Bauen und Wohnen

With the Werkbundstadt Am Spreebord project in Berlin, the Werkbund – almost one hundred years after Stuttgart-Weißenhof – is once again addressing the question of the architecturally appropriate form of a residential neighborhood. Earlier Werkbund housing estates have long been regarded as landmarks in architectural history. As experimental housing estates with model and exemplary character, they have been realized since the late 1920s, primarily in German-speaking countries or in their immediate vicinity, in order to find exemplary answers to the urgent question of contemporary living and building. With the famous Weißenhof-Siedlung (1925-1927) in Stuttgart, the Brno colony “Nový Dům” (1927/28), the Grüneiche settlement in Breslau (1927-29), and the Werkbund settlements in Zurich-Wollishofen (1928-1932), Prague (1928-1932), and Vienna-Lainz (1929-1932), their geographical spread corresponds to the spread of the Werkbund idea in Europe. It was not until long after the Second World War and then already under the sign of postmodernism that the title of a “Werkbund settlement” was again claimed. However, only two of the numerous plans were built: the “Dörfle” in Karlsruhe (1978-1992) and the Werkbundsiedlung Am Ruhrufer in Oberhausen-Alstaden (1984-1989).