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 — my personal portfolio, but never a closed practice. I learn from others every day, and some projects here grew out of conversations, shared sketches, and hands-on sessions with colleagues and friends.
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 is masonry slang for the valuable thing itself — the object worth shielding. When painters or masons work nearby, they say: "Pack's ans Fleisch" — tape it to the meat. Meaning: protect what matters before paint, dust, or damage can reach it.
I took that literally. My pieces are the meat: objects made to last, to be kept, to be handled with care. That is why I build only with regional, responsibly sourced hardwood — nothing mass-produced, nothing disposable, no harm anywhere in the chain. The name is a promise: what I make is worth protecting.
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.