The Greening of German Modernist Architecture and Urban Planning
Grune Gemeinschaft: The Greening of German Modernist Architecture and Urban Planning (pdf). Leberecht Migge, Bruno Taut, Hannes Meyer and Ernst May viewed through an Ecological Lens by Molly Steenson
When considering modernist architecture, chances are, the images that come to mind are those of rectilinear, functionalist buildings, I-beams, envelope corners, and a “form follows function” mindset. Expand the image to housing developments of the Weimar period and the images become those of ready-made houses built on site to fight the dire housing crisis in Germany. These images reflect common notions of functionalist architecture and the Bauhaus.
Yet they don’t recognize the richness of the landscape, quite literally, running through modernist architecture. Against a backdrop on one side, of deprivation and housing crisis, and on the other side, functionalist utopias to combat those problems, there is an ecological and even Green approach to solving the social problems through architecture and urban planning during the Weimar period. This approach presages current Green thought, sustainable design, and ecologically-sensitive movements like New Urbanism. It is evidenced in the work of four notable architects and planners: Leberecht Migge, Bruno Taut, Hannes Meyer and Ernst May.