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Ungers House III
Kämpchensweg, Cologne
1994 - 1996
The third house Oswald Mathias Ungers built for himself, is only a few steps away from his first house on Belvederestrasse.
This villa, which is located on Kämpchensweg in Müngersdorf, somehow remembers the Wittgenstein House in Vienna,
which was built by the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein for his sister Margaret. With the inauguration of his new villa in the suburb
of Cologne, Ungers celebrated his seventieth birthday. Only seperated by a few steps, the two houses by Ungers are like the extreme poles
of the oevre, which he created in nearly half a century of work.
As one of the last realized works by Oswald Mathias Ungers, the villa Ungers III is like the distillate of al his experience.
This house is like an untouchable, obsessive parallelpiped - it is like a clinically pure figure. The ground plan of the building
is strictly geometric, what is recognizable on the facades as well. The building seems to be of rigid perfection, but it is known
that it is the result of an intense struggle. Ungers himself emphasized, that this design is like the ultimate and final confrontation
with Schinkel, and somehow a desperate search for the contrary of the "spiritual unity of things, even in their formal difference"
as it was represented by Nicolas of Cusa.
The whole building is based on a module of forty-five centimeters. This module is respected by all parts of the building, which are read
as architectural elements. The inside walls and the cellary are made in concrete, while brick was used for the outside walls. The plastered
walls on the interior are of glossy marble finish, while the floors are in white limestone and red terracotta in the lateral rooms on the ground floor.
On the second floor, the lateral rooms have floors in walnut. The windows are made in oak and have a finish in white lacquere. In the basement is
a swimming pool. Today the exterior of the building is no more time as clean as on the known pictures. The building is know owned by a private foundation.
This villa, which is located on Kämpchensweg in Müngersdorf, somehow remembers the Wittgenstein House in Vienna,
which was built by the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein for his sister Margaret. With the inauguration of his new villa in the suburb
of Cologne, Ungers celebrated his seventieth birthday. Only seperated by a few steps, the two houses by Ungers are like the extreme poles
of the oevre, which he created in nearly half a century of work.
As one of the last realized works by Oswald Mathias Ungers, the villa Ungers III is like the distillate of al his experience.
This house is like an untouchable, obsessive parallelpiped - it is like a clinically pure figure. The ground plan of the building
is strictly geometric, what is recognizable on the facades as well. The building seems to be of rigid perfection, but it is known
that it is the result of an intense struggle. Ungers himself emphasized, that this design is like the ultimate and final confrontation
with Schinkel, and somehow a desperate search for the contrary of the "spiritual unity of things, even in their formal difference"
as it was represented by Nicolas of Cusa.
The whole building is based on a module of forty-five centimeters. This module is respected by all parts of the building, which are read
as architectural elements. The inside walls and the cellary are made in concrete, while brick was used for the outside walls. The plastered
walls on the interior are of glossy marble finish, while the floors are in white limestone and red terracotta in the lateral rooms on the ground floor.
On the second floor, the lateral rooms have floors in walnut. The windows are made in oak and have a finish in white lacquere. In the basement is
a swimming pool. Today the exterior of the building is no more time as clean as on the known pictures. The building is know owned by a private foundation.