Abstract
In Germany after World War I in years 1918-1923 inflation was a decisive negative economic factor. Since 1923 the inflation process started to increase suddenly. Since July 1923 German currency lost its function of means of payment. Cash was changed into valuables as quickly as possible. Economic development was totally crippled.
In Wrocław need for flats was enormous. It was much bigger than in other German cities. In June 1919 building cooperative “Schlesische Heimstätte”, provinzielle Wohnungsfürsorgegesellschaft m.b.H (Silesian Homestead, provincial company supporting housing construction, Ltd.), was founded in Wrocław as part of Prussian housing act. It acted under the aegis of Ministry of Social Care.
In the first years after WWI, at the time of great postwar crisis, Ernst May - a young architect beginning his career, was appointed as a manager of “Schlesische Heimstätte”. The company was to supply people of modest means with healthy and properly furnished flats at low prices.
In the first half of the twenties so called crises houses (Notheime) were proposed. The propositions of the smallest houses were introduced in 1919-1920. They were dwelling summer houses with a room, small barn and toilet. They were to be enlarged or replaced with new buildings after the economic situation would have improved.
Because of the lack of building materials after WWI, building cooperatives used substitute materials. Traditional natural materials were recommended in all designs – walls built from bricks and plastered, wooden truss and roof covered with tile. In order to find cheap solutions old local building materials were used. Walls could be built from dried clay blocks, limestone, calcareous slag or wood. Shingled or even thatched roof houses were suggested.
A lot of attention was paid for economically and ergonomically designed layout of crises houses. They were to solve the enormous dwelling problems in Wroclaw and Silesia.
Text is based on Research Project funded by National Science Centre, Poland; Project no. 2011/01/B/HS3/00753.
Chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Kononowicz, W.: Wrocławskie dokonania urbanisty i architekta Ernsta Maya w latach 1919-1925 – etapem w drodze do funkcjonalnego Frankfurtu. Kwartalnik Architektury i Urbanistyki 55, 3–38 (2010)
Ludwig, B.: Osiedla mieszkaniowe w krajobrazie wałbrzyskiego okręgu górniczo-przemysłowego (1850-1945). Oficyna Wydawnicza Politechniki Wrocławskiej, Wrocław (2010)
Ludwig, B.: Ochrona wartości krajobrazowych w projektach osiedli autorstwa spółki “Schlesisches Heim” pod kierunkiem Ernsta Maya na Dolnym Śląsku. Kwartalnik Architektury i Urbanistyki 56, 3–22 (2011)
Störtkuhl, B.: Ernst May i Schlesische Heimstätte. In: Quiring, C., Voigt, W., Cachola Schmal, P., Herrel, E., (eds. German edition), Ilkosz, J. (ed. Polish edition) Ernst May 1886-1970, pp. 23–31. Muzeum Architektury in Wrocław, Wrocław (2012)
Urbanik, J.: Schlesische Heimstätte. In: Eysymontt, R., Ilkosz, J., Tomaszewicz, A., Urbanik, J. (eds.) Leksykon Architektury Wrocławia, p. 1020. Via Nova, Wrocław (2011)
Lübbert: Eine billige Bauweise. Schlesisches Heim 1(6), 2–4 (1920)
May, E.: Können wir noch bäuerliche Siedlungen treiben? Schlesisches Heim 1(9), 4–7 (1920)
Ausstellungshaus des Schlesischen Heimes auf der Breslauer Messe. Schlesisches Heim 2(5), 114–119 (1921)
May, E.: Der Lehmbau Brandprobe eines Lehmschindeldaches anläßlich der technischen Messe in Breslau am 5.Juni 1921. Schlesisches Heim 2(6), 168–170 (1921)
May, E.: Das Ausstellungshaus der Schlesischen Heimstätte auf der Breslauer Technischen Messe. Schlesisches Heim 3(5), 109–112 (1922)
Schlesisches Heim 4(1) (1923)
May, E.: Notheime. Schlesisches Heim 1(2), 1–10 (1920)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this paper
Cite this paper
Urbanik, J. (2014). Notheime – Ergonomically Designed Crisis Houses of the Building Cooperative “Schlesische Heimstätte”. In: Stephanidis, C., Antona, M. (eds) Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. Design for All and Accessibility Practice. UAHCI 2014. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 8516. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07509-9_29
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07509-9_29
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-07508-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-07509-9
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)