Großsiedlung Britz

Bruno Taut – Hufeisensiedlung, Berlin-Britz, Germany, 1925-1931

The Hufeisensiedlung («horseshoe settlement»), officially Großsiedlung Britz, is a large residential complex in Berlin, included in the (Ortsteil) district of Britz.
Considering the building situation linked to the concepts of the past and with a strong demand for popular housing in the 1920s, the architect Bruno Taut, began to disengage from construction as it was traditionally conceived by the bourgeoisie and commit to providing the people with an economic and marked by an optimal heliothermic orientation and modern and rational plans, able to cope positively with the needs of the masses. Taut's exquisitely social-democratic ambition to provide a home for all (and, therefore, also to economically weaker classes) materialized in the planning of numerous residential complexes, the so-called Siedlung, surrounded by greenery.

Other important peculiarities of the Großsiedlung Britz are the interpenetration between the green and the building, merged «in an open vision, in which the vegetation of the small gardens placed in front of the apartments represents a connecting link carefully inserted between the ground and the sudden rise of the buildings ", and the marked color sensitivity of each housing unit, tinged with a certain color scheme and – for this reason – perfectly capable of denouncing its individuality. This can be seen above all in the horseshoe-shaped building, where the smooth and white white plaster of the floors of the houses alternates with the blue of the base and the red of the entrances, the plinth and the corners: but also the outside of the other buildings follow this spatial chromatic game through the use of facades tinted in a specific color and therefore discreet, colorful and energetic.