Heidi and Andreas' home has a colorful history: the building used to house an inn with a magnificent dance hall, later it was home to an upholstery business. Heidi and Andreas have transformed the premises into a unique living space, a mixture of industrial loft, shabby chic and boundless imagination.
The house in which Heidi and Andreas live was built in 1860 and is located in the middle of Heidelberg's Neuenheim district. It is a rear building and the former home of Andreas' parents. It has been in the family for a long time. His grandfather bought it and his father had his upholstery business in the house until his death. Andreas himself is an artist, and for a long time he used the premises as a studio for his huge paintings and resin sculptures. He now has his studio in nearby Mannheim and the house is home to Heidi and Andreas.
When it comes to design, Heidi and Andreas love the imperfect, raw and original. The history of the house, the past, should be tangible and visible. Unplastered ceilings, exposed steel beams and crumbling plaster are deliberately left as they are and give the rooms a charm all of their own. Added to this is Andreas' art, which is of course still omnipresent and gives the rooms a spectacular uniqueness. Heidi, on the other hand, takes care of the home, arranges flowers, decorates accessories and adds the finishing touches.
The lower floor resembles a loft with a spacious open-plan living, dining and cooking area. The cooking area is cleverly designed with a separate "dirty kitchen" at the back, where dirty dishes can quickly disappear. This means that the open-plan kitchen-living room always looks neat and tidy at the front.
The most unusual room in her home is on the upper floor. Once you have climbed the stairs, you are transported back in time to the 19th century. An old dance hall is the showpiece of the house. Elaborate ceiling and wall paintings still bear witness to its former splendor. And you can even still see the beams of the balcony where the chapel once played. What lavish parties might have once been held here? In 1860, the dance hall was part of the 'Gasthaus zur Rose' alongside a restaurant and a beer garden. For many years, the ceiling of the dance hall was suspended and the room was used for storage. Andreas finally cleared everything out and removed the suspended ceiling, revealing the dance hall in all its glory.
However, the ceiling of the hall is now dilapidated and urgently needs to be renovated - not so easy in a rear building. It needs a crane and that will be expensive. Nevertheless, it is Heidi and Andreas' next project - after all, they want to prevent this special piece of history from deteriorating any further.
In the middle of the dance hall is a huge white cylinder with dolphin tails sticking out of it, reaching up to the ceiling. This cylinder conceals Heidi and Andreas' bathroom. Andreas designed it. There is no mirror. Nor is there a heating system; the entire room currently has no heating, a challenge for the two of them. The upstairs bathroom is the only bathroom in the whole house. Originally, Andreas also wanted to integrate a cylindrical bedroom into the dance hall. But that would take up too much space. He and Heidi have other plans for the dance hall at the moment. They want to make the gem accessible to others. They are making the dance hall available for art projects by school classes, and photographers and filmmakers can also book the space. What's more, the acoustics are still fantastic today. That's why they like to invite musicians for small concerts. The old dance hall will continue to be lively and colorful.
A film by Annika Erbach (editor), Lars Reuther (camera), Jan Parvu (camera and sound), Jens Wernstedt (editor).
00:00 Life in the old dance hall
00:38 Living room
02:25 Kitchen
03:37 Bedroom
05:30 Studio
07:35 Old dance hall
10:11 Bathroom