Architect couple renovate their dream residential property in Lübeck
Old building with visible traces gets new minimalistic finishing touch
Nicola Petereit and Jörg Haufe are architects and live and work in Lübeck. The building which they renovated and now live in, reflects their own personal thumbprint: without harming the old structure. A house with a story – a pocket of land with an abandoned painter´s workshop, a ladder store, front-facing house with flats a typical Lübeck-style transept/artist´s workshop which can only be accessed via the inner courtyard. Architecturally and most characteristic for Lübeck, this was a real challenge for the architects. Both architects are committed to the principle of clearly showing which parts of the building are new and which parts are from the past. „I am enchanted by heteronomy which I am exposed to when I come across an old building. I cannot just create something. The house gives me a frame, it changes its opinion during construction work, it brings treasures and it reveals impassibility – that is what I most love to work with“, says Nicola Petereit.
There are centimetre thick layers of paint on the walls and traces of paint on the floors in the former painter’s workshop. Decades in which the paintbrush spread the paint and rollers rolled in paint. Immense aesthetic and ideally valuable relicts emerged out of this for the architects and which, in their opinion, are more than worthy of preservation. All old things kept a rough appearance with visible traces of age, all new things presented a smooth, angular, flat and concise and minimalistic look.
When it came to choosing the bathroom fittings the architects made the decision using the same principle – square and linear, and at the same time as minimalistic as possible. The EDITION 11 wall-mounted fitting at the wash basin was the right choice. IXMO fittings for the shower and bath tub. The unique bundle of functions combined in the KEUCO IXMO innovative technology and a minimalistic design, all in one product.
IXMO makes it possible to reduce the number of elements on the wall to a minimum and a diameter and edge length of only 90mm and a depth of 80mm, the visible parts are impressively small. Particularly attractive for the shower design: all chrome plated fittings parts are the same size. Bathroom furnishings with a strong design behind a charming facade in Lübeck.