Karl Marx Hof: a monumental example of social(ist) housing

As the longest single apartment building in the world and as an excellent example of Rotes Wien, the Karl-Marx-Hof in Vienna draws many tourists and professional planners and architects to admire this monumental Gartenhof complex. It isn't a museum for social housing, however, it is a functioning housing complex run by the city of Vienna.

Beyond this imposing facade along the central garden square (that has the size of a small park) one can reach the station behind via the large arched gateways. Together with the tower-like extensions above each gateway these passages are indicated from afar. Also the facade acquires a sculptural quality by this design device.

The rendered facades on the west side have been painted in two complementary earth tones. The darker sienna is used for the lower sections with a lighter ochre above. Also the architect playfully used protruding sections to make the facades more lively and give the building scale. As with all "Gemeindebauten" a dedication commemorates the erection of the complex by the council of Vienna (shown on the right).

 

Looking back from underneath one of the arched gateways across the 12 Februar Platz. This large garden square is used as a public green space. It now has a large parking garage underneath it. Initially the complex was envisaged for the working classes who at that time couldn't afford a car, but instead relied on the bicycle and public transport. Hence also the location next to a train station and the lack of car parking facilities.

Above each of the arched gateways a sculpture by Josef Franz Riedl (Vienna 1884-1965) provides some ornamentation in this otherwise almost modernist building. On the left the second of a series of 4 allegories: Physical culture - Liberation - Education - Child welfare. The fortress-like towers create an image complementary to the intended message that this was a bastion for social(ist) housing.

On the back side the facades have large balconies with central well-lit stairwell in between to give the long building a pleasant rhythm. Also note how the uppermost balcony runs straight from the protruding stairwell block whilst the lower balconies swerve out via an elegant curve.

In other places the balconies are located on the inside along one of the garden courts (Gartenhöfe). So on the outside the building looks far less accessible with contrasting protruding section connected by an elevated walkway. Ornamental gates give access to the inner courtyard gardens. These close after dark, but during the day they are open to visitors.

The green courtyards are basically large park-like green spaces enveloped by the building. This is called a Gartenhof in German. The name literally means "garden court". Although not immediately obvious these complexes belong to a specific strain of the garden city movement intent on creating large-scale housing complexes with lots of open green space by stacking housing in these midrise apartment complexes. Only 18,5% of the site was built over, the rest remained green space for the residents.

The sculptural entrances are all numbered and all look similar. They are placed along the inner facade along the garden court at regular intervals. Each one gives access to a shared stairwell. Within the large central green spaces amenities were provided that needed a separate building. They included a laundry, a bathhouse, a kindergarten (shown here) and a primary school.

The primary school was designed in the same cubist idiom as the whole complex and the other amenity buildings within. The result is an architecturally well-balanced ensemble that still evokes optimism and forward thinking, even today. This school has great affinity with the work of several modernist Dutch architects that designed in brick cubism.

Karl Marx Hof, Vienna: social housing in a large emblematic ensemble

The housing projects of the socialist council of Vienna are located throughout the urban Area. The city of Vienna is a separate (city) state within the country of Austria and is by far the largest city. his has been the case for centuries. The state of Vienna not only compromises of built-up areas but also includes large parks, many allotment complexes, floodplain along the Danube and forests. The planners tasked with creating the large-scale housing projects took most of their inspiration from Garden City Movement principles of multinuclear development along railroads and other lines of public transport. As such all the housing projects of the Rotes Wien encircle the old city and are located in the outer districts that often were (semi-)rural still in the 1920s.

One of the most famous examples of the Gemeindebauten of the Rotes Wien is the Karl-Marx-Hof. It is situated in Heiligenstadt, one of the Orte in the 19th District, along a railway next to the local commuter station. On the other side a tramline runs along the 1.100 metres long housing complex. This makes Karl-Marx-Hof the longest single residential building in the world. No fewer than 4 tram stops are available along its full length.

As the name "Hof" suggest the complex isn't a single monolithic structure but rather a complex of apartment buildings linked into one large structure that wraps around green communal gardens. The German Hof translates as "garden" or "courtyard". The housing complex was built between 1927 and 1930 after designs by Karl Ehn on land that had previously belonged to the crown, first as pasture on the floodplain and later as gardens. These gardens were removed to make way for the complex by the local council dominated by the Austrian Social Democratic Party. As an emblem of communal social housing the housing complex was named for Karl Marx, best known for his 1848 pamphlet The Communist Manifesto which he wrote with Friedrich Engels. The latter also had one of the housing complexes named after him (it is located in Simmering, District 11).

The Karl-Marx-Hof originally held 1.382 apartment of 30-60 m2 within several linked superblocks. Only 18,5 % of the site was built up. The rest of the 156.000 m2 site was planted as gardens and developed for playgrounds and allotments along the train track. Essentially a vertical garden village the complex was designed to house some 5000 people in varying ages. In the design many amenities were included: laundries, public bathhouse, kindergartens, a school, a library, doctors offices, dental practice, midwife office, business offices, coffeehouses, and communal rooms for clubs to meet (and for workers to unite and organize themselves).

The Karl-Marx-Hof stretches along the railway tracks next to the Heiligenstadt Station (S). Along the railway (R) allotment gardens (A) were built for the tenants. At the heart of the complex is a large garden square that once looked out over fields; this space (F) was renamed 12 Februar Platz in 1950. The apartment complex is a super block that wraps around communal gardens (G) making it a Gartenhof. In these communal gardens are located: a bathhouse with pool (1), a primary school (2), a community hall (3) and a kindergarten (4). All other amenities were incorporated into the building complex.

The residents famously protested the Anschluss of Austria with Nazi-Germany. A monument still remembers this act of defiance on February 12 1938. Located near an indsutrial estate and two railway stations the complex suffered severe war damage and was restored in 1950. The building was refurbished between 1989 and 1992, enlarging the accommodation by merging apartments. The Karl-Marx-Hof is now a monument and an important landmark beyond central Vienna. The public gardens are still in use and the apartments are rented at affordable rates by the city of Vienna.

Rotes Wien, social housing provision on a grand scale (1923-1934)

The Great War ended in 1918. With it the Austrian-Hungarian dual monarchy also ceased to exist. This lead to the independent development of many nations in central Europe. Austria became a republic as the monarchy was denounced on November 12 1918. At the following elections in which all citizens of legal age had a right to vote and the Social Democratic Party gained an absolute majority in the capital Vienna. Jakob Reumann was elected the first social democratic mayor. He was succeeded by Karl Seitz in 1923. Until the forced  Anschluss with Nazi-Germany in 1938 Vienna was nicknamed Rotes Wien (Red Vienna).

The collapse of the Austrian Empire created hyperinflation an poverty, triggered a refugee crisis (German-speaking people from Hungary, Galicia, Romania and Moravia fled their homeland) and left the large capital city at the head of a much smaller country. Vienna was also no longer located central in the empire, but right on the edge of the new Republic of German-Austria.

Vienna however was also a city of creative minds and intellectuals. The changed situation also incited optimism and a sense of new possibilities for modernisation. The social democratic politicians and the affiliated unions pushed for a radical agenda of (local) government-lead intervention and provision for all residents and the less well-off in particular. Creating public housing projects became the main concern of the Social Democrats in Vienna. For this they made use of the Imperial Tenant Protection Act (Mieterschutzgesetz) passed in 1917 that froze the rent of flats at the level of 1914. This made new private housing development unprofitable. As a result no new housing was planned, although the demand for affordable flats grew extremely high. The 1919 Housing Requirement Act kick-started extensive public housing planning by the city administration. This was supported by the decision to create the capital Vienna as a separate province in 1921. The prices for land and the cost of labour and materials were low as a result of the complete standstill in construction. House building started in earnest in 1923 with the first complexes of affordable Most housing was completed after 1925 when the strong new Schilling currency replaced the devalued Krone.

All these things contributed to Vienna become a socialist laboratory for social reform and public housing provision. As such this short period in Austrian history has attracted much attention in the past, and is arguably still relevant when viewing the problems with housing provision in the Western World. The social housing, that took the shape of blocks of flats with  few types of standardised flats typically built around a communal garden, was designed and developed by the Viennese city administration. The program was funded by the Viennese Housing Tax (40%), federal funds and a Luxury Tax. No money was borrowed to make house building possible. Using public money meant that rents could be kept very low. For the low-paid rents was set at only 4% of their household income. In contrast in privately rented accommodation over 30% of household income could be spent on rent. Furthermore if tenants become ill or unemployed rent could be waved or payment could be postponed.

In total the local government constructed 400 housing complexes with some 64.000 units (nearly always flats, but some terraces were also realised) and several amenities like a bathhouse, laundry, schools, community rooms, shops, playgrounds, maternity care, doctors surgery, etcetera. With over 10% of the population of Vienna living in these Gemeindebauten (Communal Houses) the true scale of the program becomes evident. The improvements in public health were enormous. So too were advances the in level of schooling and workers productivity. The number of people designated destitute fell dramatically.

The building campaign also become divisive as an expression of the political agenda of the left that contrasted sharply with the conservative mindset of surrounding rural Austria. During the civil war of February 1934, “Red Vienna” came to a sudden, tragic end, as the socialists’ enemies fired on the Karl-Marx-Hof -one of the emblematic projects- and drove the party and its leader’s underground, often into exile. Vienna's communal housing remain both as a symbol and a strategy. In effect these bastion-like mega-blocks stood isolated in a bourgeois city that longed for times gone by and were only occupied by people who supported their construction. They function still however as affordable housing and are managed by the city's authorities. As such they are more than expressions of municipal socialism, but a possible pragmatic example of solving a large-scale housing crisis. The workman's utopia was never realised in Vienna, but the city was reshaped to include people of all incomes in a comfortable and economic way. So let's not focus on the socialist ideals underpinning this housing program but seek inspiration in the knowledge that it is possible to build affordable housing in large quantities without deferring the costs to later generations by massive third-party financing.

These Gartenhof complexes are located around the old city of Vienna as satellites. They combine the ideas of the garden city movement (so enthusiastically embraced by socialists and reformers alike) with the Mietskaserne en Mietshof. The result is the Gartenhof with amenities as seen in Austria, Germany, The Netherlands and even England. All the Gartenhof apartment complexes still exist in Vienna. Most are also aesthetically very pleasing. Tours are organised to some of the better known examples, amongst them the Carl Seitz Hof (or Gartenstadt Floridsdorf).

The remnants of Friedrichshof, Essen

A few blocks of the Friedrichshof estate still stand. These Gartenhof-type buildings are situated along the Kaupenstrasse and Hölderlinstrasse. These buildings are the only remnants of the second building phase of this estate. Of the first building phase, with a formal square on the Mörikenstrasse, nothing remains.

The distinctive architecture of the Friedrichshof in the typical Landhaus Architektur is made all the more clear in the contrast with the later replacement blocks of flats (on the left of the picture). The Gartenhof blocks of the Friedrichshof Estate are more horizontal in design than those of the Alfredshof.

The architecture, again by Schmohl of the Baubüro Krupp, does know vertical accents, mostly in the shape of gable ends and turrets. Here the two gable ends flank  loggias. Special attention has been paid to the gables at the end of each block. These are often shapely with a scalloped edge (shown on the right).

Part of the Hölderlinstrasse still has the original blocks on either side, giving a good impression of the original intentions. There was a green verge planted with trees. Now the streets are dominated by cars, the communal gardens are, however, free from parking.

Hanging bays -or oriels- have been used to great effect to break the boxiness of the blocks and add interest on the otherwise long facades. Note how the decorative brick band runs along the bottom of the oriel. With the refurbishment of the flats new balconies have been added. As these could not be safely fixed to the building they have been constructed as a separate construction.

On the Fredrichshof Estate no gates were built to give access to the communal gardens within the super blocks, instead the buildings form separated sections with extra attention paid to the corners. Here the corners have little turrets.

The entrance on the corner with the stairwell in the turret (left) is a variation on the normal entrance treatment with an awning over a door that gives access to a  stairwell.

The communal gardens are basically small parks with trees, shrubs, grass, and the occasional playground.