The project of the exhibition spaces next to kitev's social cultural space - Unterhaus, started when the previous renter of the space moved out in summer 2019. There we saw the oportunity to size up our Unterhaus spaces. But this time for another purpose - Galery!
There came the oportunity for the young architects in kitev together with our friend Marzio to create their own design but also to work for the realisation by themselves. The expectations for the design was quite clear: minimal, clean design, possibilities to flexible exhibit artworks in different ways. Therefore one of the fisrt ideas was to use the ceiling together with the walls for hanging. First, we planned to use some self created design - poles hanging on ropes to create the exhibiting infrastructure. Another important aspect was to get more space, or at least the feeling of more space. That's where the idea of getting rid of the suspended ceiling came.
We knew one thing: The work is awaiting!
We started cleaning the space, getting ready for the reconstruction. During those days, we met people from the building who were spending their time in front of Unterhaus. They saw us working there and from time to time they asked as if they can help us with something, or if they can borrow the broom to clean the street in front of the highrise. We learned that they are refugees from different countries, they told us their stories of coming to Germany. Accordning to the law, they couldn't get a job and that's why they spent their days together in front of our spaces.
During few weeks of work, we started working together. We cleaned the rooms, took of the old floors, scraped wallpapers off the walls, and also (!) dismantled the suspended ceiling.
To our suprise, what we found under the old ceiling layer was an original wooden support structure, layer of bricks framing the rooms and a concrete ceiling. This was a great oportunity for us to keep and strenghten those materials and to use the ceiling structure as our flexible hanging system for the different needs of exhibiting artists.
To continue the story with our new friends and helping hands, we created a good team and continued our work. Next to it, we had almost every day lunch together which one of us cooked, we talked, we worked, we ate again, we sang and we worked again.
This way we together cleaned the walls, repaired them, cleaned the ceilings, revitalised and clean the brics, painted the walls, made plans for the new electricity, changed all cables, plugs and switches, brought new light in, repaired holes in the ground and started preparing us for the last tast, puring a new layer of the floor. That was the grand finale, where in the end a group of 10 people, colleagues and frinds spend the day together by finalizing the spaces together.
