winowsk =, a racjonalnymi uk adami linijkowymi, w skali miasta, jak i w uj Bciu regionalnym. Do Vwiad- spe niaj =cymi charakterystyczne dla nowoczesnego czenia zdobyte przez Maya we Wroc awiu, zastoso- mieszkalnictwa postulaty: „powietrza, s oLca i ziele- wane w procesie budowy Nowego Frankfurtu, pop- ni”. Wa bnym osi =gni Bciem Maya, potwierdzaj =cym arte wi Bkszymi jego mo bliwo Vciami organizacyjny- jego wk ad do nowoczesnej urbanistyki by y projek- mi jako Stadtbaurata, przyczyni y si B do osi =gni Bcia ty decentralizacji Wroc awia metod = satelitów, tak spektakularnego sukcesu, w krótkim czasie. Wanda Kononowicz, prof. dr hab. in b. arch. Wydzia Architektury Politechniki Wroc awskiej Instytut Historii Architektury, Sztuki i Techniki Zak ad Historii Teorii Architektury i Urbanistyki ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF URBANIST AND ARCHITECT ERNST MAY IN WROC AW IN THE YEARS 1919–1925 – A STAGE IN THE PROCESS TOWARDS FUNCTIONAL FRANKFURT 1 WANDA KONONOWICZ The housing architecture developed by Ernst May which became a catalogue of picturesque solutions, in the years 1919-1925 in Silesia anticipated his fa- and the published theory of town planning supplied mous realizations of functional and modern estates designers throughout Europe with examples how to in Frankfurt am Mein, where from mid-1925 he held compose housing estates up until World War II 5. the post of the city architect 2. The Wroc aw suburbs Among the canons of Unwin’s composition were: and Lower Silesian towns were May’s [ rst large ex- hierarchization and morphological differentiation perimental sites, on which he tested the principles of space, an arrangement that is treated holistically of planning settlements and paved the way for typi- with a de [ ned centre, an axis directed at the domi- [ ed, functional, healthy and economical housing nant element, symbolic borders and gateways, and a construction. pictoresque layout of streets 6 and „closes” 7. May’s professional and ethical attitude was great- Collaboration and friendship with Unwin gave ly in \ uenced by his apprenticeship in 1910-1911 at direction to May’s own beliefs, what he particularly the atelier of top English urbanist Sir Raymond Un- stressed, avowing that personal contact with this win 3, during work on the design and construction of great [ gure had made a decisive impact on his own the Hampstead Garden Suburb 4 project, the plan of development as a human being and urbanist, not in 1 This article antecedes a book, devoted in greater extent to the 3 together with Barry Parker designed the [ rst garden-city Let- professional activity of E. May in the Wroc aw period. chworth (1903) according to Howard’s concepts; C. B. Purdom, 2 The life and work of E. May have been the subject of many pub- The building of satellite towns , Second edition, London, Dent, lications in which, however, the Wroc aw period is treated only 1949, p. 458. super [ cially: J. Buekschmitt, Ernst May . Bauten und Planungen, 4 [ rst plan - 1905; [ nal plan – 1909; co-designer: Barry Parker, Bd. 1, Stuttgart 1963; Ernst May und das Neue Frankfurt 1925- architectural consultations: Edwin Lutyens; J. Castex, J. Ch. De- 1930, Ausst.-Kat. Deutsches Architekturmuseum Frankfurt am paule, Ph. Panerai, Formes urbaines: de l’îlot R la barre , Bordas, Main, Berlin 1986; R. Diehl, Die Tatigkeit Ernst Mays in Frank- Paris 1977, p.49 and foll. furt am Main 1925-1930 unter besonderer Berücksiechtigung 5 R. Unwin, Town Planning in Practice - An introduction to the des Siedlungsbau , Frankfurt am Main 1976; E. Herrel, Ernst art of designing cities and suburbs , London 1909. May. Architekt und Stadtplaner in Afrika 1934-1953 , Frankfurt 6 J. Castex, …op.cit., p. 55, 57. a. M. 2001; on the effects of May’s activity in and around Wroc- 7 „Close” is a development of houses around a dead-end street aw wrote: W. Kononowicz, The urban activities of Ernst May in or square. It guarantees to its residents a speci [ c, intimate at- Breslau after the First World War, in: Conference Preceedings. mosphere, as already indicated by the name (in English close Second International Docomomo Conference, September 16- means: an enclosed place, estate or yard, an alley or narrow way, 18 th , 1992, Dessau 1992, Germany, Dessau 1993, pp. 82-85; on as well as: sealed, blocked, near). The English close is answered his activity in the area of Wa brzych wrote: B. Ludwig Dzia al- by the French term cul - de - sac and German Hof. Par excellence no V4 Spó ki Schlesisches Heim pod kierownictwem Ernsta Maya English, the term close became permanently established thanks na terenie Wa brzyskiego Okr Bgu Przemys owego , (The activity to French specialist literature; ibidem, p. 58 et al. of the company Schlesisches Heim under Ernst May in the Wa - brzych Industrial Zone) in: „Quart”. 4(6)/2007, p. 40-61. 26 the way of creative fads that changed from year to ing on housing estates for workers and minor of [ ce year, as do the fashions for dress or hats, but in re- staff, only in suburbs and towns. The company dealt gard of the age-old rules of humanity that endure with organization, [ nancial and technical matters, even when the architectural background is funda- draughtsmanship of plans and design projects, and mentally altered 8. also intermediated in supply of construction materi- The formation of May’s professional preferences als. The company „Schlesisches Heim”, which from was certainly also in \ uenced by an earlier contact June 1921 functioned under the changed name of with Friedrich Pützer in Darmstadt, a supporter of „Schlesische Heimstätte Provinzielle Wohnungfür- the ideas of Sitte 9, also Joseph Maria Olbrich, as sorge-Gesellschaft” m.b.H., 15 was created along the well as later studies at the Technische Hochschule in example of similar organizations that were already Munich and encounters with its excellent professors functioning in other provinces of Germany 16 . May Theodor Fischer, Friedrich von Thiersch or baron informed public opinion about progress in construc- von Berlepsch-Valendas, an ardent promoter of the tion on the pages of of a periodical he himself edit- English theory of town planning. Taking his [ rst ed, entitled „Schlesisches Heim” 17 , the of [ cial press steps in the profession in his home city of Frankfurt publication of the cooperative, which in Wroc aw (1913), May was [ rst oriented at architects Hoffman and Silesia [ lled an analogous role to „Das Neue and Messel. Later searches took him towards Peter Frankfurt” which he later headed in Frankfurt. Behrens and the path of New Objectivity (Neue Sa- The typi [ cation and industrialization of housing chlichkeit) 10 . Early on he understood that modern ar- construction which arose from the norms of Ger- chitectural thinking should start with the function man Werkbund, that May so successfully developed and the shape of a building and not the aesthetics in Frankfurt, began in Wroc aw. Typi [ cation was of its façade. He was referring to the dictum „more the superior feature of this architecture, in spite of matter, with less art”, of Hermann Muthesius, who its traditional, often farmhouse looks. Supported contained within that Shakesperean idiom the entire on serial production, from the outset „Schlesische programme of modern tectonic art 11 . The convic- Heimstätte” used normalized house construction tion, combined with the great importance which he elements, such as beams, rafters, windows, doors, attached to social considerations, placed him with- stairs, stoves etc; in the next stage, whole homes in the ranks of pioneers of functionalism in urban and furniture were typi [ ed. It was in Wroc aw that planning 12 . May began work on his „minimum dwelling”, in the May began his work in Wroc aw in May 1919, form of the so-called emergency house „Notheim”, as the head of the construction department of the anticipating the idea of „Die Wohnung für das Ex- Schlesische Landgesellschaft company directed by istenzminimum demonstrated in 1929 at the Inter- Koeppel, which had the objective of supporting the national Exhibition in Frankurt am Main. construction of housing settlements in the country- May aspired to the construction of universal, side, in suburbs and in towns. In July of that year technologically improved and cheap housing. He „Schlesisches Heim” was established, with the same systematically worked on perfecting the Schlesische board 13 and construction management 14 , concentrat- Heimstätte types of houses, among which were 8 J. Buekschmitt, Ernst May, op. cit., p. 20-21. 15 Zur Beachtung! in: SH, 2(1921), issue 6. 9 C. Sitte, Der Städtebau nach seinen Künstlerischen Grundsätzen, 16 Out of 13 Prussian housing societies founded in the years 1918- Wien 1889. 1925, the [ rst was established for Westphalia (26.07.1918), the 10 J. Buekschmitt, Ernst May, op. cit., p. 20-21. fourth for Silesia (28.07.1919) and the last for Upper Silesia 11 H. Muthesius, Sztuka stosowana i architektura , (Applied Art (9.02.1925); see: Pauly, 10 Jahre Wohnungsfürsorgegesells- and Architecture) Kraków 1909, p. 40. chaften – 10 Jahre staatliche Wohnungsreformpolitik , in: SH, 12 J. Buekschmitt, op. cit., p. 19. 9(1928), issue 7, pp. 177-178. 13 See signature under the introduction to the [ rst issue of „Schle- 17 Schlesisches Heim – Monatschrift des Schlesischen Heimes sisches Heim”, Koeppel, Oberregierungsrat a.D., leitender Ge- gemeinnützigen Gesellschaft zur Förderung des Kleinwoh- scheftsführer der Schlesischen Landgesellschaft und des Schle- nungsbaues der Prov. Schlesien; the [ rst issue was published in sischen Heims, Zum Geleit! , in: „Schlesisches Heim”m(hereon: January 1920. SH), 1(1920), issue 1, p. 7. 14 See signature to the article: Architekt May, Leiter der Bauabte- ilungen des Schlesischen Heimes und der schlesischen Landge- sellschaft, Siedlungspläne , in: SH, 1(1920), issue 1, p. 7. 27 semi-rural, suburbian, town, one, two and three- \ oor He had great respect for patient creative and consis- houses, single-family and multi-family, free-stand- tent work, resignation from ambitious and spectacu- ing, semi-detached and terraced houses 18 .