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Weissenhofsiedlung Stuttgart – House 13: Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret
For a time, Le Corbusier was not allowed to participate in the Weissenhofsiedlung project "because of his nationality" (he came from West Switzerland). However, at the insistence of Mies van der Rohe, Gustaf Stotz and Mayor Sigloch he was put back on the list of participating architects.
Le Corbusier (Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris) and his cousin Pierre Jeanneret were thus able to realize their concept of the home as a "machine for living in" in their design for a single-family house at Bruckmannweg 2 in the Weissenhofsiedlung. The basic idea for the "Maison Citrohan", which they had developed ten years before, was implemented for the first time in this house. Their concept envisaged the standardization of the roof and the windows, and the planning of a large living room onto which small cells for performing domestic tasks opened out. Mies van der Rohe described the brief for the house as follows: "The house Block 11 is a single-family house and is to have six rooms, a kitchen, bathroom, and a maid’s room. The manufacturing costs may run to RM 25,000. As one can reckon with a price of RM 35 per cubic meter in Stuttgart, 750 cubic meters of enclosed space is available… Both houses (note: this is a reference to House 13, and House 14-15) are intended for the educated middle class." (Mies to Le Corbusier, 10 November 1926) An outstanding feature of the house is the mezzanine, whose front section accommodates the living room on the "ground" floor. Consequently, the latter is more than two storey’s high at the window front and thus receives plenty of air.

Weissenhofsiedlung Stuttgart – House 14-15: Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret
Mies van der Rohe had originally intended the twin house 14-15 as a single-family house costing RM 23,100, with five rooms, a kitchen, a bathroom and a maid’s room. Le Corbusier and Jeanneret’s initial plan adhered to this concept. In the plans, houses 13 and 14-15 were linked, which subsequently proved impracticable as the architects had wrongly estimated the ground level of the two houses. Later, Le Corbusier redesigned the house, creating two house halves that would represent a novel, convertible house supplementing the single-family house. For the exhibition, one half was to be furnished and fitted for day use, the other for night use. Characteristic features of the twin house are the continuous windows, the steel columns on the ground floor, and the two staircases standing out as independent cubes on the western side of the house. The house is remarkably like a railway carriage – an impression accentuated by the convertible living and sleeping area, and the narrow corridor interconnecting the rooms.

Posted by durr-architect on 2013-03-08 20:52:02

Tagged: , Weissenhofsiedlung , Stuttgart , Corbusier , Jeanneret , housing , house , maison , citrohan , Mies van der Rohe , werkbund , exhibition , machine , living