Appalachian Bauhaus
BY JOHN CLAUSEN l PHOTO BY RIMAS ZAILSKAS
Werner Haker is a very precise man.
Ask directions to his wonderfully “mindful” home near Brevard and you’ll receive instructions involving tenths of miles and by-the-numbers turning instructions.
“I’m Swiss,” the long-time architect explains. “We’re like that.”
He’s not only Swiss, he’s also an architect who lectured on design at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich...which has to be Ground Zero when it comes to precision. Several years ago, he traded architecture for abstract, mixed media painting, but his life-long training has never left him.
The home he shares with his wife Catherine is a reflection of his fascination with design detail and to the couple’s commitment to living intelligently. The house and grounds also represent Werner’s attempt to grow past the constraints of pure modern design, a state of affairs the architect-turned-artist likes to ponder. It is one of the rich ironies associated with his home, his life and his personal philosophy.
First of all, there’s the “green” factor. “I’m not an alternative, green-type guy,” he explains. “I’m not a tree hugger, but I do like to be mindful and sensible.”
Part of that sensibility includes a passive solar positioning of the building site. Werner placed the building to take advantage of the sun for heat in the winter and extended the roof with overhangs that shade the home’s many glass windows in the summer.
The concrete floor in the Haker home is more than a mere floor — it’s also the foundation and, with heated water running through pipes just below the surface, the heating system as well. The point, he says, “is to superimpose more than one function onto one system.”
Carefully considered cross ventilation, combined with the site’s 3,000-foot elevation and the home’s high ceilings, make air conditioning completely unnecessary. Heating and cooling bills are miniscule, Werner says.
Then there is the irony of the structure itself. At first glance, the home looks like the kind of modern design inspired by the German Bauhaus school of architecture. The simple, low-cost, single-shape look of the home seems true to its Teutonic origins.
“But in a real Bauhaus design,” Werner says, pointing to a small screen porch on the corner of the main structure, “there would not be a wooden porch attached alongside the pristine box.”
Control of every aspect in a home’s design is, he points out, what most architects try to achieve. “Here, I’m trying to be relaxed, not uptight or overly obsessive about design. I like to call it Appalachian Bauhaus.”
Also, he explains in his soft, slightly accented professor’s voice, in pure modern design the structure and the envelope are basically separate. Beams support the roof and columns form the walls. First there is the structure and then the covering…something like a tent, he says. Again, the Haker home strays from classic Bauhaus philosophy. The outside of his roughly 3,000-square-foot home is constructed of corrugated steel, as is the roof. Unlike the usual thin, non-load-bearing modern design walls, the walls are approximately nine-inches thick and contribute to the overall strength and energy efficiency of the structure. The steel construction — 60 percent of which was done with recycled steel — provides for low cost maintenance, with nothing to paint and building materials with a lifespan which can be calculated in decades instead of years.
“Basically, this is a big barn or a big box,” Werner points out. “It’s the way the interior lays out that provides a rich spatial experience.”
Inside, the home is remarkably open with very few interior walls and a high degree of transparency. Thanks to the large exterior windows, there is very little separation of outside from inside. From the Haker’s cooking/dining/living area, the view takes in the entire back yard, which was left in its natural state with tall grass and wild flowers growing uninhibited by plant beds or overt design. The exception is the three or four giant flat boulders Werner installed at the request of his wife.
The half wall that separates the more public living area from the couple’s bedroom and bathroom also serves to anchor a long clothes closet. A laundry room built directly across from the closet makes efficient use of space.
Approximately half of the home is taken up by two studios, one for Werner’s painting and one for his wife’s custom clothes designing business. Part of the studio space can be easily converted to make a guest room, complete with a full bath that transforms into a dressing room for Catherine’s custom-clothes clients.
The couple’s previous home in downtown Brevard was the antithesis of their current living space. Although they received an award from the Transylvania County Historical Society, the home just did not fit them. “It didn’t reflect who we are as people…it was not enlightened.”
More than anything else, the Haker home demonstrates the reason the couple chose to return to America after a long residency in Switzerland. Werner was born in New York City and enjoys a dual citizenship, so he could live in either place.
“We wanted to come back to America because the quality of life is better here. There is a much higher degree of personal freedom here. We like the small town environment.”
Because of its dense population, he says, life in Europe is much more “managed.” Also, they found the scale of things in America appealing. “In Switzerland,” Werner says, “the majority of people live in apartments. This house would be considered palatial.”
Building a non-traditional home using local contractors and conforming to local codes wasn’t as difficult as one might expect. “I pre-empted the inspections,” Werner explains, “by going to the authorities and integrating them into the process. They were very supportive.”
Werner’s diplomacy even won over the initially skeptical work force. “Nobody had ever done this kind of building around here before. Some of them thought it was crazy at first. But when we were done, they all thought it was fantastic.”
