Marc Benjamin Drewes und Thomas Schneider
BOX117
best architects 15 in Gold
interior work
Place
Berlin
Photos
Christoph Rokitta
Description
In a former furniture factory in a Berlin back courtyard, this loft was created for a dancer couple with two small children. A flowing kitchen, living room and bedroom area encloses two inserted boxes that hold the acoustically sensitive children’s room and bathroom. The loft character is thus preserved. The 3.4-metre ceiling height was utilised to expand the living area by stacking a storage space and bed alcoves for the children inside the children’s room. The parents’ bedroom can be closed off with a floor-to-ceiling sliding door if desired. The tectonics of oak parquet and cement tile flooring form the base for the minimalistic whitewashed boxes. A shadow gap all around separates these boxes from the original building fabric and establishes them as independent volumes. The raw concrete ceilings and the herringbone pattern of the parquet recall the industrial character of the space. The existing ceilings were painted white. In the kitchen, the former staircase was closed off with a new concrete ceiling. The history of the site remains legible.