Siedlung Altenhof I and II: Heimatstil versus vernacular architecture

The Invalidenkolonie around the Gussmannplatz still stands. It was designed in the so-called Heimatstil, a German contemporary of arts and crafts with similar goals of reintroducing skill into construction whilst referencing an eclectic mix of historic styles and techniques. The result is a deliberate picturesque effect as clearly visible here, in what is basically a large number of small terraced dwellings under one roof.

The housing for the infirm wraps around a central garden square with two statues, one of a furnace worker (shown here on the left) and a steel caster opposite. By using protruding sections within the block, often with a gable end or high hip end the illusion is created of this housing complex consisting of a number of separate buildings. Here the planking and carded  woodwork is clearly visible.

The block on the opposite side of the garden square is more symmetrical, but still owes its shape and treatment to barns and similar farm buildings. These low sloping dormers are typical of mountainous areas with heavy snowfall.

Altenhof II was started in 1907 and continues the spatial ideas found in Altenhof I that has all but disappeared now. The streetscape dominated by short terraces and semidetached family housing are basically picturesque and show little influence from Unwinesque urban design as advocated by Muthesius. The houses follow Das Englische Haus more closely with variation in outward appearance combined with reoccurring floor plans.

A typical streetscape in the first building phase. The Unwinesque termination of the sightline along the street with a high gable end is from the second building phase of the 1920s.The housing is placed equidistant along the curved street.

The use of roughcast (Grobputz in German) and colourful window shutters with contrasting field in the same light colour as the window frames were adapted from English examples. The covered entrances with a variable outline (squared left, arched right) also draw on those references.

In contrast to the Unwinesque approach, where long lines of sight along streets are avoided the streets of the first phase run more or less parallel along the slope with a slight curve. The street plan is very basic and practical.

The facades and outward appearance is very variable. All tricks are used to veil the limited number of actual housing types by the addition of Gabled dormers (left), bell gables over the entrances. The covered entrance is the same in both with a short wall creating an inner space beyond the arch. Roofline, floor plan windows and shutters are all very similar.

The most striking addition of 1927 is this cubist block of flats with off-white panted rendered walls and protruding stairwells indicating the entrances. The main building has a pitched roof, creating a contrast with the flat-roofed "entrance towers".

The thoroughly modern apartment buildings stands across from these two very large detached villa's. In fact these are semidetached houses disguised as a grander building. Still, the contrasting effect is remarkable.

The last building phase of the late 1930s was built in a time when the Stuttgarter Schule was the only officially supported style of building. As in Gartenstadt Rüppurr these simple vernacular buildings tie in well with the English inspired vernacular architecture of the preceding decades.

The buildings in the third phase have more prominent door frames and shutters with a single field. Also the windows are simple set in the rendered wall without any carvings on the window frame.

Unwinesque treatment of the corners is replicated in the last building phase of the 1930s, with a section of a terrace set back to open up a corner. The terrace further along the street is also set back to create  a separate street space, thus braking the perceived length of the street.