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T he housing shortage in Germany is leaving its mark. Large German cities are
particularly affected. Expressed in figures, this means an imbalance on the
housing market of about two million flats. The reasons for the exorbitant shortage of
(affordable) housing are primarily demographic change, urbanization and singulariza-
tion. When building land becomes increasingly scarce, building permit procedures are
delayed, material costs rise and the standardized living space of three rooms, kitchen
and bathroom no longer meets the consensus, then one thing becomes increasingly
clear: we have to get creative and rethink! This is exactly what the state of Baden-
Württemberg felt and presented the Living in Cultural Monuments programme in May
2022. The funding programme is intended to encourage owners of listed buildings to
renovate the partly unused properties and offer them as further living space. However,
what appears so beautiful in the romanticized imagination is somewhat more complex
in practice. As exciting as it is to listen to the atmospheric language of architectural
monuments, dealing with the fabric of the building can be tedious and complex. In
order to counteract the inner hurdle of renovating a building that has hardly anything
in common with a new building that conforms to standards, the funding programme
ensures not only financial support but also advice. Exemplary projects from the past
already show how different “living in a cultural monument” can be: a listed hospital in
Hamburg (1), a former administrative building of the Berlin Fuhrwerk-Genossenschaft
(2) and a rural old barn for drying tobacco in the district of Karlsruhe (3).

Living in the castle - from one- to five-room apartments

The founders of the architecture firm Curious About are also aware of the importance
of an independent view of every building project – concerning new construction,
existing buildings and monuments. Founded in Karlsruhe in 2020 by Florian Bengert,
Lukas Bessai and Marcel Schaaf, the office distinguishes itself from other offices of this
size primarily through its theoretical discourse and critical questioning of the actual
state of affairs. Already during their studies at KIT, they developed an in-depth inte-
rest in the interface between theory and practice through academic work at the Chair
of Architectural Theory. The founders of the young architecture firm also responded
to the call of the Baden-Württemberg state parliament to draw attention to the Living
in a Cultural Monument funding programme, and they increased their creativity in
an abstract experiment: living like Margrave Karl Wilhelm von Baden-Durlach in the
Karlsruhe Palace – and not as high nobility, but as ordinary people. But why only
use the existing building as new living space when the whole thing can be extended
fourteenfold? To illustrate their thoughts, the creative team used the painting by the
Karlsruhe painter Carl Kuntz who, in 1804, depicted the Baroque-style palace from an
observational perspective using oil paint on canvas (see picture on p. 120). With the
redesign of the existing building (4) and the extension (5), the architects of Curious
About refer, rather tongue-in-cheek, to the actual repository of stock that has so far
only been available to a privileged few. With the cluster-shaped floor plans, one stan-
dard floor each for existing and new buildings, they initiate another progressive idea
in their thought experiment: What will the future of housing look like? The question
of how much space we need to live, or rather, how much space each person should
have in order for the equation to work, is answered by Bengert, Bessai and Schaaf
with an adaptable design of floor plans. This means the following for the Karlsruhe
Palace: Whereas the existing building adds to the housing market with few interven-
tions through additive design of the rooms, the regular addition, which is identical in
form, is defined by the use of a grid. Formed from a square footprint, the individual
elements are grouped into one- to five-room flats that can be adapted to the living
situation of potential tenants. The idea of community – which is intended both to
decimate the need for space and to increase responsibility in dealing with living space
– is supported by a semi-public arrival situation. Cylindrical access towers lead via a
spiral staircase or a lift, which makes not only the addition but also the existing buil-
ding barrier-free, to communication- and arrival zones usable as additional space for
activities, (bicycle) storage rooms and exchange between flats. The 14 storeys, which
exemplarily outline the potential of an increase in height, provide two residential
units in each residential conglomerate of the storeys. With this thought experiment, CAD-Zeichnung: Curious About, Karlsruhe
the three Karlsruhers – deliberately provocative – make potential living space visible
that can be adapted according to need, attitude and aspiration. It is clear that living
space should not be a privilege and that architectural reserves exist. So why build
anew in times of resource scarcity if thinking anew leads to results? (5) Schloss Karlsruhe, Grundriss Aufstockung • Karlsruhe Palace, Floor plan addition

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