that the architecture of all the rows is very regular, but every street is given a specific
character by the planting of a particular sort of tree—also the source of the street
names, such as Unter den Kastanien and Unter den Akazien. In addition to this, the
street areas are differentiated in length, reinforcing their individual character still
more.
In the last Siedlungthat May was responsible for, Westhausen (1929 –1931),
the Zeilenbauprinciple is applied in a completely orthodox fashion: all the rows of
dwellings have exactly the same orientation—the low-rise rows are laid out in a
north-south direction, their facades facing east and west, while the taller blocks of
the gallery flats run east-west (figure 30). The low-rise buildings are built at right an-
gles to the street and access to the dwellings is via a pedestrian path. A row of seven
dwellings is bounded on the one hand by the street and on the other by a strip of
grass that runs parallel to the street and which the path also leads to (figures 31 and
32). On one side of the path, one has access to the row of dwellings and on the other
side to the gardens that belong to the upper flats. In Westhausen, too, some of the
outskirts of the Siedlungare given special treatment, though this is less spectacular
than in Riedhof. A special feature of the northern edge of the estate is the slight stag-
gering in the row, while on the western edge where the high blocks designed by
Kramer (figure 33) are situated, the orientation of the rows is given a quarter-turn.
On the whole the morphology of Westhausen, unlike that of Römerstadt, does
not take advantage of the landscape. There is no visual relation with the valley of the
Nidda, which is in the immediate vicinity of the estate. The head elevations of
Kramer’s blocks that look out on it are almost blind. In the Niddatal there is a large
swath of allotments and footpaths that forms a buffer between the Siedlungand the
2
Constructing the Modern Movement29 Riedhof, Heimatring.