Weissenhof Estate, Stuttgart, Germany





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Architect
various
Date Built
1927
Location
Rathenaustrasse
Description
The Weissenhof Estate in Stuttgart was created in 1927 as a building exhibition. funded by the city.  Despite significant destruction to the estate during WWII, it remains what is described (on the http://www.weissenhof2002.de website) as a, “highly valued cultural heritage of the 20th century with early works of architects who shaped modern architecture. In some special way. .... The estate rightfully derives its place in architectural history from the participation of architects who were then known only among the avant-garde but who are considered today among the great masters of the 20th century: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier, Hans Scharoun and others. Nearly all of the participating architects were then under the age of 45, the youngest of them, Mart Stam, was only 28. Only Hans Poeltzig and Peter Behrens were considered the exception as senior statesmen and pioneers of modern movement architecture.  Approximately 500,000 visitors came to see the Werkbund Exhibition, and publications worldwide would highlight its ideas.”


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This building by Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret is now the Weissenhof Museum.  This is house 13 on the estate and was designed as a single family house.  It was configured as follows: Lower floor: entrance, cloakroom, WC, heating room and coal bunker, storage cellar, laundry, Residential floor: forecourt, large living room linked to dining room, kitchen, maid's room, Mezzanine: parents' sleeping quarters, dressing room, bathroom, WC, luggage store, Terrace level: children's room, guestroom, WC, roof terrace







The building to the left in the image below is also by Le Corbusier and Jeanneret.  This is the twin house configuration of 14/15.  This house was originally designed as a single family dwelling by Mies van de Rohe but Le Corbusier redesigned it, "... as two house halves that would represent a novel, convertible house supplementing the single-family house. For the exhibition, one half was to be furnished and fitted for day use, the other for night use.  Characteristic features of the twin house are the continuous windows, the steel columns on the ground floor, and the two staircases standing out as independent cubes on the western side of the house.  The house is remarkably like a railway carriage - an impression accentuated by the convertible living and sleeping area, and the narrow corridor interconnecting the rooms"





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House 1 - 4, designed by Mies van der Rohe, was in the midst of renovation when I saw it in 2016.









The structure of this block, "... enabled Mies to achieve his objective (and declared principle) of designing flexible ground plans for his apartments. The only fixed points in his design (as determined by the service installations) were the kitchen, the bathroom and the toilet. The remaining areas had adjustable walls, allowing residents to subdivide them as they saw fit. Mies said that he had chosen this design to accommodate people's changing needs, their expectations concerning apartments and their related desire for maximum freedom in designing their own interiors."

Below the floor plans for 3 of the dwellings in the block.


wohnraum - living space       kuche - kitchen     
schlarfraum - (literally dormitory) -bedroom          arbeitsraum - working space -




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Houses 5 to 9 by J. J. P. Oud



"Oud's houses provided examples of good-value living quarters that satisfied the needs of large sections of the population. Proceeding from Le Corbusier's conception, he went further, stating that an apartment or a residential house had to be more than a "machine for living in" and ought to satisfy "all that my love of comfort demands". This concept included a utility yard on the north side of the house, aimed at considerably easing the burden of housework for the women. The yard also served an aesthetic function in that it structured the house architecturally."


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House 25 by Adolf Rading




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House 11 by Adolf Schneck









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Houses 28 to 30 by Martin Stam



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