Sheyn. Where 3D printing meets beautiful design

With their design label Sheyn, Nicolas Gold and Markus Schaffer are redefining sustainable, innovative design from Vienna. The architecture-inspired vases and home accessories are produced locally using 3D printers and sold internationally. Founded in 2016 as a living room project, the design studio has grown rapidly and recently moved into a new headquarters in the Gewerbehof Seestadt, a project by the Vienna Business Agency that offers production premises in the city's newest neighborhood.

"Sheyn" closely resembles the Austrian word scheen (or schön), meaning beautiful. It originates from Yiddish, a language that blends Hebrew and German. It’s no surprise that architect Nicolas Gold, who is of Jewish descent, drew inspiration from his grandmother's language when he founded the design studio with Graz-based IT specialist Markus Schaffer in 2016. Their motto: “Understanding different is beautiful, and beautiful is Sheyn.”

Today, the company produces its entire assortment on 60 of its own 3D printers and offers a wide range of design products — from home accessories such as vases, bowls, and concrete furniture to lamps and scented candles.

It all started in the living room. After buying their first 3D printer in 2019, Markus and Nicolas quickly added nine more, filling the space with a constant whir. Their first successful sales at design fairs made it clear that they had outgrown living room production: "So we started looking for our own location for Sheyn — and found our business premises on Lerchenfelder Strasse. Here we were able to combine showroom, office, and production in one space."

"Another key milestone was securing funding from the Vienna Business Agency in 2022, which allowed us to expand into Germany," recalls Markus Schaffer.The company‘s rapid growth led to another production area being rented, which soon became too small again. Having searched intensively for a location, Gold and Schaffer then came across the Gewerbehof Seestadt in the 22nd district in the north-east of the city.

The company’s rapid growth soon made their additional production space too small. After an intensive search for a new location, Gold and Schaffer came across the Gewerbehof Seestadt in Vienna’s 22nd district. Despite initial concerns about the distance from central Vienna, the Gewerbehof impressed them with its flexible, adaptable spaces. For companies like Sheyn, the location offers numerous advantages. It combines office, production, and warehouse spaces, with a well-organized infrastructure and heavy-duty lifts for easy deliveries and collections.

Good connections to the U2 underground line and the S-Bahn (suburban railway) make it easy to reach the city centre, where Sheyn still maintains the space on Lerchenfelder Straße as a showroom and shop.