Theresia Kohlmayr

Theresia Kohlmayr is the managing partner of the URBANAUTS Hospitality Group. While still studying architecture, she founded KLK - Büro für systemisches Design (Office for Systemic Design ) together with Jonathan Lutter and Christian Knapp in 2010 and URBANAUTS GmbH in 2012, which launched "Die Schneiderin", the first graetzlhotel street loft, in 2011.

By repurposing vacant commercial spaces in particularly distinctive neighbourhoods ("Grätzl") of the city of Vienna (Austria) and thoughtfully transforming them into fragmented, decentralised street lofts that reflect the history of the locations, URBANAUTS has addressed two market needs. First, the need to revitalise vacant, ground-level commercial spaces in so-called B-locations, and second, the current needs of travellers, locals and the local economy. URBANAUTS thus created the basis for a successful hotel product that inspires many people and receives a lot of media attention.

By involving local businesses in guest services, enhancing the streetscape, which suffers greatly from vacancy, and accommodating guests close to authentic city life, the grätzlhotel fulfils both the desire of many travellers for personal, individual city tourism and the needs of cities like Vienna for sustainable tourism.

Theresia is a member of the Creative Industries Advisory Board and is available in our Female Scale Up Programme as a mentor for the focus "Scaling & Expanding Radius".