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5 Rowhouses by JJP Oud in Weissenhof

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5 Rowhouses by JJP Oud in Weissenhof The south facade (Google earth) 5 rowhouses by J.J.P. Oud in Weissenhof WrittenWritten by: Marianne Sandmark (AAR4900) This essey is about the fi ve rowhouses After Word War 1 Some examples are the cubisme, func- that Jacobus Johannes Pieter Oud The period after Word War 1 was do- tionalisme, rationalisme and futurisme . made in 1927 for the Weisenhof exhi- minted by infl ation and poor economy. All theese ideas could easily be publiced bition. It is impossible to undertand Even if the cities had a bad economy and distributed. (Teverne al, 2001). the rowhouses and Ouds intetions they didn’t stop been optimistic and without knowing a few things about belived in growth. The world as it was The Arts & Crafts movement was strong how the society and situation was known started to change in high speed. in the period after the fi rst Word War. in the 1920s’. This is why the essay The new techniques and new kinds of Morris and the brittain followers didn’t starts by telling you about the period construction and buildingstypes, that ap- want to include the industry in their de- after the fi rst world war, the group of peared around 1890s’, became a bigger signs and vision of art and architecture, artists and architects that called them part of the citylandscape. New kinds of but this was about to change. The Arts self De Stijl, the Weissenhof estate and buisiness like banks, malls, incurence- & Crafts movement was turning into an the architects own thoughts. companies and clothstores were seen movement only for the upper class that in the cities. All of which had different could afford the handmade things. The After writing about the circumstances needs.(Teverne al, 2001). germans and dutch artists and architects and the houses, I would like to tell (like members of the Modern Move- you about my own oppinions and how In the periode after Word War 1 many ment, Bauhaus, De Stijl) wanted to in- Ouds work could be used in the people started to write about their clude and coopperate with the industry. present and in the future. interests and ideas. This was the start (Joedicke, 1989). They had different of a massmedia periode were almost approches, but they were facing “(...) up I have chosen to write about the everybody had the opportunity to write to the challange of a technical age and circumstances and the houses and not something and have it publiced in a to comprehend technology as a means of the ineterior. I have done this because magazine. (Warncke, 1991). This might creating a profundly social architecture” I don’t fi nd the interior very impor- be the reason why the art (painting, (Joedicke, 1989, pg 19). Rationalime tent for further use of this essey. sculpture and architecture) were spread- was a keyword, maximum effect with a ing in all sorts of brands of modern art. minimum of means. (Joedicke, 1989). De Stijl De Weissenhofsiedlung in this sector” (Joedicke, 1989, pg 7). De Stijl was the name of the magazine In 1925 the muncipality of Stuttgart Weissenhof was ment to be an demon- where J.J.P. Oud publiced some of his desided that they would like to make an stration and experiment of models for articles. It was founded in the Nether- exhibition of the new kind of architec- innovations in the fi elds of technology, lands in 1917. The name is deuch and ture that was starting to emerge. The construction and architecture. It should means The Style. Soon the work and preparation (drawings and buildings) of show different typologies, prinsipps and movement of the arcitects and artists the International architectural exhibi- technics for serialproduction of row- who were assosiated with the maga- tion was a short peridod; 30th march houses. The architects emperimented zine was given the same name. It was 1925 to 23th July 1927. The architects with new materials, constructionsystems not a uniform movement. They didn’t focused on the construction of the build- and methods. Effi cently was also one have meetings or basic rules. The Stijl ings and their ideas of new architecture. key word, both in layout and in design. became a forum where the members During this time there was built 21 In this exhibition there was high expec- could have discussions and evaluate separate projects for 63 dwellings, by tations since so many known architects each others work. Many of the members 17 architects and 55 interior design- would participate, like Le Corbusier, never actually met and there were a lot ers. (Warncke, 1991). In the beginning Mies van der Rohe and Gropius. (Te- of disagreement in the group. (Overy, the dwellings should be built for large verne al, 2001). 1991). Mondrian defi nes it as: “(...) it familes, but it changed to be dwellings was to be an expression of a new, ideal for the educated middle class. (Teverne There was one confl ict with Weissenhof, world” (Warncke,(Warncke, 1991, pg 60). De Stijl al, 2001). how could it be an exhibition and func- ties the different brands of art together tion as normal housing after the exhibi- and creates a combined language, even The purpose of the exhibition was to tion was over? A lot of the buildings was if the brands are very different from show that the dwelllings were a “(...) not made for the workingclass, but more each other. The magazine became a part of a muncipal construction pro- for the upperclass. Many buildings was platform for discussions of rationalistic gramme as a vehicle to demonstrate far way from a normal house. (Joedicke, and abstract art. It infl uenced beyond the the concepts of the German Werkbund 1989). national borderes and were read by art- ists of different artistic styles. (Warncke, 1991). The caracteristics of de Stijl was art with simple, basic geometric components that created a composition that was unifi ed. Orthogonal lines and shapes were almost never used. They mainly used vertically and horizontally lines and shapes. The colour scheme was red, blue, yellow, white, black and grey. This was used even in the smallest details. (Overy, 1991). The typical caracteristic of De Stijl architecture was: “(...) asymmetrical, geometric, fl at-roofed, painted in white og light greys, with accents in primary colours” (Overy, 1991, pg 103). Even if Weissenhof, in 1927(Joedicke, 1989) this was the caracteristic of the archi- tecture there was only a few building that had all the qualities. Sometimes, for example, piched rooftops could be built. (Overy, 1991). Site model (my own, 2009) Weissenhof, in 1987 (Joedicke, 1989) J.J.P. Oud to translate it into a disciplined form. from life and would only freeze up in He was one of the few architects who (Teverne al, 2001). propagandist manifestos and too strictly designed a house in Weissenhof that organized associations; life presents could be called a normal house. Maybe One of the things Oud had against Le itself concretly in the assignment, not this is connected to the fact that Oud Corbusier, and some of the other archi- in abstract politico-social scenarios; had been working on social housing in tects, was that they wrote manifestos design does not follow function, but is Rotterdam. (Overy, 1991). Oud did not and thereby made the houses and the a valuable and autonomous aspect in agree with Le Corbusier that the men peoples lifes abstract and not human. the design process (...), the design is were a machine and the houses were Oud did not want to write manifestos produced by the interaction of form and machines to live in. He ment that life because he belived that : “(...) Architec- function”. (Teverne al, 2001, pg 41). was the starting-point and it was his job ture is art which arises spontaneously Axiometric of the rowhouses in Weissenhof, out of scale (Teverne al, 2001) 5 Rowhouses in Weissenhof At fi rst Oud got two assignments in Weissenhof, one single family villa and 4 rowhouses for workers. He protested and was allowed to build 5 rowhouses instead. (Teverne al, 2001). Oud wanted to make a”(…) small dwelling as a synthesis of new materials, construc- tion methods and form, guided by the principles of simplicity, effi ciency and functionality” (Teverne al, 2001, pg 292). Theese rowhouses were ment to show one typology of rowhouses that could be repited. Since the rowhouses in Weissenhof only show one row, it doesn’t show what Oud had in his mind about theese houses. He wanted to repeat the row of houses, so one rows gardens met the next rows kitchen yard. (Teverne al, 2001). South facade (Google Earth) As a part of the assigment the fi ve houses have the same layout and size. It should be a continuous row of houses who were simple, but good-looking. The with per unit is 5,6 meters. (Kirsch, 1989). The site for each house, included the garden and courtyard, is approx. 22,5 x 5,6 meters. The garden is approx. 11 x 5,6 meters and the courtyard is approx. 3 x 3 meters. The houses have three storeys, the two you can see and the cellar that is underneath the ground. The hight of the building, above the ground, is approx 6 meters. The exten- tion in north, with the utility rooms is only 4,5 meters high and 2,35 meters wide. (Kirsch, 1989, and Teverne al, 2001). The rowhouses is built with concrete. He used the Kossel system, which was a fairly new method in the 1920’s. The North facade (Google Earth) Kossel system allowed the building to be built as a monolitic system.
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