!!!Kommunaler Wohnbau

Community Housing: Until the end of the 19%%sup th/%  century most 
working class people lived in privately-owned tenements. In order to 
alleviate the urgent need for housing, foundations were established at 
the turn of the century. It was only after the collapse of the 
Austria-Hungary monarchy (1918) that the "suburban movement" 
(Siedlerbewegung) developed, supported by the Vienna city government 
and originating from self-help organisations (public housing 
programmes: Siedlung am Heuberg 1921-1924, Werkbundsiedlung 
1930-1932). This movement was soon superseded by the politically 
motivated construction of large housing estates ("super-blocks"), 
which were to provide about 65,000 new flats by 1934. This programme 
was made possible by the Social Democratic government of Vienna, which 
passed the law on rent protection (1922), introduced a new building 
tax (1923) and bought vast building sites on the outskirts of the 
city. The huge new housing estates (George-Washington-Hof 1927-1930, 
Karl-Marx-Hof 1926-1930) are characterised by their expressive 
architecture and by their social facilities, such as common 
laundry-rooms, kindergartens, libraries and so on.

\\
The Per-Albin-Hansson-Siedlung-West (1947), built with concrete 
containing crushed bricks from war-damaged buildings, was the first 
housing estate erected by the Vienna city government after World War 
II. Due to the shortage of land, high-rise buildings in a linear 
arrangement were constructed. The foremost aim of these buildings was 
to create as many dwellings as possible, while architectural 
considerations other than those concerning physical form and 
arrangement of buildings were relegated to the background. From 1951 
to 1970 about 96,000 housing units were created, at first by 
conventional methods, then with the help of prefabricated systems 
(Grossfeldsiedlung since 1965).

\\
The 1970s were dominated by the construction of huge housing estates 
to create community feeling (Siedlung am Schoepfwerk 1967-1973). Since 
the problems of inordinately large sites had been recognised at that 
time and the urgent need for flats had declined, public housing 
concentrated on closing gaps in building space, low-slung buildings 
and urban renewal projects, where residents were encouraged to take 
part in the decision-making process. This was the background for the 
construction of the Hundertwasserhaus, probably the most famous 
publicly-owned house in Vienna (1983-1985). As the trend changed in 
the 1970s, experimental projects in the provinces, which had not 
received much attention until then, came to the fore.

!Literature
H. and R. Hautmann, Die Gemeindebauten des Roten Wien, 
1980; A. Lichtblau, Wiener Wohnungspolitik 1892-1919, 1984; H. 
Weihsmann, Das Rote Wien. Sozial-demokratische Architektur und 
Kommunalpolitik 1919-34, 1985; E. Bramhas, Der Wiener Gemeindebau. Vom 
Karl-Marx-Hof zum Hundertwasserhaus, 1987.


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