Loacker Galaxy / MoDusArchitects

Architects: MoDusArchitects (Sandy Attia, Matteo Scagnol)
Area: 900 m² (Store and Café 500 m²; Workshop 280 m²; Pavilion 120 m²)
Year: 2024
Photography: Marco Cappelletti
Project Team: Sandy Attia, Matteo Scagnol, Camilla Cormanni, Leonardo Franzini, Martina Salmaso
Contractor: Bauunternehmung DI Walter Frey GmbH
Subcontractors: Holzbau Lusser; Horst Idl Metallbau GmbH; RGO Lagerhaus GmbH; J. Schmidhammer GmbH; Elektro Ortner GmbH; Trockenausbau WEGER GmbH; Niederbacher GmbH; Barth Innenausbau KG; Bau- und Möbeltischlerei Friedrich Wieser; Maler und Vergoldermeister Kollreider; Georg Rohracher GmbH; TK Aufzüge GmbH
Furniture: Billiani (Corolla and Frisée collections)
Client: Loacker Moccaria International GmbH
Location: Panzendorf 196, Heinfels
Country: Austria

To celebrate the centenary of its iconic hazelnut wafer, Loacker commissioned MoDusArchitects to redesign its flagship store in Heinfels, Austria, transforming it into an immersive brand experience named Loacker Galaxy. The project redefines the relationship between consumer and company through a series of interwoven spaces—a café and shop on the ground floor, a hands-on pastry workshop above, and a new outdoor pavilion framed by a hazelnut garden and playground. MoDusArchitects approached the design as a study in contrasts, combining the warmth of wood with the precision of stainless steel to reflect Loacker’s dual identity as both artisan and global producer. Playful forms, shifting scales, and dynamic display systems create a spatial rhythm that mirrors the brand’s joyful energy. The result is a retail destination where architecture, craftsmanship, and storytelling converge to express Loacker’s enduring heritage and evolving vision.

MoDusArchitects’ Loacker Galaxy in Heinfels emerges as a celebration of taste and tactility, redefining the retail environment as an architectural journey through the essence of the Loacker brand. Conceived as both a flagship store and cultural hub, the project weaves together hospitality, production, and play in a narrative that reflects Loacker’s century-long legacy and its forward-looking ambitions.

The design’s visual language is rooted in material dialogue. Wood, emblematic of Loacker’s family tradition and artisanal craft, meets stainless steel, a symbol of industrial precision. This contrast extends across every surface, from the coffered ceiling abstracting the pattern of a wafer to the polished totems that anchor the shop floor. Each of the ten stainless steel totems rotates on pivoting columns, forming a kinetic display landscape that captures the abundance of Loacker’s confectionery universe.

The café’s sculptural counter, rendered in stainless steel and paired with a coffered timber canopy, sets the stage for a sensory encounter that continues into the workshop above. There, visitors are invited to engage with the wafer-making process within a pill-shaped space illuminated by an oversized circular light fixture, where red tiles and black millwork create a theatrical interplay of color and contrast. The experience bridges craft and spectacle, turning production into performance.

Outdoors, the new pavilion extends the Loacker Galaxy beyond the building envelope, drawing visitors into a garden setting framed by dark-stained timber cladding and whimsical concrete columns. The pavilion’s curved geometry and stainless steel detailing link it visually to the interior’s architectural language, while its functional program—housing an ice-cream kiosk, restrooms, and shaded seating—enhances the overall visitor experience.

Through its fusion of playful form, refined materiality, and clear brand storytelling, MoDusArchitects transforms the Loacker flagship into a realm of discovery. Loacker Galaxy captures the spirit of curiosity and delight that has defined the company for a century, establishing a new typology of experiential retail that blurs the boundaries between architecture, identity, and emotion.