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Jeden Monat nähern sich unsere Kolumnisten, die Berliner Filme - Each month our columnists, Berlin-based filmmakers Dominik and
macher Dominik und Benjamin Reding, dem jeweiligen Heftthema Benjamin Reding, approach the respective issue-specific theme in
auf ihre ganz eigene Art und Weise. Geboren wurden die Zwillinge their very personal way. The twins were born on January 3, 1969
am 3. Ja nuar 1969 in Dortmund. Während Dominik Architektur in in Dortmund. Whilst Dominik studied architecture in Aachen and
Aachen und Film in Hamburg studierte, absolvierte Benjamin ein film in Hamburg, Benjamin graduated in acting studies in Stuttgart.
Schauspielstudium in Stuttgart. 1997 begann die Arbeit an ihrem They started working on their first joint motion picture “Oi! Warn-
ersten gemeinsamen Kinofilm „Oi! Warning“. Seitdem arbeiten sie ing“ in 1997. Since then they have tightly collaborated for TV and
für Fernseh- und Kinofilmprojekte zusammen. cinema film projects.

T he title was misleading. The book was called “Serafin und seine Wunderma- ment and a living room with a travertine floor and they said this was a real dream
schine” and there was indeed a machine, something incredible which, as far as
house, but I had seen the tiny children’s rooms and did not think so at all. Fortuna-
one can tell from a picture book, was able to produce music with one hundred in- tely, the house was far too expensive. After this, they gave up looking and decided –
struments at the same time. But that was not the point. The book should have been at that time, as a matter of fact teachers, small employees and even my low-income
called “Serafins Wunderhaus” because it was about a house which was nothing short parents were able to dare something like this – to build a house. When the house was
of a miracle, a dream, a child’s fantasy. Serafin, who had just lost his job as a con- finished and the parents said “Look!”, I was disappointed. Yes, there were well-illu-
ductor on the Paris metro because he wanted to help a butterfly escape the darkness minated children’s rooms for us and a shower in the basement (“For when you come
of the tunnel, inherits the house. At first, it is a disappointment because the house home dirty”) and an extractor hood in the kitchen and an intercom system at the en-
and the property are ruins but, together with his mate Plum who practically lives in trance but I looked in vain for a glass ball in which to blow soap bubbles, a ticket
a striped sweater, they turn it into something so indescribable that even the illustrator booth surrounded by flowers and a canopy bed with golden cherubs. And in my fa-
just writes below a drawing of it: “Look!” And that is what I did. At the façade, there vourite book, which I finished reading in the new house, something sobering, yes un-
was a glass ball in which Plum was lounging in his striped sweater and could blow settling happened on the last pages: A settlement is constructed on Serafin’s property,
soap bubbles into the air and a daring projection of thin steel profiles – completely blocks of flats with sensible layouts and good thermal insulation and balconies in
imitating the metro art nouveau Hector Guimard – at the very front of which and like front of the living rooms. Excavators are arriving, push the trees together, level the gar-
a graceful ballet dancer on a dangerous tightrope, the ticket booth was floating and, den, then workmen follow and construction cranes, pile up concrete panels to con-
surrounded by flowers, this was where Serafin dreamt his days away. And inside, wild struct high-rise buildings and then, when Serafin’s home has long been standing lo-
and winding, there was a library with galleries, spiral staircases and a fireplace as nely and bothersome in the way, the court bailiffs arrive with eviction notices and, in
high as a man in which the fire glowed. A room so mystical, so strong that, at night, the end, the fire brigade to enforce what is grown-up, sensible, necessary. At that
as one drawing in the book claimed, the figu- point, Serafin and his mate Plum decide to
res of world literature crept out of the heavy take action: At the highest point of their house,
folios, from Don Quixote to the Three Muske- the ticket booth, they build a wooden tower,
teers, from Pinocchio all the way to Max and are building and, at the same time, climbing
Moritz, and paraded in front of the two resi- up it as quickly and as high as they can. The
dents full of dramatic grandezza. I first looked fire brigade is already storming the miracle
at the book “Serafin und seine Wunderma- house and the tower and, just when a fireman,
schine” as a child and for the last time ten sure of victory, reaches out his hand towards
years ago but I am able to describe down to the two “losers”, they leave the wobbly tower
the last detail the house and its garden, from and build stairs from four old roof tiles, always
the gnarly trees in the park to Serafin’s canopy keep adding a tile, like steps, to the other into
bed decorated with cherubs as if I had last thin air. “Finally, they were nothing but a tiny,
seen everything just yesterday. hardly visible speck. And the flew far, far, very
Researching the concept dream - - - house on far …” That is how the book ends.
the Internet, one finds an abundance of exam- For some years already, I do not know why, a
ples: sometimes they are cubic villas with realty- and property auction house has been
plenty of glass and whitewashed walls in self- sending me its catalogues. And sometimes, I
titled Bauhaus style, then again voluminous cannot afford a house, I still look at them.
prefabricated timber houses in the American There are numerous well-maintained, solid
colonial style, or showing a strained creative homes and I ponder whether and how one
drive with porthole-shaped windows and Abbildung: © Philippe Fix could live and work in them. But, in most cases
slanting roofs, walls and doors. They are many on the last pages, the company also presents
things but not what I had encountered in Se- what is more difficult to sell: abandoned water
rafin’s dream house. Just having received it as a birthday present, I held the book in towers, derelict mansions, closed trains stations and once even a whole outdoor pool.
my young hands when my parents decided to move with their three children from the And while leafing through the catalogues, I catch myself imagining, more frequently
rented terraced house into a larger house of their own. A search was started, at times of late, taking all my savings and not buying a home with a bathroom and a view but
we the children could go along. And, of course, I was hoping for a Serafin dream something as absurd, childish, quirky, ultimately uninhabitable as Serafin’s dream
house, with chambers full of nooks and crannies, mysterious perspectives, old trees house to, when of moving in, be able to shout: “Look!” But to be honest, that would
and canopy beds complete with cherubs. Once they found one like it, a house in Bau- be completely crazy, or not?
haus style in fact, but it was not a newish, angular bungalow but was built in 1928. Postscript: Philippe Fix, now 83 years old, created “Serafin und seine Wunderma-
And with its rounded building corners, an overgrown greenhouse, a turret room high schine” in 1967 and became known worldwide for it. He authorized AIT, exclusively
above the staircase, it looked far from “objective”. But my father said it was too small. for this column, to use two of his illustrations from the book. I want to thank him for
And then they found yet another one, from the 1950s, with rooms at different levels, this with all my heart. But I also and almost more want to thank him for his book wit-
floors of small tesserae, a window to display plants with rubber trees and a staircase hout which my love of architecture (and I think, the love of many architects active
with circular, coloured glass blocks. And I thought ha, that is the dream house! But today) would never have been enflamed. So: Merci pour votre livre, Monsieur Fix! And
father said it stood too close to the autobahn. And last, we looked at a true villa, al- for all those who design something, all those in architecture, I can only again and
most new, with wide glass fronts towards the landscaped garden, a pool in the base- again wish and, like Serafin, call out loud: Look!

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