Located in Friedrichshain, the building KPS is an "Altbau" ( residential building of the early '900).
As many of the Berlin buildings in the former East Berlin, it underwent the so called “emergency renovation” in the time from the WWII and right after the Fall of the Berlin Wall.
In 2012, it still presented shared bathrooms at mezzanine levels: the building underwent a full renovation from 2012 to 2014, led by the office Planstadt Architekten.
RARE Office has been commissioned to renovate the apartment at the 2nd level of the building facing the street. The apartment presented a typical berlin floorplan with all room revolving around an entrance corridor with no window.
The bathroom, presented a lowered ceiling, due to the presence of the old bathrooms at the mezzanine floor of the building’s staircase. In sequence, kitchen, a storage room and the bedroom followed along the corridor, counter faced by a large living room, another bedroom and another small room.
The client required the division of the property in two units: KPS_L and KPS_M. Aim of the project is to open the space as much as possible, allowing more light into the different rooms.
KPS_L - All the partition walls have been demolished and the floor plan reorganised in order to provide the largest unit (ca. 80 sqmt) with a master bathroom and a guest bathroom, an open kitchen with the possibility of configuration for a guest room, a wardrobe, a bedroom and a living room.
The original door, half sanded and finished with transparent lack, have been reused and converted to sliding doors. Rest material from the original wooden floor (Dielung) and a last door have been reused for the construction of the bathroom cabinets.
