A post dedicated to a unique building, a 1930’s villa, whose design has left a deep impression on me.

Hans Scharoun is a German architect whose work can be admired in various places in Germany, notably in Berlin with residential buildings in the interwar period in Siemenstadt and the Philharmonie which dates from the late 1950s, early 1960s.

Hans Scharoun was also active, at the time of the Weimar Republic, in Silesia, in Breslau (now Wroklaw in Poland) where I will take you shortly and in Löbau, Saxony, for this magnificent villa.

This family home was commissioned by the Schmimke couple and construction was completed in 1933.

Maritime themes (porthole-shaped openings, for example) are found in this building as in others by Scharoun.

The interior and exterior are linked by very large windows. Light flows in, the ground floor plan is very open, very pleasant.

The kitchen meets the functional standards of the Franckfurter Küche. Everything is very well organised in a very small space, everything is optimised.

Doors, stairs, details are not left to chance:

If you want to know more about this house, I encourage you to visit this beautiful site on the modernist movement of the first half of the 20th century: https://vielfaltdermoderne.de/en/loebau-haus-schminke-2/

The official website of the Villa Schminke is full of interesting information: https://www.stiftung-hausschminke.eu/en/Home/

And if you liked this post and want to see more about Hans Scharoun:

The Philharmonie, in the centre of Berlin’s Kulturforum: https://wherever-it-is.com/2021/04/30/berlin-philharmonie-hans-sharoun/

Siemensstadt, one of the modernist districts listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site: https://wherever-it-is.com/2021/07/02/siemensstadt-industrial-culture-and-utopia/