neues bauen in the parkfeld district of wiesbaden.
in one of my last posts i introduced you to the work of ernst may's new frankfurt architecture, which was revolutionizing the way architects would design and plan cities in the 1920ies and 1930ies. ernst may continued to work on city construction projects all over germany after that ( and worldwide ) and even made it to wiesbaden in the late 1950ies where he tackled a big reconstruction of the whole city layout. some plans were quite controversial and were given up ( one of them being a scheme to destroy hundreds of old historical villas within the inner city ), something most would say is very fortunate, because otherwise wiesbaden, as it exists today, would not belong to one of the most intact cities of historicized architecture anymore. all of what makes wiesbaden such a jewel today, would be utterly destroyed and would've paved a path to a very generic, completely dull looking inner city. and while i do like modern architecture, and am very interested in learning and getting to know the details and history of it and going on trips to see various realized projects to find their special allure, i would certainly be sad to not have the playful and gorgeous wilhelminian architecture of yore to gawk and marvel at. wiesbaden really is very special because of the fact that it has such an intact and coherent territory of landmarked buildings that exude the luxury of the times around 1900, when it was visited by the creme de la creme of high society 'to drink the waters of health' ( which also ended up in a lot of debauchery ;P )
three of may's projects were realized though, which are now satellite cities on the fringes of wiesbaden, klarenthal, schelmengraben & parkfeld. in this first part of this post i'll be showing you around the parkfeld settlement, which was realized between 1959 and 1970. the whole settlement is comprised of two highrises, a lot of lower multi-level blocks of flats and several streets of row houses. it's a fairly simple settlement, one might even call it boring, but as it is with many things, the devil is in the details. you also have to remember, that by the time may started working on his wiesbaden projects, he already had years of experience on his back and was implementing all of his expertise into architecture that, while not feeling new anymore, grew to be an embodiment of that era's societal ideals. together with what may had also learned in his time in russia ( he was responsible for creating a masterplan for socialist settlements and building some of them throughout russia from 1930 to 1932 ), he went on to implement these ideas when he returned to germany. his work in wiesbaden is not considered a success, though ( such as the settlements in frankfurt ). now, they are often considered problem districts, a result of bad housing policies, as socially deprived and lower income societies were pushed off into these rather isolated satellite cities.
the biebrich palace park is directly situated next to the parkfeld settlement, divided only by this wall. i would say that having such a beautiful park nearby immensely adds to the living quality of this quarter. still, the whole development seems rather cut off from this essential wiesbaden sight, and even the close vicinity to the rhine river is not very apparent.
i did like these multi-level blocks with their orange balustrades quite a lot. they felt more 1970ies than mid-century to me, definitely a huge contrast to what ernst may had formerly built. increasingly, his designs adhered to a much more contemporary and brutalist face and style than his earlier work had been. it's interesting that, when you visit these settlements, you kinda get a futuristic sense.
one thing i find rather typical for may's architecture is the very sparingly used colouration. he really only used colour for highlighting purposes ( though it is not clear if the colours you are seeing now, were originally part of his design vision ). but somehow, this highlight, this explosion of colour, uplifts the rather triste overall appearance of the settlement.
approaching one of the high-rises. i couldn't find a lot of details on their height, but i know they're at least 12 levels high. the architectural style is rather generic with these, only the balconies are accentuated colourfully, and loosen the stringent appearance up a bit.
in a different street, but still part of the whole complex, a lot of smaller apartment buildings. the staircase sections were interestingly designed with these abstract facade decorations.
back at the center of the settlement. and more of the same style that the highrises were built in.
a little church was part of the ensemble, too. it was built in 1975 and houses an evangelical community.
i am not quite sure if these row houses were a work of ernst may, too, their design is not very typical for him. i have seen similar houses all over the city actually, so i was wondering if it actually was a new type that ernst may developed. maybe an entirely different architect is responsible for these, though. i always found them very interesting, especially with the cylindric staircases in the front!
i do get a slight may vibe though, especially because of the small room concept. i also read somewhere that for decorational elements he sometimes used slates, and here they appear!
another house type in the settlement with slates, these are definitely may's handwriting. tiny houses and spaces were absolutely his trademark and he always seemed to manage to make them a little more interesting than before. here he also used white bricks in the facade, which i really, really find very charming. i could do without the slates, though 😂
with this, our tiny stint into one of ernst may's wiesbaden projects ends and we'll move on to different pastures, namely the rambach district. on many drives through this often overlooked district, i often thought to myself that i would like to stop there sometimes and check it out more thoroughly, as i am rarely in that area. i had also seen some interesting buildings from afar, something that looked like a modern church and that always intrigues me to make my way to places. so it happened that on a very foggy and cold day i made the trip to the northeast of wiesbaden and began exploring this little spot in wiesbaden's city structure. little did i know at the start how absolutely charming it would turn out to be, especially with that thick fog permeating the whole atmosphere. and when i found rambach's cemetery and also took a look at that special church building, i was absolutely smitten with it all.
random detail of a gorgeously withering turquoise gateway. the kukkuk is a gallery/training center that offers a room for seminaries, art courses and other things.
rambach is a small district of wiesbaden, nestled into a narrow valley in the north of the city. the rivulet rambach is running through the village and therefore can be seen as the eponym of it, too! history says that the area had been a settlement already over 2000 years ago, a roman grange or fort was discovered in 1845, giving this statement a foundation. they also found burial mounds in a different part of the woods surrounding rambach, which indicates that the region has been inhabited even earlier than the roman times. today the village is a rather sleepy little place, but apparently loved very much by the inhabitants that live here. i found signs of busting club activities ( theater, several sports clubs, choir, carnival and parish fairs ) and possibilities to dabble in creating art in a small art scene. it's always really nice to see that people come together in even the most inconspicuous places, rambach is, after all, only a tiny village with about 2000 inhabitants.
after i had parked on a hill above the rambach valley i took a steep walk down that hill again, to get to my first stop: the former catholic church st. johannes.
the bell tower had always lured me from the street whenever i passed through rambach and it was about time to see what it was about up close. st. johannes was built between 1962 and 1964 in the typical concrete fashion of the 1960ies. the architects were ludwig ey, edmund häuser & erich husar. what makes it most charming is its distinct bell tower ( it's 18 meters high ) with the honeycomb patterns, which continues in the church building as well. and i totally love the subtle use of pastel blue.
the church has been profaned very recently in 2020, the catholic church was not able to maintain this tiny little place of worship anymore ( i guess the numbers of churchgoers are declining even in the smaller suburbs ). an alpine club has purchased the building for its activities and is slowly rearranging and restoring it for its own purposes, but as of now haven't officially moved in yet. personally, i am always for repurposing instead of destroying, so it makes me quite happy that this little church won't fall into ruins. i guess the fact that the building is listed as a memorial helped immensely with the preservation, too.
the church is an undivided hall, one single room basically, it never was meant to house a big community as rambach is just a small village. the ribbon window is sticking out immediately and transforms the otherwise rather minimalist building into an interesting structure. i also dig the interplay of rhomb meets triangle forms and diagonality of the building. it makes it appear as if the structure is opening up into the sky, which makes sense when you look at it from a religious viewpoint.
the facade was made out of concrete and whitewashed brickstones, a very good combination always!
the campanile and the church building together form a very unique unity.
the backside of the building is rather plain, and shows signs of neglect. maybe the alpine club will be able to revive this side of the property as well and integrate it more.
i left the church and moved further down the hill, passing by more interesting architecture.
i did like this property very much, both the front building and the back building. i can totally see how one could be using the front one as an atelier or a hobby room, maybe even a showroom and using the back building as the actual living quarter.
i arrived down in the rambach valley, which was cloaked in almost impermeable fog. sort of breathtaking and very beautiful to walk through!
rambach is a little curious when it comes to its topography, there's a part that is built up on the hill i had started out on and there's a part that was erected down in the valley. i am approaching the lower part of the village here.
i discovered a little path on the fringes of lower rambach that i was curious to see where it would lead and it ended up in front of little steep knoll that you could also climb. the rambach stream was running through a tiny little canal behind the homes and when you just look at it like this you would never think that it can turn into a pretty hefty little river when conditions are right ( mostly after heavy rainfalls or the snowmelt in winter ). it's known to having run quite a lot of havoc in the districts of rambach and sonnenberg in the past, but also even in downtown wiesbaden, as it drains into the salzbach river there. floods are very common to happen actually, we had the biggest one in the year 2014, which flooded even the underground carpark in front of the kurhaus 😅
in january 2020 it was fairly docile, though, almost sleepily bubbling its course down to the city.
i tackled the little knoll next, which is called 'quecken', enjoying the foggy woods that covered it.
nothing beats the mysteriousness of a heavy fog blanketing the world, it's as if time stops for a bit and every little sound is swallowed, leaving a world that is eerily veiled in a magic that is hard to describe.
spindly tree skeletons reaching upwards the sky.
reached the top of the hill a little breathless, but happy to stop and take in my surroundings.
tree stumps covered in moss and lichen are some of my favourite things in the woods ❤
just looking at this image brings back the feelings i had when i had the exact view in front of my eyes. feelings of being wrapped and involuted in a most comforting blanket, which, despite being a cold one physically, was incredibly heartwarming and invigorating for me internally. in moments like these you begin to feel more aware of what surrounds you, and what it means to be part of this planet, or at least gives you a certain kind of gratefulness to be witness of the beauty of it.
it's also an interesting detail to know that on the ridge of this knoll archeologists found relicts and debris from a roman military station that was about 200 meters long and 70 meters wide.
the evangelical church of rambach is a neo-gothic construction from 1893 ( built by the architect ludwig hofmann ) and probably replaced a very rudimentary wooden chapel from the 17th century. it's a tiny church that can house up to 350 people, and is situated on a platform that was probably also part of the former roman military station. in old times the church has also always been surrounded by a graveyard, but when the new evangelical church was built it was shut down and moved to a different area.
the church was built after the norms by the eisenach regulative, a catalog of recommendations on how to built evangelical churches. one of the suggestions giving inside the catalog was to use the neo-gothic architectural style as a preferred style. except of one detail, all of the building adhers to these recommendations. the only rule that couldn't be followed was the orientation towards the east, the reason for that was probably access related as the terrain is not easy to enter from all sides. its orientation is from the east to west now, which means that the entrance is in the east and the altar sits in the west, when it usually should be the other way round.
i forewent to enter the church and instead continued my way through rambach, noticing all kinds of little details. i loved this gate design! it was part of a former butcher shop that got renovated in the 1960ies ( i don't think it's still one ).
in the middle of the village you'll find one of formerly three flowing wells, which were used as public standpipes.
forever in love with clinker stone buildings 😍
and this colour combo is particularly satisfying ❤
i left the village and crested the kitzelberg ( 328 m high ), which is another little hill looming over rambach. this park bench was deteriorating quite a bit, it didn't even stand on any legs anymore!
foggy electric lines leading up towards the top.
a strange kind of sculpture in the fog - the local transmission tower.
rambach's mourning hall ( built in 1989 ) greets you after a bit of a climb, right at the entrance to the cemetery. it's a fairly functional building, but not without charm!
the cemetery was actually built around 1902, it moved onto the western slope of the kitzelberg after the old one near the evangelical church was discontinued. since the kitzelberg is actually a rather meager and sparse patch of land, which couldn't be used in agricultural ways, the builders thought that the construction of a cemetery would be the best solution. there's a really pretty old mourning hall on the site and a special grave dedicated to a teacher that resided in rambach, but other than that the cemetery is fairly contemporary. the reason for that was a bombing in 1945, which destroyed many of the old gravesites.
close-up of the big cross at the entrance. quite elegant!
a glance inside the mourning hall, which was small and spartanic, but in its simplicity i liked it very much!
let's explore the cemetery grounds! emerging out of the fog slowly is the old mourning hall which was probably also built around 1902. the foggy mood on this cemetery was simply breathtaking, nothing else can beat an atmosphere like that!
the old mourning hall. i absolutely loved the porch situation here, though i doubt it was a product of the the early 1900s. since the cemetery was bombed i feel like this particular detail was added after the war, probably in the 1950ies. the whole style and form of the canopy, including the carrying pillars made out of steel, just is so typical for that era.
personally, i found the entrance very welcoming. my brain came up with the image of sitting down after having said goodbye to a loved one, gathering your thoughts, reassembling your emotions. or just in general contemplating the lost ones as a random visitor.
ice floes and mirrored trees inside a draw well nearby.
different perspective of the hall.
another detail i liked: the cute round window openings.
the back of the hall, probably the former morgue where the corpses were prepared for the laying-out.
random shot of the cemetery paths. not exactly levelled out in composition, but i still liked it for the interplay of the dark green ivy, the moss and the brown pebblestone path.
another bench for resting and contemplation. i love having the option to sit down on graveyards, i often sit there for a while and let the surroundings impress me.
a view of the cemetery. the rows are sort of terraced, naturally because of the hillside situation.
i was so smitten with this iron cross 😍 not sure anymore if it was particulary old, or just fashioned in such a way. the dates of birth and death only said ( i believe ) '37 & '91.
praying mary. i am not usually one for religious displays, but i admit, often they are beautiful to look at!
early snowdrops were showing on one of the graves! i love detecting the first signs of spring!
the most special grave on the cemetery is this one for a local teacher named ludwig doderer who was very well-respected by generations of rambach citizens. he died in 1903 and buried on the graveyard, but it's not quite clear when the angel was put up, it is said it was around 1910. local stories say that during the bomb night in 1945 most of the gravestones were struck, except the angel above teacher doderer's grave.
it's still cared for to this day, and by now probably a listed monument.
eventually i had to return to the village again, leaving the magical and atmospheric little cemetery behind.
the new mourning hall from below.
back down in the village i came upon this little modern construction, the pastel-coloured shutters particularly peaked my interest. the house itself is probably older, but i was able to actually find the architects behind the renovation project! viertler architekten were responsible for the raising of the roof and the alterations. formerly a 3-family-home, it apparently only houses one family now.
i really liked the clean and prim appearance of this house, it looked so fresh!
passing by a little art atelier in the core of rambach and fell in love with the polaroid collection displayed in the windows! they were shot by an artist named anette meyersen, and i think i even found her on instagram ( an art and a photography account ).
close-up! this makes me want to pick up an instant camera and start shooting a little series myself 😍
some more of the art displayed in that atelier. i think the atelier is owned by a local artist called peter weise, who also created these paintings shown here. i coudn't dig up much else about the atelier, but the artist has a website you can check out!
i adored these gorgeous abstract paintings 😍
last image, a little hairdresser shop situated in a cute old timber-framed building! i feel like a little art shop or something of that order would also fit very well into this setting, wouldn't it?
and that's it for the little foray into new wiesbaden architecture & suburban villages! january tends to be quite a barren month, with lots of greys reigning the skies, but as it turns out, even those grey days can hold a lot of magic. it's also nice to focus sometimes on places that are often overlooked, like a neigborhood that was mainly built in the 1960ies and would probably not yield any interested looks, or a suburban area that likes to hide in a valley surrounded by hills. of course it helps a lot if special weather conditions highlight the mood, too ;)
to beat the old january blues, exploring is simply the best kind of remedy in my opinion!
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