DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45213#0265
i Summary
265
The idea underlying the Werkbund's experimental estates was to sum up the efforts and to alleviate
the acute housing problems, undertaken during the first decade after World War I, with the focus on
innovative and promising approaches. The exhibitions were to present and promote new solutions,
devised to give each individual "his due housing portion", as Ernst May put it. Large-scale exhibition
projects, attracting crowds of visitors, were intended to overcome prejudices and to teach prospec-
tive inhabitants how to live in a modern home. People to whom modern domestic architecture was
addressed (experimental buildings were often conceived as prototypes for sequential construction)
were not ready to accept it. The exhibitions were also expected to provide an opportunity for stimu-
lating confrontation of different design approaches.
The exhibitions' organisers and architects were among the pioneers of 20th-century architecture
and their efforts paved the way for new trends in urban planning and domestic architecture despite
the fact that they were often oblivious to the shortcomings and negative consequences of proposed
solutions; that some conceptions were inevitably utopian or not really new (formulated earlier by
Charles Fourier, Eugen Henard, orTony Garnier). They played a significant role (because their activity
coincided with the period of particularly acute housing shortages) in finding new ways to provide
affordable and functional housing when housing became a matter of national importance.
The WUWA experimental estate, presented under the Werkbund's auspices, was an important
event in the history of modern domestic architecture in Europe. Its underlying objective was to de-
velop prototype small and medium-sized flats, essential for alleviating the housing problem, and to
test new construction methods and materials in the challenging Silesian climate.
Addressing the housing problem was particularly important for the city of Wroclaw (Breslau),
as emphasised by Minister Guerard (representing Germany's President Paul on Hindenburg). The
city, already internationally renowned for its efforts to solve the housing problem, that had reached
an overwhelming scale in the aftermath of World War I, decided to participate in the exhibition
project devoted to new developments in domestic architecture, organised under the auspices of
the Deutscher Werkbund and the Rfg (Imperial Research Society for Cost-Efficiency in Building and
265
The idea underlying the Werkbund's experimental estates was to sum up the efforts and to alleviate
the acute housing problems, undertaken during the first decade after World War I, with the focus on
innovative and promising approaches. The exhibitions were to present and promote new solutions,
devised to give each individual "his due housing portion", as Ernst May put it. Large-scale exhibition
projects, attracting crowds of visitors, were intended to overcome prejudices and to teach prospec-
tive inhabitants how to live in a modern home. People to whom modern domestic architecture was
addressed (experimental buildings were often conceived as prototypes for sequential construction)
were not ready to accept it. The exhibitions were also expected to provide an opportunity for stimu-
lating confrontation of different design approaches.
The exhibitions' organisers and architects were among the pioneers of 20th-century architecture
and their efforts paved the way for new trends in urban planning and domestic architecture despite
the fact that they were often oblivious to the shortcomings and negative consequences of proposed
solutions; that some conceptions were inevitably utopian or not really new (formulated earlier by
Charles Fourier, Eugen Henard, orTony Garnier). They played a significant role (because their activity
coincided with the period of particularly acute housing shortages) in finding new ways to provide
affordable and functional housing when housing became a matter of national importance.
The WUWA experimental estate, presented under the Werkbund's auspices, was an important
event in the history of modern domestic architecture in Europe. Its underlying objective was to de-
velop prototype small and medium-sized flats, essential for alleviating the housing problem, and to
test new construction methods and materials in the challenging Silesian climate.
Addressing the housing problem was particularly important for the city of Wroclaw (Breslau),
as emphasised by Minister Guerard (representing Germany's President Paul on Hindenburg). The
city, already internationally renowned for its efforts to solve the housing problem, that had reached
an overwhelming scale in the aftermath of World War I, decided to participate in the exhibition
project devoted to new developments in domestic architecture, organised under the auspices of
the Deutscher Werkbund and the Rfg (Imperial Research Society for Cost-Efficiency in Building and