Museum for architectural drawings of the Tchoban F

The museum building is both striking and entirely appropriate: with its rotated and slightly protruding elements, the building appears to have been constructed from stacks of papers. The volume rises up to the mark of the neighboring roof ridge, forming five blocks clearly cut in the building carcass .The upper block, made of glass, hang over the whole volume in cantilever while the façades of the four lower blocks are made of concrete with its surfaces covered with relief drawings; architectural motives.

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The Architectural Graphics Museum is meant for placing and exposing the collections of Sergey Choban’s Fund founded in 2009 for the purpose of architectural graphics art popularization as well as for interim exhibitions from different institutions including such famous as Sir John Soane's Museum in London or Art school in Paris.

For the construction of the Museum, the Foundation purchased a small lot on the territory of the former factory complex Pfefferberg, where the art-cluster is formed. Here are already located the famous architecture gallery AEDES, modern art gallery and artists’ workshops. The Architectural Graphics Museum that is being constructed became a logical continuation to the development of the new cultural center in a district Prenzlauer Berg that is very popular among Berlin residents.

The new Museum building flanks the firewall of the adjacent four-storey residential house. Such neighborhood and the location under the conditions of the current development implied the irregular space-planning arrangement of the Museum. The volume that is compact in terms of design rises up to the mark of the neighboring roof ridge, forming five blocks clearly cut in the building carcass and offset in relation to each other. The upper block, made of glass, hang over the whole volume of the building in cantilever. The façades of the four lower blocks are made of concrete and its surfaces are covered with relief drawings with architectural motives, repeating on every level and overlapping each other as sheets of paper. This artistic touch is supposed to emphasize the function and contents of the exposition in the Museum architectural look.

On the first and third floors from the side of Christinenstrasse, the flat surfaces of the massive concrete walls are alternate with large glass paintings accentuating the main building entrance and recreation area in front of one of the graphic cabinets. On the first floor there will be the entrance hall – library. Two cabinets for drawings exposition and archive are located on the upper floors. The levels are connected by an elevator and stairs.

The entire lighting concept from Kardorff Ingenieure Lighting Design was realized with LED technology. The concept works with a huge reduction of energy consumption and minimal thermal load.

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This private museum for architectural drawing located in Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg not only displays the collection of the Tchoban Foundation, but also the collections of internationally leading cultural institutions. The museum is a four-storey solid corpus with a glass floor stacked on top. The entire lighting concept from Kardorff Ingenieure Lighting Design was realized with LED technology. General Lighting To emphasize the cubic shape of the building, the facade is illuminated by only two spotlights mounted in the ground. Through the effect of the grazing light, the architectural reliefs become particularly visible at night. An inner circumferential band of light illuminates the glass floor on top of the museum. The thematic approach of continuous light lines is represented in all parts of the museum – for example the entrance and the stairwell: The graphic relief of the facade is transferred to a linear light line at the entrance. The stairways are illuminated by LED lines, integrated into the handrail. Exhibition: lighting design The display lighting provides an even illumination of the walls, which visually enlarges the rooms. Linear LED profile luminaires parallel to the wall brighten the exhibition walls evenly using wallwashers and downlights. Therefore the formation of shadows is significantly lower than in a situation with individual spotlights. This also allows freedom for the exhibits to be hung anywhere on the wall. A level change in the ceiling creates an overhang avoiding reflections of the rear LED lines in the glass of the exhibits. As paper exhibits are particularly sensitive to light, an almost UV-free light source was used. The lighting levels can be adjusted via remote control and the color rendering index of the LED with 4,000 K is above 90. The lighting concept works with a huge reduction of energy consumption and minimal thermal load.

The company provided with their specially door handles which serves the fire safety requirements.

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We, Messing-Zawadski of Berlin, Germany, have equipped a lot of museums, hotels and theatres with historic/designer door handles and window handles, yet we are especially proud to have worked for the S. Tchoban Foundation. Could there be a more explicit expression and appreciation of our company’s competence? To provide our door handles to this wonderful museum- especially for architectural drawing- is one of the highest compliments we could and can get for our work.

The basics: fire safety requirements and specially designed door handles. A door handle in a museum must satisfy two important aspects: Fire safety and design - it must reflect the design of the architectural idea throughout. The door handle is where the visual aspects of the design concept of the building interface with the actual feel of it. This is based on an old European tradition. If you look at a famous old house - from the age of ´empire` to the times of ´Bauhaus` style- you will find certain design aspects of the building concept reflected in the wall decoration or woodwork, but in the design of the door handle or the door shield you will be sure to find the character of the house - consistently. In a way, this is the “ticket” or key into the building - and a touchable business card for the architect. Today the major architects work in this line of tradition again, and we have created handles for the `New Museum`, the `Bode Museum` and others in Europe, and for a lot of prestigious hotels, like the ´Adlon` ,`Ritz Carlton`, ´Hotel de Rome`. Often, the challenge for this objects and public- or theatre projects was the same: fire safety. Producing brass or bronze handles for architects in their individual style or reproducing an old item- once used in a public building- the handle must always have a tested and proven steel core. This is essential in the case of fire: the handle can withstand higher temperatures than brass or bronze do. In a case of emergency, it is therefore possible for the fireman to save the people by opening the door even when the brass has melted down. For heat resistant doors- heat resistant handles. We work with a fireproof steel inlet, with all the certificates of the German TÜV, but, believe me, covering this steel core with a specified brass ´dress` is not easy. For the brass sand casting process we do not only have to take into account the exact specification of the architect’s design - we also have to ´marry` different materials and different temperatures. We lose a minimum of thirty percent in any casting of these special items, and supposedly we are the only company in Europe doing this kind of work. As the process is so complicated we advise our clients to use this way of production only for those doors which are in public or special (bedrooms/emergency exits) areas. All other handles are produced without steel, and in the same size, so visitors will not notice a difference.

The handles for the S. Tchoban Foundation- special requirements: If you see a door handle from former times, with ornaments all over, you will think it is very complicated to cast - but that not the case. On the contrary, ornaments with a distinct relief enable the former and caster of a brass piece to cover faults and bad quality. It is actually more difficult to cast a flat, smooth and even brass item. Any mistake is seen easily by specialist such as architects. The problem arises as in ´handmade sand casting` there is no pressure in the casting process of a handle or a shield. Little air bubbles form and are covered in the material while cooling down. If you shape the piece later, these little air caves create small dots on the otherwise even surface. Unfortunately, it is not possible to avoid these little dots in the casting process. The question only is: how many, how deep? When you take a look at the handles we cast for the S. Tchoban Foundation - very even and very smooth- you will appreciate the challenge. We, the team of Messing- Zawadski, certainly gave our very best to the project, and I hope you will sense our appreciation of the honour we feel to be part of this wonderful museum- once you touch the handles while you are visiting this building of art.