Chinesisches Haus

Chinesisches Haus is a garden pavilion in Sanssouci Park, Potsdam, where a trefoil plan shapes the view. Frederick the Great commissioned it for his flower and vegetable garden. Johann Gottfried Büring designed the building in Chinoiserie, combining rococo forms with Chinese architectural influences. Its central structure opens towards three cabinet rooms, following the French Maison du trèfle.

Construction ran from 1755 to 1764 and lasted nine years, partly because the Seven Years' War damaged finances. Small social gatherings took place beside the garden's decorative planting. A nearby Chinese Kitchen once complemented the pavilion, though its hexagonal windows alone retain the original Oriental character. The later Dragon House brought another Chinese-inspired form to the park, this time as a pagoda.

Johann Melchior Kambly, Johann Gottlieb Heymüller and Johann Peter Benckert supplied gilded sandstone sculptures for the exterior. Inside, stucco marble, gold leaf and ceiling paintings by Thomas Huber cover the surfaces. Bright silk textiles known as Pekings line the walls, and eighteenth-century visitors highly valued them. The gilded figures show European-featured people in Chinese dress, fixing Chinoiserie's imagined China in stone.