Arne Jacobsen Bungalow in Hansaviertel
Last year I was invited to photograph this little treasure. One of the bungalows in famous Hansaviertel. The bungalow is one of the ones built by Arne Jacobsen. The owners living there today are the ones moving in then.
They told me between them and the bungalow a relationship has grown and they don’t feel like inhabiting or owning, but rather taking care of the heritage of timeless and thoughtful design and architecture. In all those years so many things happened, times have changed. Corona is just a crumb on the plate compared with the stories told that afternoon.
Like the bungalows are built on a quite unstable ground after war and with material we would consider cheap but shortly after war and with the new design ideas the architects had to be creative and not fussy.
For example the bungalows built by Arne Jacobsen / Hansaviertel are built with Siporex light construction boards.
But then Teakwood for some ares inside and specially designed door fittings. They are a bit like shoe boxes wrapped with very expensive ribbons.
The acoustic insulation from the 140 m2 Bungalows is unbelievable. You don’t hear a thing inside. All windows from the Bungalow are placed around the green courtyard. This inner courtyard defines how the apartment is build and the light coming in. There are no windows on the outside area of the bungalow.
And the storage solutions simply make me jealous. He thought about everything. There are no walls but Storage solutions built in. That also works as insolation. It is like double walls filled with clothes and things to isolate the house.
The owners put so much love in the building. Every door knob, every piece of furniture has a story they can tell you.
They had to skip most design trends over the years and commit to the design of the era. And now they cringe if they show you a light bulb not really fitting in the lamps from designers long gone.
There is the LC5F sofa from Le Corbusier, a Wassily Chair and Sidetable from Marcel Breuer, and so on. The furniture is like the who is who of design classics.
