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An Unusual Jewelers House in the German Alps

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This house has a typically German approach to bold, pragmatic, clean design that connects with nature in every room.

As you enter, the first surprise. A gigantic square in the roof brings the gigantic power of the sky right into the entry foyer.

As entirely open and airy as the foyer, the bathrooms and the kitchen are just as connected to the sky and the landscape as the entry way.

The client, jewelry designer Georg Spreng, had lived in Canada on a huge plot of land that inspired his respect for the might of nature and the insigificance of man – and wanted to express it.

Here, on a southwestern slope of the German Alps, Kaestle Ocker Roeder Architects built him this very unconventional, open and airy home and studio.

The architects knew how to playfully exploit the openness of the client to novelty.

Conventions of living, but also architectural conventions, “how to do something,” were abandoned.

There is an unusual use of materials, like the two storied wall of curtains.

The curtains are made of a silvery, shiny material that was originally developed for Einklei binding of scaffolding.

There is a playfulness to the unique bathroom where expectations and self-evident truths are “out-terfragt”.

Dashes of sensible, pragmatic, bold color defines the clean white spaces throughout, providing the perfect foil for a jewelers studio.

The walls are white, but color is used to comment humorously on the many practical adaptations like the jewelers chairs pushed far into the workbench.

Color is also used to mark the transition to the sleeping rooms with a deep cobalt sided staircase.

The plaster has a high clay content and works just like a rammed earth wall for moisture control. And as unconventional as it may be in this neighborhood, the house fits here.