1932: Viennese Werkbund Housing Estate
In 1932, on the initiative of the Austrian Werkbund, a functional model housing estate was constructed as part of an architectural exhibition in Lainz, in the west of Vienna. Designed by Austrian and international architects and fully furnished with company products and prototypes, the 70 model houses provided exemplary ideas for modern living. The housing estate, which was under the direction of Josef Frank and set up as a garden city, took an opposing position to the Stuttgart Weißenhof Estate of the German Werkbund (1927) and its strict functionalism, as well as to the super blocks of Red Vienna, which were criticised by Frank as “people’s residential palaces”. The emphasis was less on the constructive aspects of serial housing than on the question of the conditions of modern living in small spaces. With the architectural exhibition, the Werkbund adopted a cultural-political role, which advocated for high quality and a new relationship between art, industry and craftsmanship. The estate attracted a lot of media attention and, within eight weeks, was visited by more than 100,000 people. Nevertheless, as a result of the political situation in Austria at the time, the estate's influence was unable to develop further.
External Resources:
Andreas Nierhaus / Eva-Maria Orosz (Hg.): Werkbundsiedlung Wien 1932. Ein Manifest des Neuen Wohnens, Wien-Salzburg 2012.
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