conifer.
“In the autumn of 2014, we sold our
first zirb.,” Handler looks back. In the
meantime, they have a whole prod-
uct series on the market.The elegant
zirb.s are available in three sizes.The
zirb.Lüfterl, only 27 centimetres tall,
takes care of a space of some two
metres in circumference, which is
ideal for the bedside table or the
work desk.The larger zirb.Luft and
zirb.Bergluft are designed for rooms
of up to 100 square metres.
But how does zirb. work? On a
base only a few centimetres in height,
made of four interlocked Swiss pine
boards, rests the trunk, the contin-
uation of the four boards. Its lower
end holds the electricity-powered
ventilator, producing a sound of no
more than eight decibels, while the
upper part is filled with zirb.Locken
(shavings), in order to “have a Swiss
pine surface as large as possible,” as
Handler says.The trunk also contains
a bowl that can be filled with water,
to further intensify the Swiss pine
fragrance in the room.“The crucial
thing is the quality of the zirb.Locken.
They are almost one millimetre thick
and derive from the heart of the
Swiss pine trunk which contains a lot
of resin and essential oil.” In order not
to have to change the zirb.Locken at
short intervals, Handler, Simbruner
and Stieldorf developed a drip-proof
and patented fragrance release sys-
tem that can be fitted into the zirb.
Pure essential Swiss pine oil – eighty
per cent of which is gained from
hand-cut needles – increases the
fragrance’s intensity and keeps the air
fresh much longer. So far so good. But
Handler already thinks of other oils,
in order to bring not just the smell of
Swiss pine indoors, but the fragrance
of an entire wood. Info:
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LIFESTYLE
W henever Martin Jehart
speaks of alpine hay, his
eyes begin to sparkle. It is
mown by hand, grown on the slopes
of the Wildspitze, Tyrol’s highest
mountain. From 1,700 metres above
sea level it is taken down to the valley,
dried and processed in Fliess, a small
village near Landeck. By way of a spe-
cially developed technology the pro-
cessed alpine hay is used to coat pan-
els that serve as decorative elements
in apartments, offices, (wellness) ho-
tels and shops. Yet alpine hay is not
the only fragrant coating that Jehart’s
company Organoid Technologies has
in its repertoire. It works with a large
number of natural materials, such
as blossoms, mosses, grasses, leafs,
grains, or timber, which come from
local producers whenever possible.
In 2013, Jehart and his partner
Christoph Egger started out in a ga-
rage, today, together with their staff,
they command some 1,200 square
metres. Sales – going to some 45
countries – are outsourced. Over the
years, the Tyroleans have won nu-
merous national and international
design awards. In the meantime, they
also offer coated acoustic panels. It is
not just local customers, such as the
Schlosshotel Fiss or the Chesa Mun-
tanella – the cube pictured above is
coated in Roscht, finely powdered
pine bark – that have gone “orga-
noid,” but also the Swisscom Shop
in Zurich, a whole floor at the World
Trade Center in The Hague, or a
private villa in Taipei. “We receive
between fifteen and twenty new en-
quiries a week,” Jehart says. One of
the questions that has kept popping
up was whether the coatings could be
used in other ways than just on lami-
nate panels. The latter, according to
Jehart, can be processed like a nor-
mal Resopal™ panel by any carpen-
ter. The Organoid team experiment-
ed and found a special foil solution
which, says Jehart, adheres practically
anywhere. These days Organoid coat-
ings are to be found on wooden spec-
tacles from South Tyrol, cell-phone
covers, and lampshades. And further
applications are being planned as we
speak. Info: ]
Alpine Meadow on the Wall
The Tyrolean Company Organoid Technologies process grasses, blossoms, leafs,
etc. into natural decorative coatings that give rooms a special fragrance.
Dried blossoms, thanks to Martin Jehart’s know-how, are turned into decorative coatings, as does ground pine bark.
The zirb.Luft provides pine fragrance
across some thirty square metres.
Picture:zirb
Pictures:Andreas Friedle,Chesa Muntanella
Subject: [ COWOTIROL ]
This October, the highest co-working space in the Alps will be situated
in Tyrol. International and local companies will find urban infrastructure at
COWOTirol on the Patscherkofel near Innsbruck, at 1,963 meters above sea
level. After the test phase, further COWO options will be looked for in Tyrol.
Info: www.cowo.tirol
Urban working on Alpine summits
FACTS. NEWS.
[ Subject: Lifestyle ]
The goal of move effect is to help
companies motivate their staff to take ex-
ercise and live healthily, thus to keep them
fit, and it does so online.The web platform,
developed by the member of the Cluster
Wellness Tirol, is working with so-called
sMILES, points that can be collected online
with every activity and that the company, at
the end of the year, converts into a financial
contribution to social projects.The more
members of staff invest in their health, the
more sMILES are being donated. For more
information go to
So as to experience alpine lifestyle
close to nature in winter, Austria’s first snow
village, the IglooVillage in Ötz, was created
in 2007.The combination of adventure,
romance and natural experience invites
visitors to spend an unforgettable night in
theTyrolean mountains.What awaits them
at the comfortable four-person igloos is
a mixture of adventure and luxury in a
world of ice. After a nighttime hike with
torches and a tobogganing outing, guests
retire to their igloos, where an expedition
sleeping bag guarantees a cozy night’s rest
even if temperatures were to drop to forty
degrees below zero. For more information
go to
planlicht, the Tyrolean lamps and lighting systems specialist, has evolved into a world player over recent
years. One of the secrets of its success was relying on new technologies for “healthy light.”
Light Promoting Well-Being
L ight, says Felicitas Kohler, had
been a part of her life from
the beginning. Small wonder,
considering she literally sucked it
in with her mother’s milk. In 1986,
her father founded his company
planlicht. To begin with, it was merely
a lighting business, since the nineties,
though, it has developed and built
its one’s own lighting systems. Today,
the company employs 160 people.
Lamps made by planlicht now are to
be found around the world, yet the
main market remains to be Europe.
In 2013, Felicitas Kohler took over
from her father – and light still fasci-
nates her: “Most of all I’m interested
in what a lamp is capable of as to its
technical output.” And especially in
this respect the development over
recent years has been “bombastic,”
as she says. The traditional light
bulb, illuminating rooms, is a thing
of the past. Nowadays, light artists,
like those at planlicht, even manage
to emulate natural daylight inside a
building through Human Centric
Lighting (HCL).
HCL often is described as “healthy
light” or “biodynamic light” because
it has a positive effect on our per-
formance and our wellbeing. “With
HCL we simulate daylight with the
help of a lamp, as it were, from the
cool morning light to the warm
evening light,” the planlicht boss ex-
plains the principle, that takes con-
sideration of our light needs which
change over the course of the day:
in the morning we need a lot of day-
light, in order to start well into the
day, in the evening we relax in can-
dlelight. This “healthy light” is ideal
e.g. for kindergartens, schools, nurs-
ing homes, and generally for rooms
“where people work or spend a lot of
time.” The programming of the vari-
ous lamps corresponds to the light’s
development throughout the day,
and it can also be adapted individual-
ly to the customer’s needs, as Kohler
points out.
Customers that the Tyrolean com-
pany increasingly finds abroad. Since
2013, the focus, in view of riskminimi-
zation, has been on export. Foreign
business in the meantime amounts
to 70 per cent. The label Tyrol helps,
Kohler admits: “Be it Germany or
France, almost everyone knows Tyrol.
And when I say to people I produce
exclusively in Tyrol, that is a promise
of quality.” A promise that planlicht
customers, especially light planners
and architects, can rely on. The flex-
ibility of the family business, Felicitas
Kohler is convinced, distinguishes
planlicht from the big players in the
lighting sector: “We are able to react
spontaneously and deliver quick-
ly.” Sales branches, e.g. in Germany,
France, Finland or Sweden, guaran-
tee first-class customer service. “And
in terms of products we make sure to
be at the forefront when it comes to
technology leaps,” Kohler says. As in
the case of Human Centric Lighting.
Info: ]
pictures:planlicht,Andreas Friedle“With Human Centric Lighting we simulate daylight with the help of lamps,” planlicht boss Felicitas Kohler explains.
Picture:Schneedorf