Detached Two-Family Residence, 1932: Cross section for model 1932

Curator: This is Hanns Dustmann's "Detached Two-Family Residence, 1932: Cross section for model," currently residing at the Harvard Art Museums. What are your initial thoughts? Editor: Stark, almost brutally simple. It’s a ghost of a house, a diagram of shelter, not shelter itself. It feels very… vulnerable. Curator: Vulnerable how? I see a reflection of the architectural austerity of the time; this suggests a shift towards functional living spaces after the first World War. Editor: Maybe it's vulnerable because it's just a plan, an idea. The real world is messy, and this drawing is all clean lines and right angles. It looks more like an abandoned laboratory than a home. Curator: That contrast speaks volumes about the idealism of the era, I think. Editor: Perhaps. I still feel a bit sad for this house that never was. Curator: I’m struck by how this piece encapsulates an era's social hopes and architectural ambition. Editor: And I'm left wondering if these rigid plans ever really understood what makes a home a home.