DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45213#0269
The WUWA architects proved that by employing new construction methods and materials new
values might emerge; that creativity and modern technology were not mutually exclusive. The style
they created reflected the new social context on the one hand and the advent of industrialised
building on the other. With its minimal decoration and plain surfaces, the new style was well suited
to domestic architecture addressed to the broad - and inevitably anonymous - masses, and the re-
quirements of sequential construction. Hans Scharoun represented organic Neues Bauen, which in
the 1920's provided an alternative to the rectangular volumes and geometrical divisions advocated
by Le Corbusier.
The houses of the WUWA estate were surrounded by gardens and public grassy areas, creating
a natural setting for the buildings. The estate was laid out in accordance with modern principles of
urban planning. The living space, adequately lit and ventilated was to open into the surrounding
green areas. A separate section of the exhibition was devoted to landscape architecture and garden
design. It featured home as well as public gardens: mostly simple, geometrical layouts, co-ordinated
with modern architecture. The emphasis on landscape architecture and the relationship between
architectural and landscape design distinguished the WUWA exhibition from the Werkbund exhibi-
tion projects.
In the end, the race for affordable housing, the WUWA exhibition's principal objective, was lost,
like in other Werkbund estates. Only in Basel were the model apartments somewhat cheaper than
those available on the market, the result achieved by limiting experiments with modern construc-
tion methods and materials. New technologies, still in the experimental phase, with no factories
mass-producing building components, were often more expensive than traditional technologies.
In this context, the courage of the WUWA architects to experiment and test new construction meth-
ods in the trying Silesian climate seems particularly remarkable.
The WUWA architects tried to integrate three postulates concerning modern domestic archi-
tecture and housing: mass-production and affordability, individual needs of the inhabitants, and
aesthetic merit. Some also believed that they could stimulate community life in their buildings by
making provisions for a "commune" and moulding a "collective mentality." One wonders if it was at
all possible to achieve these often contradictory goals.
From today's perspective, the WUWA architects contributed (albeit inadvertently) to the archi-
tectural trend in post-war Europe that has produced schematic, monotonous and poor-quaiity hous-
ing for the "broad masses", now under serious criticism, not only in Poland. Did the ideas underlying
the WUWA exhibition degenerate into their own parody? Or, perhaps, were they utopian from the
very beginning?
The WUWA exhibition came at the time when CIRPAC held its first meeting to develop the pro-
gramme of the 2nd CIAM, organised in Frankfurt in 1929. The main theme was the Existenzminimum
flat and its biological, technological and social aspects from the perspective of modern architec-
ture.523 Adressing the 2nd CIAM, Ernst May declared: "Our activity will focus on providing each indi-
vidual with his due 'housing share' in the best possible way. Many years will pass before, as a result of
international co-operation between civilised nations, solutions are found to ameliorate the housing
problem that would guarantee each individual, housing standards defined as an acceptable mini-
523 Izabella WIStOCKA, op.cit., p.58. CIRPAC - Comite International pour la Realisation des Problemes d'Architecture Contemporaine - delegates
of the International Congress of Modern Architecture (CIAM - Les Congres Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne).
269
values might emerge; that creativity and modern technology were not mutually exclusive. The style
they created reflected the new social context on the one hand and the advent of industrialised
building on the other. With its minimal decoration and plain surfaces, the new style was well suited
to domestic architecture addressed to the broad - and inevitably anonymous - masses, and the re-
quirements of sequential construction. Hans Scharoun represented organic Neues Bauen, which in
the 1920's provided an alternative to the rectangular volumes and geometrical divisions advocated
by Le Corbusier.
The houses of the WUWA estate were surrounded by gardens and public grassy areas, creating
a natural setting for the buildings. The estate was laid out in accordance with modern principles of
urban planning. The living space, adequately lit and ventilated was to open into the surrounding
green areas. A separate section of the exhibition was devoted to landscape architecture and garden
design. It featured home as well as public gardens: mostly simple, geometrical layouts, co-ordinated
with modern architecture. The emphasis on landscape architecture and the relationship between
architectural and landscape design distinguished the WUWA exhibition from the Werkbund exhibi-
tion projects.
In the end, the race for affordable housing, the WUWA exhibition's principal objective, was lost,
like in other Werkbund estates. Only in Basel were the model apartments somewhat cheaper than
those available on the market, the result achieved by limiting experiments with modern construc-
tion methods and materials. New technologies, still in the experimental phase, with no factories
mass-producing building components, were often more expensive than traditional technologies.
In this context, the courage of the WUWA architects to experiment and test new construction meth-
ods in the trying Silesian climate seems particularly remarkable.
The WUWA architects tried to integrate three postulates concerning modern domestic archi-
tecture and housing: mass-production and affordability, individual needs of the inhabitants, and
aesthetic merit. Some also believed that they could stimulate community life in their buildings by
making provisions for a "commune" and moulding a "collective mentality." One wonders if it was at
all possible to achieve these often contradictory goals.
From today's perspective, the WUWA architects contributed (albeit inadvertently) to the archi-
tectural trend in post-war Europe that has produced schematic, monotonous and poor-quaiity hous-
ing for the "broad masses", now under serious criticism, not only in Poland. Did the ideas underlying
the WUWA exhibition degenerate into their own parody? Or, perhaps, were they utopian from the
very beginning?
The WUWA exhibition came at the time when CIRPAC held its first meeting to develop the pro-
gramme of the 2nd CIAM, organised in Frankfurt in 1929. The main theme was the Existenzminimum
flat and its biological, technological and social aspects from the perspective of modern architec-
ture.523 Adressing the 2nd CIAM, Ernst May declared: "Our activity will focus on providing each indi-
vidual with his due 'housing share' in the best possible way. Many years will pass before, as a result of
international co-operation between civilised nations, solutions are found to ameliorate the housing
problem that would guarantee each individual, housing standards defined as an acceptable mini-
523 Izabella WIStOCKA, op.cit., p.58. CIRPAC - Comite International pour la Realisation des Problemes d'Architecture Contemporaine - delegates
of the International Congress of Modern Architecture (CIAM - Les Congres Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne).
269