2007
Atelier Gas Station Bülowstrasse - Berlin - Germany
The gas station from the early 1950s was already targeted for demolition; a massive corner building with twenty-meter-high eaves was to be erected in its place.
Gallerist Juerg Judin thus had to do a lot of convincing of the relevant authorities to receive permission for his historical renovation of the old building. In order to repurpose it for residential use - a gallery, as well as an office - more space was needed.
A slender two-story, rectangular annex was erected alongside the old gas station. The rounded glass façade and the curves of the narrow open roof were restored in the elegance of the fifties.
With its industrial glass façade, the new annex stands in abstract contrast to the gas station. Its formal reduction allows the historic construction to stand out all the more, as if the new were merely a backdrop for the old.