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with what existed without being loud or glaringly colourful.” On the outside, the old
window frames had been painted green, with typical industrial and rust-protection
paint that is often found in the cityscape of Cologne – for instance as a protection
paint at the bridges over the Rhine. The architects named this light shade of green
“bridge green” and also used it inside the building, for instance for the kitchen island.

Place of retreat and multifunction living area

On the upper floor of the gate house where, in the former offices and sketching rooms
of the artist/smith, there was space for two bedrooms and a bathroom, the designers
used the same greyish green as a monochrome coat of paint on floors, walls, ceilings,
stairs and banisters. The consistent colour visually brings the individual elements
together and makes the relatively small rooms look more spacious. Like on the upper
level, on the lower level, which is illuminated by daylight, in addition to a storage
room, a workshop and the laundry room, there are zones for retreating with a ham-
mam and a large reading room. The former workshop, a space measuring 9 by 27
metres without any supports and covered by a six-span wooden shed roof with sky- Arbeiten, Essen, Entspannen – in der ehemaligen Werkhalle ... • Working, eating, relaxing – in the workshop ...
lights, was in the course of the conversion further developed by the architects into a
loft-like “universal room”, a living space with a variety of uses. “Home office, living
room, long dining table – the individual zones easily merge and deliberately do not
have a fixed place in the hall”, according to Bernhardt. “The room such flexibly
adapts to a wide variety of living situations, it can be used on one’s own or with visi-
tors, even for parties or exhibitions.” Similar to the kitchen, the yellow work islands
was built according to plans by the architects and contributes to structuring the area
which, from time to time, even turns into a showroom for displaying the client’s pro-
ducts – BMX bicycles. Neutral major structures, serving additional purposes as requi-
red by the residents and flexibly used and converted, are a further fundamental inte-
rest of BeL – and was, for instance, also the topic of their NEUBAU installation at the
Biennale of Architecture in Venice in 2016.
.... passiert alles auf einmal und bei Bedarf noch mehr. • ... everything happens at once and, if needed, even more.
Constructional interventions

For the adaptation to the modern-day energy standard, both parts of the building had
to be retrofitted. To keep above all the historic brick walls of the gate building visible,
the hall as well as the gate house was insulated from the inside with great expendi-
ture. Then there was the renewal of the roof construction including new roof sealing
and, instead of the clouded skylight glazing, insulated clear glass today brings day-
light into the living hall. The largest intervention into the existing fabric of the ensem-
ble was finally the demolition of a derelict span – the rear shed-roof segment of the
workshop. In this area, the preservation order did not apply which made it possible
to add an inner courtyard into the building complex. The roof of the hall, formerly
walled on all four sides, was thus shortened by one of the wooden supports and clo-
sed with three large glass sliding doors which, in fair weather, can be opened wide
and extend the interior towards the outside. In the seclusion of the inner courtyard,
a light-flooded exterior space is thus created, with a shower, an outdoor kitchen and
a water basin. Protected from the eyes of the neighbours, right in the urban context
a place for sunbathing, playing, splashing and barbecuing was thus created.
Grundriss Erdgeschoss • Ground Floor Plan Das hintere Segment wurde geöffnet und zum Außenraum. • The rear segment became an outside space.

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