Row houses at Alpenstrasse 7–15

About the building

At Alpenstrasse 7 to 15 stands a row of five houses that differ in size and height. Towards the street the entrance façades lie on the eaves side, and each house has its own stair tower with its own shape and roof. On the garden side, too, every façade is designed differently; there is no division into centre and wings.

The main accent is the heavily broken-up zone at the foot of the roof with its many dormers and gables. With this free grouping the row, in the view of the city’s heritage office, differs clearly from the palace-like neo-Renaissance apartment buildings that are otherwise common in Kirchenfeld. The balcony railings are also praised. Large gardens lie to the south-west, and the original fencing with wrought-iron gates survives.

The architect and client in 1895 was Albert Gerster of Bern (1864–1935). After an apprenticeship as a mason and stonecutter he studied in Stuttgart and Darmstadt and worked in Bern again from 1891. In the same years the municipal riding hall (1895–1897) was built to his designs, later followed by many hotels and villas. Gerster remained committed to historicism all his life and was sceptical of modern styles. During these years he built further terraced apartment houses on Alpenstrasse.

The houses have been adapted several times: nos. 7 and 9 were altered in 1914/16, an extra flat was added to no. 7 in 1944, no. 11 was renovated in 1967, the entrance court of no. 15 was redesigned in 1993, no. 9 received new wooden windows in 2013, and in 2014 there was a renovation including a conversion of the attic flat. A protection agreement has applied to no. 7 since 2005. The row is worthy of protection and belongs to the Kirchenfeld building group. As you walk past, compare the five stair towers with one another.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Alpenstrasse 7–15 · Wikidata: Q138790915 · Wikipedia (de): Albert Gerster