Here it stands in all its splendour, integrated into modern architecture and surrounded by antique wood furniture: the Rüegg Neptune. The Kuhlmann family from Bietigheim-Bissigen near Ludwigsburg (Germany) opted for a special fireplace in a special house.
Nothing in the Kuhlmann’s house is a “cookie-cutter solution”. Neither the orange carpet in front of the fireplace nor the wide window facade which floods the interior with daylight. Everything has its place and is well thought out. That wasn’t always the case in the house, built in the 1970s.
Good things take time
“We inherited the house from my wife’s parents in 2005, thoroughly renovated and completely modernised it,” the man of the house, Rainer Kuhlmann, tells us right from the start. From the roof to the floors, no stone was left unturned. “To begin with we hadn’t thought about a new fireplace since we were already up to our ears in the renovation works,” says Kuhlmann. At that time there was a fireplace in the house which was a relic from the seventies which no-one really liked. In the absence of better ideas, the old fireplace would simply be left.
It was not until three years later that thoughts of a new fireplace were fully matured. As a qualified engineer, Rainer Kuhlmann had very specific ideas and requirements for the future source of heat.
How the house gained a fireplace
“We were out shopping in Ludwigsburg on a winter’s day and, by chance, we passed the Mergenthaler Rüegg Studio,” Kuhlmann tells us. “We spent half the morning there. The ambience of the warming fireplaces was very persuasive”.
Even more convincing was the fact that it would be possible to fulfil all of the requirements: The model shouldn’t be too deep, it should have specific technical specifications and it should have subtle design character. Added to this were a frameless door, clear view of the fire and, as a top unit, a heat storage unit. The Rüegg Neptune edged out the competition. “Rüegg was in a class of its own in comparison with the competition on all points. For us, it was also important that the new fireplace, although striking, should not appear too dominant.”
Heating on with great enthusiasm in the summer
For the renovation phase – old fireplace out, new Neptune in – the man of the house specifically took a holiday. “For me as an engineer, it was very interesting to get a look behind the scenes,” he grins. “Once the fireplace was finished, we turned it on in the summer out of sheer enthusiasm.”
The Neptune fireplace installed is a special model, produced according the to expectations of the owner, which perfectly combines a view of the open fire and radiation heat from the heat storage unit.
The fireplace finally achieves perfection with specially produced metal trappings. “It didn’t make much sense to buy a Rüegg Neptune and then paint it white,” Kuhlmann sums up. And thus a “normal” Neptune became a work of art for the Kuhlmann family.
More information:
View fireplace → NEPTUNE fireplace