HOTEL TOTAL – When Church Spaces Become Living Cultural Spaces

To create a vibrant space that offers room for art, culture and life, that is open to residents, international guests and anyone who wants to move the city forward – this is what the Aachen project HOTEL TOTAL is about. The project was brought to life by  a young, social enterprise with three visionaries from Aachen: Julia Claire Graf, Anke Didier and Patricia Yasmine Graf, trained design and event managers who may rightfully be referred to as local patriots. To put their idea into practice, they opened the pop-up hotel which moved into the empty St. Elisabeth’s church in Aachen for three months in the summer of 2016.

Garrelt Duin, former Minister for Economics, Energy, Industry and Commerce for the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, also visited the project and found words of praise: "Pick your own superlatives! The project HOTEL TOTAL is so exciting because it combines interdisciplinary topics so skilfully to create something truly new."

And he is right. The temporary hotel created a new centre of creativity that can host both cultural and sub-cultural events and establish new networks within the local economy. "In the course of test operations, we are studying the changing social needs of our times and are developing ideas and solutions," say the three founders of HOTEL TOTAL. "We unite the topics of spatial use and conversion, development of new work and organisational structures, tourism, integration and social issues."



Facts & Figures

Budget 622 540 EUR 
of which
298 625 EUR from ERDF


Project partner

Hotel Total U.G.
low-tec gemeinnützige Arbeitsförderungsgesellschaft Düren mbH
Fachhochschule Aachen
Fachhochschule Aachen
Institut für Unternehmenskybernetik e.V.


Priority axis

Maximizing innovation potential


Duration

January 2015 – November 2016