Unesco Heritage Site in the Weissenhof site
A manifesto of modernism: In 1927, the Weissenhofsiedlung was built at breakneck speed on a hill outside the city of Stuttgart. It took barely four months to build the 33 cubic flat-roofed houses that formed the core of the Werkbund exhibition "The Dwelling". Their aim: to find contemporary answers to the question "How to live? Le Corbusier's two houses in the Weissenhofsiedlung are UNESCO World Heritage Sites along with other buildings by the world-famous architect.
For this, the exhibition director Ludwig Mies van der Rohe gathered the 17 "most characteristic representatives of the modern movement" from five countries in Stuttgart. Among them were:
- strict functionalists such as the Dutchman Mart Stam or the Dessau Bauhaus director Walter Gropius
- experienced settlement architects such as the Rotterdam city architect J.J.P. Oud
- representatives of organic building such as Hans Scharoun
- Old masters of modern architecture like Peter Behrens
The most attention was paid to Le Corbusier, who built two "living machines". In his semi-detached house, the living room can be converted into several bedrooms by sliding walls and sliding beds, following the example of a train compartment. Since October 2006, the Weissenhof Museum has been located here in the Le Corbusier House: a municipal museum run by the Friends of the Weissenhofsiedlung e.V. association.
In one half of the house there is an exhibition on the history of the entire settlement, and in the other half of the house you can see Le Corbusier's house as it was in 1927.
