The Schminke House in Löbau, Saxony, was designed in the 1930s by architect Hans Scharoun for the Schminke family of manufacturers and is considered an icon of “New Building.” The design was specifically tailored to the client's needs and incorporated the surrounding nature and garden. An important part of the open architecture were the curtains woven by Bauhaus artist Otti Berger, which created a tent-like atmosphere in the evening. However, they have long since been lost and there is no precise information about their original quality and color.
Our contact with Haus Schminke came about through a visit to the Lausitzer Leinenmanufaktur von Kleist, which was already involved in plans for new curtains and, in cooperation with the Haus Schminke Foundation, entrusted us with their development. We were now faced with the challenge of finding a “balance” between the missing original and our own interpretation.
The overall concept of the house—a combination of organic architecture and clear, geometric shapes and colors—played a central role in the design of the curtains. Here, too, the picture was incomplete, as the original colorful interior design had been largely neutralized by conversion and renovation work. The colourful wall segments partially exposed during the restoration in 2000 provided us with only rough clues, in addition to eyewitness accounts, scientific texts and historical photographs.
Our research focused on four curtains on the ground floor, two of which served to divide the room and two of which served as light and privacy screens. Our approach was to draw on the functional properties of the textiles that determined the choice of materials for the original curtains.
When choosing colors, we were able to draw on traditional information and incorporated natural tones as well as gray, red, and pale yellow into our design concept. For the designs, we constructed handmade fabrics on pattern looms. Dyeing, weaving, and printing techniques, including ikat and screen printing, were used for further design. Inspiration was drawn from the weaving aesthetics of the Bauhaus, as well as formal elements of Scharoun's architecture.
Although our designs do not restore the historical condition, they are a commentary on the colors of the past and refer to the former interior design.
Supervisor(s)
Prof. Susanne Schwarz-Raacke, Prof. Dr. Zane Berzina, Prof. Steffen SchuhmannRelated projects
