<p>When the owners of the cleaners decided to shut down and retire in 2001, Landwehr, 50, inquired about buying it.<br /><br />The two-storey, 2,695-square-foot building had been used as a laundry for almost 100 years. The ground level had sand floors with concrete pathways and platforms for the washing machines, and the second floor was a large open room used for ironing. There was no heating and the water system was ancient.<br /><br />But the space and the courtyard in front of it appealed to Landwehr. “At first I thought it would make a beautiful studio,” he said. “I thought I would fix it up and pass it along to a painter.” Buying the building ended up being a complicated process, so Landwehr arranged a deal where he would rent the space for 30 years at 450 euros a month (about $600). But after working three months on renovating the place, Landwehr decided not to sub-let it, but to keep it for himself. <br /><br />Unaltered layout<br /><br />Despite the raw nature of the duplex, he didn’t alter its layout or any of its defining characteristics. He kept the large old single-pane windows and the industrial tiles that lined the stairway up to the second floor. He fixed the roof, painted the walls and added the basics: a heating and water system, a wood floor and a kitchen that he designed himself. He moved into the space in the fall of 2001 and has lived there ever since.<br /><br />An almost three-foot-tall figure of a fox installed on a pedestal, a rare sculpture by the German painter Daniel Richter, appears to welcome guests into the airy white living room, one half of the mostly open, L-shaped ground floor. <br /><br />Behind the fox on the back wall hangs four large artworks: a childlike painting of flowers by the Israeli artist Tal R, a piece with dozens of cassettes in a wooden case by the German installation artist Gregor Hildebrandt, an abstract portrait of Landwehr by the German painter and sculptor Thomas Scheibitz, and a colourful oil painting by Richter.<br /><br />The modular couch underneath the paintings, a four-piece set that appear to be wood frames sandwiched by squares of colour, creates a square of social space around a round glass table. “I had been thinking about the design and sketching it on napkins for a while. I had the wooden structure built in my workshop and then I had a local upholsterer make the cushions.”<br /><br />The kitchen, which abuts one wall, is lined with cabinets that look like frames of wood and multi-coloured glass.<br /><br />Some of the glass is antique and hand blown. Landwehr bought it from a neighbourhood glass source his framing company works with. “I like to go to their storage and look through all the old glass. Sometimes I buy a piece and make something with it,” he said.<br /><br /></p>
<p>When the owners of the cleaners decided to shut down and retire in 2001, Landwehr, 50, inquired about buying it.<br /><br />The two-storey, 2,695-square-foot building had been used as a laundry for almost 100 years. The ground level had sand floors with concrete pathways and platforms for the washing machines, and the second floor was a large open room used for ironing. There was no heating and the water system was ancient.<br /><br />But the space and the courtyard in front of it appealed to Landwehr. “At first I thought it would make a beautiful studio,” he said. “I thought I would fix it up and pass it along to a painter.” Buying the building ended up being a complicated process, so Landwehr arranged a deal where he would rent the space for 30 years at 450 euros a month (about $600). But after working three months on renovating the place, Landwehr decided not to sub-let it, but to keep it for himself. <br /><br />Unaltered layout<br /><br />Despite the raw nature of the duplex, he didn’t alter its layout or any of its defining characteristics. He kept the large old single-pane windows and the industrial tiles that lined the stairway up to the second floor. He fixed the roof, painted the walls and added the basics: a heating and water system, a wood floor and a kitchen that he designed himself. He moved into the space in the fall of 2001 and has lived there ever since.<br /><br />An almost three-foot-tall figure of a fox installed on a pedestal, a rare sculpture by the German painter Daniel Richter, appears to welcome guests into the airy white living room, one half of the mostly open, L-shaped ground floor. <br /><br />Behind the fox on the back wall hangs four large artworks: a childlike painting of flowers by the Israeli artist Tal R, a piece with dozens of cassettes in a wooden case by the German installation artist Gregor Hildebrandt, an abstract portrait of Landwehr by the German painter and sculptor Thomas Scheibitz, and a colourful oil painting by Richter.<br /><br />The modular couch underneath the paintings, a four-piece set that appear to be wood frames sandwiched by squares of colour, creates a square of social space around a round glass table. “I had been thinking about the design and sketching it on napkins for a while. I had the wooden structure built in my workshop and then I had a local upholsterer make the cushions.”<br /><br />The kitchen, which abuts one wall, is lined with cabinets that look like frames of wood and multi-coloured glass.<br /><br />Some of the glass is antique and hand blown. Landwehr bought it from a neighbourhood glass source his framing company works with. “I like to go to their storage and look through all the old glass. Sometimes I buy a piece and make something with it,” he said.<br /><br /></p>