AD | ALICE BUCKNELL
From the sacred digs of König Gallery’s past life as a 1960s Brutalist church, to the Hamburger Bahnhof’s ribcage-like cavernous expanse, Berlin is in no short supply of hardcore concrete chambers ripe for art-world makeovers. But Sammlung Boros stands out against its enlightened grungy brethren for its distinct blurring of public and private space: In addition to the four-story art gallery, the Bunker is bedecked with its owner’s bespoke penthouse apartment, a rooftop addition that oozes an understated luxury.
Originally an air raid bunker in the 1940s, the building was first converted into a tropical fruit warehouse during the East German (GDR) era, when it was known to locals as the “Banana Bunker.” After German reunification, the bunker housed Berlin’s burgeoning techno and rave subcultures, with its notorious blackout parties soon earning it the title of the “hardest club in the world.” Retiring early from its nightclub phase, the bunker went on the market in the early 2000s, when it was quickly snapped up by the collector power couple Christian and Karen Boros. They tapped Jens Casper from local gallery specialist architects Casper Mueller Kneer (the forces behind White Cube Bermondsey and longtime collaborators with Céline), who converted the building into its current gallery getup, adding the panoramic penthouse apartment on its rooftop…. read more
Images | Courtesy of Noshe