Villa Hügel

The Villa Hügel is a 19th-century mansion in Bredeney (part of the modern city of Essen) in Germany. It was built by Alfred Krupp in 1870-3 as his main residence and was the home of the Krupp family of industrialists until after World War II. More recently, the Villa Hügel has housed the offices of the Kulturstiftung Ruhr (Ruhr Cultural Foundation) as well as an art gallery and the historical archive of the Krupp family and company.HistoryIn 1864 Alfred Krupp purchased the Klosterbuschhof on the heights above Breydeney and had it rebuilt as a residence for his family. Over the following years, Krupp bought additional land around the estate and in 1869 placed an advertisement in Deutsche Bauzeitung looking for an architect who would turn his designs for a "large villa" into a viable blueprint. In the event, a number of architects worked on the project over the following years. Krupp himself continuously interfered in the work with new ideas. His focus was very much on a modern and efficient house, design elements were secondary to him. Krupp deemed most ornamental architectural features superfluous.The foundation was laid in April 1870 and up to around 800 people worked on the construction project at a time. Since Alfred Krupp wanted a very modern home, the villa was supposed to be fire-proof, well insulated from sun, wind, cold and heat. It featured double-paned windows, water heating and an early form of air conditioning. The temperature was supposed to be independently adjustable for each room. A large complex of support buildings was erected nearby, including private water and gas works.Krupp pushed for a speedy completion, although the Franco-Prussian War and collapsing mining tunnels underneath the edifice slowed construction. On 10 January 1873, the family moved in. Some of the technical features did not work as expected, however, so work continued after that.