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Dass die Grenzen zwischen Alt und Neu verschwimmen, ist gewollt – sowohl in der Fabrikation als auch in der Gaststube. • The boundaries between old and new are intentional, in the production facility or in the guest room.

F or Philipp Mainzer, this project is not the first high-proof commission: a few years ago, he and his office fitted
out Christoph Keller’s own distillery, the Stählemühle in Hegau, and laid out rooms for the distillery, for storage
and degustation. The two already knew each other from their time together in Frankfurt, where Keller managed the
Revolver art book publishing house before moving to the countryside. “The distillery was an exciting project,” remem-
bers Mainzer. “Christoph demands high standards of everything he does.” At the Stählemühle, Keller and Alexander
Stein also started off the Monkey. Unlike Keller’s experimental, repeatedly awarded fruit brandies, the gin at some
point flowed out of the condensing tube in such quantities that a separate production facility and room for the recep-
tion of visitors was required. An old farm in the village “Vierundzwanzig Höfe” near Loßburg in the Black Forest was
chosen as the new home of the Monkey. However, after two months of planning and designing, client Alexander Stein
and Mainzer realised: “The farm was not suited for a conversion into a working distillery within an affordable budg-
et.” The building fabric was ramshackle, the rooms were impracticable, the stables still exuded the smell of the pre-
vious tenant – not the appropriate environment for the production of a high-end gin, to present and savour it. Expect
for a listed granary built of stone, the building was demolished and a new one was constructed. Whether the bar ten-
ders and gin lovers, who are regularly invited by Monkey 47, notice that the brand is older than its place of business?
Probably not, even though the ensemble appears like a tidy, but yet quite traditional farmstead. Apart from a few
brush-ups, the impression that it could have looked like this for decades, is continued in the interiors. Whether dis-
tillery and warehouse with the slaughterhouse charm of a butcher’s in the countryside or the woody-rustic Black
Forest parlour where guests can dine: the rooms have exactly the atmosphere one would expect in a village. Actually,
1 Lagerhaus • Warehouse
this was Philipp Mainzer’s aim: “We reconstructed the farm on the basis of the old building stock and photographs 2 Mazeration • Maceration
3 Rührtanks • Stirring tanks
of the original condition.” But not as a perfect copy. For Mainzer it was more important to understand what it was like
4 Umkleide • Locker room
in the past. Mainzer gradually felt his way. The distillery, for example, should look “as if the farmer had some day 5 Degustation • Degustation
added a workshop building to the farm.” The tiles are not clean, pure white, but yellowish, the edges are covered 6 Küche • Kitchen
7 Museum • Museum
with curved special formats – this is hygienic and simultaneously beautifully old-fashioned. The transom windows
8 Kräutergarten • Herb garden
meet the requirements of the current Energy Saving Ordinance (ENEV) and nevertheless look “like long ago”. They 9 Brennerei • Stillhouse
consist of steel L-profiles, as they were also used for the refurbishment of the Bauhaus in Dessau; the window panes
are fixed with a thick layer of putty. Workshop lights, switches and sockets made of Bakelite were imperative.
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New-old brand architecture: the new ensemble appears like a traditional farm 6
5
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However: “It should not be Disneyland, we did not want to fake anything,” says Philipp Mainzer. How do you achieve
that? “It had to be authentic.” That is why Mainzer collaborated with craftsmen from the region and focused on mate-
1 2 3
rials and methods typical for the Black Forest, for example for the wooden windows of the main house. “There you
find craftsmen who are still able to do that.” There is also some real patina: the stone floor in the degustation room, 9
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for example, consists of old slabs, partly from this farm, partly from another. The wood panelling in the Black Forest
parlour is also made of reused materials obtained from demolished houses. However, the decisive factor of his project
is – just like the Monkey 47 formula – the right mixture. Philipp Mainzer has seasoned the cocktail of old and new-old
with a decent dash of contemporaneity. In the parlour, he placed tables and benches from David Chipperfield’s fur-
niture collection for e15, in a custom-made version made of brushed and stained softwood matching the panelling.
The degustation room is equipped with illuminated shelves made of grey steel profiles and textured glass, where the Lageplan • Site plan
apothecary bottles filled with gin are lined up. The laboratory atmosphere signalised: Work is being done here – or
rather: a magic potion is being brewed here. At Monkey 47, playing with the secret ingredients, steeping in spirits and
distilling the spirit is almost staged like a secret science for insiders. Philipp Mainzer, by contrast, makes no secret of
his recipe: When it comes to interiors for sales and product presentation, he banks on “honesty”. “It must not just be
about creating an envelope, inside which something is beautifully presented.” For the distillery, this is the relation to
the Black Forest, to the tradition of gin and its manufacturing process. Schnitt • Section

AIT 9.2016 • 139