Dear Axel: 99 Postcards from Alison and Peter Smithson collects, for the first time, 99 handwritten postcards exchanged between the Smithsons and Axel Bruchhäuser during the two-decade transformation of the Hexenhaus — offering an intimate, unguarded record of New Brutalism's most personal project.
About This Book
Between 1985 and 2002, Alison and Peter Smithson reshaped a vernacular German cottage into one of late 20th-century architecture's most singular domestic experiments: the Hexenhaus, or Witch's House. Hidden in forested Hessen, the residence belonged to Axel Bruchhäuser, owner of furniture company Tecta, whose factory sat nearby. The Smithsons' intervention was cumulative and quietly radical — more than 20 additions, extractions, satellite buildings, bespoke furnishings, and new routes through the landscape. This companion to Hexenhaus: A House for a Man and a Cat (2021) reframes that project through correspondence: 99 postcards that trace the working relationship, the design thinking, and the friendship behind one of British New Brutalism's most compelling built works.
Key Features
- 220 pages of facsimile postcards and documentary material charting the Hexenhaus transformation
- Published by Walther König, 2021
What You'll Discover
- How Alison and Peter Smithson conceived and communicated the Hexenhaus project through postal correspondence over 17 years
- The incremental logic behind more than 20 additions, extractions, and satellite structures that redefined the cottage's relationship to its forest landscape
- The Smithsons' working relationship with Axel Bruchhäuser and the role of Tecta's furniture culture in shaping the project's material character
- A counter-reading of New Brutalism at domestic scale — intimate, adaptive, and rooted in sustained dialogue rather than singular authorship
About the Author
Alison Smithson was one half of the influential British architectural partnership Alison and Peter Smithson, central figures in the New Brutalist movement and in the development of post-war architectural discourse. Together, they are known for their theoretical writing as much as their built work, and the Hexenhaus project represents a rare, sustained domestic commission conducted across two decades.
Specifications
- Format: Hardcover
- Pages: 220
- Dimensions: 26.7 x 20.3 cm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9783753309002
- Publisher: Walther König
- Publication Date: 2021
Perfect For: Architects and historians with an interest in New Brutalism, domestic architecture, and the Smithsons' legacy; collectors of architectural correspondence and primary source material; readers who engaged with Hexenhaus: A House for a Man and a Cat.