Ernst May Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

This article traces an African Housing Renaissance through the Trabantenstadt (Satellite City) vision for Kigali embedded in the Gacuriro Valley Satellite, which is composed of two settlements (or umudugudu, in Kinyarwanda): Kigali 2020... more

This article traces an African Housing Renaissance through the Trabantenstadt (Satellite City) vision for Kigali embedded in the Gacuriro Valley Satellite, which is composed of two settlements (or umudugudu, in Kinyarwanda): Kigali 2020 (2001-2005) and Kigali Vision (2013-2016). While the Kigali 2020 is an integrated Trabant (Satellite) which is able to interact with the existing context and trace the future built and unbuilt developments, the Kigali Vision adopts the idea of a protected compound, morphologically connected with the older settlements, but unable to tackle and solve spatial and social issues due to its 'defensive' character. The particular topography of the hillside receives an ambivalent interpretation: in the first umudugudu, the slope inspires the whole project, an organic raumplan, and in the second it has been denied, having been leveled for flat houses' foundations and consequently a flat spatial indoor distribution. Nevertheless, this article argues that despite the evident architectural differences between the two settlements, they remain in the tradition of the Neues Bauen, in which mass housing represents the physical way of accommodating different social classes, granting equal and favorable living conditions. The typological variety demonstrates the aim to inclusively target distinct segments of the population. Apartment buildings (condominiums), row houses, twin houses and single houses mixed with public facilities, schools, a church, and sports structures, make up the settlements as unique pieces of a system and, at the same time, a singular whole.

This article traces an African Housing Renaissance through the Trabantenstadt (Satellite City) vision for Kigali embedded in the Gacuriro Valley Satellite, which is composed of two settlements (or umudugudu, in Kinyarwanda): Kigali 2020... more

This article traces an African Housing Renaissance through the Trabantenstadt (Satellite City) vision for Kigali embedded in the Gacuriro Valley Satellite, which is composed of two settlements (or umudugudu, in Kinyarwanda): Kigali 2020 (2001–2005) and Kigali Vision (2013–2016). While the Kigali 2020 is an integrated Trabant (Satellite) which is able to interact with the existing context and trace the future built and unbuilt developments, the Kigali Vision adopts the idea of a protected compound, morphologically connected with the older settlements, but unable to tackle and solve spatial and social issues due to its ‘defensive’ character. The particular topography of the hillside receives an ambivalent interpretation: in the first umudugudu, the slope inspires the whole project, an organic raumplan, and in the second it has been denied, having been leveled for flat houses’ foundations and consequently a flat spatial indoor distribution. Nevertheless, this article argues that despit...

The context in which the research work lies, is the work of Ernst May with regard to the project Siedlugen “Niddatal” (1925-1930), that is Praunheim, Römerstadt and Westhausen compared to the new Riedberg Siedlung (1997-2017) in... more

The context in which the research work lies, is the work of Ernst May with regard to the project Siedlugen “Niddatal” (1925-1930), that is Praunheim, Römerstadt and Westhausen compared to the new Riedberg Siedlung (1997-2017) in Frankfurt. Here it is important to demonstrate the “continuity” rather than the “fracture”, in the time, between the projects on the Nidda and the latest works concerning the “Housing and the shape of the city”, following a precise idea of urban planning, from the living spaces to the city. The research aims, as its principal objective to find a formal structure, with a high degree of generality, to use for the analysis of settlements based on a very specific archetype, the “Angersiedlung”. An archetype that allows, in the past as in the present, 1925-2017, to organize the elements of the single composition, the spaces and the housing, and also the elements of the city, the Siedlungen (Residential settlements), to form the Trabantenstadt (Satellite City).

Obgleich kaum als kollektive Gruppe untersucht bilden die Architekten zweifellos eine zentrale historische (funktionale) Elitenformation der frühen, durch den Wiederaufbau geprägten Bundesrepublik. Relevant sind nicht nur die... more

Obgleich kaum als kollektive Gruppe untersucht bilden die Architekten zweifellos eine zentrale historische (funktionale) Elitenformation der frühen, durch den Wiederaufbau geprägten Bundesrepublik. Relevant sind nicht nur die Anpassungsleistungen der Architekten über den Systembruch hinweg, sondern deren politisch-sozial Funktion. Insbesondere ist zu fragen, inwieweit die progressiven Planungsutopien der 1920er Jahre und die entfesselten Gestaltungsmacht der Architekten im Dienst des NS im Kontext der frühen Bundesrepublik spürbar blieben. Daran anschließend stellt sich die generellere Frage nach der Gestaltung des Sozialen durch Städtebau und Architektur in der Bundesrepublik und damit auch der Legitimität der frühen Bundesrepublik. Dieser Artikel nimmt diese Fragen in den Blick, indem er Architekten in der frühen Bundesrepublik Deutschland und in der Volksrepublik Polen vergleicht.

Die Siedlung Praunheim umspannt in ihrer Gesamtheit das ganze Architekturexperiment von Ernst May in Frankfurt. Hier ist es in der Tat möglich, die Entwicklung der Gedanken des Architekten unter verschiedenen Gesichtspunkten zu verfolgen.... more

Die Siedlung Praunheim umspannt in ihrer Gesamtheit
das ganze Architekturexperiment von Ernst May in
Frankfurt. Hier ist es in der Tat möglich, die Entwicklung
der Gedanken des Architekten unter verschiedenen
Gesichtspunkten zu verfolgen. Sie reichen von der
Siedlungskonzeption in ihrer Gesamtheit aus architektonischem
Gesichtspunkt bis zur umfassenden Organisation
der Infrastruktur und der Versorgung.
Die Siedlung ist das Ergebnis einer Teilplanung, die
später zur Einheitsform innerhalb des sogenannten
„Projektes Niddatal“ wurde, wozu auch die Römerstadt
und Westhausen gehören. Die Gesamtanlage Praunheim
ist in drei Abschnitte oder Phasen unterteilt, die
sich rund um das „Alte Hofgut“, einen vorhandenen
Bauernhof, anordnen.