A very special attic was created here in Kreuzberg in collaboration with architect Cornelia Ernst, tailored to the client's taste. First impression: absolute minimalism. Nothing is out of place, nothing obstructs the view. An apartment like a piece of furniture made from a single piece of oak. After climbing five floors, you enter this retreat and find yourself in a hallway with a bright window strip at the top that opens up the view to the sky. It leads into a large, open space that includes the kitchen and dining area. To the right is a spacious west-facing roof terrace, to the left an open-plan living room, which – also minimalist in design – contains only a generous corner sofa upholstered in cognac-coloured leather. This room can be transformed into a cinema: a projector integrated into the ceiling projects the images onto the wall, while two elegant speakers and invisible loudspeakers create surround sound. Incidentally, everything here is hidden or camouflaged; the light sources are concealed behind hollow-like recesses in the walls. There are no visible doors either; both the room doors and the built-in furniture are equipped with a push-to-open mechanism. All floors are made of oiled oak, ceiling-high vertical wooden walls are made of narrow individual elements, also made of oak, but glazed white here. The wooden elements do not reveal whether they are a door or a fixed section. This can only be determined by "pushing" them. The light strip on the ceiling is 16 metres long. Of this, 8.5 metres is hallway, behind whose wooden wall two bedrooms, a study and two cloakrooms are hidden. These rooms, facing east towards the street, have a slight slope and – like the "cinema living room" – blackout blinds, which can be used to completely darken the rooms during the day if required. The shorter part of the L-shaped hallway leads to the large bedroom at terrace level and to the large bathroom and utility room with washing machine and drying room. Here, as in the long section of the hallway, one side is glazed oak and the opposite side is painted white. Heating is provided by an air heat pump that feeds underfloor heating. The client has added many small additional features to his smart home system, such as music in all rooms – a piece of cake for the trained programmer. Last but not least, there is also a self-cleaning litter tray for the four-legged residents.

www.ernst-architekten.com

Photography Credits:

Babett Köhler
www.b-koe.de

Dominique Guglieri
v1.dg-artwork.de

Maria Jauregui Ponte
www.mariajaureguiponte.de

(Published in CUBE Berlin 03|21)