Architecture and Modernity : A Critique

57

There are, however, a number of important new features: the brilliant interplay

of curved and rectangular shapes, both in the layout of the streets and in the relating

architectural elements: rounded ends for the buildings at the height of the bastions

in the western part—the part with the straight streets (figure 27); right-angled ends

for the buildings in the corresponding eastern part; rounded ends, rounded windows,

and quarter-circle transitions to overcome the differences in height in the northern

block of the Hadrianstrasse, the block that lies opposite the exits of the straight

streets; right angles and rectangular windows for the southern block that overlooks

the junctions of the curved streets and the Hadrianstrasse; the taut architectural

design; the irregular street profile (no front gardens on the southern row of houses,

while the northern ones do have them). The undulating course of the Hadrianstrasse,

which is highlighted by the curved shapes of the blocks on the inside of the

curves, makes plain its function as a traffic artery,^74 suggesting an image of dynamic

movement.

All told, Römerstadt is a very successful combination of a number of earlier, or-

ganic design principles with the sensation of simultaneity and movement created by

the dynamism of a new architectural idiom.

Another successful example of the interplay between old and new morpho-

logical principles is Riedhof (1927 and the following years). The principle of Zeilen-

bau, the open row layout, was exploited here for the first time (figure 28). The open

row provided a radical alternative to the closed block of nineteenth-century architec-

ture with its rectangular construction. The closed block differentiates sharply be-

tween front and back, but in the view of the avant-garde architects the disadvantages

of this layout are striking: an unattractive orientation for part of the buildings, poor

lighting and ventilation, and awkward treatment of the corners. The idea was to over-

come the drawbacks of the closed block by opening it up and by having the rows of

56

26

Axonometry of a bastion in

Römerstadt.

(From D. W. Dreysse,

May-Siedlungen, p. 13.)