The industrialisation caused a revolution in the construction of housing as a result of the grave deficit in decent housing caused by the thousands of workers who migrated to booming factory regions. One of the first entrepreneurs to concern himself with social questions was the early British socialist, ... more
The industrialisation caused a revolution in the construction of housing as a result of the grave deficit in decent housing caused by the thousands of workers who migrated to booming factory regions.
One of the first entrepreneurs to concern himself with social questions was the early British socialist, Robert Owen. At the end of the 18th century he conceived an ideal town for his workers in the utopian tradition of the Renaissance. The idea, however, was never implemented. A textile manufacturer by the name of Titus Salt was much more successful in this respect. In 1851 he built an estate of terraced houses called "Saltaire" for his workers in West Yorkshire.
In France Charles Fourier developed similar ideas for cooperative production and housing. Following his example, in 1859, Jean-Baptiste Godin set up a housing estate next to his foundry in Guise, called "Familistère". This consisted of housing blocks several storeys high, each surrounding a large courtyard covered with a transparent glass roof and serving as a common space for all the inhabitants. Public facilities like schools, kindergartens and shops were integrated into the site.
The British town planner, Ebenezer Howard, responded to the uncontrolled growth of cities with the idea of the garden city. Influenced by the thoughts of the American writer Ralph Waldo Emerson, he propagated the philosophy of small towns integrated into the countryside, and consisting of single-family houses and community facilities. The land itself was to be owned in common. The concept was made reality in 1903 in the garden city of Letchworth in Hertfordshire. This was soon followed by another garden city in Hampstead, north London.
After the First World War the lack of places to live was so great that governments and corporative companies were compelled to invest huge amounts of money in housing construction. In Great Britain large estates of single-family houses were built; and in Germany blocks of flats where erected, preferably in long parallel lines placed in such a way as to allow sufficient daylight to reach each row. The blocks of flats often contained children's crèches, shops and laundries.
Cooperative philosophies were especially expressed in the housing blocks built in Vienna in the 1920s. The best known of these was the "Karl-Marx-Hof", a monumental "proletarian housing palace" consisting of five-storey houses, each of which surrounded a broad grassy courtyard. Shops and kindergartens, even libraries and post offices were also integrated into these fortress-like housing blocks in "Red Vienna". The Dutch constructed expressive housing blocks. At the start they were often made from traditional red bricks and occasionally crowned with a little tower: later ready-made concrete bricks with individually accented coloured facades were also used, as in the "Watergraafsmeer" garden city near Amsterdam.
By contrast, the housing estates erected by representatives of functional architecture contained cube-shaped houses with flat roofs and white rendering. Standardisation went so far that progressive aspects like facing the housing towards the sun or grassing over courtyards became background considerations once again, even in the housing estates designed by Gropius. In addition, Gropius, who still clung on to the ideal of cooperative housing, committed himself strongly to the building of tower blocks. This trend reached a climax in the work of the architect and artist Le Corbusier. His idea of a housing city was finally implemented in 1955 in the form of the "Unités d’Habitation" in Marseilles. This was a massive concrete edifice containing more than 300 housing units, connected by a network of "streets" and containing two floors of shops. Although it soon became clear that there were blatant deficiencies in the architecture, the site had a huge influence on housing construction.
Grand Hornu World Heritage Site
Rue Sainte-Louise 82
7301
Hornu, Belgium
Nazi Forced Labour Documentation Centre
Britzer Str. 5
12439
Berlin, Germany
Nordwolle
Nordwestdeutsches Museum für Industriekultur
Am Turbinenhaus 10-12
27749
Delmenhorst, Germany
The Mines of Montevecchio at Geological Mining Park of Sardinia
Miniera di Montevecchio
Piazza Rotundi
09030
Guspini, Italy
MuCa - Museum of Shipbuilding Industry
MuCa - Museo della Cantieristica
Via del Mercato, 3
34074
Monfalcone, Italy
Cromford Mills World Heritage Site
Cromford Mill
DE4 3RQ
Cromford, United Kingdom
New Lanark World Heritage Site
New Lanark Mills
ML11 9DB
Lanark, United Kingdom
National Slate Museum World Heritage Site
Padarn Country Park
LL55 4TY
Llanberis, United Kingdom
Port Sunlight
Port Sunlight Village Trust
23 King George’s Drive
CH62 5DX
Port Sunlight, United Kingdom
Pfefferberg
Schönhauser Allee 176
10119
Berlin, Germany
The Steel House | Törten Housing Estate
Stahlhaus – Info-Punkt der Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau für die Siedlung Dessau-Törten
Südstraße 5
06849
Dessau-Roßlau, Germany
Poelzig Building, former IG-Farbenhaus
Norbert-Wollheim-Platz 1
60323
Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Piesteritz housing estate
Karl-Liebknecht-Platz 20
06886
Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Germany
Sonneberg Town of Toys
Bahnhofsplatz 1
96515
Sonneberg, Germany
Crespi d’Adda World Heritage Site
Crespi D’Adda, patrimonio dell’Umanità UNESCO
piazzale Vittorio Veneto 1
24042
Capriate San Gervasio, Italy
Līgatne Paper Mill Village
Touristinformation
Spriņģu iela 2
LV 4110
Līgatne, Latvia
Document Centre for Human Migrations
Centre de Documentation sur les Migrations humaines (CDMH)
Gare-Usines
3481
Dudelange, Luxembourg
Nikiszowiec Settlement
• Muzeum Historii Katowic,
ul. Rymarska 4,
40-425 Katowice
+48 (0) 32 - 2561810
• Stowarzyszenie Fabryka Inicjatyw Lokalnych,
Plac Wyzwolenia 21
40-423
Katowice, Poland
Zyrardow factory town
Resursa
1 Maja 45
96300
Zyrardow, Poland
Baía do Tejo Industrial Museum at former Companhia União Fabril (CUF) Area
Museu Industrial Baía do Tejo
Parque Empresarial da Baía do Tejo
2830-314
Barreiro, Portugal
Vista Alegre Museum
Museu da Vista Alegre
3830-292
Ílhavo, Portugal
Museum of the Sedó Colony
Museu de la Colònia Sedó
Àrea Industrial Can Sedó, Calle Contínues
08292
Esparreguera, Spain
The Big Villas Promenade
Muelle de Las Arenas
48930
Getxo, Spain
Puerto de Sagunto
Address Horno Alto nº2:
Avenida Altos Hornos
46520 Puerto de Sagunto
Contact:
FCV Patrimonio Industrial Puerto Sagunto
Avenida 9 de Octubre, nº7
46520
Puerto de Sagunto, Spain
Bustiello Mining Village Information Centre
Centro de Interpretación del Poblado Minero de Bustiello
Bustiello
33612
Santa Cruz de Mieres, Spain
Västanfors Area
Västanforsområdet
Rune Lindströms väg
73730
Fagersta, Sweden
Hammarbacken
Bruksgatan 2
Ludvika, Sweden
Gusen Concentration Camp Memorial
KZ-Gedenkstätte Gusen, B8 Bergkristall
Georgestrasse 6
4222
Langenstein, Austria
Karl Marx Hof
12. Februar Platz,
1190 Vienna
Museum 'Das Rote Wien im Waschsalon'
Halteraugasse 7
1190
Vienna, Austria
Museum of Mining and Sustainable Development World Heritage Site
Musée de la Mine et du Développement Durable
Rue Saint-Patrice 2b
7110
La Louvière, Belgium
Museum Miner's house
Museum van de Mijnwerkerswoning
Marie José-Straat 3
3630
Maasmechelen, Belgium
Museum of Shoemaking | Bata Settlement
Obuvnicke museum
Svit 1
760 00
Zlin, Czech Republic