CONVERSION OF AN OLD LOCKSMITH SHOP
The many lives of a building
This 1931 building located in the Berliner neighborhood of Neukölln was born as a set of garages to then become an art warehouse and exhibition hall , later a locksmith shop , and finally to fall into disuse until a small group of artists and creatives acquired it in 2018 to convert it into workshops and apartments for their own use .
Courtyard inside courtyard . The U-shaped construction around a central patio as if it were a “ Dreiseitenhof ” ( a traditional type of rural farm ) is located inside a larger urban block , “ as in the layers of an onion ” as described by David Byrne in his “ Bicycle Diaries ”. Its east and north wings have a single floor , while its west wing has two since the offices of the old garages were originally located on its upper floor .
A new skin according to the old Japanese tradition . Apart from the introduction of a series of structural reinforcements to guarantee the stability of the building , the original masonry façade has been thermally insulated using 20cm wood fiber panels and sealed with a charred pine wood formwork following the traditional Japanese technique called Shou Sugi Ban . This method , which emerged in Japan in the Edo era around the 17th century , consists of carbonizing the outer layer of the wood to provide a protective patina both against weather and insects . In this project , the wooden planks come from the Usedom region by the Baltic Sea where a local carpenter has recovered and reinterpreted that tradition using pine from local forests .
12 - www . refurbandrestore . co . uk