From an article in the New York Times:

When they saw an advertisement for the old water-pumping station in a Berlin suburb, a working-class area called Neukölln, the pair’s creative antennae began to twitch. The former pumping station, surrounded by fully grown chestnut trees and flanked by apartment buildings on a residential street, had remained empty since the early 1990s because nobody knew quite what to do with such an oversize hall stuck in the middle of a non-industrial location.

“Almost too good to be true,” Mr. Dragset said. “Especially considering the price, which was ridiculously low compared to any other European capital.” He declined to specify but said it was similar to a typical two-bedroom apartment in Oslo, which is about $700,000. The renovations cost about the same as the purchase price.

Working with two young architects, Nils Wenk and Jan Wiese, whom they met through friends, the two began renovations that took about a year. Fortunately the solid old industrial building was in good condition and drastic structural changes were unnecessary. New wiring, heating and plumbing were needed, but as Mr. Dragset explained, “basically we’ve broken down more walls than we’ve built.”

After the initial apprehension at owning their own property, Mr. Dragset said, they began to treat the renovations more like an art project, playing with the space and coming up with clever uses for the former station’s various features. For example, the four large vents in the upper floor once used to ventilate the building have been transformed into a fireplace, a table, a guest bed and an embedded bathtub.

There’s no clutter: just white walls, glacial light streaming in through old warehouse-style windows, trees silently waving at visitors from the outside and what feels like acres of floor space.

The building is now both home and studio space. Generally, the renovation materials have been inexpensive. Most of the floors are sanded asphalt covered in clear polyurethane that goes with the industrial nature of the building. On one hand, “it’s reminiscent of the building’s industrial history,” Mr. Wenk said. “On the other hand, it’s very economical.” In smaller rooms, the asphalt was sanded more finely, he explained, then tinted to reflect the personal nature of the rooms.

The farther up and back one goes, the more private the space becomes. The back boasts five levels, including two private areas for the artists, a kitchen, an attic living room and four bathrooms. And the renovated attic space is reminiscent of a playboy’s penthouse. In this upper section, a window in the roof slides back at the push of a button like something out of Dr. Evil’s lair.

“We deliberately made the borders between the work and living spaces fleeting,” Mr. Dragset said. “The combination of vast floor space and the small, quirky nooks means you can be very hidden here, or very exposed depending on your moods or needs.”

Related posts:

1. So much nicer than your house.   Frank Lloyd Wright’s La Miniatura (The Millard House), offered for sale at a cool $7,733,000 in Pasadena, CA by...
2. Redesigning New York A couple new tower designs that caught my brother’s eye: First off, architectural powerhouse Werner Herzog’s first high-rise tower: It’s...
3. Interesting angle. This photo was used by someone to show the amount of space that the Cogswell Interchange wastes in the...
4. A fourth Apple Store in New York New York City’s fourth Apple Store opened in the city’s Upper West Side yesterday, and it boasts the largest...
5. The perfect home? Otter Cove Residence by Sagan Piechota Architecture OK. Sagan Piechota Architecture might be the best architecture firm in the world. It’s fronted by Loring Sagan and...