Moody all-black house embraces monochrome style

The Black House lives up to its name. This home, located outside of Mainz, Germany, is covered in black paint and dark roof tiles, giving it an almost two-dimensional quality.

Designed by Henning Grahn Architektur, Marc Flick, and Christian Stock, the Black House really does stick to the theme, aside from the windows, which are framed in light larch wood.

The structure is a moody foil to its neighbor, the White House, designed by the same architects. The two are separated by a row of trees—and a spiritual difference in how to approach facades.

David Schreyer

Despite its dark exterior, the interior opens into a light and spacious ground floor anchored by an open-plan kitchen that bleeds into the living room where there’s a built-in sofa recessed into the wall to save space. All of the bedrooms are upstairs, where they take advantage of the roof’s cool asymmetrical angles. Out back, there’s a patio, covered and uncovered, that’s connected to a sprawling, suburban lawn.

David Schreyer

David Schreyer