June 5, 2025 |
His fingerprints can be spotted across California’s arid landscape and his legacy includes the design of some of the world’s most definitive examples of modern architecture, as well as the founding of the groundbreaking Southern California Institute of Architecture. When he died in November 2019, Kappe and one of his sons, fellow architect Finn Kappe, were in the midst of bringing Europe’s first and only Kappe house to life just outside Berlin. The property, completed with Finn’s generous guidance in 2021, and additional design support from Elena and Paolo Brasioli of Quattro Architectura, is the home of furniture dealer and musician Lars Triesch, his wife Sara, an artist and teacher, their two children, and Ponti, the family dog. Originally from Koblenz, Triesch now makes his living as the founder and owner of the vintage furniture business Original in Berlin, but credits his first love – music – as the source of his cultural curiosity surrounding the sun-soaked shores of California that Ray Kappe called home. “I started playing in bands when I was around 13 or 14. That went on until I was maybe 30,” says Triesch, whose music career was defined by his role as the drummer of indie-rock band Profession Reporter until the group split in 2009. “I worked a lot of different jobs, but only ever on the side of the band, working to survive. To make money to keep the music thing going,” he says.
Lars Triesch at his Ray Kappe-designed home in home in Kleinmachnow, Brandenburg
While the band cultivated a significant enough of a following to fund tours and new music, Sara studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy of Fine Arts in Amsterdam. When her graduation and return to Koblenz coincided with the end of the road for the band, the couple made the decision to move to Berlin and write the next chapter. Triesch says, “She moved back to our hometown, but there was nothing for her there. The band was not so successful any more and everything felt quite lame. We didn’t know where we were going, so we moved to Berlin, where Sara soon became pregnant.” With the forthcoming responsibility of a growing family, Triesch’s perspective evolved into something more anchored in stability, but he found himself unable to shake the rebellious need for the autonomy the DIY music scenes of the US had imprinted onto him. Upon the realisation that the key to his future might lie among a collection of design artefacts he had been quietly cultivating since the age of 18, Triesch founded his furniture-dealing and restoration business. But how did his former life in music lead him to Ray Kappe?
“I was really into punk and hardcore when I was young, and then it changed,” he says. “I looked further back in time to see where it all came from, the things that inspired punk. There you find The Stooges and you find MC5. Then you ask, ‘What were they inspired by?’ I really dug into this whole musical history and the literature of the time. I would call them the original hipsters. There was the drug scene in California and the music that came with it – psychedelic rock, Sixties garage bands, vintage cars, movies and the design and architecture of the time. I always liked the idea of having that kind of lifestyle.”
from left: layers of Douglas fir and California redwood make up the house’s exterior; from the property’s prefabricated walls to the extensive use of wood and the notable absence of inorganic materials, the Triesch Residence – which was completed after Ray Kappe’s death – reads as a self-penned obituary of his boundary-breaking life in architecture
from the property’s prefabricated walls to the extensive use of wood and the notable absence of inorganic materials, the Triesch Residence – which was completed after Ray Kappe’s death – reads as a self-penned obituary of his boundary-breaking life in architecture
from the property’s prefabricated walls to the extensive use of wood and the notable absence of inorganic materials, the Triesch Residence – which was completed after Ray Kappe’s death – reads as a self-penned obituary of his boundary-breaking life in architecture
He stumbled upon the 2012 documentary film Coast Modern, which tells the story of modernist architecture on the West Coast, traced from 1922 to the present, from Los Angeles to Vancouver. It was his first significant introduction to Kappe’s houses and their poetry of innovation and romanticism. As the Triesch family outgrew their Kreuzberg apartment, and endless months of house-hunting culminated in disappointment, Triesch and Sara eventually purchased a plot of land. Christened by Kappe, the Triesch Residence shares the same naming convention as its Stateside siblings, notably the Kappe Residence, the Gertler Residence and the Keeler Residence – the last of which was tragically lost to the devastating LA wildfires during the writing of this story. Flanked by slender pine and birch trees, Triesch and Sara’s home invites those visiting or passing by to lean in and read each meticulous line and intersection of its structure as a map of the architectural systems Kappe is celebrated for innovating. Comprising three floors, with four bedrooms, three bathrooms, open-plan living, dining and kitchen areas, a sauna, a music rehearsal room, a studio and a guest WC, Kappe and Finn Kappe’s vision for the Triesch Residence was very much their own.
Stacked perpendicular to each other with a lightness that sees them appear as if floating on the low winter sunlight, the layers of Douglas fir and California redwood that make up the structure of the building speak to Kappe’s signature ways of harnessing the inimitable warmth of natural materials. The Kappes received direction only on the quantity and functionality of rooms required, with just one firm instruction regarding the layout and feel. “What I still believe is that Ray’s own house was his strongest, and that’s the one where he had the most freedom, right?” Triesch says.
from the property’s prefabricated walls to the extensive use of wood and the notable absence of inorganic materials, the Triesch Residence – which was completed after Ray Kappe’s death – reads as a self-penned obituary of his boundary-breaking life in architecture
the sunken lounge area with its log wood fire
“So I said, ‘Please keep your house in mind as your main inspiration for ours.’ Besides that, we gave them full freedom on the design.” Triesch admits that he knew nothing of the more pragmatic details of housebuilding when he telephoned another of Kappe’s sons to pitch his project, but his dreamer’s determination must have resonated with the ageing but still ambitious architect, as he agreed to the project. Despite Germany’s notoriously restrictive building codes, a language barrier and the noticeable lack of natural materials usually used to build his houses, Kappe – an architect known to undertake projects on so-called ‘unbuildable’ land – and his team created plans for the house, got them approved and began construction. From the moment he founded his own practice in 1954, Kappe was committed to developing future-focused and more sustainable construction practices alongside a user-centric approach that he described as designing “from the inside out”. From the property’s prefabricated walls to the extensive use of wood and the notable absence of inorganic materials, the Triesch Residence – which was completed after Kappe’s passing – reads as a self-penned obituary of his boundary-breaking life in architecture.
from left: detail of the music room; the house’s exterior
the red oak dining table designed by Kappe, with its six Hans Wegner chairs
Kappe ensured that the Triesch family would be seamlessly and reassuringly enveloped by a home that catered to their habits and rituals. In the kitchen, Smeg appliances are built into custom-designed storage systems and surfaces that create informal boundaries within the living area. Upholstered cushioning tops window seating that swells from the walls of the house, while an impressive cantilever table shoots out from between the sandwiched layers of the central island. A swift side-step from the kitchen transports you to a serene dining area, where six Hans Wegner PP203 chairs sit, tucked beneath a sprawling red oak table designed by Kappe. Positioned in the centre of the space is one of Triesch’s own design choices for the house. “I have a single George Nakashima armchair at the dining table,” he says. “It’s one of my favourite pieces in the house, it’s an old one, from the Sixties.”
from left: the wall-mounted record player from the Dutch company PTP Audio; the wooden main bathroom; detail of the sunken lounge
the record player
While the materiality and spatial design speaks the visual and structural language of a Kappe house, it is undeniably the Triesch Residence. Triesch’s cultural DNA is visible throughout the interior, with many design moments touching on his lifelong love of music. In the sunken lounge area of the main living space, beyond the central fireplace, the focus turns to curating an immersive audio experience. “I’m really happy with our hi-fi system. I found this guy from Wisconsin, Matt Formanek, who makes these amazing amplifiers,” says Triesch.
The bespoke cabinetry that surrounds the amplifier has been forged from the same redwood as the building itself – imported from Canada – and the accompanying, wall-mounted record player was made by the Dutch company PTP Audio. The lower floor includes a generously proportioned guest bedroom, sauna and bathroom, as well as a spacious rehearsal space where Triesch plays his drum kit uninhibited. He explains that he and his contractors designed and realised the interior features of the basement to manage the budget. This includes the sauna, with walls clad using leftover wood from the main staircase, and the bathroom, which features an elegant, Japanese-inspired bathtub created by the Santa Fe-based woodworker Andrew Brant. “I couldn’t afford to get more designs from [the Kappes],” says Triesch. “So we took care of the rehearsal room, sauna and guest room ourselves.”
the bathroom in the main bedroom with its glass ceiling
A second bathtub, oversized with a blue-sky view thanks to a glass roof, can be found in the en-suite bathroom of the minimal main bedroom. A deeply personal collection of artwork includes textured paintings by Sara’s late theatre-designer and artist father, bringing nostalgia to intimate spaces, as well as prints from Nan Goldin’s 1985 work, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency, Edward Colver’s 1981 series, Wasted Youth Flip and originals by the American sculptor Stan Bitters. Following the 2021 completion of the Triesch Residence, Triesch continues to enjoy a special friendship with Finn Kappe. With his family’s permission, Original in Berlin is now the exclusive producer-distributor of Ray Kappe furniture pieces. Becoming the first person to license work by one of the world’s most recognised architectural masters is a far cry from Triesch’s humble beginnings, during which a teenage version of him would study discarded furniture in an attempt to advance his design acumen.
one of the house’s serene bedrooms
Triesch’s drum kit in the music rehearsal room
He recalls, “[The business] started with no money. I was collecting stuff from the street that people threw away, and I got into looking up designers and researching the design history of different countries.” While Ray Kappe never got to witness the completion of his one and only European project, the gratitude and fondness with which Triesch speaks of their lives’ unlikely convergence suggests that his vision will be emphatically imparted on anyone lucky enough to explore the Triesch Residence and those who came together to build it.
Photography by Anne Lass. Taken from 10 Men Issue 61 – MUSIC, TALENT, CREATIVE – on newsstands now. Order your copy here.
