Speaker
Description
Urban space and housing types for the young metropolis 1890-1940
The design and future of the European city are central issues of the present. Particularly in large cities, the search for solutions to the question of compact living and the question of appropriate large-scale and sustainable further development of the built environment is omnipresent. In this context, findings from projects that have already been realized are highly significant: they reaffirm the continuing relevance of our artistic and cultural tradition for understanding the past and its further development in the future.
Block
The block, in all its morphological diversity, is a proven solution for creating a dense urban texture in which the private and public dimensions of life are naturally distinguished. The urban building culture of the European metropolis is still based on the differentiation between public and private spaces and is permanently searching for the right relationship for a livable city. Over many centuries, this search has produced very diverse and remarkable variants of the urban block, which still today stand for a high culture of urban space.
Reform
In the period 1890-1940, the efforts of architects and urban designers were aimed at the transformation (reform) of growing cities. The search for spatial solutions that could reconcile living in the big city with the qualities of urban building culture was a central theme of this period. Liveable urban spaces and optimized housing floor plans are the crucial points of this reform. Among its most important actors were Berlin's housing cooperatives and housing associations and their architects. They implemented the reform idea of affordable, modern, safe and sustainable housing with many exemplary projects, especially in Berlin. These projects are characterized not only by the creation of significant urban figures, but also by a high architectural design value, which is not identified with one style, but is characterized by different architectural expressions.
Berlin
In relation to current discourses, the examination of the urban block and urban life was and is a primary topic, especially in Berlin - before and after the reunification of the city - starting with the reform projects, through the reconstruction in the 50s and 60s and the IBA 1979-1984/87 to the critical reconstruction of the 90s. These attempts have contributed exemplary and thus influential results to the national and international architectural debate on the European city. Over the decades, the results achieved have become, in the form of built architecture, a kind of experiential exhibition of the most advanced solutions in urban design.
References
J. Stübben, Der Städtebau. Stuttgart 1907.
A. Gessner, Das deutsche Miethaus. Beitrag zur Städtekultur der Gegenwart. Berlin 1909.
K. Scheffler, Die Architektur der Großstadt. Berlin 1913.
R. Eberstadt, Handbuch des Wohnungswesens und der Wohnungsfrage. Jena 1917.
P. Wolf, Städtebau. Das Formproblem der Stadt in Vergangenheit und Zukunft. 1919.
A. E. Brickmann, Stadtbaukunst. Geschichtliche Querschnitte und Neuzeitliche Ziele. Berlin 1920.
W. Hegemann, Das steinerne Berlin. Geschichte der größten Mietskasernenstadt der Welt. Berlin 1930.
U. Conrads, Programme und Manifeste zur Architektur des 20. Jahrhunderts. Berlin, Frankfurt a.M., Wien 1964.
J. Posener, Berlin auf dem Weg zu einer neuen Architektur. Das Zeitalter Wilhelms II. München 1979.
Lampugnani, Schneider (Hrsg.), Moderne Architektur in Deutschland 1900 bis 1950. Reform und Tradition. Stuttgart 1993.
W. Sonne, Urbanität und Dichte im Städtebau des 20. Jahrhunderts. Berlin 2014.
Brenner, Meisse, Sonne, Reformblock Berlin. Wohnungsbau 1900-1930. Berlin 2019.
| Keywords | Architecture, Reformarchitecture, Housing type, Block, Berlin, Metropolis, Urban space, Density, Modern |
|---|
