Berlin: Siemensstadt Hugo Häring

1929 – 1931

Architect: Hugo Häring

Goebelstraße 12-118, Berlin, Germany

Siemensstadt Housing Estate

Also called Ringsiedlung, the Großsiedlung Siemensstadt established a new type of housing estate consisting only of multi-story apartment buildings, in contrast to the large Berlin housing estates Britz and Zehlendorf.

For the estate’s design, city building councillor Martin Wagner appointed members of the progressive architects’ association Der Ring, as well as architects Fred Forbát and Paul Rudolf Henning.

The 1,370 apartments and 17 stores, built in three phases, were intended primarily to provide new living spaces for Siemens employees and ensure local daily supplies.

The average apartment size was 54 square meters.

Development

Hans Scharoun‘s development plan points the way to an international, modern urban design of a loosened-up, structured, and greened city. Its core is a generous green area designed by garden architect Leberecht Migge.

Most of the housing estate’s rows are oriented north-south to ensure optimal lighting of the apartments.

The architects standardized the windows, doors, and floor plans of the apartments, most of which have two to two-and-a-half rooms, in the individual rows.

Heating System

The Siemensstadt housing estate was one of the first in Berlin to have its own district heating system.

Fred Forbat originally planned the building at a different location, but for technical reasons, it was placed in the middle of the housing estate, equidistant from the eastern and western rows, to keep the supply routes for heating and hot water to a minimum.

With the central heating system installed, the living space could be used more efficiently, as up to five square meters could be gained in each small apartment by eliminating the tiled stoves that had been common until then.

Although all the houses in Siemensstadt had laundry and drying rooms, the heating plant designed by Otto Bartning and engineer Max Mengeringhausen contained a central laundry for the entire settlement.

After the settlement connected to the Berlin district heating network, the district’s heating plant shut down, and the distinctive chimney demolished.

Facilities

Although all the houses in Siemensstadt were equipped with laundry and drying rooms, the heating plant designed by Otto Bartning and engineer Max Mengeringhausen contained a central laundry for the housing estate.

After the neighborhood was connected to Berlin’s district heating network, the heating plant was shut down, and its distinctive chimney was demolished.

Residential Complex Hugo Häring

In his nine parallel rows of apartments in Siemensstadt, Hugo Häring contrasts the rather plain eastern side, characterized by a clinker-clad attic, with the strongly structured western side, which serves as the main entrance.

Kidney-shaped balconies extend from the façade and are paired with rectangular balconies on the fourth floor.

Leather-brown clinker bricks in the attic, on the balconies, and at the entrances lend the buildings a warm color scheme.