Luxury Liner
Details of the "Chile House" (Chilehaus), Hamburg.
No textbook on 20th century architecture is complete without the Chilehaus, which was built between 1922 and 1924 by Fritz Höger and is regarded as an icon of architectural expressionism. Its significance as such derives from both the characteristic detailing of its brick façades and its striking shape – the way it spans Fischertwiete; its curved, S-shaped façade on the Meßberg side; and, above all, its eastern tip, which recalls the prow of a ship.
Furthermore, by exploiting the construction possibilities offered by reinforced concrete, and combining them with traditional brickwork, Höger developed in the Chilehaus a modern, ground-breaking building structure. With virtually unsurpassable virtuoso design and craftsmanship, he created a modern style of brick office-building architecture, the like of which the world had never seen.
Höger achieved this by using both the marked mirroring and reflective effect of the irregularly fired clinker bricks and the tightly packed sequence of the pillars, required by the internal floor plan, for the artistic design of the façades. Inside, the building provided flexibility with the division of floor space, vital for a modern rented office building, and could therefore be adapted to the needs of different users. In oblique view, the tightly packed sequence of pillars gives the impression of a calm, apparently windowless expanse of wall, which heightens the monumental feel of the building. The brick piers protruding from the façade at a 45°-angle follow their own internal rhythm, with the rotation of every seventh layer of bricks, so that when closely observed from an angle a diagonal pattern can be seen on the wall of pillars.
Luxury Liner
Details of the "Chile House" (Chilehaus), Hamburg.
No textbook on 20th century architecture is complete without the Chilehaus, which was built between 1922 and 1924 by Fritz Höger and is regarded as an icon of architectural expressionism. Its significance as such derives from both the characteristic detailing of its brick façades and its striking shape – the way it spans Fischertwiete; its curved, S-shaped façade on the Meßberg side; and, above all, its eastern tip, which recalls the prow of a ship.
Furthermore, by exploiting the construction possibilities offered by reinforced concrete, and combining them with traditional brickwork, Höger developed in the Chilehaus a modern, ground-breaking building structure. With virtually unsurpassable virtuoso design and craftsmanship, he created a modern style of brick office-building architecture, the like of which the world had never seen.
Höger achieved this by using both the marked mirroring and reflective effect of the irregularly fired clinker bricks and the tightly packed sequence of the pillars, required by the internal floor plan, for the artistic design of the façades. Inside, the building provided flexibility with the division of floor space, vital for a modern rented office building, and could therefore be adapted to the needs of different users. In oblique view, the tightly packed sequence of pillars gives the impression of a calm, apparently windowless expanse of wall, which heightens the monumental feel of the building. The brick piers protruding from the façade at a 45°-angle follow their own internal rhythm, with the rotation of every seventh layer of bricks, so that when closely observed from an angle a diagonal pattern can be seen on the wall of pillars.