The Kükelhaus House and its surroundings

"Soest? That's where Kükelhaus lives!"
(Heinrich Böll)

For three decades Hugo Kükelhaus had been living in Soest (West Germany). This town gave him a surrounding and an atmosphere which was conducive to his work.

This especially applies to his residential house situated at the entrance of the Bergenthal Park which he called "the priceless mansion".

Additional links:

Website Soest

"the priceless mansion"

The design work of Kükelhaus in Soest cannot be compared to the work that he completed elsewhere in Westphalia and in the Ruhr region as well as in Southern Germany and in Switzerland (for example, complete interior design of public buildings such as city halls, schools, and churches …)..

However, the work that Kükelhaus was able to complete in Soest still demonstrates a wide spectrum that reaches from furniture to art and toys.

His best known work is probably the large pebble stone composition in the administrative building of Soest County (Kreishaus), which Kükelhaus created in 1958 and introduced in the newspaper Soester Anzeiger under the title of "Full fragance of life" (June 20, 1958). Though the impact of this sculpture can no longer be experienced in its original sensation, in its time it was the wall decor of a staircase that lead from the entry lobby to the upper floor.

Few people in Soest are aware that Kükelhaus also left his imprints on several churches of the city.

Two portals of the Petri church stem from Kükelhaus , the occidental tower portal and the door between the so-called paradise and the inner hall of the church. They are beautiful, heavy doors made of oak, which however, other than the portals by Fritz Viegener and Gerhard Marcks, do not insist on being considered works of art.

In 1957 the rebuilt St. Thomae church obtained a lectern, an altar and two doors based on designs by Kükelhaus. While the doors still exist, the podium and the altar were relocated to the Lucas church in Lippstadt-Hörste in 1975/76.

The tower portal of the Pauli church also is a design by Kükelhaus. Details and rhythmic structure of the portal become evident only at close scrutiny: the laminate partitions or frame fittings are structured slightly asymmetrically. Variations of measurements can be found in the slabs and in the grooves. Of exceptional beauty is the bronze door knob.

When the chapel of the Osthofen cemetery was rebuilt in 1956, Kükelhaus was invited by Soest’s construction management office to renovate the interior design. He designed the structure of the window sheets and inserted in them small colored glass windows. A particularly skillful work is, in my opinion, his design of the duplex portal in the front wall of the hall. This wooden portal – entirely covered with copper sheets and laminate partitions – displays simply hammered linear bands resembling waves and large, oriental art-like inserted semi-precious stones.

In 1963/64 Kükelhaus was hired to design the colored glass windows of the staircase and entry hall for the Pestalozzi School in Soest. The windows are still there, although in a location different from the original one. They are variations around the theme of birds.

In an entirely different area was Kükelhaus’s participation in the redesign of the school yard of Soest’s Archigymnasiums in 1980. This was made possible by reassigning an amount originally destined for “Art in Building” to the installation of several ”Play and Experience Stations for the Development of the Senses”. Kükelhaus, who at the time when the school yard devices were set up already enjoyed big popularity with his "Experience Park" elsewhere, was delighted at the opportunity.