CASE
Three facilities on one site, or one destination. We designed the route that makes it one.
Aschbach-Markt, Austria · retail concept, zoning, visitor journey and shopfitting layout
STARKL is an Austrian family business that has been in the garden trade since 1912: eight garden centres, two nurseries and a mail-order operation, now with the fourth generation at the helm. Aschbach started in 1971 as a tree nursery selling at the gate. The Palmenhaus has stood there since 1990 and has been the landmark of the site ever since.
In 2026 the Palmenhaus was completely rebuilt, and Josef and Barbara Starkl took on the outdoor area and the catering at the same time. The planning application describes it soberly: extension and conversion of the existing garden centre for a new entrance and exit, plus an extension for catering.
That is the building side. The assignment underneath was a different one: how do you make sure an experience garden, a garden centre and a bistro do not stay three separate facilities on the same site, but become one visit together?
The family was the starting point. Josef and Barbara have three children themselves and wanted a place where those children really discover plants and nature instead of just being kept busy. That is not sentiment but a positioning choice: a child who enjoys going to a garden centre is the customer twenty years from now.
For the floor that means something very concrete. A family comes in on a Saturday with a different question than a keen gardener on a Tuesday morning, and both have to be able to walk their route without getting in each other's way. So there is not one floor plan but one visitor journey, in which retail, catering and recreation each have their own moment in the day.
The experience garden has its own entrance and its own price, and that is exactly where a concept like this usually goes wrong: recreation and retail become two tills working past each other. Here the admission price is deliberately tied to the shop. Part of what the visitor pays at the gate comes back inside as credit.
of which € 5 shop credit, once. So a good half of the ticket comes back as spending.
of which € 5 shop credit. Children from three to fifteen pay € 4 admission.
of which € 40 shop credit, or 44 per cent. So the family that buys a season buys the shop along with it.
The ticket also includes one free admission to the Niederösterreichische Landesausstellung 2026 in Mauer. Prices as published in TuinZaken, September 2026.
The Palmenhaus is an octagon, and that is an awkward shape to lay out: there is no long wall to set a department against and every route ends up in the middle by itself. We did not fight that centre point but used it, with the heaviest seasonal department at the heart and the quieter groups in the points.
The nine remaining zones together: 567 m², from checkout zone and toys to seeds and bulbs. All zones add up to 2,089 m², measured in the model on 2 October 2025. Bars to scale against each other.
On the left the zoning: which department gets which part of the octagon and how the route runs. On the right the same floor with the furniture in it. The order is the point. Draw the right-hand side first and you design a shop that looks good and happens to have a layout as well.
The plan was built in 3D before anything was ordered, with the roof taken off so that layout and experience sit side by side in one image.
AND HERE IT IS
The weather meant the experience garden could not open until early May, so a good part of the spring was lost. What stands there is nonetheless exactly what was drawn. Click a photo to see it full size.
Since opening, the garden centre records a turnover increase of around forty per cent compared with the same period in previous years. Josef and Barbara add themselves that the measuring period is still too short for longer-term conclusions, and that is an honest caveat we leave standing here.
What they also see: visitors stay noticeably longer than before, and many families and new visitors are coming. So they judge the result not only on admission and catering income, but on repeat visits, dwell time and shop turnover together. That is exactly the sum that belongs with concepts like this.
While the children discover the experience garden, the parents can look around at their leisure or gather ideas. That way guests spend more time with us and experience STARKL as a day out and a garden centre at once.
Josef and Barbara Starkl, in TuinZaken, September 2026The concept development and the translation of the vision into a coherent visitor experience: the visitor journey across the whole site, the zoning of the Palmenhaus, the shopfitting layout down to furniture level, the object list and the 3D model that let the choices be judged before anything was ordered. The escape plans were drawn here too.
The brand identity of Palmenhaus, Erlebnisgarten and Das Pfau came from STARKL's side, as did the design of the play elements and the building work. We do not supply shelving and we do not build, which means our advice cannot be steered by what we happen to sell.
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