<p>Galerie Berinson has relocated. The new premises, inside a historic Gründerzeit building in Charlottenburg, have once again been designed by Gonzalez Haase AAS, who also conceived the interior design of the former gallery on Lindenstrasse. But the new ground-floor location is fundamentally different from the old one: whereas the former loft-like spaces allowed for a maximum degree of free expression, the new location — a former apartment in Schlüterstrasse, with parquet flooring and stuccowork ceilings — is distinguished by its pre-modern floor plan. In other words, the space is somewhat old-fashioned. So while the architects had supplied the more contemporary premises in Lindenstrasse with warm light, offering a contrast to the coldness of the loft, they’ve given Schlüterstrasse an entirely different tonality: the anachronistic spaces have been furnished with a cool lighting scheme, installed according to a strict order. The new design as a whole is distinguished by its clarity, simplicity, and rigor, minimizing turn-of-the-century bric-a-brac and simultaneously generating continuity. In doing so, Gonzalez Haase AAS pursues an approach that characterizes all their work: spatial vitality emerges from drawing precise contrasts, from subtly coordinated tensions.</p>

<p>Galerie Berinson exhibits artists from the twentieth-century avant-garde; the design of the space is meant to reinforce these artists’ contemporary relevance. The gallery’s main axis is a long wall that cuts through the middle of the former apartment. This axis is the defining element of the space; all the walls, passages, fixtures, and track lights are oriented around it. The exhibition rooms are aligned along one side of the axis; on the other side are the entry area and an open-plan office with a visible storage area. All the built-ins and walls that weren’t part of the building’s loadbearing structure were removed. The most obvious removal and excavation took place in the entry area, which was restored to its original condition: an open room with windows facing the courtyard and a round archway leading to the office area. The exhibition rooms are organized as small, self-enclosed cabinets. The original connections between the rooms—double doors in the middle of the walls—were closed up and replaced by new, neutral openings that lead from one room to  another along the central axis. Other equally sized passages through the main axis create additional connections from each of the three rooms to the entry/office/storage area. This results in a process of circulation around the main axis that creates varied spaces while simultaneously linking them together. The cabinet-like exhibition rooms address the need to give the artworks, mostly framed pictures, an appropriately concentrated showcase, while the open lobby, office, and storage area draws on contemporary loft design with flexible floor plans—two contrasting ideas of spatial design that Gonzalez Haase AAS brings together in a single location with the help of a connecting wall. This lends the gallery an apparent size that extends far beyond its actual 147 square meters.</p>

<p>Yet it’s not just the wall that connects the spaces; so too does the structure of light distribution. Four track lights run in parallel lines through the gallery—two on the exhibition side, two on the office/storage side. The built-ins are made of plywood finished with oak veneer, another play of contrasts. The material, which at first glance looks lavish, displays its thrifty innards at the cut edges. The shelves of the storage racks protrude slightly over the frames, as if the shelves were left in their unfinished state. This impression is heightened by the transparent rear panels that don’t conceal the works stored within and don’t block the daylight as it’s guided from one end of the space to another. The built-ins themselves are also  characteristic of the designers. For Gonzalez Haase AAS, such installations aren’t furniture—they instead become a part of the architecture, serving to separate, organize, and structure space through their size, design, and form.</p>

<p>The cool precision of the light, the duality of the spatial design, the use of simple materials, and the concentration on details lend the old building a contemporary character that integrates the historical art into a present-day discourse.</p>
