The Hamburg Kontorhaus District is an office district (the first in Europe) built to serve the functions arising from creation of the Speicherstadt (warehouse district - the largest timber-pile founded warehouse district in the world, built between 1883 and 1927). It forming one of the most impressive German urban settings of the 1920s, and is characterised by a high degree of stylistic consistency. The foremost of these buildings is the ten-story office building named Chilehaus, built by Fritz Höger in 1922-1924, a masterpiece of German Brick Expressionism.
This massive and long-drawn-out building is constructed on a reinforced concrete, and the outer walls are made of the typical dark-red to violet fired clinker bricks, and connected to the reinforced concrete core as the load bearing structure. It has a slender profile following the existing line of the street, and boldly drawn together to a point in the east, completely filling the acute angle at the end of the site. This tip is formed by a straight flank and a curved flank, coming together like a ship's prow - a unique and spectacular effect, enhanced by the creation of a free space in front of it. Because of the accentuated vertical elements and the recessed upper stories, as well as the curved facade on the Pumpen street, the building has, despite its enormous size, a touch of lightness. The entrance arches tower like city gates over the Fischertwiete are decorated on the city side by ceramic, and decorated with ornaments and figures by Richard Kuöhl.
About the stamps
The first stamps, depicting a tagetes, belong to the set Blumen, about which I wrote here.
The second stamp is part of the series Burgen und Schlösser (Castles and Palaces):
2013.02.01 (designed by Nicole Elsenbach and Franc Fienbork)
• Glücksburg Castle (0.45 EUR)
• Imperial Castle of Nuremburg (0.58 EUR) - it's on the postcard
2015.01.02
• Marksburg (0.62 EUR)
• Ludwigslust Palace (0.80 EUR) - it's on other postcard
References
Chilehaus - Wikipedia
Speicherstadt and Chilehaus with Kontorhaus District - UNESCO official website
Sender: Claudia Bukur-König (direct swap)
Sent from Wiesbaden (Hesse / Germany), on 06.06.2013
Photo: Karten von-Kunstler
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