Potsdam, Germany

Category: Private Homes
Year: 2020
Architects: Carlos Zwick Architekten BDA
Lead Architect: Carlos Zwick
Design Team: Christina Eigendorf, Natalia Szwedowska, Javier Sanjurjo, Mejo C. Joy, Carolina Botrán R.-Rey, and David Nicolas Gaar
Client: Claudia Kensy
Contractor: Claudia Kensy
Photographers: José Campos 

Haus em See is located in a historic lakeside property in Potsdam, Germany, in a site where a historic park café used to be. 25 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Berlin architect Carlos Zwick bought this property – without building permission but with a vision: A place for the family should be created here, a house that engages with the elements of the surrounding nature.

Ancient trees, water and the listed Imperial Terraces -actually named after the emperor, who used to enjoy his coffee here in the past- determine the architectural concept. Today the wooden house stands on 40 diagonal steel posts, with 10 individual foundations touching the imperial terraces in a respectful way.

With its facade made of vertical, narrow larch wood slats, the structure becomes a modern tree house. It integrates unobtrusively into the crowns of the age-old oaks, chestnuts and linden trees. Even the large maple that stood in the way of the house was left untouched and is now growing tall, right in the middle of the living room.

The loggia stretches across the entire width of the house. 8 meters above the water level, as though it´s floating above the lake. In the living areas, too, the architect has succeeded in creating closeness to nature thanks to the huge wooden sliding windows.

A long olive wood table stands in the middle of the spacious dining-living room, with a fireplace and kitchen aisle. Large contemporary paintings hang on the walls. Some of these pieces of art are created by the architect´s partner in the in-house studio.