Perls House Berlin-Zehlendorf, Germany, 1911–12
Although the house takes the form of a decidedly compact block, its design is dictated by a desire to relate the interior to the garden. The straightforward and unassuming impression one has of the building from the street belies the complexity of the circulation within and the many-layered system of visual axes that connect the indoors with outdoors. A curved recess in the garden fence serves as an inviting gesture, drawing the visitor through the gate and directing them toward the asymmetrically placed entrance to the house. Although the entrance vestibule is located in the corner of the building – like the house itself in the north corner of the site –, one has views from this first room in all directions. Several visual axes pass through the house and cross at the point where the visitor’s route into the house divides, one way leading on to the representative rooms, the other to the private areas. When the doors are open, one has a view from this point in the entrance hall of the entire ground floor with views beyond into the garden. Adjoining the study of the house’s owner, a lawyer and art collector, is the central dining room with a long room for making music beyond. In the plan, a further rounded element, the bottom step of the stairs, serves as a similar inviting gesture encouraging people to move through the house. Mies, then 25 years of age and working in Peter Behren’s architecture office, told the client, who was the same age as him, that, “The architect must get to know the people who will live in the planned house. From their needs, the rest inevitably follows. Of course, in addition to the wishes of the client, the position, orientation and size of the plot also play an important role in determin ing the final plan of the house. The ‘where’ and ‘how’ of the exterior then follows naturally from all of that.”1 As the building was to house a collection of artworks, the rooms of the ground floor have a representative character while the bedrooms and child’s room, as well as the bathroom, closet and guest rooms, are located on the upper floor. The lower ground, which opens onto a narrow yard to the north, houses the kitchen, washroom and a “maid’s room”. Thanks to a steep slope, the two-storey building appears as if it has three storeys on the north side. The clear proportions of the rooms in the interior are reflected in the outdoor areas. The ratio of length to height of the house corresponds to the Golden Section, echoing Karl Friedrich Schinkel’s Altes Museum. Two different gardens, each the same width as the house, are related directly to the building. The first of these is enclosed on three sides by a plant-covered wooden pergola and reached directly from the loggia, itself a transitional zone extending deep into the building. The second part of the garden, a sunken rectangular court, also relates directly to the façade. Five floor-to-ceiling French windows open extrovertly onto the garden presenting a panoramic view of the surroundings. A single step leads from the house into the garden, and from there a small stair on into the sunken garden terrace. A figurative sculpture was placed in the garden, its position – as marked in the plans of the garden – aligning with the main axis of the house. The sculpture marks the end of this axis and helps to maximise the spacious impression of this otherwise modest-sized house. Later alterations to the building The house as it exists today represents a partial reconstruction after significant alterations had been made. The landscaping of the garden was lost and has not been reinstated by the current owner, an anthroposophical school. The house first changed hands not long after its completion. Hugo Perls, a lawyer, art historian and later a Plato scholar, gave the house in exchange for five paintings by Max Liebermann to Eduard Fuchs, a founder member of the communist party and also an art collector. Between 1927 and 1928, Fuchs added a gallery wing, also designed by Mies, but was forced to flee Germany five years later when his house, along with his
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First floor plan Ground floor plan View from the garden