When church space becomes a lively cultural space
Creating a lively place that offers space for art, culture and life, that is open to local residents, international guests and all people who want to move the city forward – that was the aim of the HOTEL TOTAL project in Aachen. Behind the project is a young, social enterprise with three visionaries from Aachen: Julia Claire Graf, Anke Didier and Patricia Yasmine Graf, trained designers and event managers who like to describe themselves as local patriots. To realize their idea, they created the pop-up hotel, which opened its doors for three months in the vacant St. Elisabeth church in Aachen in summer 2016.
As part of the temporary test operation, the social needs in today’s socio-cultural change were researched. The current topics of space and conversion, development of new work and organizational structures, tourism, integration and social issues were successfully linked, and new networks within the local economy were expanded in order to find new meaningful and holistic solutions.
The “HOTEL TOTAL” project was made possible by the “CreateMedia.NRW” lead market competition, an ERDF grant from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Aachen’s Lord Mayor Marcel Philipp took over the patronage. The initiators developed the strategy and concept for the social culture hotel together with four partners, including Aachen University of Applied Sciences with the Department of Design and the Department of Economics, low-tec gemeinnützige Arbeitsmarktförderungsgesellschaft Düren mbH and ifu – Institut für Unternehmenskybernetik, an affiliated institute of RWTH Aachen University.
The design of the temporary hotel rooms was developed as part of an overarching semester project at Aachen University of Applied Sciences: in the winter semester of 2015/16, around 60 students worked on various designs in ten interdisciplinary teams. Each team, consisting of communication, product and packaging designers, developed an individual concept under a self-selected theme. A jury then selected the five most exciting design concepts during the semester examination.
In spring 2016, the three project initiators presented their idea in Arabic, French, German and Farsi at a multicultural picnic to inspire participants to get involved. Together with refugees and the long-term unemployed, certifying construction workshops were then held under the expert guidance of low-tec gemeinnützige Arbeitsmarktförderungsgesellschaft Düren mbH, in which the students’ design concepts were implemented on a 1:1 scale and built as free-standing cube-shaped room-in-room modules in the nave. During the 4-month construction phase, five individual bedrooms for two people each were created in a joint effort.
The entire hotel operation was also managed together with refugees and the long-term unemployed. Innovative participation and employment workshops were developed with the partner low-tec to qualify the hotel staff and prepare them for the future job market.
The pop-up hotel opened its doors in the former church on August 5, 2016. Numerous media representatives and over 1700 curious visitors attended the inauguration.
Garrelt Duin, Minister for Economic Affairs, Energy, Industry, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises and Skilled Crafts for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, also visited the project and had words of praise for it:
“Take your pick of superlatives! The HOTEL TOTAL project is so exciting because it combines interdisciplinary topics in a meaningful way, resulting in something truly new. This is exactly what our lead market competition “CreateMedia.NRW” is for.”
With a series of over 50 successful smaller and larger cultural events as well as dialog and networking events and over 120 regional, national and international publications on TV, radio, in print and online, as well as over 10,000 national and international visitors from all walks of life, generations and cultures during the three-month test phase, it can be said that the project objectives were fully achieved, if not exceeded.
By creating a temporary, urban cultural hotel as an open place for everyone – international travelers, students, residents of the city of Aachen and hosts from all over the world – innovative impulses for joint urban design were set, real integration was lived and the city’s attitude to life was positively influenced in the long term.
“HOTEL TOTAL is a very valuable project for the city of Aachen. I found my visits there very inspiring. You can feel the creativity in every last detail, and this special place is made for it. I met great people there who have created a kind of “guide to rethinking”. That kind of thing motivates me. Important impulses were set for our city and the breeding ground was created to focus more on creativity and a milieu in which people with courage and ideas break new ground.”
Marcel Philipp, Lord Mayor of the City of Aachen
In addition, a hotel’s own city app was developed in collaboration with the ifU – Institute for Business Cybernetics at RWTH Aachen University. The HOTEL TOTAL app is a free, digital travel guide through the city of Aachen and its surroundings. In line with the vision of the project, the app was not designed exclusively for guests of the pop-up hotel, but for anyone who wants to explore Aachen. All content is subjectively selected and includes the visionaries’ and programmers’ favorite places, localities and stores.
The “TOTALER” currency introduced during the project simplified the payment system within the test operation. The use of a modern 3D printer to produce this currency in cooperation with the Goethe-Lab for additive manufacturing also made it possible to introduce visitor groups to the technical innovation of the layer printing process in a low-threshold manner.
The Department of Economics at Aachen University of Applied Sciences supported the creation of a viable business and financing plan and carried out professional market research as part of various bachelor theses. In addition, suitable financing models for long-term use were investigated.
Successful, sustainable collaborations were initiated with well-known companies. These include aachen tourist service, archigraphus, C/O Communication Agency, Carolus Thermen, Goethe Lab Aachen, Gemeinde Christus unser Bruder, designmetropole aachen, DEHOGA, Deubner Baumaschinen, eve matress, Future Hotels, FAB – fashion across borders, Future Lab Aachen, Fashionclash Maastricht, Landmarken AG, Ludwig Forum für internationale Kunst, Magdas Hotel Vienna, Maquii, Modemuseum Hasselt, Morgenwelt Hamburg, MofMof, Neomash, Piccobella, Pielentech, smooth, STAWAG, Taktvoll, Westwerk, Café Bar Zuhause, etc.
