When ‘summer architects’ build housing

Two approaches to housing construction, 1921/2021: What is it like to live in Josef Frank's Siedlung Hoffingergasse, a role model for the settlers' movement, and what is it like to live in the new neighbouring housing estate by PGOOD Architekten, who also renovated Frank's Werkbundsiedlung?

The Arbeiterzeitung newspaper called Frank “a summer architect” in a contemporaneous report on the Siedlung Hoffingergasse. As, above all, he emphisised the house’s relationship to the garden. This quality can still be appreciated today in the houses despite extensive alterations. Since 2021 it has been adjoined to the northwest by a housing complex designed by PGOOD Architekten. This very densely conceived site on a major traffic axis — considered unacceptable for residential use — was planned by PGOOD with a central residential street, a semi-private communal zone and a distinctly Southern atmosphere.

With:
Azita Goodarzi/PGOOD Architekten; Solveig Bachlehner, resident of the Hoffingergasse estate and grand-daughter of one of the original settlers; Kurt Schaffer, Karl Sedlak, Genossenschaft Altmannsdorf Hetzendorf, Sebastian Schmid/Studio Hoffelner Schmid, Siedlungshaus extension

Moderated by Maria Welzig, Az W