Vogelweide settlement
The Vogelweide settlement is a listed residential area in the Gesundbrunnen district of the southern district in Halle (Saale) . It was built in 1930 and 1931 in the New Building style based on designs by the architect Heinrich Faller .
location
With a length of approx. 800 meters and a depth of approx. 70 meters, the residential complex occupies the entire northern side of the Vogelweide, which runs in an east-west direction, that of Elsa-Brändström-Straße to the east and Paul to the west - watch street is limited. While the southern side of the street belongs to the Südstadt district, the northern side of the street belongs to the Gesundbrunnen district. From this four narrow side streets (Falkenweg, Finkenweg, Amselweg, Dohlenweg) and a central, wider street, the Vogelherd, lead north. The rows of houses run along these side streets up to a single-family house district that was built on from the 1920s.
Building history
There were first development plans for this area as early as 1928. The property, which was still fallow at that time, was already owned by "Kleinwohnungsbau Halle AG", founded in 1922. Initially, six U-shaped blocks were planned with central green areas that open to the north. However, financial difficulties prevented an earlier start of construction; other projects, such as the construction of the Gesundbrunnen garden suburb , were brought forward. Finally, between 1930 and 1931, a residential complex with mostly so-called small apartments was built on the site, which spatially connects the garden suburbs “Gesundbrunnen” and “Süd”.
The designs for the estate were in the hands of Heinrich Faller , who had also been chairman of the housing company since 1925 . The course of the side streets, which divide the area into six rectangular plots, was specified by the city expansion office. After completion, the appearance of the houses, which is unusual for Halle, in particular the use of the flat roof , met with a positive response from the public - also in conservative circles - and received laudatory mention in newspapers and specialist circles.
Structure and special features
The residential complex consists of two U-shaped apartment blocks at the eastern and western ends of the Vogelweide; in between there are thirteen rows of living quarters about 60 meters long, facing north-south.
The U-shaped apartment blocks, although uniform in appearance, are not identical in design. Faller initially designed the three-storey blocks of houses on Paul-Suhr-Strasse in the west and Elsa-Brändström-Strasse in the east with a traditional gable roof , in order to take up the character of the existing buildings on both streets. On Paul-Suhr-Strasse, a subsequent component that protrudes like a risk, which takes up the stairwell, leads over to a corner building, the ground floor of which houses a large shop. A balustrade surrounds the roof area designed as a roof terrace. This is followed by a three-story apartment block along Vogelweide at right angles, which again bends at right angles on the next side street, Falkenweg. At the other, the eastern end of the Vogelweide on Elsa-Brändström-Straße, a square-like extension was created in front of the corner house, in that the corner building was not pulled up to the alignment line. This is followed by a long cubic block offset to the west, which also bends to the north, here on Dohlenweg, at a right angle. A shop zone connects the corner building with the adjoining block.
The comb-like, whitewashed and block- built three-storey residential rows between the U-shaped head buildings are around 60 meters long and each consist of four houses. They are provided with flat roofs and consistently reduced to cubic elements. The urban development effect of the complex is based on the remarkable sequence of distinctive building corners with vertical ribbon windows above the entrance area and open corner loggias , some of which were glazed in the 1960s. On the closed perimeter development, the window and door frames are executed in blue, in the living rows windows and doors are alternately painted red, green or blue, the only playful element of this architecture. Profiled garment , a decorative Fensterversprossung and gesimsartig curtain eaves also soften the angular impression. At the beginning, Faller placed two single-storey shops on the two rows of houses in the middle of the complex along the green axis of the Vogelherd, which, thanks to their cubic shape, adapt to the living rows. These are connected by pergolas that shield the green strips from the street space. The generous use of green spaces creates garden courtyards with an almost private character, which convey the impression of a garden city and which also make up the special urban quality of the complex.
In its stylistic and urban planning decisiveness, the settlement is a unique case of programmatic modernity in the hall of the Weimar Republic , which was more conservative in terms of building policy, and should also be understood as an alternative to the neighboring Lutherplatz settlement, which felt obliged to traditional aesthetics.
Living concept
The planning envisaged 520 apartments for "less well-off population groups" for the settlement, 448 of which were of the so-called miniature apartment type.
After mainly medium-sized apartments with a size of 55–86 m² were built between 1926 and 1928, from 1929 mainly small and very small apartments with 35–55 m² were planned in order to increase the number of apartments. The Halle city administration, for example, asked the housing associations and cooperatives to increasingly create small apartments with 35–45 m² and an annual rent of less than 500 RM . Due to the global economic crisis and growing unemployment, around 60% of the workers could only afford an average annual rent of RM 300, 30% of up to RM 500. The rent reduction could only be regulated by the size of the apartment; the small apartment should be replaced by the smallest apartment.
In the settlement, the size of the living space was restricted to up to 48 m² within the living rows, comprising two rooms, a kitchen, a bathroom and ancillary rooms such as a pantry. Faller favored the so-called three-man floor plan for each floor, through which apartments could be merged if necessary. On the other hand, three-room apartments were provided for the front buildings.
For the majority of those looking for accommodation, the apartments were allocated by the municipal housing office, which divided them into neediness classes. The waiting time before the apartment was allocated was at least five to six years. After completion, an evaluation was carried out using address books to find out whether the apartments actually went to socially disadvantaged sections of the population. Since the result showed that 75% of the tenants were workers, retirees, small employees and civil servants, it was concluded that the apartments were rented by the intended target group.
The Vogelweide housing estate is now managed by the Halle-Süd eG housing association. The apartments were adapted to today's standards through renovation and floor plans, so that the settlement is still a popular residential area in Halle.
gallery
Block of flats with corner buildings at the east end
Block of flats with corner building at the west end
Beginning of the bird herd with retail stores
Pergolas between the living areas
Loggias of the living rows
View to the east
literature
- State Office for the Preservation of Monuments Saxony-Anhalt (Ed.): List of monuments Saxony-Anhalt / City of Halle. Fly Head Publishing, Halle 1996, ISBN 3-910147-62-3 , pp. 494–495.
- Holger Brülls, Thomas Dietzsch: Architectural Guide Halle on the Saale. Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-496-01202-1 , p. 189.
- Petra Küpperbusch: Settlement and social housing construction during the Weimar Republic and during National Socialism. In: Werner Freitag , Katrin Minner (ed.): History of the city of Halle. Volume 2: Halle in the 19th and 20th centuries. Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle 2006, ISBN 978-3-89812-383-9 , pp. 405-408.
- Petra Küpperbusch: From tenement to garden suburb. Settlement and social housing construction during the Weimar Republic in Halle. (= Research on the history of the city of Halle. Volume 14) Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle (Saale) 2010, ISBN 978-3-89812-710-3 .
Web links
- Halle and the modern age: Vogelweide housing estate . Retrieved June 8, 2020.
Coordinates: 51 ° 27 '25.2 " N , 11 ° 58' 0.4" E