Berlin: Siemensstadt Walter Gropius

1929 – 1931

Architect: Walter Gropius

Goebelstraße 120-122, Jungfernheideweg 21-45, 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.

Walter Gropius Apartment Building

The four-story, elongated row of stores and adjoining apartment building, designed by Walter Gropius, was completed during the estate’s first construction phase. It impresses with its clear, distinct design.

The window openings, visually combined by dark purple clinker bricks, structure the street façade into horizontal bands.

Sun terraces, closed off from the façade by grids, are located on the set-back top floor.

The four-story building across from it on Jungfernheideweg 18-30 was also designed by Gropius.

World Heritage

During World War II, the corner store was destroyed and initially rebuilt in a simplified form.

In 1990, Munich architects Hilmer and Sattler redesigned and supplemented the area.

In 2008, the Siemensstadt housing estate was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, alongside five other modernist housing estates in Berlin.