DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE, NTUST @ 2003 B9013015 PangYen-Sung

Modern History of Architecture

Home work …2003.12.22

39.

Karl-Marx-Hof, Wien, 1930 --- Karl Ehn(1884-1957)

Open-air School, Amsterdam, 1930 --- Johannes Duiker (1890-1935)

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pic-1 Karl-Marx-Hof

Architect

Karl Ehn(1884-1957)

Location

Vienna, Austria

Date

1930

Building Type

Multifamily housing

Climate

Temperate

Context

Urban

Style

Early Modern

Discussion

"The contrast with the aims and methods of American Redevelopment could hardly be more striking. The most eloquent masterpiece among the groups was surely Darl Ehn's Heiligenstadt Houses (the Karl Marx Hof) of 1927-1930—a mighty fortress, where the major facade is a proud, dark banner of socialist solidarity. It was to be stormed alike by the troops of Dollfuss and the Red Army. It clearly infuriated many people, a little bit as the Guild House does today, but its powerful shapes, Piranesian on the exterior but much more gently articulated in the lovely garden courtyards, in fact historically culminate and bring to an enormous social climax the special Viennese tradition of Otto Wagner and his school. The scale is grander, like that of all the Viennese housing, than that of the Guild House, but the two buildings are related insofar as they both gesture like signboards to tell us what they are about. How correct the gentle irony of the American example is in this particular instance, and how stirring the Austrian's truimphant deployment: in simple political fact daring hell and surviving."

— Vincent Scully, Jr. Modern Architecture: The Architecture of Democracy. p54.

Depresentation

Karl Marx Hof is a was originally built in response to the need for additional housing for residents of Vienna. This apartment building is over 1.5 kilometers long and at one time had over 5,000 residents. Today, the apartments have been renovated to make them a little larger, but the building still has approximately 2,500 residents. As the name suggests, the original occupants of the building subscribed to philosophies of communal living and resource sharing. The original occupants were working-class, and a major effort was made to keep the prices of water, electricity, and other city necessities as low as possible. Furthermore, all the things which one needs to live are right in the vicinity: schools, grocery stores, recreation areas, public transportation system access, etc.

Plan

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