Some of the original machinery remains in the great hall of the former water pumping station. The platforms from which engineers once supervised machinery are used as a mezzanine office space.
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By CATHRIN SCHAER
“MICHAEL ELMGREEN and Ingar Dragset are artists who have exhibited from New York to Tokyo. But for the last 12 years, the globe-trotting artistic duo, collaborators since 1995, have lived in Berlin. And at a certain point, they decided it was time to buy.
“We were never particularly interested in property investment,” said Mr. Dragset, who is from Norway (Mr. Elmgreen is from Denmark).
The two men, once a couple but now just artistic partners, originally moved to Berlin because it was near Copenhagen, where they had lived, and because it seemed full of energy as well as inexpensive. But after a decade in Berlin, Mr. Dragset said, “We were tired of fixing up spaces and having to leave them after a couple of years.”
And, he added, “both privately, and within our art practice, we love spatial challenges — so we were looking for somewhere we could apply the concepts we had been working with in our art.”
The artists Michael Elmgreen, left, and Ingar Dragset
When they saw an advertisement for the old water-pumping station in a Berlin suburb, a working-class area called Neukölln, the pair’s creative antennae began to twitch. The former pumping station, surrounded by fully grown chestnut trees and flanked by apartment buildings on a residential street, had remained empty since the early 1990s because nobody knew quite what to do with such an oversize hall stuck in the middle of a non-industrial location.
“Almost too good to be true,” Mr. Dragset said. “Especially considering the price, which was ridiculously low compared to any other European capital.” He declined to specify but said it was similar to a typical two-bedroom apartment in Oslo, which is about $700,000. The renovations cost about the same as the purchase price.
The exterior of the 1920s building, located in a Berlin suburb, remained relatively untouched.
Working with two young architects, Nils Wenk and Jan Wiese, whom they met through friends, the two began renovations that took about a year. Fortunately the solid old industrial building was in good condition and drastic structural changes were unnecessary. New wiring, heating and plumbing were needed, but as Mr. Dragset explained, “basically we’ve broken down more walls than we’ve built.”
In the great hall of the former water pumping station, platforms from which engineers supervised machinery are now used as mezzanine office space.
The main space is used for fabricating artworks created by Mr. Elmgreen and Mr. Dragset.
After the initial apprehension at owning their own property, Mr. Dragset said, they began to treat the renovations more like an art project, playing with the space and coming up with clever uses for the former station’s various features. For example, the four large vents in the upper floor once used to ventilate the building have been transformed into a fireplace, a table, a guest bed and an embedded bathtub.
"Both privately, and within our art practice, we love spatial challenges -- so we were looking for somewhere we could apply the concepts we had been working with in our art," Mr. Dragset said.
An art work sits in the main hall, used to rehearse "Drama Queens," a play with Kevin Spacey and Jeremy Irons, done in London.
There’s no clutter: just white walls, glacial light streaming in through old warehouse-style windows, trees silently waving at visitors from the outside and what feels like acres of floor space.
The building is now both home and studio space. Generally, the renovation materials have been inexpensive. Most of the floors are sanded asphalt covered in clear polyurethane that goes with the industrial nature of the building. On one hand, “it’s reminiscent of the building’s industrial history,” Mr. Wenk said. “On the other hand, it’s very economical.” In smaller rooms, the asphalt was sanded more finely, he explained, then tinted to reflect the personal nature of the rooms.
Photo: Mark Simon for The New York Times
Behind the mezzanine office, a kitchen of stainless steel and wood provides room for the studio staff to have working lunches.
The tub in this bathroom was sunk into the floor.
In the attic, a new 16-foot-high window opens fully, creating the feel of a terrace.
"The combination of vast floor space and the small, quirky nooks means you can be very hidden here, or very exposed depending on your moods or needs," Mr. Dragset said.
The farther up and back one goes, the more private the space becomes. The back boasts five levels, including two private areas for the artists, a kitchen, an attic living room and four bathrooms. And the renovated attic space is reminiscent of a playboy’s penthouse. In this upper section, a window in the roof slides back at the push of a button like something out of Dr. Evil’s lair.
“We deliberately made the borders between the work and living spaces fleeting,” Mr. Dragset said. “The combination of vast floor space and the small, quirky nooks means you can be very hidden here, or very exposed depending on your moods or needs.”
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Source: The New York Times
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Looks very cool…….and very cold.