Brunswick, Germany is the place where you will find what seems to be the most colorful and most interesting building ever built. In the days where everything is sort of stale and been there seen that this one comes as a true refreshment. As you can see the entire building is painted graffiti style and it also has a unique urban configuration which only adds to its wackiness.
Although the whole building does not conform to the usual standards, you can see that it at least respects the environment and ecology with trees planted in any spot available and with bicycles crowding the parking lot instead of the cars. Another thing that adds to its overall charm is the fact that it is set in a pretty calm and nice neighborhood. What is interesting, but also to be expected, is that the younger population responded to this new landscape the best while the slightly older demographic had some issues with it. It goes without saying that this kind of novelty, over the years, attracted a whole bunch of people who wanted to take pictures, which lead to it becoming a major tourist attraction. One more interesting thing is the fact that for years several entrepreneurs were trying to replicate this project in the center of the city.
The Happy Rizzi House got its name by the artist James Rizzi, who actually painted the house in this unusual cartoony way. This project started in 2001 in the place where the former ruined ducal residence was, and the decision was brought to build something that is practically new and unusual in order to save the old buildings. The end product of all that is what you see in these pictures. A real treat and joy for the eyes of the young ones. When you look at the building and the art on it, it all somehow seems very naive, and amateur derived, but it actually took the architect Konrad Kloster several months to draft the project and almost two more years to make it happen.
When it was finished, it wasn’t used as a residential building. On the contrary, it was an office space, and boy, can you even imagine the joy and happiness of the people who used to live there, but also for the people that work there. It is easily the only workplace you are looking forward to coming in the morning. As it seems the Rizzi House is empty at the moment and as we found out there are talks that it might get converted into Rizzi museum or a restaurant, at least that are the rumors that circle in the city council.
