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Architect Julian Bächle Is Expanding the Art of Space-Making

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To open the Berlin chapter of his family’s storied architecture practice, bächlemeid, Julian Bächle moved into a former gallery at Kurfürstenstraße 142, at the core of the Potsdamer Straße arts district. Soon after, he activated the semi-subterranean space with an exhibition of contemporary collectible European furniture design. The move exemplifies his expansive view of space-making – partially cultivated under the wings of John Pawson and Virgil Abloh – which slips through the barriers between creative disciplines. On a private tour of the bächlemeid Berlin office, Julian opened up to Ignant on his foray into the city’s art milieu, his no-repeat approach to architecture, and the abandoned building he’d most like to revitalize.

IN SITU

The six glassy towers that form the building dubbed ‘Kufu 142’ have claimed their place at the heart of Berlin’s Potsdamer Straße gallery district since their completion in 2022 by June-14 Meyer-Grohbrügge & Chermayeff. The upper-floor apartments, all double-height and both vertically and horizontally interconnected, introduce a fresh configuration for modular residential living. At street level, a clutch of Berlin’s power players such as Sam Chermayeff Office, New Tendency and Galerie Molitor, activate the striking concrete street-front spaces through their respective imprints, opening the building up to the street and the communities that move through it.

In January 2024, a new name appeared on one of the doors: bächlemeid. This marks the Berlin satellite of the Konstanz practice founded by Martin Bächle and Karin Meid-Bächle in 1991, now led together with their son, Julian Bächle. While carrying forward the core values of the original practice, the Berlin branch, which Julian helms, breaks new ground in its expansive approach to architecture that embraces interior and industrial design, image-making, and curation.

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Triangle lounge by Sam Chermayeff Office, B2 Bench by Hannes Roeder

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Bar Marsèll by Gonzalez Haase AAS, Light B622 by Stefan Damnig

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Lola Light by ANALOG x Gonzalez Haase AAS, Triangle lounge by Sam Chermayeff Office

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Calypso Light by Frederik Fialin

ARCHITECT AS CURATOR

During Berlin Art Week in September 2024, Julian turned his office into a gallery hosting the exhibition “Everyday Exquisite”, an assemblage of whip-sharp furniture and collectible design objects. The line-up reads as a who’s who of European design’s avant-garde: Frederik Fialin, New Tendency, Sam Chermayeff, ertlundzull’s, Boris Petrovsky, Bottone, Studio Bergob, Gonzalez Haase AAS, 6:am glassworks, Hannes Roeder, Umberto Bellardi Ricci, Stefan Damnig, and Lehni, whose furniture also comprises the overall fit-out.

“It’s about how we can rethink the everyday and elevate everyday objects,” says Julian of the intention behind the show. “All of the works can be understood as a shelf, a bench, a chair, a vase. They have a refinement to them that makes them extraordinary. They’re somewhere between function and art.” The response – a vernissage showing of 500 attendees, multiple pieces sold in the first few days – confirmed Julian’s hunch that there’s more room to be made for collectible design in Berlin.

ACROSS DISCIPLINES

Julian’s distinct multidisciplinary focus has its roots in his six-year stint at London’s Architectural Association School of Architecture (AA), which he embarked on at 18. In the tradition of Bauhaus, it was heavily multifaceted. “In the first year, architecture was not understood as a practice that was simply about building constructing, designing, buildings, but involved fields such as design, photography, drawing, print, video,” he recounts. “These starting points continued along the way, and I tried to follow all of them.”

His pursuit led him to undertake stints with such iconoclasts as the late Virgil Abloh and John Pawson. From each trailblazer he took formative lessons. From Abloh it was “this multidisciplinary approach that is architecture is not only for building, but it includes fashion, music, design. For me, he is the one that opened up this field of architecture to a new generation,” he notes. From Pawson, he learned the nuances of essentialism. “He’s so good at making something look simple. It’s very difficult to do that.”

A year-long internship between his undergrad and graduate degrees at Berlin firm Sauerbruch Hutton exposed him to systems thinking and creating at scale. He returned to London to complete his Master’s degree, and on graduating, felt a pull back to Germany – “also because of Brexit”. His debut solo project saw him do the interior for the contemporary Sri Lankan restaurant Sathutu, owned by his partner, Lisa Baladurage. “We did that during Covid, when all restaurants were closed everywhere and she had the idea to open a restaurant,” he laughs, before quickly noting its success since.

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Calypso Light by Frederik Fialin, Streetlight Table by Sam Chermayeff Office

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Mano Wall Sconce by Umberto Bellardi Ricci

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Inhale / Exhale Gen2 by ertlundzull, Tisch Flex 2.0 by Lehni, Booth C480 by Stefan Damnig, Twin System by Studio Bergob

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Tiny Greenhouse & Triangle lounge by Sam Chermayeff Office, Aluminium Shelf by Lehni

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Tower Plant by Gonzalez Haase AAS

CULTURAL PROGRAM

On joining Berlin practice ROBERTNEUN™, where he learned “to really think in structure first, with a sensibility for scale – no bells and whistles, nothing added on top”, he was designated as Project Architect for Studio IIII, a club and cultural space on Potsdamer Straße that would catapult him into the district he calls home, and allow him to contribute to its creative evolution. At the building’s center is a flexible club space featuring a bar and DJ booth surrounded by four-meter-high walls stretching a total of forty meters long to accommodate video projections. So far, they’ve been illuminated by the likes of artist Julian von Bismarck, Harry Nuriev of Crosby Studios, electronic music pioneer Dixon and Copenhagen experimental pop trio WhoMadeWho.

The idea to open an off-shoot of his parents’ office had been on the backburner for a while. “After getting a chance to get experience from different points during the last ten years, it was the moment to say, let’s do something together,” he reflects. The space at Kufu 142 revealed itself during a lunchtime stroll. “I knew Sam [Chermayeff], knew the building. There was a small sign in the window here that said “Commercial unit for rent”. I sent an email, met the owner, and we immediately had a connection.”

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Vase 1-3 by Hannes Roeder, Springloaded Light by Frederik Fialin, Mulino by bottone

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Vase 1-3 by Hannes Roeder

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Springloaded Light by Frederik Fialin

CONFIGURATIONS OF SPACE

With his tenancy secured and his first employee, Leonard Palm, hired, the Berlin branch of bächlemeid was born. Julian instantly intuited the potential of the new office. “I like that it has visibility and an opportunity to send a signal back to the city,” he reflects. Setting up an office in a subterranean space posed the challenge of minimal daylight. The only unit within Kufu without the luxury of a double-height ceiling, it was designed for a gallery rather than a dedicated workspace – great for Julian’s curatorial ambitions, less so for a dedicated working environment. “It’s tricky. It’s a basement, with no windows. How can we feel well?” he asks. “We created a very distinct accentuation of light where it’s important.”

The approach is indicative of how he works with light on client projects. “The best light is when you don’t realize it’s there,” he muses, “We work a lot with hiding lights, indirect light and thinking about light very much as a material. It’s integrated into the early design phase in order to illuminate every space in its best way.” He pauses. “But maybe the question is also about shadow, right?” he reflects, referencing the Japanese understanding of light, which reveres shadow. “Here, too, less is more. It’s more about clear gestures and simple arrangements that highlight the architectural qualities.”

NEW FROM OLD

In parallel to establishing the Berlin spin-off practice, Julian co-leads the firm’s projects based out of Konstanz, which he visits monthly. Whether designing a kindergarten, restoring a theater or developing housing, Julian characterizes his approach as starting afresh every time. “It’s always about trying to find the right approach for the required use for this specific audience at a specific time. The output can be different, but there are common themes. There’s a need to give everything its own kind of autonomy. Whether an object, a building or an exhibition, it should stand as a whole, and articulate a certain approach or position towards its surroundings while integrating itself into its context.”

Adaptive reuse has become a specialty of bächlemeid. “The starting point is always the existing city – the existing context – also out of very simple necessity: Limited resources,” he notes. “The most sustainable building is the one that’s already there. When approaching a refurbishment or extension, “we always go through an existing building and try to identify quantities that we don’t want to move, that we maybe even want elevate or highlight or that were not perceived before,” he says, “We’re looking for treasures in this existing fabric that no-one has been seen before. We see ourselves as archaeologists. It’s forensic work.”

If Julian could renovate any existing building, it would be the Marcel Breuer-built former IBM Research Centre on the Côte d’Azur, which has sat on the rocks, abandoned, for a decade. “Nothing’s happening here,” Julian says. “It’s massive, it takes an hour just to walk around. Nature is taking it back. No one is looking at it, really.” The building is 40 minutes away from the Cap Moderne foundation, which looks after Eileen Grey’s Villa E-1027, and the nearby Cabanon and camping units of Le Corbusier. “I was 5 or 6 when we visited Villa E-1207,” Julian recalls. “Nothing was there. We climbed over the fence. It was abandoned, there were squatters, there was graffiti on the wall.” Over the past decades, the foundation has dedicated itself to the villa’s painstaking restoration, bringing it back to its near-original state and opening it to visitors via guided tours.

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Anti Sidetable by ertlundzull

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In & Out Chair by bottone

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Hammer Table by Studio Bergob

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Hammer Table by Studio Bergob, Anti Sidetable & Zinc Stands by ertlundzull, Iconeon 33 by Boris Petrovsky, NMAQ2 Coffee Table by NM3 x Breccia Medicea Dell’Acquasanta

NEXT GENERATION

Today, Julian carries these inspirations forward through teaching. Together with Leonhard Clemens, he runs an AA Visiting School at the Cap Moderne that embodies his multidisciplinary focus. Under the banner of ‘Maintenance – Forms of Transformation and Adaptation’, this year’s program “looked at the series of buildings that were built between 1920 and 1970 from the perspective of today,” he says. Referencing a suite of architectural icons in the region, including the Cap Moderne ensemble, the Fondation Maeght, Antti Lovag’s Palais Bulles for Pierre Cardin, and Breuer’s abandoned Research Centre, “we looked of how each has transformed over time, what we can learn from them, and how we can translate that into how we design buildings today.”

The summer school is one of several of Julian’s teaching engagements. He previously taught at Studio Stéphanie Bru and Universität der Künste Berlin (University of the Arts) and is a guest critic at schools across Europe. “I think there’s a very exciting new generation coming up that fully grew up in the digital age,” he says of his students. “I was building with wooden blocks when I was a child. There was still something analog and physical to it. They’re starting with digital immediately. So there’s a faster pace, because it has much more open-mindedness towards transformation towards change.”

Bringing it back to his vocation, “architecture has a rigidity to it, right?” he reflects. “Maybe this more ephemeral and radical approach will be good for the profession.” That said, fresh eyes and broad horizons still feel close to his own fledgling practice. “Maybe from an exhibition, we can already see some ideas, and the next step would be scaling it up, out of the interior and design world into a building,” he says, a glimmer in his eye. “I have the feeling that it’s point zero. Everything’s just about to come together.”

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