Stuttgart: Weissenhof Estate Semi-Detached House Le Corbusier / Weissenhofmuseum

1927

Architects: Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret

Rathenaustraße 1–3, Stuttgart

The Weissenhof Estate was built in 1927 as part of the building exhibition „Die Wohnung“, organized by the Deutscher Werkbund and financed by the city of Stuttgart.

During the exhibition, the 33 realized houses could be viewed from the outside and inside. Afterwards, they were rented out by the city.

Seventeen inter­na­tional archi­tects under the artistic direction of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, presented their innovative designs for modern, healthy, affordable and functional living.

In addition to the model houses in the Weissenhof Estate, there were three other exhibi­tions on modern building worldwide, interior design and new building materials and constructions.

Within just four months, 500,000 visitors came to see the exhibition, which had a worldwide resonance.

The Weissenhof Estate showed the then current develo­pment of archi­tecture and housing.

A formal coherence was achieved through the avant-garde archi­tec­tural views of the contri­buting archi­tects and the speci­fi­cation of flat roofs.

The semi-detached house by Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret in the Weissenhof Estate was intended to represent a new type of changeable house in addition to the neigh­boring single-family house also by Le Corbusier.

It is one of the outstanding archi­tec­tural testi­monies of Classical Modernism.

With this building, Corbusier imple­mented the basic principles of his archi­tec­tural program in five points: Variable floor plans, elevation of the first floor by means of columns, roof terraces, conti­nuous window bands and free facade design.

When the house was presented as part of the Exhibition „Die Wohnung“ in 1927, one half of the house was equipped for daytime use, the other for nighttime use.

Since 2006, the duplex has housed the Weissenhof Museum, which is the only acces­sible house of the Weissenhof Estate open to visitors.

In 2016, the building was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site together with Le Corbusier’s neigh­boring detached house.

Characteristic of the house’s archi­tecture are the conti­nuous window band, the visible steel supports, the roof garden and the two stair­cases, which emerge as cubes on the west side.

The interiors are entirely designed for multi­func­tio­n­ality: As in a comfor­table sleeping and salon car, the beds disap­peared into built-in cabinets during the day, sliding walls extended the living space.

Swiss architect and designer Alfred Roth designed an easily movable tubular steel bed that was indus­trially produced after the end of the building exhibition.

The bathtub shown corre­sponds to the original furnishings.

Immediately after its construction and in the mid-1980s, the building was remodeled, during which parts of the original were also lost.

On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Weissenhof Estate in 2002, the state capital Stuttgart acquired the property from the Federal Property Administration.

From 2003 to 2005, the house was exten­sively renovated and made accessible.