GRAND HOTELREDESIGNING MODERN LIFE

VANCOUVER ART GALLERY HATJE CANTZ

SOCIAL

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TOM MICHELBERGER , NADINE MAY, A ZAR K A ZIMIR AND ANJA KNAUERINTERVIEWED BY JENNIFER M. VOLLAND

JENNIFER M. VOLL A ND How did you end up in Berlin?

TOM MICHELBERGER We both came to Berlin because it inspired us. We had found our new home. We come from the west side of Germany where people have a very classical approach to life and career. Berlin allows for more experimentation and nobody cares too much about conventional structure.

N A DINE M AY Berlin lets you try out things. You meet people in a natural way and you meet people who share ideas. People !nd Berlin for various reasons but they all have something in common. Berlin felt very open. The city instantly inspires you.

J .M.V. And how did you select this particular neighbour-hood for the Michelberger?

T.M. The hotel occupies one of only !ve buildings on this street that were all designed by the same

why the idea was important to us. The more we talked about it, the more we thought we had to do it. We thought of what it could be, a social space where people from all different backgrounds could congre-gate, and a lively and productive space that could become the centre of our lives. We never had a target group. We wanted to make it very open. For everyone it is something different—whether it is the design, or the social atmosphere, whatever. It is a natural selection of a very diverse audience. The hotel is a combination of all the characters and people that work here. But !rst and foremost, we have done our homework and built a hotel that operates on all levels most professionally. If you just want a good bed and quick checking in and out, you get it. If you want more from your visit, it’s there to !nd.

J .M.V. You’ve described the hotel as an ever-evolving entity. Explain.

N.M. We interact daily with the people that come here and solicit their feedback. You never have the feeling you are completely satis!ed. In that way, we are always trying to improve and try out new things.

architect. It is 120 years old and it was a former factory. We are located in between the two dis-tricts of Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg, cornered by two bridges and near the underground. It is a very neutral location. When we came here, it was a cool neighbourhood to live in, but it was not the most visited area for tourists. Some would even have considered it off the map. The past years it more and more became the heart of Berlin’s vibrant and diverse nightlife scene. The combination with the culturally diverse neighbourhoods made it one of the most interesting destinations for an experience beyond the major sites. It felt and feels good that people would have to !nd their way to us.

J .M.V. Tell me about your ideas for the Michelberger.

T.M. At the time, Berlin was the only place that some-thing like this could grow. We always knew we wanted to do something on our own, but we de!-nitely do not have hotel backgrounds. And we never really looked at other hotels. We just thought about

T.M. This place has evolved with our personalities. As we get older, the Michelberger grows with us. We never felt it had to have the structure and rules of the big chain hotels. We don’t feel like hotel directors; we just have to move along and let others move along with us. But we always try to stay sensitive to the needs of the people that work here.

A DIFFERENT KIND OF HOTEL EVOLVES IN BERLIN

OPPOSIT E T OP Michelberger Hotel, Berlin (during construction), 2009

OPPOSIT E BOT T OM Studio Aisslinger, room, Michelberger Hotel, Berlin, 2009. Photo by James Paff, 2010

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J.M.V. You do have an interesting internal working structure.

N.M. I guess. But to us it feels natural. It’s a structure that is constantly evolving—that creates little and big spaces for people to leave their mark.

T.M. To some degree you need the hierarchy, but it doesn’t have to feel hierarchical. There is nothing like “my job is more important than your job.” Everyone in the system is just as important as the others, and people can easily move wherever they want to move. There is an openness and appreciation

for all. People have a very personal experience here. This is important because everything we do gives us more freedom. In the end, your work life should be quality time. In this regard, it is important for us to decide who we work with.

J .M.V. Does this relate to your decision to have the design studio in-house?

N.M. We are able to carry out ideas in-house because we have the design studio. It’s easy because we all know each other very well. It would feel odd to ask an agency. In this way, we can act quickly and do something special. To have this as an integrated part of the hotel feels very natural. Early on, we made the decision to keep on the creative talent. Their signa-ture is on everything we do.

T.M. From the start, we thought of the hotel as a base for ideas. The money we make we reinvest in our own products, like our coconut water. We couldn’t !nd anything like it in Berlin and we wanted it.

So Nadine and I went to Thailand. We found the most amazing plantation and !gured out a way of distribution.

J .M.V. When we met a few years ago one of you said that the Michelberger is more like a family hotel than a tra-ditional one. Do you consider it a hotel !rst?

N.M. It is de!nitely a hotel. Foremost, we have to make sure that the rooms are clean and that there is coffee here in the morning.

T.M. If you want to see more, then there can be more. Sometimes we are described as family-run. We offer a similar experience to the places we visited when we were kids. But this is not a traditional family. Although it feels like a family, we are not bound by blood and there are not any of the negative parts of the family dynamic. There is more bonding and sharing of interests. In general though, there is a tendency to theme hotels. But you cannot strategically theme things. People can’t be fooled. They like to relate to the things. At least this is what we like to believe.

J .M.V. In the Grand Hotel exhibition, we give a lot of attention the idea of the hotel as a cultural incuba-tor, where creative types not only congregate but also produce. Do you see the Michelberger this way?

T.M. The hotel gives us all a reason to be here, and when people are interested in similar things, things happen. We programmed music into the hotel, not because we wanted to get cool musicians, but because it was already a part of our lives. You can’t

A DIFFERENT K IND OF HOTEL E VOLVES IN BER LININTERVIE W TOM MICHELBERGER , N A DINE M AY, A Z AR K A ZIMIR A ND A NJA K N AUERINTERVIE WED BY JENNIFER M. VOLL A ND

CULTURE

OPPOSIT E LEF T Studio Aisslinger, The Big One, Michelberger Hotel, Berlin, 2009. Photo by James Pfaff, 2010

OPPOSIT E T OP R IGHT Studio Aisslinger, Loft Room, Michelberger Hotel, Berlin, 2009. Photo by James Pfaff, 2010

OPPOSIT E BOT T OM R IGHT Michelberger Hotel, Berlin, 2009. Photo by James Pfaff, 2009

T OP Michelberger Hotel Studio, door keycards, Michelberger Hotel, Berlin, 2009. Photo by James Pfaff, 2009

BOT T OM Exterior signage, Michelberger Hotel, Berlin, 2009. Photo by James Pfaff, 2009

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plan spontaneous, amazing concerts. But we can decide at !ve in the evening to post a blog entry and this might attract 200 people. But we don’t see this as planning. Rather, it happens organically.

N.M. The performers are on stage, but they don’t feel “on stage.” There is an audience, but at the same time, it is not an audience. It is all one. The space has intimacy and it allows things to happen. We cannot decide who comes in here, but we can create a space that is a product of us, a space that feels invit-ing. For example, there are multiple doors into the lobby. Many people come in and don’t realize it is a hotel. We want it to be inviting for everybody, not just friends or hotel guests. If you put love into an envi-ronment, then people will feel attracted to it. People !nd the space to be protective and embracing.

J .M.V. What are your plans for the future?

T.M. The Michelberger has been open three years now. I think of how much growing there was. We all know each other so well now. It is fortunate to be sur-rounded with people you trust. But we don’t consider ourselves to be hotel directors. Of course, we were involved in all the operations at the beginning, but not anymore. At some point, you have to let go. We continue to go to the hotel every day when we are in Berlin. But now we only work on the perspective and continued vision and we are there to offer guid-ance to others. We never really thought of having another hotel, but we’ve always seen New York as a very inspiring place and we feel that we would never get bored there, so we are looking to open a second hotel there—a sister hotel—together with two musi-cians who we became great friends with, who share similar feelings and urges to those we had in Berlin.

N.M. There has been some attention to our hotel in Berlin, but we never felt the need to go anywhere. The idea just evolved. It is not about timing. It is about where our personalities are now. But even if we

T.M. Last summer we had the Michelberger Mystery Music Festival. We shut down the hotel for three days except to the performers, friends and indi-viduals from the booking agencies, and we didn’t announce the bands before the event. This is exactly the kind of freedom that we talk about. Long before we actually opened the hotel, we envisioned that people would be looking out their windows into the courtyard below, and this is exactly what happened. It was a very magical moment for us. So we don’t try to make the hotel lively everyday. Sometimes there will just be three people in the lobby. Whatever we do, it has to be something we fully enjoy and support. The Festival had such lasting effects on us and ev-erybody that took part. Freedom is the greatest gift, to be able to say yes or no to different things. We do things when they feel right.

!nd someone who gives us the money, it still needs to !t and to feel comfortable.

J .M.V. And will your team in Berlin be involved?

N.M. We are open to new people and what they will bring in. But it will be an integration of the existing team and new people we meet. Once they are both up and running there will be a constant short- and long-term exchange of people.

T.M. This new venture will be much bigger. We can’t make the same mistakes we did the !rst time around, and we need to trust what we’ve learned. We [will] start this project with another level of experi-ence. The more projects we do, the more we know what we are good at.

A DIFFERENT K IND OF HOTEL E VOLVES IN BER LININTERVIE WCULTURE TOM MICHELBERGER , N A DINE M AY, A Z AR K A ZIMIR A ND A NJA K N AUERINTERVIE WED BY JENNIFER M. VOLL A ND

A BOV E The Michelberger Mystery Music Festival. Photo by Matze Hielscher and Uli Peters, 2011

LEF T Michelberger Hotel, Berlin, 2009. Photo by James Pfaff, 2010

T OP R IGHT Studio Aisslinger, Loft Room, Michelberger Hotel, Berlin, 2009. Photo by James Pfaff, 2010

BOT T OM R IGHT Studio Aisslinger, reception area, Michelberger Hotel, Berlin, 2009. Photo by James Pfaff, 2009

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J.M.V. How did you become involved in the Michelberger Hotel?

A Z AR K A ZIMIR I heard from a friend that someone wanted to do a new concept for a hotel in Berlin. I had recently left the advertising world and had opened my own design studio. I went to see Tom and Nadine in this huge empty building. They explained the concept and after !ve minutes I thought, “Yeah, this is going to work.” I created six weeks’ worth of work—what I felt was the creative expression of the hotel, rather than the physical manifestation of the building. In other words, how would the Michelberger speak outside the con!nes of the building? They loved the work. Until this time, they hadn’t yet been exposed to potential graphical expressions of the hotel. This was good because it allowed them to envision things in a fresh and open way. I started with them as my client.

After some time, six to eight months perhaps, I thought, “I shouldn’t do this from my home. I should just be the studio inside the hotel.” We always knew the hotel was supposed to be for people like us—cre-ative people. It worked because it provided stability. Then I wouldn’t be at odds with a client. It became a way of empowerment and freedom after years of being dicked around at agencies. Because the day-to-day work would be for the hotel and that relationship had proven to work very well, and I would not have to take on work simply because I needed to, external to the hotel, I would always be able to choose what

do something with an external client, it never really worked out or was dif!cult, for all the usual reasons. I worried about this, but then Tom and Nadine said to me one day that we would bene!t much more if we spent our time and energy on ourselves and our own projects, and not on others. And of course they were totally right. So in the end we’re a design studio which only works for ourselves. Sounds weird, but I can assure you, from my point of view, it’s wonderful.

Finally, the idea of a hotel with a design studio was original. I was conscious about the trend toward multi- disciplinary brands—the idea that the hotel doesn’t just have to be a hotel. We didn’t have to work with an agency. The move !t with the zeitgeist of the time.

J .M.V. Tell me about your creative vision for the Michelberger.

A .K . There was a big synergy between Tom and Nadine and me. My background is in advertis-ing. I had come from a world of adapting to clients’ needs. But Tom was talking about something that was handcrafted and full of detail, and I thought I could translate that into graphic design. The graphic program is a direct expression of the hotel, and incidentally, it was also indicative of the time. The Internet had destroyed the preciousness of graphics. The aesthetic had become rough and ready and, in a way, ugly. This !t with their mentality. They are con-stantly in movement. So rather than reprint things all the time, which on occasion we have to do, we focus on recharging or renewing the work, without making things too careful or too pretty. It is impor-tant for us to be irreverent, to be cheeky. We always

I would or wouldn’t do, or walk away if the client behaved poorly.

Also, at that time, I had thought that the studio would work for external clients, [that it] would also provide an income stream. That hasn’t happened as I imagined. Firstly, the amount of work for the hotel gets bigger and bigger, so there is little spare time. And on the few occasions where we tried to

try to remember that the place was for people like us. The rooms are simple. The rates are low. But we have people at the hotel full time whose job it is to create things for people to look at. That is a luxury that guests could appreciate. They realize the work that goes into each detail. That is a different type of luxury than the typical hotel, but it is still a luxury. A keycard costs the same to print whether they are white or they have a graphic.

J .M.V. What was the original scope of your design work?

A .K . It was very organic. Some things needed to be done. Tom and Nadine brought in ideas. Then some things would come from me. Everything was fair

game … drawing on walls, basi-cally anything with a surface.

J .M.V. The Michelberger has always been described to us as an evolving project. So what now?

A .K . We’ve expanded. The design studio consists of !ve people. We’ve done a few side projects. For example, the drinks that Tom mentioned, the original idea came from them. My job was to bring the product to life through pack-aging design, marketing and

CULTURE TOM MICHELBERGER , N A DINE M AY, A Z AR K A ZIMIR A ND A NJA K N AUERINTERVIE WED BY JENNIFER M. VOLL A ND

OPPOSIT E T OP Michelberger Hotel Studio, illustration for Intersection Magazine, Autumn/Winter 2009

OPPOSIT E BOT T OM Michelberger Hotel Studio, beer fridge, 2010

T OP Exterior signage, Michelberger Hotel, Berlin, 2009. Photo by James Pfaff, 2009

BOT T OM Michelberger Hotel Studio, Music Machine poster, 2009

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online [promotion]. That took a lot of time. On a day-to-day basis, every time we have a concert we make a poster. The maps. The signage. The bar menu changes every six to eight months. Chalkboards. So there is the ongoing general hotel work and there is also this different work. The hotel is the heart of everything. If we don’t have the hotel, we don’t have anything. We have to make sure the hotel remains at the heart of what we do. The trick is to try and not lose the core of what we were originally.

J .M.V. Do you feel like this is your place for the foresee-able future?

A .K . It will be interesting when we take the next step. I’m trying to create a studio where it extrudes out. It will always have a foot in Berlin, but the challenge will be to create another space. It will organically grow and develop. Whether it is a hotel or a new drink or !lm production, we don’t need to compart-mentalize. Everyone trusts each other so implicitly. We’ve done so much together, proved our strengths and weaknesses. This is my life. I’m in until I drop. You won’t !nd anything else like this. There is too much potential, opportunity for the future. We have freedom. Tom always said that he wanted the Michelberger to be a platform for people to do what they want to do. And it is that. It is exactly that.

J .M.V. How did you become involved with this project?

A NJA K N AUER Tom and I were friends. I studied !lm and literature at university and I was just !nishing. I was also working as an actress. He talked to me about this idea for a hotel, and I was very interested in becoming part of the interior-design team. I had no experience with interior design, but I liked his vision and he liked my ideas and approach inspired by !lm-set design. Along with Sibylle Oellerich, who also has a background in !lm-set design, we worked with Werner Aisslinger collectively. We didn’t study architecture, so it was a weakness, but it became our strength in the end.

J .M.V. What was the concept?

A .K . The concept was not having a concept. We didn’t want it to look like a hotel. We wanted furniture and

think. At night we change the lights and it becomes a proper bar. We thought of it as a place where Berliners would want to go to instead of the typical hotel bar that is just for hotel guests.

For the restaurant, we liked the idea of people sitting at the same table. There are huge, strong tables and tiled walls. The only thing that is different is the different chairs. We wanted the space to bring people together. That’s what happens at lunch and at Friday dinners, when we bring out these big pots and everyone eats together and meets each other.

The styles of the rooms were very much inspired by Werner Aisslinger. Our concept was a new idea of room types, from double, to three people, to more, whether a family or a band. And we wanted to keep the options open, so even if you get a room for two, you can bring someone in. We kept the rooms simple because we thought they should be !lled by the identities and spirit of the people who stay in them, compared to the public rooms, which show our per-sonalities. They are basic, with no phones, because no one uses them anymore. The small rooms have no cupboards because we thought they’d likely be used for shorter stays. Now we have more types of rooms—The Chalet, The Golden One, The Clever One—because we found out people love the individu-ality. Some people love to have the atmosphere that is in the lobby in the room.

objects with a story to re"ect the people in the hotel and the city, like you would design a room as a set designer in order to tell something about the people that live in that room.

We wanted the yard, especially in summer, to look like typical German Schrebergärten, the little fenced gardens you !nd around the city that look old-fashioned. At the moment, it has this 1970s look, with "ower patterns, potted plants and different kinds of chairs and huts.

For the lobby, we thought of a living room where you would like to stay longer, not just waiting to check in, and where you could have a meeting—but a long meeting—and where you would feel comfort-able hanging out alone, too. It is supposed to be very cozy, and we thought of books because they immedi-ately make things cozy.

We wanted the bar to look like an atelier in the daytime, like a working space and a simple space to

J .M.V. How did you go about sourcing the furniture and objects?

A .K . In Berlin, although they are dying breed, there are still a lot of places you can get good and beautiful stuff for reasonable prices. There are "ea markets all over, and antique shops. And if you go into the coun-tryside a bit, you can !nd old windows and doors. We had a car and we were driving around getting stuff.

INTERVIE W A DIFFERENT K IND OF HOTEL E VOLVES IN BER LINCULTURE TOM MICHELBERGER , N A DINE M AY, A Z AR K A ZIMIR A ND A NJA K N AUERINTERVIE WED BY JENNIFER M. VOLL A ND

OPPOSIT E Studio Aisslinger, bar, Michelberger Hotel, Berlin, 2009. Photo by Karina Tengberg, 2010

T OP Studio Aisslinger, bar, Michelberger Hotel, Berlin, 2009. Photo by James Pfaff, 2009

BOT T OM Studio Aisslinger, Luxus Room, Michelberger Hotel, Berlin, 2009. Photo by James Pfaff, 2010

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J .M.V. Even after the hotel was “complete” you stayed on.

A .K . I love the place and the people working here. It feels like home and there are so many interest-ing opportunities to work creatively and with a lot of freedom—that’s the !rst reason. Another reason is because my interior design job never ended. I thought my job would be !nished when we !nished the place. But I really underestimated the heavy use in a hotel. We built it like a private home. Since we didn’t only think in terms of function and use and put in so much second-hand furniture and individual objects, a lot of stuff breaks and gets stolen and these things are not easily replaced by a “mass order.”

The whole place is like an organism. It is alive. When things “run away” or “die”, you have to do it again. At !rst, I always wanted to capture something. But then I found out that it was fun to do it new and all over again.

doing three new suites. One is quite large, sixty square metres. We have guests we’d like to offer an apartment.

We also recently took over the fourth "oor. We will do the of!ces. At the moment we are building !fty lampshades on our own. And before we did some for the lobby. It’s all stuff for the Michelberger.

I’m also doing communication. I do the blog, texting, press, I help market all the new products, like the coconut water and the booze. I photograph events. It was always my interest to do something like this, with my background in !lm and literature. I wanted to write. I also like photography. For me it is perfect because I like to do different things. If we manage to do our own !lm production, that would interest me, too. I feel like anything is possible.

J .M.V. It seems like a democratic and organic process.

A .K . What I think is interesting about the hotel is that this place is growing with us. You can decide

J .M.V. Has your role changed?

A .K . I’m still doing everything to do with the interi-ors from plates to redesigning the rooms. We are

where you want to go with the place. For me it is great to have a creative of!ce where I can go and make things happen. There is the space to do that. Everyone has his daily work to do, yes, but if we have an idea we just do it. As our of!ce is a hotel, there is also a lot of inspiration coming from the outside. We have people coming for lunch from all the of!ces around us and they can be a part of the process, and the same with guests. You meet and together these people move along the path with us.

I feel very lucky. This is not so typical. After all the stress of opening a hotel, it seemed like there would be a point when Tom and Nadine would have wanted to settle down. But this never happens. When something is done, there is always something else. Much of the impulse comes from Tom and Nadine. It is rare to always want to keep moving, but they are always open to new ideas.

INTERVIE W A DIFFERENT K IND OF HOTEL E VOLVES IN BER LINCULTURE TOM MICHELBERGER , N A DINE M AY, A Z AR K A ZIMIR A ND A NJA K N AUERINTERVIE WED BY JENNIFER M. VOLL A ND

OPPOSIT E T OP A ND BOT T OM Studio Aisslinger, Luxus Room, Michelberger Hotel, Berlin, 2009. Photo by James Pfaff, 2010

BOT T OM Studio Aisslinger, The Big One, Michelberger Hotel, Berlin, 2009. Photo by James Pfaff, 2010