House at Luisenstrasse 47

About the building

The house at Luisenstrasse 47 stands on a plot bordered by three streets: Luisenstrasse, Kirchenfeldstrasse and Dufourstrasse. Opposite is the Anglican St Ursula’s Church. Both are by the same architects: Eduard Rybi and Ernst Salchli built the house in 1904 and the church a year later. For the house, according to the City of Bern building inventory, they were also the clients themselves. The house is rated worthy of protection and belongs to the Kirchenfeld building group.

The rendered building with sandstone parts has a quarter-hipped roof. Its façades show Heimatstil forms, the Swiss vernacular revival, clearly influenced by Art Nouveau. The two storeys stand on a grooved, rendered cellar base with strong buttresses at the corners. The buttresses are of sandstone, as are the frames of the tall rectangular ground-floor windows and of the segmental-arched windows above.

Each side is designed differently. Towards Luisenstrasse the eaves face the street, with a deep projection in front whose cross gable sits under a partly hipped roof. On the north a porch leads to a basket-arched door; its door leaf carries a wrought-iron grille in virtuoso Art Nouveau forms. Towards Kirchenfeldstrasse a half-timbered gable projects, and several windows are grouped together. On Dufourstrasse the upper floor and the gable of a slightly projecting bay carry applied mock half-timbering.

The house has kept its original condition, and the fence from the time of construction also survives in full. The windows were repaired in 2005. Rybi and Salchli were among the architects who later left a particular mark on the Kirchenfeld with Heimatstil buildings.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Luisenstrasse 47 · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Jubiläumsplatz 2 (St. Ursula’s Church) · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Quartiergeschichte Kirchenfeld-Brunnadern · Wikidata: Q139265896