The Green Box

The apartment uses strong colors, natural materials, precise planning, contrasts of cool and warm – and a few surprises. By locating a single but complex green millwork box at the center of the long apartment, circulation can flow around all sides and the design makes the most of existing material conditions. The palette of rich colors and materials contrasts with neutral raw concrete walls and ceilings to harmonize cool and warm.

Before Ester Bruzkus Architekten transformed the top-floor apartment into a cozy home for a Berlin couple living a vegan lifestyle, the empty apartment had floor to- ceiling windows on two sides and exposed concrete walls on the other sides. It was raw and cool and open - and there was something nice about that to hold onto in the new design. So rather than create a series of conventional rooms that would close off the sense of openness, a single millwork box was positioned away from the walls to make rooms between it and the existing walls. The box, lacquered in a deep green, works with warm golds and violets and brown tones to play off the cool concrete ceiling and wall, contrasting materials and colors, and carefully crafted details to make a home that is at once cool and cozy.

By locating a single but complex green millwork box at the center of the long apartment, circulation can flow around all sides. In the box are hidden all the kitchen and bath services; around it are public rooms that face a view of the city on two sides and, on the interior, a more private enfilade of rooms for bathing. The palette of rich colors contrasts with neutral raw concrete walls and ceilings; in addition to the deep green of the central millwork are richly colored natural quartzite stones, terrazzo, brass, botanical silks and colorful fabrics designed by Josef Frank.

Lead Architects: Ester Bruzkus, Peter Greenberg