A mixture of mockery, bemusement and admiration was the response when, in 1927, an architecture exhibition opened in Stuttgart. It’s hardly surprising that it proved bewildering to many.
Organised by the city of Stuttgart and Deutscher Werkbund (DWB) — an association of German artists, architects, designers and industrialists — the Die Wohnung (meaning ‘The Housing’) exhibition showcased radically innovative domestic housing.
Its centerpiece was a real estate project called Weissenhof. Built on sloping ground to the north of the city, this comprised 21 shockingly cuboid, flat-roofed buildings, including apartments as well as terraced and detached houses. These were generously glazed, their huge windows drawing natural light into their open-plan interiors.
The dwellings were designed by 17 European modernist architects, including Le Corbusier, his cousin Pierre Jeanneret, Walter Gropius and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who masterminded the project as artistic director. Although famous now, these revolutionary architects were almost unknown then.
As a single condition, van der Rohe decreed that all references to past styles were verboten in this exhibition, which celebrates its 90th anniversary this year. There was a strongly didactic thrust to the show, which preached zero tolerance for ornament, regarded as superfluous and indulgent by DWB. “It was a manifesto of the modern architecture movement,” says Anja Krämer, director of the Weissenhof Museum in Stuttgart, formerly two apartment blocks created by Le Corbusier and Jeanneret for the exhibition.
“Originally two factions of architects vied to showcase their work. One group were architects with a deep connection to the region’s architectural history. But the modernists, led by Mies van der Rohe, won the battle and persuaded the city to help finance the show.”
Many locals were irritated, bemused or simply laughed at what they saw
Stuttgart’s population had never been exposed to such startlingly modern design – on such a large scale - before. Though, In 1924, the city had played host to the DWB exhibition Forme ohne Ornament (Form without Ornament), which displayed both handcrafted and industrially manufactured design, Die Wohnung was much larger. And, in thrall to the so-called machine age, its exhibitors wholeheartedly embraced mass-production and prefabrication.
The houses showcased interior design and furniture, while nearby a construction site put the spotlight on the materials and machinery needed to create the architecture. In the city centre, another arm of the exhibition displayed pared-down products that reflected the project leader’s zero tolerance for decoration or historical styles. In addition, a show called International Plan and Model Exhibition of New Architecture highlighted other cutting-edge items - photos, drawings or models – that van der Rohe and his collaborators considered important, and which lent credence to Die Wohnung’s audacious designs.
The artistic director had only invited avant-garde architects to take part. The team sheet included Austria’s Josef Frank, Belgium’s Victor Bourgeois, Germany’s Hans Scharoun, Peter Behrens and Bruno Taut, Swiss architect Pierre Jeanneret (cousin of Le Corbusier) and Johannes Jacobus Pieter Oud and Mart Stam from the Netherlands.
Van der Rohe also oversaw the budgets and construction. “He told the architects how much money was in the pot for each project, then gave them free rein,” says Krämer. “He didn’t want to lay down rules as he believed this would conflict with his aim of finding new forms.”
In the event, these included moveable partitions that could allow a space to be subdivided easily and flexibly into two or three rooms, floor-to-ceiling internal glass walls and linoleum flooring in one continuous colour. The furniture was equally avant-garde — van der Rohe’s classic Weissenhof chair with a tubular-steel, cantilevered frame was created especially for the show.
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