At the Limits of Architectural Freedom

Ortrun Bargholz, Lucas Podzuweit (CDA)

2014, 35ʹ

The decades-long friendship between the architect Harry Rosenthal and the visually impaired writer Arnold Zweig began with the creation of a ‘writer’s workshop’ for Zweig in Berlin-Eichkamp. While the two men were able to maintain personal contact while in exile in Palestine and later Britain, they were forced to leave their work and the site of their work – for both of them a highly emotional project – behind in their country of origin. The studio on the edge of Grunewald Forest was designed specifically to meet the needs of the writer, with a largely glazed southern facade. The studio was designed around the black desk and chest of manuscripts. The clear lines of the ‘white cube' facing the street dissolved at the back of the house, and pergolas allowed the garden and the architecture to merge.