Architect of Madness
By Christa TerrySpeaking of custom home design — er, like we did the other day — I have a real thing for builders and/or designers who go all out. And by “all out,” I mean they have this vision in their heads that is nothing like the usual house or apartment building, but they go right ahead and construct it anyway, oftentimes to the scorn of their nearby neighbors. Junker House, Lemgo, Germany is one such structure.
Karl Junker was as severely schizophrenic as he was talented when it came to architecture, and this fact is evident in the home that became his legacy. The world inside his head provided the blueprint for Junker House, a home like something out of a nightmare, complete with human faces that stare down from ceilings, twisting caged staircases, skeletal furniture, and “ghosts.”
Not content to build it and let the fantasy go, Junker spent his life (and a sum of money left to him by his grandfather) building onto and perfecting Junker House. He lived therein alone, though elements of the design such as a nursery and a formal salon suggests that he intended to have a family and perhaps even an active social life.
Junker did to some extent achieve the latter goal, and then only at the end of his life when strangers began to arrive daily to request tours of his life’s work. He gave these visitors what they wanted, sure that one day in the future his fascinating style of building and interior design would be appreciated by mankind. In a way, Junker is now appreciated, though only as an example of a man whose madness drove him to new heights of architectural creativity.
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