A house of textile history – that’s the Einstein St. Gallen. Built in 1830 and first used for textile processing, the five-storey classicist building was later used as a soup kitchen and for manufacturing embroideries. In 1978, a textile entrepreneur from St. Gallen purchased the building and converted it into a four-star hotel. Between 2008 and 2010, the hotel’s congress centre was built right across the street, providing a close spatial and functional context. With its five storeys, it houses a great hall, a gallery, foyers, as well as 14 seminar rooms.

The building located in St. Gallen’s Klosterviertel neighbourhood was designed by Munich-based architectural office Hilmer & Sattler und Albrecht. With its deliberate curves, the interior creates a spatial feeling reflecting the proportions of the surrounding city. A tower-like staircase connects the congress and seminar areas, harking back to the “Green Tower” which stood at this very spot from the 17th to the 19th century as a defensive fortification to protect the city. Here, tradition and modernity form a perfect unity.

The core of the building is taken up by the Einstein hall, seating up to 400 guests. The owner selected stacking chair linos made by Brunner for providing seating in the hall and the seminar rooms. Beside its excellent quality, linos was found convincing because of its shape, colour and comfort. Seat and back are comfortably upholstered, the ergonomically shaped armrests provide pleasant seating. The Alcantara cover fabric is easy to clean, and its colour perfectly fits the interior decoration concept dominated by the parquet floor and floor-to-ceiling cherry wood panelling. Also deployed: folding table sleight with its especially convenient handling. It creates a pleasant work atmosphere in the seminar rooms. Hotel folding tables for banquets and stand-up tables in the foyer perfectly round off the furnishings.