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Wrocław artistic community and situation in Germany 2.1 Werkbund The Werkbund was an organisation established in Germany in 1907 as a meeting place for progressive manufacturers, architects and designers cooperating with industry. Its main aim was to design objects for mass production that would also have artistic value 2. In the interwar period the Werkbund became involved in a project whose aim was to solve the housing problem at the time. It did so by tackling the difficult task of creating a programme for construction of affordable and small flats for mass consumers. This programme was to give a quick fix to the housing needs of the countries suffering the consequences of war. Throughout Europe such model housing estates were created, however, it was in Germany where this trend was most prominent. They worked on a new living space layout, its better use, whilst lowering the construction cost of a single flat. The best way to achieve the lowest possible cost was to reduce the size of the flat. For this reason a model called ”Existenzminimum” (”Minimum dwelling”) was created. It presented the idea of a flat whose rooms employed the minimal space with respect to their functions. New rules of modern housing architecture were largely determined by the German Werkbund3. Herman Muthesius, who was one of the founders of this
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organisation, proclaimed an agenda for modern architecture: ”More content and less
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art”4.
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12 WuWA
Sigfried GIEDION, Przestrzeń, czas i architektura. Warszawa 1968, p. 510. Adolf VETTER, O znaczeniu idei Związku uszlachetnienia pracy dla Monarchji Austriackiej. Published by Miejskie Muzeum Techniczno-Przemysłowego w Krakowie. After: B.A., Wystawa Werkbundu we Wrocławiu, ”Rzeczy Piękne”, 1930, p. 70. Only in 1927, after organising ”Die Wohnung” exhibition and building the Weissenhof in Stuttgart housing estate, did the Werkbund gain international recognition. Hermann MUTHESIUS, Sztuka stosowana i architektura. Kraków 1909, p. 40. After: Ernest NIEMCZYK, Nowa forma w architekturze Wrocławia pierwszego trzydziestolecia XX w. In: Z dziejów sztuki śląskiej. ed. Zygmunt Świechowski, Warszawa 1978, p. 421–422.