The Chilehaus (, "

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

House") is a ten-story office building in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It is located in the

Kontorhaus District The Kontorhaus District is the southeastern part of Altstadt, Hamburg, Altstadt, Hamburg, between Steinstraße, Meßberg, Hamburg Wallring#Eastern Wallring, Klosterwall and Brandstwiete. The streetscape is characterised by large office buildings ...

. It is an exceptional example of the 1920s

Brick Expressionism The term Brick Expressionism () describes a specific variant of Expressionist architecture that uses bricks, tiles or clinker bricks as the main visible building material. Buildings in the style were erected mostly in the 1920s, primarily in Ge ...

style of architecture. This large angular building is located on a site of approximately , spanning the Fischertwiete Street in Hamburg. It was designed by the German architect

Fritz Höger Fritz is a common German male name. The name originated as a German diminutive of Friedrich or Frederick (''Der Alte Fritz'', and ''Stary Fryc'' were common nicknames for King Frederick II of Prussia and Frederick III, German Emperor), as well ...

and finished in 1924. As part of Kontorhaus District, it was inscribed as a

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

in 2015.

Design

The Chilehaus building is famed for its top, which is reminiscent of a ship's prow, and the facades, which meet at a very sharp angle at the corner of the ''Pumpen-'' and ''Niedernstrasse''. The best view of the building is from the east. Because of the accentuated vertical elements and the recessed upper stories, as well as the curved facade on the Pumpenstraße, the building has, despite its enormous size, a touch of lightness. The building has a

reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete, also called ferroconcrete or ferro-concrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having higher tensile strength or ...

structure and has been built with the use of 4.8 million dark Oldenburg bricks. The building is constructed on very difficult terrain, so to gain stability it was necessary to build on 16-meter-deep reinforced-concrete pilings. The location's close vicinity to the

Elbe The Elbe ( ; ; or ''Elv''; Upper Sorbian, Upper and , ) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Republic), then Ge ...

River necessitated a specially sealed cellar, and heating equipment was constructed in a caisson that can float within the building, so the equipment can't be damaged in the event of flooding. The sculptural elements in the staircases and on the facade were provided by the sculptor

Richard Kuöhl Richard Kuöhl (May 31, 1880 – May 19, 1961) was a German sculptor, specializing in providing architectural sculpture for the architects of the Brick Expressionism style in northern Germany in the 1920s. After training in art pottery in his hom ...

. The building hosted 2 sets of

paternoster lift A paternoster (, , or ) or paternoster lift is a passenger elevator, consisting of a chain of open compartments, each usually designed for two people, that move slowly in a loop up and down inside a building without stopping. Passengers can s ...

s before being modernised in 1991.

History

The Chilehaus building was designed by the architect

and built between 1922 and 1924. It was commissioned by the shipping magnate Henry B. Sloman, who made his fortune trading

saltpeter Potassium nitrate is a chemical compound with a sharp, salty, bitter taste and the chemical formula . It is a potassium salt of nitric acid. This salt consists of potassium cations and nitrate anions , and is therefore an alkali metal nitrate ...

from

, hence the name Chile House. The cost of construction is difficult to determine, as the Chile House was built during the period of

hyperinflation In economics, hyperinflation is a very high and typically accelerating inflation. It quickly erodes the real versus nominal value (economics), real value of the local currency, as the prices of all goods increase. This causes people to minimiz ...

that struck Germany during the early 1920s, but is estimated to have been more than 10 million

reichsmark The (; sign: ℛ︁ℳ︁; abbreviation: RM) was the currency of Germany from 1924 until the fall of Nazi Germany in 1945, and in the American, British and French occupied zones of Germany, until 20 June 1948. The Reichsmark was then replace ...

. Currently it is property of the German real-estate company Union Investment Real Estate AG. The language school

Instituto Cervantes Instituto Cervantes (, the Cervantes Institute) is a worldwide nonprofit organization created by the Spanish government in 1991. It is named after Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616), the author of ''Don Quixote'' and perhaps the most important fi ...

is one of the tenants.Instituto Cervantes de Hamburgo
/ref>

Gallery

Innenhof Chilehaus Hamburg.jpg, Chilehaus: Inner courtyard Chile Haus abend 1.JPG, Chilehaus at night Chilehaus-1565.JPG 2013-06-08 Projekt Heißluftballon - Highflyer DSCF0976.jpg, Aerial view, Kontorhausviertel Hamburg-090613-0211-DSC 8308-Chilehaus.jpg, Entrance A - note the

Coat of arms of Chile The coat of arms of Chile dates from 1834 and was designed by the English artist Charles Wood Taylor (1792–1856). It is made up by a figurative background divided in two equal parts: the top one is blue and the bottom, red. A five pointed whi ...

atop the gates. Chilehaus (Hamburg-Altstadt).Detail.5.ajb.jpg, Facade details Hh-chilehaus-det1.jpg Chilehaus (Hamburg-Altstadt).Detail.7.ajb.jpg, A

condor Condor is the common name for two species of New World vultures, each in a monotypic genus. The name derives from the Quechua language, Quechua ''kuntur''. They are the largest flying land birds in the Western Hemisphere. One species, the And ...

, national bird of Chile. Chilehaus (Hamburg-Altstadt).Detail.4.ajb.jpg Chilehaus (Hamburg-Altstadt).Fassadendetail.ajb.jpg Hamburg.Chilehaus.Fassade.Fischertwiete.wmt.jpg Hamburg.Chilehaus.Spitze.plastiken.wmt.jpg, Ornaments at the tip Hamburg-090613-0212-DSC 8309-Chilehaus.jpg, Courtyard File:Hamburg_03-2023_-_2.jpg File:Hamburg_03-2023_-_3.jpg File:Hamburg_03-2023_-_4.jpg

References

External links

Speicherstadt and Kontorhaus District with Chilehaus / UNESCO Official WebsiteChilehaus webcam
from Chilehaus towards Hamburg-

Speicherstadt The Speicherstadt (, literally: 'City of Warehouses', meaning warehouse district) in Hamburg, Germany, is the largest warehouse district in the world where the buildings stand on deep foundation, timber-pile foundations—oak logs, in this parti ...

Elbe Philharmonic Hall The Elbphilharmonie (; "Elbe Philharmonic Hall"), popularly nicknamed Elphi, is a concert hall in the HafenCity quarter of Hamburg, Germany, on the Grasbrook peninsula of the Elbe River. The new construction resembles a hoisted sail, water wave ...

and

Hamburg Harbour The Port of Hamburg (, ) is a seaport on the river Elbe in Hamburg, Germany, from its mouth on the North Sea. Known as Germany's "Gateway to the World" (), it is the country's largest seaport by volume. In terms of TEU throughput, Hamburg ...

{{Authority control Brick Expressionism World Heritage Sites in Germany Buildings and structures completed in 1924 Buildings and structures in Hamburg-Mitte Modernist architecture in Germany Heritage sites in Hamburg Tourist attractions in Hamburg Office buildings in Germany