Stuttgart: Weissenhof Le Corbusier

1927

Architects: Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret

Bruckmannweg 2, Stuttgart, Germany

Weissenhof Estate

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.

Model Houses

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.

Avantgarde

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.

Single-Family House Corbusier and Jeanneret

The single-family house by Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret shows the possibilities of free floor plan and facade design over a reinforced concrete skeleton, enriched by a roof garden and a two-story living space.

The house 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 through columns, roof terrace, continuous window bands and free facade design.

UNESCO World Heritage

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.

In July 2016, it was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List together with Le Corbusier’s neighboring duplex as one of a total of 17 partial sites under the designation The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier – An Outstanding Contribution to the Modern Movement.