A purpose-built workspace 700 years in development. Peek inside the headquarters of Bauwerk Colour–home to our business, family and a perpetual restoration project.
A purpose-built workspace 700 years in development. Peek inside the headquarters of Bauwerk Colour–home to our business, family and a perpetual restoration project.
Workspaces in manufacturing and production are typically not centres of inspiration..they’re all about speed and efficiency, purpose-built with that one thing in mind. But what about all the humans working inside these sterile vacuums? What about the toll on their well-being? It’s hard to believe anyone willingly signs up to have their creativity and inspiration stifled during the large proportion of life we spend at work. Perhaps it’s that realisation that has led us to choose such an unusual headquarters for Bauwerk Colour. Or maybe we just can’t resist a perpetual restoration project (quite possibly a bit of both). Our personal and professional home serves as our muse—a German castle, our very own ‘Schloss’, nestled two hours south of Berlin amongst tranquil countryside.
The property was purchased by the co-founders of Bauwerk, Bronwyn and Andreas, 15 years ago. They fell in love with the house (and the historic plane tree out front of course) during a visit from Australia where they were living at the time. After the essential updates to make it liveable and a global move, we started working out of the castle seven years ago. The Schloss is now the base of Bauwerk Colour's operations for the Northern Hemisphere–not only where we run the business, but where colours are developed and mixed, and where orders are packed. We’ve been growing, so even in the short time since these photos were taken in 2021 for “The Ateliers of Europe” book by John Whelan and Oskar Proctor, some ‘departments’ have already moved into newly renovated barns on the property. Just another stage in the very long history of this incredible property.
This phase of the building’s history as a home and a production facility is really just a blip on its timeline. Parts of the building date back to the 1300’s when it was a manor ‘Rittergut’, and home to two Aristocratic families. Fast forward half a millennium, and you can start to view the more recent history of the house through its layers of paint. Before we took ownership, the last time the house was decoratively painted was in 1850, and traces of that yellow paint are still visible. After World War II, the Russians used the house before it passed into state ownership, illustrated through the DDR East German slogan painted on a wall. This gave way to the schoolhouse era, when the Schloss served as the local school for many of our neighbours. The signatures of this time are the industrial grey paint covering the lower half of the walls and the functional bright red banisters found juxtaposed against the beautiful curves of a Baroque staircase. Further evidence of both beauty and function–a Bauwerk signature if there ever was one.
Impact + Philosophy
Living amongst these layers of history provides us with immense inspiration, and we take great joy in responsibly adding our layers where needed. Even though we own a paint company, there are some rooms we won’t touch with a paintbrush. We just can’t bring ourselves to paint over walls with beautiful historic limewash that’s been there for centuries. When we do repaint, we leave the existing paint in place, and simply clean anything that is flaking, and apply fresh limewash over the walls. The result is a visual time capsule of centuries. In the room pictured below, the yellow paint on the top half is the original chalk paint, still there after 170 years, while the ochre shade is modern limewash (in Caravane and Nurture), added as a backdrop for a photoshoot in the space.
Contributing to the Story
In the present, life in the castle continues to unfold in a way that we hope will be remembered in 150 years. We imagine someone looking back at photos from this time and reminiscing about the ‘Colour Card painting room,’ (shown above) where Berbel dedicates each working day to hand-painting Bauwerk limewash fan decks, colour cards, and master books—amounting to an impressive eight hundred to one thousand cards daily! What they may not see is that Berbel is also our resident insect enthusiast, frequently sharing photos of multi-legged visitors via our group chat. Or perhaps, those who look back will see the eclectic furniture, sourced from various corners of the world. This property effortlessly accommodates decor styles from different decades, as shown by the concrete table—once found in Bronwyn and Andreas’s modern, minimalist home in Australia. Whether these little details of daily life are visible to everyone or known only to us, we know it’s the special surroundings and the stories we’ve woven into them that really breathe life into this remarkable home and workplace.
We are very grateful to John Whelan for featuring our workshop in his book, “Ateliers of Europe,” and to Oskar Proctor for capturing this particular moment in both our history and the property’s.
There is much more to say about life ‘Somewhere South of Berlin’— from the inspiration we find in this tranquil rural setting to the restoration efforts we take on to preserve and restore local properties We’ll be sharing more soon…
