57 Detached house no. 35, designed by Heinrich Lauterbach, view from the garden (south-west), 1929. The Wrocław Museum of Architecture, 1032-10
5.2 Architectural form and colour schemes Even though the model housing estate by the Werkbund was presented as an example of functionalism in the 20s and understood as an architectural trend giving solutions to plain bodied houses, it was not stylistically unified. Functionalism was not a uniform trend. It is not an easy task to point out individual houses as different formal trends since they have features allowing them to be associated with either functionalism with strict geometrical divisions, the ”international style” and ”organic architecture”, ”white architecture” or the trend of ”colourful cities” (”Die Farbige Stadt”). Very often functionalism is regarded synonymously with the so-called ”international style”, with its white-plastered cubes and natural links to Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe or Walter Gropius. Up to now, certain differences have been noted. For the functionalists, the plain form, free from unnecessary decoration, was a result of the users’ needs and the technical possibilities. Orthodox functionalism praised everything that was measurable, scientific and useful and its advocates were driven only by the guidelines of functional features, disregarding any kind of decoration. For that reason, the architect should first study the needs of the future user and the basic functions of the flat, then create a simple draft, then an optimal plan, add the third dimension and as a result achieve a piece of truly functional architectural art. Only a few buildings from WuWA fit this category and they are: the eight-unit tenement house by Gustav Wolf (no. 3–6), the gallery-access block of flats by Paul Heim and Albert Kempter (no. 1) and the terraced houses (no. 9–22). These are plain, simple-bodied constructions, without any decoration, mainly functional but not artistic pieces 97. Perhaps the banality of their form is an effect of the assumption of the whole exhibition, namely, finding a solution for a small and affordable flat for an average user. The trend of functionalism with strict geometrical divisions was represented by the following elegant, yet following strict rules of geometry, buildings: house no. 7 97
Adolf ROTHENBERG, op.cit., p. 444. Gustav Wolf referred to his house no. 3–6 as ”a purely functional” building.
by Adolf Rading, detached or semi-detached houses no. 26–27 by Theo Effenberger, no. 28 by Emil Lange and no. 29–30 by Paul Häusler. House by Adolf Rading
WuWA 1929 2014 87