Erich Mendelsohn, Haus am Rupenhorn, Berlin, Germany, 1929 (view from google)

This magnificent villa overlooking the Stössensee lake has been built by the architect Erich Mendelsohn for himself in the Bauhaus style. This cube-shaped house with its white facade and flat roof is set in enormous beautiful gardens. The building presents a surprising simplicity and directness with both form and materials. Privacy is ensured by distancing the house from the street and restricting fenestration to a high ribbon window for the bedroom area. The informal landscape of the steeply sloping, wooded garden to the lakeside contrasts with the linear formality of the garden to the streets. A system of walls, pathways and changes of level, starting at the street entrance, envelops the house with a variety of outdoor spaces which connect the house to the site and provide a link with the nature.

Bibliography: 

Derek Fraser. The buildings of  Europe: Berlin. Manchester: University Press. 1997

References:

visitberlin

Reviewed by:

Alexandra Niedermayr, Alexandre Maurel, Martin Charachon, Sonja Schneider (March 2017)