When property owners say no, we do the opposite: Johanne and Lena Nalbach

Johanne and her husband Gernot Nalbach originally hail from Austria, but founded their architecture firm in Berlin 50 years ago. Their hotel designs are just one of the things they’re known for. Over 30 years ago, they also inadvertently became hoteliers. Their Seehotel am Neuklostersee is still a timeless lakeside hotel today.

Moritz Nalbach, a cultural studies graduate, and Lena Nalbach, also an architect, are the next generation of the family already playing key roles. Which particularly applies to Kavaliershaus Schloss Blücher on Lake Fincken, the family’s second hotel project.

We met Johanne and Lena Nalbach in their office in Berlin and listened to the eventful history and experience as architects and hoteliers.

Jan Hamer: What prompts architects to become hoteliers – were you bored?

Johanne Nalbach: The Seehotel pretty much fell into our laps. Over three decades ago, Berliner Morgenpost, a German newspaper, ran an ad for two farmhouses on the lake. In Austria, my art project for my school-leaving exam was all about farm types. At the weekends, we used to go to the Mühlviertel region, which featured some very attractive examples.

I enjoyed heading out there. There was a beautiful chestnut tree in front of the Kunstscheune (the cultural events venue), which reminded me very much of Austrian inns. The combination with the lake and farmhouses made a huge impression on me.

Originally, we wanted to use the property ourselves. However, Horst and Rosi, who had run it as a holiday home for the Morgenröte agricultural cooperative for 14 years, would have then lot their jobs. We asked the cooperative what would happen to the old couple. They said they weren’t bothered about them as long as we purchased the property.  But we weren’t prepared to go that far. We’ve designed enough hotels, so thought we’d plan our own little one.

We took our time and it grew at a leisurely pace. And that was what made this project so appealing. Otherwise, when I design hotels under normal circumstances, they have to open the next day. There’s no honeymoon period so to speak – everything has to work perfectly. Our lakeside hotel grew slowly on the other hand. Today, we have 25 units. With the Badescheune (a spa facility) and the holiday homes, we’ve added quite a lot… 

Ulrich Stefan Knoll: Your Kavaliershaus is the second hotel you own. How did that come about?

Johanne Nalbach: Books and magazines that I don’t manage to read during the day are always spread out on my bed. Then, at some point, I discovered the Kavaliershaus auction catalogue. It was such a beautiful, crisply designed building. I didn’t want another beautiful piece of architecture to go to rack and ruin, so I bought it during a 10-minute phone auction.

During the process, my husband came in an asked what I was doing. I told him that we were buying a Kavaliershaus (cavalier’s house) too. Purchasing it was the cheap part, but the amount we ploughed into it was another story. Lena and I then designed the architecture. We tried to preserve as much as possible. However, this proved to be an own goal because the suites are vast and we wanted to change as little as possible. In practical terms, this means they are expensive to heat and hard to manage. But when property owners say no, I do the opposite.

Lena Nalbach: While managing the Kavaliershaus project, I realised that locals were way different to what I was accustomed to on the Mecklenburg coast. People say hello and talk to you. At some point, someone said to me: “Nobody ever comes here. Before, during and after the war, or before and after German reunification, time seemed to stand still here. We’re delighted that you’re refurbishing the building. Many generations of children went to school here.”

“Our guiding principle was to attach enormous importance to the houses’ history and surroundings.”

– Johanne & Lena Nalbach

Johanne Nalbach: Perhaps it’s important to touch on the architectural side. You could say that our guiding principle was to attach enormous importance to the houses’ history and surroundings. In the case of the Kavaliershaus, we wanted to accentuate its aristocratic and GDR-era past.  

The same applied to the Seehotel. Which is why, unlike many other hotels, it goes without saying that we didn’t place design in the foreground there either. Defined by the landscape, the lake and old trees, the building’s real story is rooted in nature. Therefore, its design and materiality had less of a priority. These aspects are evident in the materials we chose for the rooms where we only used cherry, oak, beech and walnut.

Then we have the farmhouse, the new Badescheune and Kunstscheune. In terms of the interior design, each house needs a different response. An approach that makes a reference to what the building once was and will be in the future.

The same applied to the Kavaliershaus. In that case, we had to use other architectural devices because the rooms are absolutely vast. We chose Mecklenburg artists as the underlying theme for the suites. For instance, I took a more intellectual route by playing with Caspar David Friedrich, Otto Lilienthal, Uwe Johnson and Günther Uecker in the hotel rooms.

Ulrich Stefan Knoll: Talking about milestones. I noticed that this year is your firm’s 50th anniversary. Will you be having a party?

Johanne Nalbach: That’s right, we founded the firm in 1975. Back then, we operated from home on Weimarer Strasse. We had small but wonderful commissions, lots of projects based on erstwhile art and architecture programmes. But by we, I mean mostly Gernot. I was still busy with the children. In my case, my projects were small when the kids were young and big when they were older. Which was typical of women’s lives back then.

Jan Hamer: It’s fascinating that these projects turned you into hoteliers in the first place. And you have been for more than three decades. How do you juggle managing those businesses and the architecture firm?

Johanne Nalbach: In the past, running the lakeside hotel and Kavaliershaus simultaneously with the architecture firm wasn’t that time consuming. But it’s the opposite these days. Times have changed and it’s very hard to find staff unfortunately. I’m still at the lakeside hotel almost every weekend. In my opinion, that’s a must. Otherwise, it would be much harder to manage than in the past. You have to be involved in the day-to-day business of the hotel and engage with the 25 members of staff.

Lena Nalbach: The staff are a bit like family. We all know each other well, have spent decades working with each other in some cases and partying together. In Fincken, we’ve had the same chef for almost a decade. He is very attached to the region and the restaurant is his dream.

Jan Hamer: But let’s briefly return to architecture. What makes the lakeside hotel so special is the multi-faceted nature of the project, which has evolved gradually over a long period of time. Do you think the hotel is finished, or are there more plans in the pipeline?

Johanne Nalbach: Just yesterday, I faltered again at the next, tiny hurdle. I’d like to build a garden sauna right on the lake so that you can see the water from a big window. That’s not allowed in outside areas in Mecklenburg, but it is in Schleswig-Holstein. A 50-metre-long strip of the bank has to be kept free, which regrettably makes lakeside views impossible. I’m not allowed to build a solar power facility on the road where the tennis court is either.

Sometimes it feels like nobody in local government circles is prepared to take responsibility any more. When I look back at our time designing the federal press office, I went straight to the top of the fire service. I talked to the fire chief and told him that I understood fire safety, but that some details were illogical and could be done differently. They listened and took responsibility in lots of situations.

Nobody would do that today. Everyone complies with German building law to the letter. People don’t want to be personally responsible for anything.

On the other hand, we architects currently take full responsibility despite planning permission. Local government no longer takes any, so could be a lot more laid back in the run-up to a project. In the past, planning permission gave you some security, but that doesn’t apply nowadays.

“In my view, life is like a theatre. The audience always looks at the stage. There’s always a space in between, which helps me to do my job.”

– Johanne Nalbach

Jan Hamer: We’re currently noticing the emergence of a rising number of cooperative projects or groups of people co-buying real estate. What’s your view of those?

Johanne Nalbach: I think that they will become more and more popular. In such a volatile era, people will increasingly embrace the option to form a community. From an architectural standpoint, I welcome it because you can also engage with people who would otherwise have no touchpoints with architecture. It’s a positive change even if it’s a tough path to follow.

Lena Nalbach: Yes, the concept’s an exciting one. I can see lots of opportunities for transforming existing projects.

Johanne Nalbach: But it needs to be said that Urlaubsarchitektur magazine has done a stellar job at educating lots of people about architecture. In Switzerland and Austria, children are taught something about architecture in primary school already, which isn’t so in Germany. Your magazine has made a huge contribution in this respect. You’re leading in the industry.

Jan Hamer: Thanks for the compliment. We’ll continue to work hard on setting milestones in the future too. And thanks for talking to us.

Johanne Nalbach founded her architecture firm with her husband Gernot Nalbach in Berlin in 1975 after he had been appointed professor at Berlin University of the Arts. He lectured at TU Dortmund University for many decades, from where he spearheaded his autumn academy programme, an international forum based in the lakeside hotel and notorious among students and lecturers alike. Johanne also held an honorary professorship at the University of Kansas. Both were pioneers of the designer hotel concept. They oversaw projects ranging from industrial design to large-scale urban developments, landmarks such as Berlin’s conference centre for the press and the Art’otel Rheinauhafen in Cologne, or the repurposing of existing buildings such as the one belonging to the University of Applied Sciences in Berlin.

Lena Nalbach studied architecture at the Architectural Association in London and the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. She taught interdisciplinary studios at the University of Kentucky and ran a semester abroad programme for two years, which sent students to various European locations. Her projects focused on temporary, nomadic structures, such as a slum based on Austrian building law for a festival and she won first prize for floating architecture at the international building exhibition in Lausitz. If she didn’t have the Kavaliershaus in Fincken, she says her main focus would be ships and reusing ports for the original purpose, as well as natural disasters.

Moritz Nalbach originally did a cultural studies degree at Frankfurt/Oder’s Viadrina university. He’s self taught in many areas. At the lakeside hotel, he sets store by adapting a business that has evolved slowly to the modern realities of AI and mobility.

Interview: The interview was conducted by Jan Hamer and Ulrich Stefan Knoll

Photos: © Balthasar Freise (Cover photo), Seehotel Neuklostersee © Gernot Nalbach (1, 3), Seehotel Neuklostersee © Cyrus Saedi (2), Kavaliershaus Schloss Blücher © Gernot Nalbach (4), Kavaliershaus Schloss Blücher © Cyrus Saedi (5), Kavaliershaus Schloss Blücher © Ben Donath (6), Kavaliershaus Schloss Blücher © Waltraud Stoll (7), Seehotel Neuklostersee © Hanjo Folster (8), Seehotel Neuklostersee © Gernot Nalbach (9), Seehotel Neuklostersee © Reto Gundli (10), Seehotel Neuklostersee © Ken Schluchtmann (11, 12), Seehotel Neuklostersee © Ben Donath (13, 14), Kavaliershaus Schloss Blücher © Henryk Weiffenbach (15), Kavaliershaus Schloss Blücher © Gernot Nalbach (16), Seehotel Neuklostersee © Hauke Dressler (17)