Workers' City Colony
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Workers' City Colony Locotion Maribor Address Betnavska Cesta, Ulica Zmage, Fochova Ulica, Koseskega Ulica Planning and completion 1927-1929 Architect Ivan Vurnik lnvestor District Office for the Protection of Workers of Maribor, City Hall and individuals Building type Series of residential houses Other buildings by the same architect Anatomy Institute (Anatomski Inštitut), Ljubljana 1919-1920; sanatorium for lung patients, Golnik 1920-1922; Co-operative Com mercial Bank (Zadružna Gospodarska Banka), Ljubljana 1921-1922; House of the Nation (Narodni Dom). Kranj 1922-1923; House of the Falcons [pre-war left-wing gymnastics society; Sokolski Dom] in Tabor, Ljubljana 1923-1926; series of resi dential houses, Maribor 1928; summer swimming-pool Obla Gorica, Radovljica 1932-1933 A casual visitor to Maribor would notice a series of residential houses in while walking through the suburbs of Tabor. The houses are not of an outstanding design, yet they are carefully planned. Their uniform facades and the streets planted with trees create the impres sion of a peaceful neighbourhood. If questioned, most of the inhabit ants would state that living in the houses is pleasant, although they are modest and smalL The gardens and green areas in the inner side of street islands enhance the quality oflife in the neighbourhood. Those interested in the history of Maribor know that the subject .6. Floor plan (scale: smm =1m) ..,. "The houses are not of an outstanding design, yet they are carefully planned." 125 2oth Century Architecture: From Modernist to Contemporary Giude to Architecture under discussion is the creation of one of the pioneers of Slovene modem architecture, the Workers' City Colony by Ivan Vurnik. The quarter is an important element in the development of Slovene town planning, fulfilling the idea of a garden city. Apart from that, Vurnik used a new type of construction, the terraced house, for the first time in Slovenia. Furthermore, the quarter represents the first instance of social housing, since the quarter - called a colony at that time - was not constructed by the owner of the company for "his" workers, but by the workers themselves: according to the plan of the famous archi- "Vurnik used a new type of construction, the terraced house, for the first time in Slovenia. [... ] He proved on the bas is of a precise financial esti mate that single-family houses with gardens were cheaper than flats in the 'new Colosseum' in Ljubljana." tect, with attractive loans and with the support of the Town Hall. The manner of planning undertaken by Vurnik was also impor tant. He began with theoretical thinking and the study of various practices in other European countries and passed through test de signs on his desk - also as part of his seminar at the Ljubljana School of Architecture - to the implementation under actual circumstances. His theoretical and planning solutions were also published in a series of four articles in the magazine Dom in Svet, ('Home and World') the Calendar of Mohorjeva Družba (Hermagoras Society) and in the magazine Slovenec ('The Slovene') in the period between 1927 and 1928. The articles were not instances of architectural theory; they were intended for a broader audience and can be considered as pre sentations of his ideas. Our presentation of the Workers' City Colony could therefore be compounded from Vumik's quotations, or vice versa, the Colony can be understood as the illustration or realization ofhis study in social housing. However, the question remains of which were the sources for Vurnik in his research. He quoted the book by Ebenezer Howard on Ebenezer Howard, Garden City ofTo-morrow, 1898. The book was published in a German translation in 1907, and Vurnik probably knew it from that source. 126 Worker's City Colony a garden city' and mentioned a publication of the British Ministry of Health (without the proper title) where typical plans for single-family houses were supposedly published, as well as the magazine Bauwelt from Berlin and the publications of Deutsche Gartenstadt-Gese!lschaft ('German Garden City Company'). According to Vurnik, the latter were the main source for his articles. It seems that the final initiative which drew Vurnik to the field of residential architecture took place in the autumn of 1926, when he took part in a "congress for the construction of residential cities" in ... "The uniform effect of the quarter is spoilt at presen! by numerous transformations of the houses and various 'additions' to them. [. ..) Some houses have, fortunately, remained unchanged [... )All the works [on them) are to be performed according to a consistent conservation programme and with appropriate financial support from public funds." Vienna.' He reported that one of the participants of the congress was Raymond Unwin, co-architect of the first large garden city in Lech worth and "one of the first world authorities on the construction of cities" (Vurnik, Dom in Svet, I92T 145) .J A number of planners, financiers, heads of construction firms and others presen ted their experiences in the field ofhousing problems in Great Britain, the Netherlands, Germany and Austria. Vurnik was mostly impressed by the solutions ofhis English and Dutch colleagues who advocated the idea of a terraced city and opposed the construction of blocks of flats. 2 It was an international congress of housing and town plannin.g organized in Vienna by the socialdemocrat city authorities in 1926, with the purpose of encour aging the debate on the most su ita ble form s of residential construction. Two main streams "clashed" at the congress: the "progressist" one favouring the con struction of large residential quarters according to the model ofViennese "courts", and the "romantic" one favouring the single-family construction in the form of garden cities; "lnternationaler Wohnungs· und Stadtebaukongress", Vienna, 1926. It is known that Cornelius Gurlitt and joseph Stlibben also attended the congress, although Vurnik does not mention them since they were supporters of the "un healthy" several-storey high residential "barracks". 127 2oth Century Architecture: From Modernist to Contemporary Giude to Architecture In the following year (i.e. 1927), Vurnik studied foreign possibilities and compared them with his experiences and his knowledge of the conditions in Slovenia. He reached a solution that can be considered a modest variant of the garden city and a typical floor plan of a ter raced house with a garden. The demand for economy was of primary importance. "Not only out of health, social and ethical aspects does one support the single family house with a garden of its own, but also out of economic con siderations." (Vurnik, Slovenec, 1928: 3) . He proved on the basis of a precise financial estimate that single-family houses with gardens were cheaper than flats in the "new Colosseum" in Ljubljana, i.e. a residential house in the present Njegoševa Cesta.4 In the case of the Maribor Colony, he carried out an attractive financial plan: the Dis trict Office for the Protection ofWorkers offered loans at low interest rates, while the Town Hall of Maribor covered the utility expenses and undertook the supervision and organization of the work for free. The loans were paid in the form of monthly rents, so that the tenants became the owners of the houses in 20 years time. Vurnik chose the study of the floor plan on the smallest possible surface as his basic planning method. His structural design was pub lished in the magazine Slovenec. The plan shows the house on three storeys with the basic floor plan of 2om2. The ground floor consisted of a residential kitchen and a utility room, the first floor of a bedroom and a study and the attic of two further bedrooms. Two houses to gether formed a unit with a party fire wall. Such pairs were therefore designed in mirror images. The buildings constructed in Maribor varied slightly from the published design: some of them were lower since there were no residential attics. The houses had partial base ments and the kitchens on the ground floor were divided from the residential quarters. Chimneys were located at the centre of the houses and not in the fire walls, which transformed the design to a certain extent. One row of house s faced north, which was in contrast to the purpose of the architect "to provide each house with an equal share of sunlight". In some rows the gardens were essentially shorter, which was caused by great interest for the construction and additional allocation of the plots. In spite of that, there were more candidates for houses than available plots. The City Colony consisted of 147 single-family houses, which was a considerable quantity for those times. The houses were located in series parallel to the streets that were designed in a fan-shape in a north-south direction. Two shorter rows were located laterally. A large green area came into being on the inside as the core of the quarter in the island between Betnavska Cesta and Cesta Zmage "that is to be come the common of the entire colony, where the old and the young gather for their common entertainment" (Vurnik, Slovenec, 1928: 3). The external streets were planted with "lines of tall trees" which created a dear border between the quarter and the rest of the city. Common brick roofs used to contribute to the uniform effect of the quarter. The facades were also uniform, accentuated with en trances and projecting roofs functioning as minor balconies and 4 By Vladimir Mušič , 1926. 128 Worker's City Colony simple metal railings. The architect respected the desire for individu ality so the houses were painted in various colours in natural shades (ochre, brown, olive green). The doors, windows and banisters were painted in a uniform reddish-brown shade.