Semi-detached house at Tavelweg 33/35

About the building

On Tavelweg in the Obstberg district stands a two-and-a-half-storey apartment house made of two mirror-image halves. Its eaves face the street, and it is articulated by projecting sections with cross gables. These side projections are the most richly treated: gable fields with painted half-timbering, paired windows, round arches on the upper floor and framed corners, jointed on the ground floor and with decorative recesses above.

The house was built in 1903 and 1904 by the Corti brothers, building contractors from Biel, who were also the clients. Each projection carries a substantial balcony on brackets at upper-floor level. The central section has two window bays with shed dormers above. The entrances are on the end walls, in separate stair projections under lean-to roofs.

In the 1950s the small towers on the cross gables were demolished, which, according to the building inventory, slightly reduced the building's effect. Otherwise it is largely original, down to the moulded window surrounds. In 1967 a storage room was added on the balcony of No. 33. Posts joined by bar railings surround the house and garden.

The house belongs to the Obstberg building group. The district was almost completely built up between 1890 and 1914, after the Kirchenfeld and Kornhaus bridges had made the slopes east of the Aare easier to reach. Around Wattenwylweg more than 85 housing units were built between 1902 and 1911 by just six offices or firms, the Corti brothers among them.

Compare the house with its neighbour at Tavelweg 31: the inventory stresses that the two go well together.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Tavelweg 33, 35 · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Baugruppe Obstberg · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Quartiergeschichte Allmend-Murifeld · Wikidata: Q138861116