Look Familiar?

Preservationists in Germany are seeking Historic World Heritage Site-status for six 1920s-era, modern-living housing projects (like the project in Berlin shown above). This story in Der Spiegal points to the “cream of the crop” of European Architects and builders who sought to provide a “utopia in bricks and mortar” – decent, comfortable, functional social housing for ordinary people.

Even today, 80 years later, these complexes continue to provide convenient places for working class people to live comfortably, amidst green lawns and groups of apartment blocks, near transportation and shopping and jobs. Sound familiar?

From the article:
"The settlements are something really special, not just in Germany or even in Europe," says Annemarie Jaeggi, director of Berlin's Bauhaus Archive museum, "The quality of the building is so high and the architecture has spread right across the world -- it was really one of Germany's contributions to the 20th century."