Torstraße 220

Torstraße 220 is a minimalist studio located in Berlin, Germany, designed by Yont Studio. Berlin’s Torstraße carries a particular cultural weight – in the 1990s, squat art houses and legendary clubs like Tacheles defined this stretch of the city, establishing a relationship between spatial experimentation and musical subculture that has quietly persisted. When YONT encountered an Altbau space on this street, concealed beneath the generic surfaces of a conventional real estate office, the practice recognized an opportunity to articulate its spatial philosophy through material archaeology rather than wholesale invention.

The project operates as strategic subtraction. Removing accumulated layers revealed structural scars – uneven brickwork, misaligned plaster, fireplace walls overlaid and patched through decades of occupation. YONT treated these imperfections not as problems requiring correction but as evidence of lived history worth framing. This approach extends vertically as well: removing ceiling material to expose full height transformed compressed rooms into volumes with unexpected monumentality, where the building’s structural character becomes legible again.

This excavation established the rhythm for new interventions. The practice introduced precise custom elements – steel components, built-in furniture, carefully composed joinery – that maintain formal clarity while sitting confidently beside irregular existing surfaces. The approach recalls early modernist spatial thinking, where bespoke built-in elements responded directly to architectural conditions rather than relying on standardized products. Here, custom pieces were developed with local makers and young craftspeople, creating slight variations in material treatment and construction details that preserve human presence within the work.

The program demanded unusual spatial flexibility. As the workspace for a queer house music label, the interior needed to accommodate office functions, record display, a DJ booth, meeting areas, a photo studio, and music production equipment simultaneously. YONT divided the plan into two primary zones – a quieter office area and a more expressive multipurpose space – while maintaining material and atmospheric coherence across both. The space shifts character with sound and occupation, moving between workspace, listening room, and something closer to domestic intimacy.

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