The Schminke House on your smartphone

The Schminke House in Löbau was built in 1933 by the architect Hans Scharoun for the pasta manufacturer Fritz Schminke. Because of its unusual shape and the pasta factory next to it, the people of Löbau lovingly refer to it as the “noodle steamer”. Today you can visit the Schminke House as an architecture museum, experience the unique atmosphere at cultural events or even spend the night here.

The Schminke House has an eventful history that absolutely has to be told and we enjoy doing that. But it would be even better with the help of pictures and videos. We have long wanted to modernize the tour and incorporate the existing film and photo material. The planned multimedia tour will work simply on the smartphone, enabling every guest to move around the house at their own pace, and to discover the rooms and numerous stories in peace. Guests without a smartphone can still hear the revised tour on our audio guides.

For our international guests, we will also be offering the content of the new tour in English, Czech and Polish – an important signal for us in the tri-border region. And for guests with hearing impairments, the tour will also work with texts to read instead of sound. In this way we can break down barriers and make even more people happy when they visit the Schminke House. And if you can't be here in front of our door, use the new tour to take a peek at the Schminke House and look forward to your next visit even more. With up-to-date digital content we bring Modernism back into the house.

The aim of the project is to develop a new multimedia tour through the Schminke House. We believe that architecture can be lively and exciting – if you don’t just explain it, but tell a story. This is why we need modern formats for conveying architecture and monuments. No technical jargon or museum slippers.

We are constantly surrounded by architecture and design. It concerns us all. That’s why we want to reach a wide audience with the new tour. The target group of our work includes all age groups and levels of knowledge. Despite current challenges surrounding the Corona crisis, we will not be discouraged and we continue to believe in the museum as a meeting place for everyone. The “noodle steamer” still has a lot of stories to tell. We want to share them with as many people as possible.

Even the architect Hans Scharoun once described the Schminke House as “the house I loved the most”. After your visit with our multimedia tour, the house will also become your favourite place! Due to the Corona crisis, the Schminke House had to close to visitors in spring 2020. This presents us with major financial challenges – like many other small cultural establishments. We have been planning the development of the new tour for almost three years. Funding applications were written, revised and finally approved. We are still missing a manageable sum for the final financing of the project. With your support we can take the final step!

If the financing is successful, the content of the tour should be completed by the end of the year. Among other things, this means having the tour produced in all four languages and then adding numerous pictures and film sequences. We will put the finishing touches on the tour at the beginning of next year. With the start of the new season, we hope to see numerous visitors trying out the new tour.