When Archduke Johann, brother of the Austrian Emperor Franz I, married the postmaster’s daughter Anna Plochl from the village of Bad Aussee, the region of Ausseerland-Salzkammergut came into the public eye. The couple lived a very humble and down-to-earth lifestyle in Styria, including wearing traditional rural costumes. To this day the region is the most authentic rural area of Austria, where wearing traditional clothes – known as G’wand – is widespread among locals as well as visitors. The Haselnus workshop references this heritage. It was founded by René’s grandfather in 1932, while his father Georg was the first and only bespoke tailor in Styria to be awarded the Styrian Crafts Award.

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This jacket has been hand sewn using loden cloth, a water resistant wool-like fabric. This Austrian style jacket, sewn with one tone of green fabric, has been finished with a high neck collar.

Altsteirer

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This beige jacket has been hand sewn from Harris Tweed. The colour of the jacket contrasts discreetly with the green seams of the buttonholes and pockets.

Tweed Sakko

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This Austrian style hunting jacket, traditionally from the region of Ausseerland, has been hand sewn from loden cloth, a water resistant wool-like material historically produced in the Austrian countryside. The grey jacket is combined with a contrasting green waistcoat beneath, matching the jacket's green pockets, cuffs and collar.

Altausseer Spenzer

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This Austrian style hunting jacket, traditionally from the region of Ausseerland, has been hand sewn from loden cloth, a water resistant wool-like material historically produced in the Austrian countryside. The grey jacket features four pockets plus green cuffs and collar.

Ausseer Doppelreiher (Double-breasted Ausseer)

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Meisterstrasse Handmade is a directory of craftsmanship aiming to introduce the general public to the products and passions of the finest artisans. The organisation was established in Austria the 1990s by Nicola and Christoph Rath, both passionate about fine craftsmanship, who wanted to highlight the work of artisans across the country practising their metier to the highest standard. It has since expanded to cover Germany, the Netherlands and Japan, presenting hundreds of master artisans and their companies as members. It intends to continue its expansion across Europe and beyond. The organisation seeks out unique products, makers and masters to recommend on its website and in its publications and lobbies for a modern culture of craftsmanship in order to close the gap between artisans and discerning customers. Its Meisterstrasse Selection label is a stamp of excellence given to those who have achieved international prominence by producing items of superior quality with great attention to detail.

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Markus Scheer is the seventh generation in his family to make bespoke shoes, working in a company that dates back to 1816. He trained in the craft of shoemaking with his grandfather Carl Ferdinand, shortly after leaving school. For more than 200 years, Scheer has been considered Vienna’s most prestigious workshop for bespoke shoes, its high quality craftsmanship and elegant shapes appealing to royalty around Europe. The workshop has been in central Vienna since 1870. Here, visitors can breathe history as well as innovation – a combination that has been crucial for the company in every decade of its existence. Behind everything is Scheer’s passion for the health of one of the most important parts of the human body: the foot.

Scheer, Markus

Indulging the foot

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Two years ago, Nuriel needed to find an unusual hat. When his search was unsuccessful, he decided to make his own. And so it was that he created something that would change his life. As a member of the prominent Molcho family, owning NENI – a group of restaurants originally only in Vienna and now all over Europe – Nuriel was already a photographer, blogger and restaurant manager; however, it soon became clear that he would add a fourth profession to his life. Together with his wife Audrey, he started teaching himself traditional millinery techniques, finally opening a hat maker’s studio on Vienna’s famous Naschmarkt, right next to the NENI restaurant.

Nuriel & Audrey Molcho

Finding perfection in imperfection

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Gerhard Wieser is an exceptional bespoke shoemaker who learned the traditional techniques of his craft from his father and grandfather. After working in the ski boot making industry for several years, he decided to return to his roots with an ambitious goal: to combine traditional shoemaking with the most fashionable designs and materials. The first signature shoe he made was for himself, made from light brown imitation ostrich leather combined with plain calfskin. Today, he is one of Austria’s trendiest shoemakers, whose signature shoes are produced from a single piece of upper leather without any seam. “Hole in one” is his own trademark for this technique.

Wieser, Gerhard

Putting his best foot forward

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As a child, Karin Krahl-Wichmann was already very close to her father’s hat workshop. Her first diploma was in fashion and clothing technology before starting an apprenticeship as a milliner in 2001 with her father, master hat maker Helmut Wichmann. “The decision came when I saw my father using his hat moulds as fire wood in preparing for his imminent retirement, because nobody was interested in continuing the business. This observation pained me so much that I scolded him terribly and decided to learn his profession.” In 2003, Karin took over the business Hutmanufaktur Josef Kepka & Söhne founded in 1910 in Graz, that her father had continued after his own apprenticeship there. Karin now gives century-old Austrian tradition a modern twist.

Krahl-Wichmann, Karin

Austrian millinery with a contemporary twist

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Developed in partnership with Fondazione Cologni dei Mestieri d’Arte and made possible by the support of Cartier, Homo Faber in Città gives you a rare chance to visit over 70 artisan workshops. The project is developed in collaboration with Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Confartigianato Imprese Venezia, CNA Venezia, Consorzio Promovetro Murano, The Venice Glass Week and Venezia da Vivere.

Our Partners

Step inside the workshops and ateliers to learn the secrets of local master artisans and manufacturers

Try your hand at different crafts with an authentic experience

Marvel at examples of fine craftsmanship by doing our itineraries

This september, the second edition of Homo Faber in Città invites visitors to step off the beaten track and discover the artisanal addresses where Venetian craftspeople create objects of exquisite beauty. A rare opportunity to witness Venice’s master artisans and young talents demonstrating their crafts and presenting the tools, materials and skills involved in contemporary Venetian craftsmanship.

Enrich your experience beyond Homo Faber 2024: The Journey of Life

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Homo Faber Guide is an online portal dedicated to contemporary craftsmanship, showcasing artisans, ateliers, museums, galleries, shops and experiences. Create your user account for access to exclusive features on Homo Faber Guide: save your preferred pages, hear about hot topics first, leave recommendations for your favourite artisans and much more.

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Although the Michelangelo Foundation researches the talents for its projects autonomously, collaboration with our ambassadors is fundamental. Over 120 associations, schools and institutions allow us to map the continents for craftsmanship and to have partners in each country who share our vision and goals. In addition, we have asked well-known personalities in the craft, design and art world to be our ambassadors in the cities where they live, so that their recommendations can offer a unique insight into craftsmanship in the major cities of Europe and beyond.

Who are our ambassadors?

Download our free Homo Faber Guide app (iOS and Android) to discover artisans, museums, galleries, shops, and experiences by location. Search Homo Faber on the App store on your mobile device.

Find craftsmanship destinations on the go

Discover the addresses of esteemed manufacturers, well known for producing high quality objects across a wide variety of crafts. Read their stories and find out where you can shop their contemporary pieces, see their archive collections and even in some cases visit their workshops. Find exceptional ateliers where artisans collaborate creatively to create fine pieces of craftsmanship. Reach out to them to commission something special.

Ateliers & Manufacturers

All the artisans and small workshops featured in Homo Faber Guide have been carefully researched and selected. They are presented and narrated through a selection of images and an interview, which allows readers to immerse themselves in the universe of these makers who exemplify excellence in their individual fields or are promising talents of the future. Find masters and rising stars who share the same passion and determination, and whose workshops are ready to share their secrets with visitors.

A selection of the best artisans

Are you eager to discover a city through craftsmanship? Do you wish to spend a few hours visiting an applied arts museum or attending a course on a craft with one of the masters featured in Homo Faber Guide? Browse the section dedicated to experiences and find your next adventure.

Experiences

An expert artisan is an accomplished artisan who has been in activity for more than ten years. He or she may also be engaged in passing on their knowledge to the next generations, but they have been doing so for less than seven years. Beyond this, they will become a Master artisan.

Who is an Expert artisan?

Homo Faber Guide provides you with a selection of the best addresses across Europe and further afield, where you will be able to discover and purchase exceptional objects, some of which are created by artisans featured in Homo Faber Guide.

Galleries

Homo Faber Guide is an online platform dedicated to craftsmanship that allows you to discover artisans and their masterpieces; explore museums, visit galleries and shops selling unique objects; enjoy experiences in cities across Europe and beyond.

Homo Faber Guide is a signature project developed by the Michelangelo Foundation for Creativity and Craftsmanship, an international non-profit organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, which was set up in 2016 thanks to the intuition of Franco Cologni and Johann Rupert. The Michelangelo Foundation’s mission is to celebrate and preserve master craftsmanship, and for this reason it has created a map of the most significant representatives in this field, with the aim of connecting all its protagonists: artisans, designers, gallery owners, art curators, collectors and enthusiasts of high-quality handmade pieces.

About the Guide

Are you an artisan, atelier or manufacturer? Would you like to be featured in Homo Faber Guide? The Michelangelo Foundation encourages self-assessment initiatives and is pleased to evaluate new members to appear on the Guide or in other projects. Thanks to the Master’s Touch Evaluation Tool, every artisan can send their application: register and access a questionnaire to see if you fulfill the 11 criteria for excellence that stand behind all the activities of the Michelangelo Foundation. If your answers reach the minimum requirement, your application will be brought to our attention; if, on the contrary, you should score below the minimum requirement, we will give you some points for improvement, in the hope that you may participate in future initiatives of the Michelangelo Foundation.

Join the Homo Faber Guide!

Our artisan labels

A master artisan is an accomplished artisan who has been in activity for more than ten years, and who has also been engaged in passing on his or her expertise to the younger generations for more than seven years. This is in keeping with one of the key values of the Michelangelo Foundation: the transmission of knowledge in craftsmanship.

Who is a Master artisan?

Find museums handpicked for their links to contemporary craftsmanship and the exquisite collections they have on display. In each city, discover a museum of interest and organise your visit. From Italian museums displaying coral collections, glass pieces and ceramics to decorative art museums in Russia and Greece, marvel at the variety of museums exhibiting masterpieces, showcasing techniques and recounting histories.

Museums

A rising star is an artisan who has been active for less than ten years, and who is capable of expressing his or her craft with competence, creativity and originality. Whether self-taught or trained, the rising star represents the future of craftsmanship, in creativity, concerns and approaches.

Who is a Rising star?

The artisans featured in Homo Faber Guide have been selected through a meticulous assessment process based on the 11 criteria for excellence, identified by Alberto Cavalli, Executive Director of the Michelangelo Foundation, in the volume The Master’s Touch, written with researchers Giuditta Comerci and Giovanna Marchello. The members of the Michelangelo Foundation’s network who have been invited to participate in sourcing artisans for the Guide use an evaluation tool based on these criteria. In this way, they can identify the most suitable artisans to include in the project.

Simple rules for a transparent selection

In which city does the artisan work?

In which country does the artisan practise?

What craft does the artisan practise?

What is the artisan’s Instagram page?

What is the name of the artisan you are recommending?

Does the artisan have a website?

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