A Berlin museum merging contemporary art with Imperial Chinese furniture will open later this month inside a WWII bunker, renovated by designer John Pawson.

Called The Feuerle Collection, the new venue will showcase collector Désiré Feuerle’s selection of medieval and ancient Chinese pieces alongside works by artists Cristina Iglesias, Anish Kapoor, Zeng Fanzhi and James Lee Byars.

Pawson – who has also been working on the new Design Museum in London – used ‘as light a hand as possible’ in renovating the former telecommunications base.

‘It is difficult to think of places more charged with atmosphere than these monumental concrete structures,’ he said. ‘This has been a slow, considered process – a series of subtle refinements and interventions that intensify the quality of the space, so that all the attention focuses on the art.’

Furniture in the museum will include wood and stone Chinese Scholar pieces dating back to 200 BC as well as stone, bronze and wood Khmer sculptures made between the 7th and 13th centuries.

The Fuerle Collection will be the latest cultural space opening inside a bunker in Berlin, joining the Boros Collection and Unterwelten museums.

It will have a preview week starting 29 April before becoming one of the venues for the 9th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art. The Feuerle Collection officially opens in October 2016 after the biennale festivities.