Hamburg Apartment

There's nothing baroque about the neo-baroque apartment of ad-man Wolfgang Behnken of Young & Rubicam, shown below. It is rather an almost miesian gallery of good design, with pieces by the Eames, Florence Knoll, Milo Baughman and Mies as well as a fantastic coffee table by George Nakashima. There are also many outstanding lamps: especially those by Serge Mouille and Christian Dell.

The apartment is mostly painted white, with few carpets and textiles, which really puts focus on the design pieces.  I suppose it does, however, require a certain type of person to live in this sort of almost barren atmosphere, but that does not change the fact that it looks stunning. Mr. Behnken also seems to have two livingrooms - perhaps one being the gentleman's room?

The kitchen and bathrooms are also very plain with their white mosaic tiles, and chairs by brit minimalist Jasper Morrison. Notice the construction-site-type lamps above the mirrors, which are actually of a quite beautiful design.

from ELLE DECOR italia



Sylt House

Ad-Man Wolfgang Behnken of Young & Rubicam, whose Hamburg apartment I posted here, also owns a retreat on the island Sylt (the German equivalent of St. Tropez, Malibu, Båstad ,or what have you) - equally sparsely decorated with 20th century design icons - such as the Florence Knoll sofas, Serge Mouille lamps, and Hans J. Wegner Cowhorn-chairs along Kjaerholm tables. A rare vintage Jean Prouvé  Standard-chair  and desk is seen on the upper floor of this traditional Friezenhaus, and stacks of books and magazines are  scattered around the floor, whilst photography by superstars such as Annie Leibovitz, Richard Avedon and Helmut Newton are to be found here and there on the floor. I'll never understand it. Looks striking though, even though the palette is quite earthy.

from ELLE DECOR italia

Casa del Torkel

Pictures from the Swedish tv-show Antikdeckarna, with actor Torkel Petersson showing off his apartment, furniture, ceramics and his shag (rya) carpet.

Beige Bravoure Part I: Imagined Interior

A formula for a good office.

Boros Bunker

Christian Boros is a contemporary art collector who purchased an astonishing nazi-classisistic bunker on Friedrichstrasse in the centre of Berlin, and converted into a musuem of his collection. Berlin is full of these fortresses, with concrete walls several metres thick, making them virtually indestructible. There are, of course, two sides to this coin, and the solutions can be... creative, if nothing else:

Social housing projects built around one of these bunkers

The Friedrichstrasse bunker was previously used as vegetable storage, and later a club, which, in a city where you'll find bars in manholes, comes as no surprise. When it was renovated, REALARCHITEKTUR saved as much of the original planning as possible, adding only a staircase, an elevator and only small amounts of white paint. And a penthouse. 

The cost of cutting through the roof and removing 150 cubic metres of reinforced concrete is unknown.

pictures from REALARCHITEKTUR

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