When I first arrived at the Akademie Schloss Solitude near Stuttgart, Germany, I was struck by a flamboyant baroque and rococo construction. From a tree-lined avenue, one sees the cream-cake-like layering of arches and ornament of the Solitude Palace, commissioned by Herzog Karl Eugen between 1763 and 1767. Today, 30 artists and architects are in residence at the academy.

This setting provides a different kind of inspiration from that of a city. The Akademie Schloss Solitude, founded 1990 and situated in a wing of Eugen's pleasure palace, is the most silent place I have lived or worked. My favorite view is out from our studios on the back side of the castle complex toward the forested nature reserve.

For March 19th 2005, the city of Stuttgart organized a "long night of museums," when tour buses took the public around to nearly every cultural institution in the city until 2 a.m. The academy residents launched a group project for an installation in the "Römerstrasse" gallery. I suggested that the space, previously used as an industrial laundry shop, be presented as a "model apartment." In this fictitious residential interior, artists, designers, filmmakers, architects, and scientists installed pieces for only that one night. They were not frescoes but provocative ideas to inspire visitors — who might have been looking for new ideas for private interiors — in unexpected ways.