
H
appylab Vienna, the first makerspace in
Austria, was inspired by Professor Herbert
“Happy” Hörtlehner, who taught electronics and
robotics at local schools and at the University
of Vienna. Both of Happylab’s founders, Roland
Stelzer and Karim Jafarmadar, were students of
the professor in computer science, although at
different times.
“Happy had a very special way of teaching,”
Karim told me during an interview at Happylab.
“He didn’t come into class with any plan, but he
asked ‘What do you want to do?’ And then we
learned kind of by just doing and trying things out.
It was kind of the maker way to learn things.”
The professor’s apartment was ...