It has come to light that in the village of Elixhausen near Salzburg, Austria, mayor Michael Plantner designed the village’s new town hall himself using free kitchen-design software. The total project cost is said to run around 5 million euros, and the local Chamber of Architects and Civil Engineers has criticized the approach as “amateur work.” When an article reporting on this was posted to the German-language forum Lemmy, it sparked debate, drawing both defenders — “even reading the critical article, I can’t find a convincing counterargument,” “the industry association is just worried about losing work” — and skeptics — “there could be problems with accessibility and emergency escape routes,” “25,000 euros per square meter is way too expensive for a 5-million-euro, 200m² building.”
A rather amusing story out of Austria. Michael Plantner (ÖVP), a lawyer and mayor of the village of Elixhausen, is proudly showing off the new village hall he designed himself using free kitchen-design software — but Salzburg’s Chamber of Architects and Civil Engineers is criticizing the design of this 5-million-euro project as “amateur work.”
But even reading this article, I can't find a convincing counterargument to the mayor's approach.
3Anonymous2026-11-07 11:59
Re: #2 This article just sounds like the industry association is worried about losing work. They're only taking issue with the method itself, with no substantive critique of the actual content.
10Anonymous2026-11-07 11:57
Re: #2 Looks that way to me too. The mayor hasn't done anything wrong.
5Anonymous2026-11-07 12:04
In that case, houses should be professionally designed in 'The Sims'!
11Anonymous2026-11-07 13:30
Re: #5 'The Sims'? Seriously? That's not professional at all! Real pros use Minecraft!
6Anonymous2026-11-07 13:02
This is a golden opportunity for IKEA. It's the perfect chance to pitch their own kitchen software as a free design tool for municipalities. 😂 They've even already got a real-world case study to use as promotional material.
7Anonymous2026-11-07 12:42
Re: #3 True to some extent. But even if this particular case turns out fine, I think there are good reasons to oppose this kind of approach in general. There's a real chance of messing up things like accessibility and emergency escape routes (at least, I know I would 😉).
8Anonymous2026-11-07 13:04
Re: #7 No, actually the article covers that. Experts checked it over and did the 'finishing touches.' The mayor just used the software and materials to lay out pretty precisely what he wanted.
14Anonymous2026-11-07 13:19
Re: #7 The 'convenient' part is that the mayor can approve it himself… I think that's exactly what the architects' association is most concerned about (the video spells it out more clearly than the article text does).
9Anonymous2026-11-07 13:51
Looks like the mayor forgot to ask his secretary's son how to remove the demo-version watermark 🤣
12Anonymous2026-11-07 12:31
Hold on, this is only about a 200m² building — not even bigger than a duplex. What's everyone making such a fuss about?
16Anonymous2026-11-07 13:17
Re: #12 If it really is a 200m² building (where'd that number even come from?) and it cost 5 million euros, then hiring an actual architect probably would've been the better call. That works out to 25,000 euros per square meter. Realistically, something like 10-20% of that would be reasonable…
13Anonymous2026-11-07 15:08
Re: #10 Plus it's saving money too 💯
15Anonymous2026-11-07 15:09
Re: #11 But then the house ends up looking the part too, I guess
Background and Key Points of This Debate
In Austria, building approval often requires final sign-off and formal accountability from a licensed engineer or architect, and the Chamber of Civil Engineers and Architects (Kammer der Ziviltechniker) also plays a public oversight role in ensuring designs are handled by qualified professionals. So this case isn’t just about whether a particular piece of software was appropriate to use — it also raises an institutional question of who ultimately bears responsibility for the design. Within the thread, opinions split between posts arguing that experts gave it a final check and “finished” the drawings (>>8), and posts raising concerns that the mayor himself is in a position to approve the building permit (>>14) — leaving it ambiguous whether the “amateur work” criticism targets the design itself or a conflict of interest in the approval process. Some commenters also pointed out how high the cost per square meter works out to be given the building’s floor area and total price tag, making the reasonableness of the cost another point of contention.
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