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.

People

Owner: Karin Sander and Martin Lauffer

Completion Date
May 2010

Gross square footage
4520 square feet (420 sq metres)

Total construction cost: withheld

Architect:
Sauerbruch Hutton
Lehrter Strasse 57
10557 Berlin
Germany
t +49 30 397 821 -0
f +49 30 397 821 -30
www.sauerbruchhutton.com

Personnel in architect's firm who should receive special credit:
Matthias Sauerbruch, Louisa Hutton, Juan Lucas Young; Florence Girod, Jörg Albeke, Johanna Mewes

Engineer(s)
Structural engineer: Andreas Külich, Berlin

Services engineer: HHPberlin, Berlin

Consultant(s)
Fire consultant: Weistplan, Berlin

General contractor
TBG GmbH, Berlin

Photographer(s)
Annette Kisling
t +49 30 618 84 18
© Annette Kisling

 

Products

Exterior cladding
Exterior rendering:
Baumit Bayosan Nanopor Putz
www.baumit.de

Roofing
Other:
Parts of the roof are built as green roof
www.bauder.de

Windows
Wood:
Siberian Larch with a paint finish
made by Tischlerei Voigt

Skylights:
JET-TOP 90
www.jet-gruppe.de

Doors
Entrance:
Steel frame door Forster Fuego Light
www.forster-profile.ch

Wood doors:
made by Tischlerei Voigt

Hardware
Door handles:
FSB Produktfamilie 1005
www.fsb.de

Interior finishes
Exposed ceilings (construction):
pre-stressed hollowcore concrete planks
EchoElbe
www.elbe-decken.de

Paints:
Brillux Paint
www.brillux.de

Walls bathroom tiles:
Mutina Teknomosaico
www.agape32.de

Floors finishing:
smoothed screed Euro Cement CM I 32,5R
www.zementwerk.de

Furnishings
Chairs:
CHAOS, chairs and sofa
Konstantin Grcic
www.classicon.com

Lighting
Interior ambient lighting:
Magnum Spot
Konstantin Grcic
www.flos.com

MWSL-Leuchten
www.ellux.de

Lamp Wilhelm Wagenfeld, Bauhaus
www.manufactum.de

Controls:
Circular Light Switch
Konstantin Grcic
www.merten.de

Plumbing
Bath tub and WC:
Philippe Starck
www.duravit.com

Bathroom fittings:
www.steinberg-armaturen.info

Shower fittings:
Axor Starck
www.hansgrohe.de