Valentin Loellmann grew up in rural Southern Germany in an artistic family with four siblings. He invested much of his youth in skateboarding rather than schooling, which gave him a sense of space, risk, and adventure and introduced him to the curving concrete modern architecture of skate ramps. When not skating, Loellmann would spend much of his time outdoors, playing and learning within the natural world, as well as at his father’s atelier, where he would experiment with wood and clay offcuts that he found. This pursuit ignited his passion for making. Loellmann went on to study product design at Maastricht Art Academy, completing his studies in 2009. His graduation project, Past Memories, was a suite of furniture assembled from discarded objects and veiled in a coating of white polyester. Much of the work was inspired by his time as an urban explorer in his 20s, which shaped his understanding of space, trust, and energy. Lyrical and ghostly, the collection instantly attracted the attention of several seasoned collectors.

In 2015, Loellmann established Studio Valentin Loellmann in a former hat factory in Maastricht. He now lives in part of the building, which has at its heart a large internal garden planted with flowering trees. The space is primarily used for a series of concerts and serves as a venue for studio invites—a project he is working on with his brother. In 2020, Loellmann purchased an abandoned gas factory in Maastricht, which now houses his workshops. The 1912 building, designed by the important early modernist Dutch architect Jan Gerko Wiebenga, had been abandoned for 50 years.

Loellmann and his team completely rebuilt and renovated the nearly 2,500m² building, which will offer residencies to five artists and a public program of cultural events. The ground floor of the building is 850m², with two levels above and a height of 15m, totalling about 2,500m².