Copper house

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Copper houses in the brass works settlement, Eberswalde-Finow

Copper houses are houses that are built in a prefabricated house system in panel construction, which the architect Robert Krafft and the engineer Friedrich Förster developed for the company Hirsch Kupfer- und Messingwerke (HKM) from 1929 . As a technical innovation for the use of copper sheets , this type of construction is related to prefabricated house systems using steel sheets brought out by various companies in the 1920s; both developments were based on older experiences with prefabricated wood systems.

history

The construction of the copper houses received the Grand Prix at the International Colonial Exhibition in Paris in 1931 and was presented in the same year at the German Building Exhibition in Berlin in 1931 . A short time later, Walter Gropius took over the management of the copper house project. At least 54 such prefabricated houses had been produced by 1933. The architect Robert Krafft even spoke of 100 houses in the mid-1940s.

In 1932, as a result of the global economic crisis and the German banking crisis , HKM got into financial difficulties, and the copper house construction department at HKM was closed. At the same time, Gropius presented the type S, a “growing copper house” in the design language of New Building, at the architecture exhibition “Sun, Air and House for Everyone!” Curated by Martin Wagner . At the end of 1932, the Deutsche Kupferhausgesellschaft mbH (DKH) was founded in Berlin; however, the collaboration with Gropius was not resumed, the DKH mainly sold the traditional, villa-like building types that were still produced in the brass works near Eberswalde.

From mid-1933, the DKH also offered special copper house types for Palestine under the names Haifa , Sharon or Lebanon . The target buyers were Jews who emigrated from Germany and were able to take copper houses with them as "removal goods". According to the documents, it was possible to pack the Haifa type in 34 packages that had a total weight of 15,313 kg and were therefore considered to be navigable.

The production of the copper houses ended in 1934. With the increased military armament, copper became an important raw material for the war effort. The Reich Ministry of Economics severely restricted its use with the ordinance on base metals , and copper house construction was no longer possible.

House types

In Allkupferhaus catalog of 1931 nine different type of houses are included: copper Castell , source of life , spring dream , life-sun , jewel , sunshine , copper fairy tales , May-morning and own soil . A short time later, while Gropius was also working, the trouble-free and copper- pride types were added . The large, villa-like types, Kupfercastell and Kupferstolz, sold most frequently . The Deutsche Kupferhausgesellschaft sold 1932–1934 copper house types with names such as “A2” Kupfercastell , “O” Favorit, Spezial and others.

Construction of the copper houses

Copper has some properties that make it appear suitable for use in prefabricated house construction, for example a low dead weight as well as high fire and good corrosion resistance.

The outer facade of the prefabricated houses was built from many individual elements. They consisted of narrow, upright rectangular Eternit plates, which were provided with an outer skin made of ribbed copper sheet. Several layers of aluminum foil and cardboard served as insulation. A wooden frame construction made of twelve centimeter thick wooden beams formed the basis for the house, which only had to be put together and screwed in its later location. The individual elements had patented universal ends for screwing together; the edges were covered from the outside with a copper sheet strip. The advantage of these houses was their variability and easy assembly. Such a house should be erected within 24 hours. Copper sheets were originally also used for the roofing. The copper roofs have only been preserved in isolated places. The heat insulation was advertised as “it insulates as well as a 222 centimeter thick brickwork.” That was a bit exaggerated as later measurements by an engineer showed, but it even meets the current energy requirements of the 2000 Energy Ordinance.

Instead of wallpaper, the houses are clad with sheet metal on the inside, six different relief patterns rolled into the sheet metal were available - in colors such as: Nile green, pastel blue or coral red. The buyers enjoyed the convenience of a fully equipped kitchen as well as fitted built-in cupboards, finished in the prefabricated walls of electrical installations, sanitary facilities and central heating.

In 1931, however, a lot of criticism was expressed in the Bauwelt and other specialist magazines: The aesthetic quality was criticized and there was fear of heat build-up due to the metal walls. The houses had excellent thermal insulation and, in retrospect, were very easy to care for and durable. The predicted heat build-up did not occur. There are some essential differences to solid structures, e.g. B. made of brickwork: the houses were very noisy, the metal looked like a huge Faraday cage and thus provided a lightning shield. However, there were difficulties with the radio reception.

Locations of the copper houses

Two-story copper house in Zeuthen
Copper house in Eberswalde
Copper house in Berlin-Spandau

In the years 1931/1932 eight model houses were built in the brass works settlement near Eberswalde. They are now under monument protection . The Berlin list of monuments lists ten copper houses that have been preserved in their original form. Three of them are in Köpenick , another three in Reinickendorf , two in Spandau , one each in Steglitz and Zehlendorf . Another house, almost in its original state, was built in Berlin-Frohnau in 1933 . Most of the rooms, the bathroom and the kitchen still have the original wall cladding made of embossed sheet steel, which has since been painted over several times in different colors. Both the copper facade and the roof are still in their original form. There are also three of these copper houses in Zeuthen . In Eberswalde and Berlin, 20 of these houses are still preserved.

There are other houses in Berlin-Pankow, Schönebeck (Elbe), Neuhaus an der Ostsee, Cottbus and in the area around Berlin.

The Deutsche Kupferhausgesellschaft is said to have exported 14 houses to the British Mandate Palestine , of which three are still preserved today in Haifa and one in Safed .

literature

Web links

Commons : Kupferhaus  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Kurt Junghanns : The house for everyone. On the history of prefabrication in Germany. Ernst & Sohn, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-433-01274-1 .
  2. ^ Deutsche Kupferhaus GmbH . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1935, I, p. 409 (address was NW 7, Unter den Linden 65).
  3. a b c d Jörg Niendorf: Houses made of sheet metal . In: Berliner Zeitung , April 20, 2018, p. 7.