- Weissenhof Estate
The Weissenhof Estate (or Weissenhof Settlement; in German Weißenhofsiedlung) is an estate of
working class housing which was built inStuttgart in1927 . It was an international showcase of what later became known as theInternational style ofmodern architecture .The estate was built for the
Deutscher Werkbund exhibition of 1927, and included twenty-one buildings comprising sixty dwellings, designed by sixteen Europeanarchitect s, most of them German-speaking. The German architectMies van der Rohe was in charge of the project on behalf of the city, and it was he who selected the architects, budgeted and coordinated their entries, prepared the site, and oversaw construction. Le Corbusier was awarded the two prime sites, facing the city, and by far the largest budget.The twenty-one buildings vary only slightly in form, consisting of terraced and
detached house s andapartment building s, and display a strong consistency of design. What they have in common are their simplifiedfacade s, flatroof s used as terraces,window bands,open plan interiors, and the high level ofprefabrication which permitted their erection in just five months. All but two of the entries were white.Bruno Taut had his entry, the smallest, painted a bright red.The estate was designed with
tenant participation , and a streamlined building process in mind. Advertised as ablueprint for future workers' housing, in fact each of these houses was customized and furnished on a budget far out of a normal workers reach. The exhibition opened to the public onJuly 23 ,1927 , a year late, and drew large crowds.Of the original twenty-one buildings, eleven survive as of 2006.
Participating architects
*
Peter Behrens
*Victor Bourgeois
*Le Corbusier (Charles Edouard Jeanneret-Gris) andPierre Jeanneret
* Richard Döcker
*Josef Frank
*Walter Gropius
*Ludwig Hilberseimer
*Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
*Jacobus Johannes Pieter Oud
*Hans Poelzig
*Adolf Rading
*Hans Scharoun
*Adolf Gustav Schneck
*Mart Stam
*Bruno Taut
*Max Taut
*Ferdinand Kramer External links
* [http://galeria.elarq.com/main.php?g2_itemId=9962 Architecture gallery]
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