To this end, Ernst Ludwig brought together several artists of the Art Nouveau in Darmstadt: Peter Behrens, Paul Bürck, Rudolf Bosselt, Hans Christiansen, Ludwig Habich [de], Patriz Huber [de] and Joseph Maria Olbrich.

The exhibition was opened on 15 May with a festival proposed by Peter Behrens and inspired interest far beyond Darmstadt's borders, but ended nonetheless with a large financial loss in October.

Paul Bürck, Hans Christiansen and Patriz Huber left the colony shortly afterwards, as did Peter Behrens and Rudolf Bosselt in the following years.

The Ernst Ludwig House was built as a common atelier following plans drawn up by Joseph Maria Olbrich.

[9] Olbrich had worked as an architect and was the central figure in the group of artists, Peter Behrens having been involved at first only as a painter and an illustrator.

In the middle of the main floor is the meeting room with paintings by Paul Bürck and there are three artist studios on each side of it.

Two six-metre tall statues, "Man and Woman" or "Strength and Beauty", flank the entrance and are the work of Ludwig Habich.

It was envisaged that the efforts to combine architecture, interior design, handicraft and painting should thus be demonstrated with concrete examples.

Only Olbrich, Christiansen, Habich and Behrens could afford to build homes of their own but there were nonetheless eight fully furnished houses in the first exhibition.

[11] It is the smallest of the houses and its particular form is the result of the quadratic shape of the property on which it is built, which lies at the intersection of two streets.

He had envisaged selling the house as soon as it was finished, but decided shortly before its completion to use the building for a permanent exhibition of pieces produced in his factory.

It was heavily damaged in World War II, but at least the exterior has been largely restored to its original state.

This house, known as "Beaulieu" was erected for the well-off Georg Keller according to plans drawn up by Joseph Maria Olbrich.

The three interconnected houses at the corner of the Stiftstraße and Prinz-Christians-Weg were built in 1904 according to plans by Joseph Maria Olbrich.

The third exhibition, which was open to artists and craftsmen from Hesse, was centred on a colony of small residences, in order to show that modern forms of living were attainable with limited financial means.

This House was designed by Olbrich as a venue for displays of industrial and trade products from Upper Hesse and largely decorated by him as well.

The buildings were designed by the local architects Ludwig Mahr, Georg Metzendorf, Josef Rings, Heinrich Walbe, Arthur Wienkoop and Joseph Maria Olbrich.

The three houses by Mahr, Metzendorf and Wienkoop were dismantled after the 1908 exhibition and moved to what is now the Erbacher Straße on commission of the nearby ducal dairy farm.

This row of apartment buildings was destroyed in World War II, but the atelier with its brown striped southern facade survived.

The colony members at this time were Heinrich Jobst, Friedrich Wilhelm Kleukens, Albin Müller, Fritz Osswald, Emanuel Josef Margold, Edmund Körner and Bernhard Hoetger.

Seven ateliers and residences were erected between 1965 and 1967 according to plans by Rolf Prange, Rudolf Kramer, Bert Seidel, Heribert Hausmann and Reinhold Kargel.

The author Heinrich Schirmbeck, the lyricist Karl Krolow, the art historian Hans Maria Wingler and the sculptor Wilhelm Loth were (or are) amongst the inhabitants of this colony.