Gilded treasure

This Berlin home is decorated with accents of gold. Discover how to get the Midas touch

The Berlin apartment of London-based interior architect Hubert Zandberg is an eye-catching space.

He is a maximalist at heart (see his Holland Park project on p146), and his view on design is simple: ‘The most beautiful brushstroke is the one that comes from instinct.’ He is a compulsive collector, and his two-bedroom apartment in the creative neighbourhood of Mitte is a veritable curiosity cabinet of the exotic and elegant, all underpinned by luxurious touches of brass and gold.

‘I have always seen myself as more of a collector than a designer,’ says Hubert, whose genius lies in an irreverent style that mixes anything from Modernist design to macabre taxidermy and religious iconography. His collections are so extensive that they fill more than one property (he also has homes in London and Paris), but he continues to add to his treasure trove because new finds create a dialogue with existing pieces. Consequently, his Berlin home brims with South African artworks and cowhides, German lighting and influences from Brazilian architects such as Sérgio Rodrigues and Joaquim Tenreiro. ‘It may seem devil-may-care to mix such disparate elements. But it works,’ he says. Here, Hubert tells us why he has used metallic accents to create focal points in each room, and how they tie his scheme together. hzinteriors.com