| Image Upright: | 1.2 |
| Whs: | Maisons de la Weissenhof-Siedlung |
| Location: | Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany |
| Part Of: | The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier, an Outstanding Contribution to the Modern Movement |
| Criteria: | (i)(ii)(vi) |
| Id: | 1321rev-005 |
| Coordinates: | 48.8005°N 19.66°W |
| Year: | 2016 |
| Area: | 0.1165ha |
| Buffer Zone: | 33.6213ha |
The Weissenhof Estate (German: Weißenhofsiedlung) is a housing estate built for the 1927 Deutscher Werkbund exhibition in Stuttgart, Germany. It was an international showcase of modern architecture's aspiration to provide cheap, simple, efficient, and good-quality housing.[1]
Two buildings designed by Le Corbusier were designated a World Heritage Site in 2016 as part of The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier, an Outstanding Contribution to the Modern Movement. The remainder of the Estate, and some adjacent streets and buildings, are a part of the Site's buffer zone.
The estate was built for the Deutscher Werkbund exhibition in 1927, and included twenty-one buildings comprising sixty dwellings, designed by seventeen European architects. The German architect Mies van der Rohe was in charge of the project on behalf of the city, and selected the architects, budgeted and coordinated their entries, prepared the site, and oversaw construction. Le Corbusier was awarded the two prime sites, facing the city, and by far the largest budget.
The twenty-one buildings consist of terraced and detached houses as well as apartment buildings. They vary slightly in form but display standardized design language. What they have in common are their simplified facades, flat roofs used as terraces, window bands, open plan interiors, and the high level of prefabrication which permitted their erection in just five months. Despite popular belief, only about one third of the buildings were completely white. Bruno Taut had his entry, the smallest, painted in various colors. Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret's entry was white, blue, orange, and green. Van der Rohe's was painted a light pink. The eaves of Hans Scharoun's entry were painted orange.
Advertised as a prototype of future workers' housing, in fact each of these houses was customized and furnished on a budget far out of a normal worker's reach and with little direct relevance to the technical challenges of standardized mass construction. The exhibition opened to the public on 23 July 1927, a year late, and drew large crowds.
The houses showcased in the exhibition were of such avant-garde expression, homes 14-15 served as a backdrop for an image showcasing the newest Mercedes-Benz at the time, an 8/38 PS Roadster.
Of the original twenty-one buildings, eleven survive as of 2006. Bombing damage during World War II is responsible for the complete loss of the homes by Gropius, Hilberseimer, Bruno Taut, Poelzig, Max Taut (home 24), and Döcker. Another of Max Taut's homes (23) was demolished in the 1950s, as was Rading's.[2]