Tower house at Weststrasse 16

About the building

At Weststrasse 16 stands a single-family house that looks like a small tower. It was built in 1909 to designs by the architect Eduard Rybi; the City of Bern building inventory names A. Pochon-Demme as the client. The house is rated worthy of protection and is described there as a stately building; its surroundings are also considered of heritage interest.

The ground drops steeply here. On the valley side the house therefore has almost four storeys, on the uphill side only two; to the south a high retaining wall takes up the difference in level. A steep pyramidal roof sits over the square plan. On three sides it is broken up by large roof dormers, some of which project beyond the façade.

In style the building mixes the picturesque manner of the turn of the century with Heimatstil forms. The rendered façades are irregularly composed. The base and the window frames are of Hauterive stone. Single and paired windows, narrow slit windows and windows with a shallow arch alternate, and a strong stepped portal forms the entrance. On the south side there is an original veranda with arches on piers and a terrace above.

Eduard Rybi was one of the architects who strongly shaped the Kirchenfeld; the inventory’s district history mentions blocks by him that define whole streets between Helvetiastrasse and Dählhölzliweg. The house on Weststrasse, by contrast, shows him as the designer of a single, individually shaped house. It shows its full height on the valley side.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Weststrasse 16 · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Quartiergeschichte Kirchenfeld-Brunnadern · Wikidata: Q139494852