BFH 1650 - STORY

LA meets the BLACK FOREST - Katharina and Helmut, the founders of Black Forest House 1650 are both curious, adventurous human beings, who would describe their life as a constant journey of exploration, growth and development.

Many people asked us, “What brought you to the Black Forest and what do you want to do with an old Farmhouse?” The answer is not that simple, but to put it in a few words it was curiosity, vision and determination. Curiosity brought us to the Black Forest, a part of Germany neither of us had previously explored much. It is such a special place in so many aspects - traditional, uncompromising, raw and beautiful and with a rich history. We also felt the strong urge to create something, something that is uniquely us and reflects our personality - combine our Californian experience with our European roots. A place we could create memorable moments shared with others. The house provided the perfect canvas. When we first set foot in this more than 350-year-old traditional Schwarzwaldhaus back in 2018, we could sense that this place offered more and the fact that most of the house was in a sort-of abandoned stage urged us even more to engage with it and bring it back to life, to a new life. Not only to preserve it, but to transform into the future and give it a new meaning, a new purpose. That “more” we sensed is what we wanted to extract.

Getting there was the most exciting, but also the most challenging part. It took us more than 4 years to complete our vision to create Black Forest House 1650 (BFH 1650) and bring it to life. 4 years of surprises, challenges, learnings, negotiations and decision making. It was like “opening a can of worms”, not always pretty, not always fun. We also learned a lot about ourselves and we certainly found our limits in more than one way, but our shared vision and our determination kept us going. We worked closely with a highly skilled team of regional builders, architects, designers, electricians, carpenters. Now we can look back and be grateful for the experience and all the amazing people we met along the way who shared our vision and became part of this extraordinary project.

“Our vision was not how we wanted it to look, but rather how we wanted to bring it to life”. BFH 1650 now stands for purposeful luxury, deeply connected to the land it is built on.

BFH 1650 - STORY

LA meets the BLACK FOREST - Katharina and Helmut, the founders of Black Forest House 1650 are both curious, adventurous human beings, who would describe their life as a constant journey of exploration, growth and development.

Many people asked us, “What brought you to the Black Forest and what do you want to do with an old Farmhouse?” The answer is not that simple, but to put it in a few words it was curiosity, vision and determination. Curiosity brought us to the Black Forest, a part of Germany neither of us had previously explored much. It is such a special place in so many aspects - traditional, uncompromising, raw and beautiful and with a rich history. We also felt the strong urge to create something, something that is uniquely us and reflects our personality - combine our Californian experience with our European roots. A place we could create memorable moments shared with others. The house provided the perfect canvas. When we first set foot in this more than 350-year-old traditional Schwarzwaldhaus back in 2018, we could sense that this place offered more and the fact that most of the house was in a sort-of abandoned stage urged us even more to engage with it and bring it back to life, to a new life. Not only to preserve it, but to transform into the future and give it a new meaning, a new purpose. That “more” we sensed is what we wanted to extract.

Getting there was the most exciting, but also the most challenging part. It took us more than 4 years to complete our vision to create Black Forest House 1650 (BFH 1650) and bring it to life. 4 years of surprises, challenges, learnings, negotiations and decision making. It was like “opening a can of worms”, not always pretty, not always fun. We also learned a lot about ourselves and we certainly found our limits in more than one way, but our shared vision and our determination kept us going. We worked closely with a highly skilled team of regional builders, architects, designers, electricians, carpenters. Now we can look back and be grateful for the experience and all the amazing people we met along the way who shared our vision and became part of this extraordinary project.

“Our vision was not how we wanted it to look, but rather how we wanted to bring it to life”. BFH 1650 now stands for purposeful luxury, deeply connected to the land it is built on.