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Jeden Monat nähern sich unsere Kolumnisten, die Berliner Filmemacher Dominik und Benjamin Reding, dem jeweiligen Heftthema
auf ihre ganz eigene Art und Weise. Geboren wurden die Zwillinge am 3. Ja nuar 1969 in Dortmund. Während Dominik Architektur
in Aachen und Film in Hamburg studierte, absolvierte Benjamin ein Schauspielstudium in Stuttgart. 1997 begann die Arbeit an ihrem
ersten gemeinsamen Kinofilm „Oi! Warning“. Seitdem arbeiten sie für Fernseh- und Kinofilmprojekte zusammen.

Each month our columnists, Berlin-based filmmakers Dominik and Benjamin Reding, approach the respective issue-specific theme
in their very personal way. The twins were born on January 3, 1969 in Dortmund. Whilst Dominik studied architecture in Aachen
and film in Hamburg, Benjamin graduated in acting studies in Stuttgart. They started working on their first joint motion picture “Oi!
Warning“ in 1997. Since then they have tightly collaborated for TV and cinema film projects.

W ill you go with me, understand light and shadow? Will you go with me, turn with the neighbouring doctor’s villa) and an equally magnificent but treacherously moody
the wind roses? Will you go with me?” The fern had remained unchanged. golden retriever named Marilyn. This house had all the ingredients of what I ended up
Jungle-sized, intensely green, almost garish. Dense and thus also protective. Growing calling the Davos style in perfection: modernity, internationality and pleasure-oriented
undisturbed under the beech trees of the small wood. A sight resembling something architecture. The modernity: behind the servants’ entrance was a dining- and cooking
from a bygone geological era. Jurassic Park in a quiet, Central-German suburb. I had last area that celebrated a design affinity with NASA’s lunar modules and contemporary
walked through this secret shortcut 22 years ago, respectfully skirting the fern bushes. Scandinavian design revelations. The 40-square-metre square fitted kitchen, specially
Now I was walking it again, because behind the shady forest lay a sensation. The only designed for the space, was clad in brushed stainless steel all around, In the centre of
one to be found in the suburb. And known only to me and a very few “insiders”: the the room, a white plastic dining table with a round marble top and five plastic chairs
house of Dr Schütze, built in 1974: white clinker walls, blue-black slate roof, dark brown from Eero Saarinen’s Tulip series competed for attention under a voluminous hanging
anodised aluminium windows. Here and there a wrought-iron diamond grille, a “histo- lamp made of matte-etched glass spheres by Verner Panton, with a space-defying spiral
ric” garden lamp, a teak door with a coffered pattern. Bourgeois ostentatious, bourgeois staircase made of steel and Plexiglas leading to the living floor. The internationality:
sedate. Nothing about it was unusual for a well-to-do residence of those years, nothing whereas shells from the Baltic Sea and starfish from the Mediterranean on the living
about it would have justified the effort of going on an expedition through the fern jung- room windowsill were proof of distant travels and places visited in our home, Dr
le. The sensation, however, was the interior of the house. Overwhelmingly modern, Schütze’s study had signed etchings by Joan Miró and Pablo Picasso, while antique
absolutely up to date. The schizophrenia of the design was not only due to the indeci- amphorae in the hallway discreetly hinted at his finca near Sitges, a Steinway grand
sive taste prevalent during those construction years, but also to the private history of piano and a large-format drawing by David Hockney reminded us of his student days at
the building: the house (or more appropriately: the villa) was built for a single, elderly Stanford University. The architecture of pleasure: from the silvery-futuristic but restrai-
gentleman who died before the interior was completed. A young doctor couple bought ned kitchen, a few steps led down past a sauna room with a plunge pool to the pool
the house after two years of construction standstill. Their taste, area. It was gigantic, opening onto the garden with floor-to-
which was very much in keeping with the times, was evident in ceiling windows and sliding doors. An almost sacred silence
two ways: in a spacious indoor-pool extension and in the interi- reigned here. The calm design of the room and the soft splas-
or design. 1974 was not a significant year for design, let alone a hing of the cleaning system put me and every other visitor who
ground-breaking one. On the contrary, the 1970s were rather might have dropped in into a kind of trance; the indirect pool
conservative in terms of design. The colourful pop-art living envi- lighting, the birdsong from the fern grove and the constant
ronments with their reclining landscapes and inflatable sofas room temperature of 25 degrees did the rest... I was excited.
were long gone, and postmodernism with its penchant for sym- Now, 22 years later, I would walk past the Mercedes double
metry, irony and printed laminate was not yet in sight. But garage again, which we teenagers claimed was actually the
almost unnoticed by serious architecture critics, this period did bungalow of an African potentate; I would quickly climb the
international. Familiar with all the airports, distant holiday Foto: Benjamin Reding bronze doorbell, and Dr Schütze would open the door,
wide sandstone steps to the entrance; press the oversized
have a “style” that still has no name today and is still waiting to
be discovered. I call it the Davos style. People wanted to be
unchanged, slim and blonde. And now, finally, I would ask her
casual and sophisticated, visibly wealthy, they wanted to be
who had designed it all so unforgettably perfectly, back when
resorts, luxurious gourmet restaurants and glamorous nightclubs of this planet, whe- Ms Lavi’s voice rang out from the loudspeakers all through the Schütze villa: “If I don’t
ther on the beach in Acapulco or in the ski resort of Davos. The Germans wanted it want to be a vagabond anymore, will you build my house? Will you rest with me from
especially. They had so much to catch up on and had to learn that you can also get to life? Will you go with me ...?” I run around the last bend in the woods, making my way
know the world beyond warlike conquests, for example as a tourist. They had worked past one more fern, two beech trees, then the villa finally comes into view. To my com-
through the years from 1950 to 1970 as if in purgatory, doggedly, without enjoyment. plete shock and totally unexpected, it stands empty. The windows are dirty and dull,
They had something to make up for. The German singles charts were suddenly domi- building-rubble containers in the once meticulously manicured garden and around the
nated by an Israeli singer named Daliah Lavi, who encouraged a moderately hippie property, a chain-link fence with barbed wire and a construction sign: “Six condomini-
lifestyle with her song Willst Du mit mir geh’n? (Will you go with me?). The ascetic ums are being built here, 80 to 140 square metres in sustainable, ecological construc-
Bauhaus style of living, which had been obligatory for “modern” people in the Federal tion.” I stretch up, am able to notice broken glass spheres and dented Plexiglas in the
Republic until then, was expanded to include more enjoyment: with a bar area for rubble. “This must have been a real dump, full of environmental toxins!” says a young
conviviality, a pool and also a sauna, antiques and folk art to be admired. The mem- man standing with his wife and their small child at the construction fence, as I was.
bers of the Dr Schütze family, always radiant with self-confidence and good humour, “We bought an 80-square-metre flat, pre-sale. It’s still cheap at this point in time. On
were the perfect protagonists of this reorientation: Mr Schütze, a distinguished gentle- the ground floor. Our Patrick will always be close to nature.” He smiles and lifts his son
man of the world with curly black, in later years silver-grey hair, his gold-metallic onto his shoulders. “It’s going to be really modern here, with sustainable, biodegradab-
Mercedes 350-SL, his membership in the Rotary Club; Mrs Schütze, also a doctor like le building materials.” “And that’s how we’re going to furnish it. All hygge and lots of
her husband, slim, blonde-haired, blue-eyed, also with her own Mercedes (280-SLC in wood,” says the young woman cheerfully. “And Japandi style in the living room, like on
silver metallic); and blessed with two wonderful children: a sporty, tennis- and piano- holiday,” adds her husband. “And you? Are you planning to buy a flat too?” In the taxi
playing daughter who was as elegant as she was academically gifted, and a friendly son on my way back to the station, the car radio was playing. The driver doesn’t know the
who needed extra tuition in Latin (my classmate and the reason for my regular visits to song, but I do. “Will you go with me? Turn with the wind roses? Will you go with me?”

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