They emerge from curiosity, craftsmanship and time.
Some remain unique. Some can be rebuilt if someone values the work enough to make it possible.
I am one of two behind ACG Connect — a celebration collective that grew out of ACG Rules, our music label. ACG Meat emerged from that same world as something new: a further branch of ACG as a whole, but distinct from it. Where ACG Connect is about gathering and ACG Rules is about music, ACG Meat is about objects. Things made by hand, from wood, from curiosity, from time. This is the work of Kai Marksteiner. Not collective, not collaborative. A single person building things that insist on existing.
At thirteen I started building a treehouse around a tree. The best form for that is a circle — but a circle is difficult to build from straight beams. The hexagon was not a stylistic decision; it was the most direct way to make a circle buildable in wood. Years later, the same hexagon returned as a lamp. That is how this studio works: a shape, a memory, or a person quietly insists on becoming an object.
Meat comes from the vocabulary of masonry — the protective tape laid around whatever is worth shielding while work happens nearby. We re-read the word: a living thing, worth protecting. Our pieces are made with that in mind — only regional, responsibly sourced wood; no animal suffering anywhere in the chain.
Every piece is a unicate. Nothing is produced in advance. When a piece is commissioned, the work begins — hand-built in Karlsruhe, signed, numbered, delivered with the story it carries.
Prices are on request. A deposit is paid up front to share the cost of materials and start the work. The remaining balance is only due once you have seen the finished piece and approved its quality. Trust is built into the price.
Usually within two days. For commissions a longer conversation will follow.
The studio is based in Karlsruhe, Germany.
Write with a short description of what you have in mind. We talk. If it fits, a deposit starts the work.
topview began as a question: what is the simplest geometry that lets a circle be built from straight beams? The answer was a hexagon — six equal triangles of two-metre planks, assembled around a living spruce. A pure wood construction, built from first principles. Clad in horizontal larch boards, insulated, a raw table of whole-trunk slabs inside, a hanging chain. A room above the ground, built with what was at hand. Started at thirteen. Still growing. The name comes from the only view that reveals the full geometry — looking straight down from above.
| Year | 2020 — ongoing |
| Form | Hexagonal, 6 × 2 m beams |
| Structure | Solid wood frame |
| Cladding | Larch, horizontal planks |
| Glazing | Plexiglas panels |
| Insulation | Mineral wool |
| Interior | Whole-trunk slab table, chain swing |
| Status | Ongoing — private use |
A personal architectural project shown as part of the studio's ongoing archive of built work. Not a product for sale.
Get in touchtopview is a personal architectural project, built and inhabited. Not a product in the traditional sense.
A proposal for the redesign of the underpass on Steinhäuser Straße in Karlsruhe — a space that exists between infrastructure and city life, between transit and pause. The project asks what an underpass can be when it stops merely serving movement and begins to hold it. The intervention works with light, section, and layered programme to transform a residual space into a threshold worth crossing. Shown here as a physical model and as part of the architecture portfolio.
| Type | Bachelor thesis proposal |
| Site | Steinhäuser Str., Karlsruhe |
| Programme | Underpass redesign |
| Model | Cardboard, balsa wood |
| Scale | 1:200 |
| Year | 2025 — 2026 |
The complete portfolio is available to view below — the full documentation of the proposal.
View portfolioAn academic proposal. The model photographs show the physical study model built during the design process.
Bachelor Architektur 2026 · Kai Marksteiner · ABK Stuttgart · Aufgabe A
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topsix takes its name from the six edges of its hexagonal crown. The form originates from a treehouse I began building at thirteen. Three rotated hexagons stacked along a single axis, tapering upward. Made from two different regional solid hardwoods. Light filters through the slats and lays geometric shadows on whichever wall is willing to receive them. Signed, numbered and dated on the inner frame.
| Name | topsix |
| Art. Nr. | 01 |
| Ø Diameter | Ø 395 mm |
| Form | 3 stacked, rotated hexagons — tapering upward |
| Material | Two regional solid hardwoods, brass |
| Light | 2700 K, dimmable |
| Finish | Oil, hand-rubbed |
| Edition | Unicate, signed & numbered |
Each piece is made to order. A deposit is paid up front. The remaining balance is only due once you have seen and approved the finished piece.
Request as unicateEvery piece is a unicate, made to order. The final object may differ slightly from the photographs.
top square takes its name from its origin — a single 70 × 70 cm square, cut diagonally and re-set into a sculptural corpus that hangs from a steel rod above. The booth was born as the answer to a problem: our atelier rooms were too large to solve the acoustic question as a whole. Instead of treating the room, I designed an object you step into — the microphone lives inside with you. The photographs are also still lifes of our atelier. The paintings, the space, the light — they are part of the work.
| Name | top square |
| Approach | Object, not room |
| Total height | approx. 200 cm |
| Upper corpus | 70 × 70 cm squares, diagonally split & re-set — max. height 140 cm |
| Base | approx. 50 × 50 cm |
| Structural rod | Steel, Ø 20 mm |
| Shell | OSB |
| Interior | Acoustic foam, egg-crate profile |
| Edition | Unicate, signed & numbered |
Each piece is made to order. A deposit is paid up front. The remaining balance is only due once you have seen and approved the finished piece.
Request as unicateEvery piece is a unicate, made to order. The final object may differ slightly from the photographs.
A stepper motor, brought to life from first principles. The electronics — Arduino, motor driver, voltage converter — are assembled by hand and housed inside a custom enclosure designed in CAD, printed in black PLA, and closed on three of four sides with Plexiglas panels. The result is a functioning unit that makes its own mechanics visible. Nothing is hidden. The wiring, the driver board, the logic — all legible through the glass. A study in control: precise, repeatable, silent.
| Controller | Arduino |
| Driver | Motor driver board |
| Power | Voltage converter, 230V AC input |
| Motor | NEMA stepper motor |
| Housing | 3D-printed PLA, custom CAD design |
| Glazing | Plexiglas, 3 of 4 sides |
| Drive | GT2 belt & pulley system |
| Edition | Prototype, unicate |
This piece is shown as a technical object and study. Contact the studio if you are interested in a custom version or a similar commission.
Get in touchA working prototype. Electronics are exposed and intended to be visible. Not a consumer product.
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