Villa Beau-Regard at Haspelgasse 15

About the building

High above the slope down to the Aare in the Allmend-Murifeld district stands Villa Beau-Regard. The two-storey house under a large hipped roof with wide dormers was built from 1916 to 1918. The architect was Max Zeerleder (1880–1964), the client the Bern bank director Charles Thormann-Zahn. The Schweizerische Bauzeitung presented the house in 1921.

The rendered façades stand on a high plinth and are articulated with pieces of Hauterive stone: window and door frames, rusticated pilasters, a string course and a strongly moulded main cornice. The entrance front is symmetrical, with a three-bay projecting centre. Two pairs of Tuscan columns flank the doorway and carry a balcony with a wrought-iron railing on the upper floor. Above the balcony door is the coat of arms of the Thormann family, followed by a broken pediment and the raised Vogeldiele, the boarded soffit under the roof overhang.

The garden side is plainer; only the middle windows move closer together there. To the south-east stands a taller tower with a pointed roof, to the north-west the staircase bulges out of the façade in a shallow curve, and at one corner a veranda with paired columns and a basket arch opens to the west. In front of the garden lies a generous terrace with obelisks, separated from the steep, wooded slope by a massive retaining wall.

The model was the Bernese country seats of the 18th century, whose language Zeerleder carried into the years of the First World War. A garage was added in 1947, and the house was altered in 1990. The City of Bern’s heritage office rates the villa as worthy of protection; its surroundings are listed in the federal inventory of protected townscapes (ISOS) with conservation goal A. Standing in front of the entrance, look up: coat of arms, pediment and soffit form one axis.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Haspelgasse 15 · Wikidata: Q138950560 · Wikidata: Max Zeerleder (Q133641547)