Children Playing with Dog

History of the work

At the Stapfenacker school at Brünnenstrasse 40 in Bümpliz, a mosaic shows children playing with a dog. The City of Bern lists it under the title 'Spielende Kinder mit Hund' (Children Playing with a Dog), names Gottfried Obi as its author and dates it to 1936. According to Wikimedia Commons the mosaic belongs to a fountain of 1936 set into the school's south wall facing the yard, protected by a small canopy. The heritage office also mentions the work in its inventory entry for the school.

Little has been published about the artist. The Swiss artists' lexicon SIKART lists Gottfried Obi as a painter who also drew and made lithographs; he was born in Bern on 12 August 1899 and died there on 26 December 1969. There is no full article about him, and no information was found on the commission or execution of the mosaic.

The building is better documented. The Bernese architect Karl Indermühle won a competition for the school as early as 1916, but that project was never built. Only in 1929 to 1931 was the present primary school built to a new design by Indermühle for the municipality of Bern. The building inventory describes a complex on an L-shaped plan whose two wings are joined by a tall stair tower. It rates the school as being of national importance because it is one of the first pavilion schools in the style of the New Building movement, and notes that it was long counted among the most progressive school buildings in the country.

An extension was added on the south side in 1947. A complete renovation followed in 1991/92 and a redesign of the forecourt in 1993 to 1995, both by the firm Indermühle Architekten; in 1997 the complex received the ATU-Prix. On site, besides the fountain, take a look at the semicircular school kitchen projecting towards Brünnenstrasse: during the renovation its band of glass-block windows was completed with blocks made in the Czech Republic.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · Bauinventar Stadt Bern: Brünnenstrasse 40 · SIKART: Gottfried Obi · Wikimedia Commons: Brunnen Stapfenackerschulhaus mit Mosaik