Weissenhof Estate

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Postcard showing the Weissenhof Estate, with index of contributing architects

The Weissenhof Estate in Stuttgart, Germany (1927)

The Weissenhof Estate (German: Weißenhofsiedlung) is a estate of working class housing which was built in Stuttgart in 1927. It was a showcase of what later became known as the International style of modern architecture.

The estate was built for the Deutscher Werkbund exhibition of 1927, and originally comprised twenty-one buildings designed by sixteen architects, of which eleven survive (as of 2006). The German architect Mies van der Rohe was in charge of the project on behalf of the city, including the selection of architects, the preparation of the site, and the coordination of their entries.

The twenty-one buildings vary slightly in form, consisting of terraced and detached houses and apartment buildings, but display a strong consistency of design. What they have in common are their white facades with horizontal window bands, flat roofs used as terraces, open plan interiors, and the high level of prefabrication which permitted their erection in just five months.

The estate was designed with tenant participation, and a streamlined building process in mind. Advertised as a blueprint for future workers' housing, in fact each of these houses was customized and furnished on a budget far out of a normal workers reach.