Garden

A Rapport with nature

The planning of the garden was overseen by the office of horticulturalist Karl Foerster in Potsdam-Bornim. Foerster’s business partner Herta Hammerbacher incorporated existing structural elements and vegetation from the previous garden into the new design. The principal arrangement, however, was based on a concept drafted by Mies. The Lemke garden functions as a transition zone that connects the house to the Obersee lake and park landscape beyond. The garden’s design stands in dialogue with the shape of the home, gradually joining the house grounds with the surrounding landscape. The transition from the ground floor interior to the garden leads first to an adjoining level terrace and out to the surrounding, informally landscaped lawn. This effect draws the interior of the house even closer to the landscape than in Mies’s earlier projects. The house and garden complement each other with special accents intentionally added to underline the play of interior and exterior space. This strategy includes the walnut tree on the terrace which marks the center of the complex and also the hardwood Hornbeam trees that serve to extend the exterior house wall into the garden, tying together the interior and exterior space.