2007
Hotel Louis - München - Germany

Between two traditional buildings in Munich - the Kustermann department store and the St. Peter’s Church Rectory - Hild und K converted a former insurance company building from the late 1950s into a hotel.
The redesign establishes links between the building’s own original architecture and that of the neighboring buildings, creating a new, overarching unity.
With its old turquoise-tiled façade, the five-story administration building previously looked oddly out of place; now with its stucco façade, the redesigned building fits smoothly into its historic surroundings, consistent with Munich’s mildly modern, postwar architecture that is strongly represented in the quarter.
The bright front entrance of the hotel at Viktualienmarkt is divided by floor to ceiling windows with French balconies and inverted stucco detail.
The property also includes a shopping arcade, which serves as a passageway to the Rindermarkt Square.
There, the street façade reveals subtle reference to its neighbors only upon close examination: the smooth side of the asymmetric soffits quotes its unadorned neighbors from the postwar reconstruction period, while the stucco side points to the older and more ornate buildings nearby.

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Architecture as Resource / Imprint