Projects

From competition wins to award-winning publications.

Every reference tells its background, approach and outcome. A selection of our projects across City, Transfer and Culture that shows how we work.

City

Kandel 2025, concepts for town-centre revitalisation

How a traditional municipality rethinks its town centre, with an approach that transfers to other towns.

Background

The town of Kandel wanted to revitalise its town centre and tackle vacancy. The starting point was an existing image concept that needed to be developed further.

Brief and approach

ato ran a workshop in which an interdisciplinary team of town administration staff and artists developed the image concept further using playful, creative methods. The results were presented at the public exhibition “Stadt, Land, Fluss” and assessed by visitors.

Outcome

Initial guiding ideas and conceptual approaches emerged. One of the concepts for revitalising the town centre will be delivered from 2026, with others in planning.

Client: Town of Kandel
Location: Kandel
Period: August 2025
Team: Maike Denker, Sara Kim Haese, Lea Deutschmann, Benjamin Burkhard

City

Artini 2024 & 2025, an art bar as a vacancy format

A repeatable format with a fixed sequence that municipalities and property owners can commission directly.

Background

Vacant town-centre spaces need tested concepts for new use. A vacant shop unit and a listed building were to be given temporary new life.

Brief and approach

An interdisciplinary team from the city, curation and artists developed the temporary art bar artini as a repeatable format. In 2024 it took over a three-storey shop unit in the Karlsruhe pedestrian zone, in 2025 a listed building in Rheinstetten, each running alongside art Karlsruhe.

Outcome

A meeting place for art audiences and the wider public. The 2025 edition presented more than 20 artistic positions in a site-specific exhibition.

Client: Stadt Rheinstetten (2025)
Location: Karlsruhe pedestrian zone (2024), Rheinstetten (2025)
Period: 21 to 24 February 2024 & 19 to 23 February 2025
Curation: Sabine Adler, Norina Quinte

City

Flora Momentum, competition win 2025

An art installation made of lenticular prints and mirror elements revitalises Stephanplatz.

Background

A design concept was sought to revitalise the public space at Stephanplatz in Karlsruhe.

Brief and approach

ato won the competition in 2025 with “Flora Momentum”, an installation of lenticular prints and mirror elements. Artistic work: Hannah Cooke. Product design: Jannik Lang. Concept and curation: Norina Quinte.

Outcome

The realised work comprises three seating islands, a table island and a large-format design fixture serving as a partition wall, along with 14 lenticular images and mirror surfaces. Freely accessible since May 2025.

Competition: Won in 2025
Location: Stephanplatz, Karlsruhe
Period: Accessible since May 2025
Team: Hannah Cooke, Jannik Lang, Norina Quinte

Transfer

ARTCOM, a transfer method with KIT

A BMBF research project commissioned by KIT: an agile transfer method drawing on art and science.

Background

Knowledge transfer between research and society needs methods that go beyond conventional formats. ARTCOM treats art as a driver for transforming infrastructures and social processes.

Brief and approach

In the ARTCOM research project, ato and KIT are jointly developing an agile transfer method that connects scientific and artistic expertise. Artists and researchers work directly alongside urban planners and technologists.

Outcome

A transferable method, documented and publicly available at artcom.hub-bau.kit.edu. It has already been applied to the Kulturgrube at Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences, among other settings.

Client: KIT, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
Funding: BMBF research project
Project lead, KIT: Tina Becker, KIT Innovation HUB
Team: Maike Denker, Benjamin Breitkopf, Kilian Kretschmer
Location & period: Karlsruhe, since 2024

ARTCOM @ KIT · transfer format in practice

Culture

WERKstattPALAST, a science and culture festival at the Rhine harbour

What we put on under our own steam shows best what we deliver for clients.

Background

How can a public site be activated as a meeting point for art and science over several weeks? The WERKstattPALAST approached the theme of (infra)structure from many angles.

Brief and approach

ato designed, built and ran a purpose-built pavilion at the Karlsruhe Rhine harbour. Over ten weeks it hosted a curated programme of salons, performances, workshops and dialogues, co-organised with the KIT Innovation Hub. Around 190 contributors from across Germany helped shape the programme.

Outcome

95 events, more than 5,500 visitors, over 30 experts and more than 70 interviews.

Lead: ato in-house production
Location: Karlsruhe Rhine harbour
Period: 12 August to 15 October 2022
Funding: BMBF · State of Baden-Württemberg

Aerial view · Karlsruhe Rhine harbour 2022

Values

Haus Marlene Poelzig, Berlin

An award-winning publication about the demolition of a house and questions of equality in building culture.

Background

Designed between 1929 and 1930 by the architect and artist Marlene Poelzig, the residential and studio house in Berlin-Grunewald was demolished in 2021. This raised questions about equality in building culture and about how we treat cultural heritage.

Brief and approach

ato took on co-editorship of the publication „Haus Marlene Poelzig, Berlin. Abriss und Aufbruch“ (Urbanophil Verlag): building the network and editorial team, developing research and interview formats, working with original documents and staging the launch event with an artistic installation. More than 20 authors contributed, alongside the artists Francis Karat and Constanze Zacharias.

Outcome

The print publication was released in June 2025, with the launch held on 28 June 2025 at Kino Babylon Berlin. It received the Architectural Book Award 2025, presented by the Deutsches Architekturmuseum and the Frankfurt Book Fair. The work was widely covered in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, taz, Bauwelt and on Deutschlandfunk Kultur.

Role: Co-editorship
Commission: Bundesministerium für Wohnen, Stadtentwicklung und Bauwesen
Publisher: Urbanophil Verlag
Location: Berlin-Grunewald
Period: 2021 to 2025
Award: Architectural Book Award 2025

Publication · Haus Marlene Poelzig, Berlin

Culture

Orange Days, an intervention against violence against women

An artistic intervention makes a societal issue visible in public space.

Background

As part of the UN campaign “Orange the World”, “Hermanas Orange the World” set out to make gender-based violence visible in public space.

Brief and approach

Together with the artist collective Francis Karat and the science office of Karlsruhe's economic development agency, ato wrapped selected monuments in orange for 16 days and linked them via QR codes to a digital layer.

Outcome

The strong visual signal in the urban space created low-threshold attention that prompted both reflection and dialogue. Coverage appeared in outlets including BNN and ka-news.

Partner: Science office of Karlsruhe's economic development agency
Artists: Francis Karat (collective)
Location: Karlsruhe town centre
Period: 25 November to 10 December 2025 (16 days)

Culture

Rhineland-Palatinate Triennial 2026

Norina Quinte devises and curates the first statewide art triennial in Rhineland-Palatinate, as part of a curatorial duo.

Background

For the first time, Rhineland-Palatinate gains a statewide format for contemporary art that opens up exhibition spaces in new ways and brings them into dialogue with history.

Brief and approach

Working in a curatorial duo with Carolin Heel, Norina Quinte (ato) devised the triennial and shaped its curatorial direction. From more than 500 submissions, the curatorial team selected 53 artistic positions together with an expert jury. At its heart are new presentation formats and narrative approaches that challenge conventional exhibition practice.

Outcome

The premiere runs from 24 April to 31 May 2026 in Trier, with venues including the Kunsthalle Trier, the Tuchfabrik TUFA, off-spaces and the public realm.

Role: Co-curator Norina Quinte (ato), with Carolin Heel
Organiser: BBK Rheinland-Pfalz
Locations: Trier: Kunsthalle, Tuchfabrik TUFA, off-spaces
Period: 24 April to 31 May 2026
Selection: 53 positions from more than 500 submissions

Curatorial team · Rhineland-Palatinate Triennial 2026