Berlin, Germany
In a former Prussian military uniform factory, the largest building in a group of brick barracks that has been gradually rebuilt by several artists and architects since the 1970s, the architects have created a 4,520-square-foot, distinctive studio and residence for the conceptual artist Karin Sander. Sauerbruch Hutton has renovated and extended other parts of this same building, creating contemporary and flexible architecture offices for their firm.
Design concept and solution: The artist’s penthouse studio and residence unfolds across two floors with a robust but refined and sensuous materiality designed to foster a professional yet homelike atmosphere. Karin Sander sees her living spaces as being part of the creative zone; the smaller, more protected spaces of the residence are used for quiet concentration and complement the wide studios where works can be constructed and viewed at some distance. A cast concrete wall clearly separates the capacious studios from the more intimate spaces, and also, as a key structural element, enables generous spans throughout. A single opening in the concrete wall leads from the residence directly into the raised reference library that overlooks the main studio—one of two, each 18 feet high.
Outside, the façade adopts the rhythm of the original listed brick industrial building, while remaining clearly defined in color, materiality, and detail. The lower part of the building retains its original Prussian brickwork with white-painted timber windows, while the blue-grey rendered skin of the new extension above, with its flush-set windows, clearly lends a new identity to the whole.
PeopleOwner: Karin Sander and Martin Lauffer
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MWSL-Leuchten
Lamp Wilhelm Wagenfeld, Bauhaus
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