Old Building — Duisburg

A gable end at the end of a row, photographed from the pavement so that the corner reads as two flat planes rather than a volume: ochre above, a band of grey and cream below, a red wall turning away to the right. One downpipe runs the full height — the only vertical line here that is not an edge.

Neither the colour nor the wall is quite as I found it. The colour is shifted afterwards; the windows and doors along the flank are gone, taken out until the surface could hold nothing but its own geometry. A decision, not a record.

Late light from the side is what makes the corner read as two planes instead of a volume; an hour later it would be a building again. The row ends here — past the gable there is nothing to photograph. Ruhr building stock of no particular distinction, waiting for a decision about renovation.

What I left alone is the shadow: a roof that is not in the picture, a gable drawn onto the wall by a neighbouring house out of frame. It is the sharpest form here, and the only one that will have moved by evening.

Photographed on 7 November 2025 in Duisburg. Part of Fremde Fassaden, an ongoing series of colour-shifted façades made mostly in Berlin, with detours to Duisburg, Visby and Douglas. See the other works made beyond Berlin.