excursion to the Sonnenhof of Erwin Gutkind
modern Siedlungen in Berlin-Lichtenberg on Monday, July, 18th, 2011, 9:30 am.
The tour costs 12 euros, reduced it's 6 euros.
The group for the visit of the Sonnenhof from inside is already full. But you can join in the tour after the visit of the entire Sonnenhof around 10:15 at the entrance of the Kindergarden on Archenholdstr. 72 for 9 euros / 4 euros.
meeting point
half past nine at the S-and U-Bahnhof Lichtenberg
You can reach the station with the Ringbahn (S41 and S42) and the U5 from Alexanerplatz, plus several buses.
From there it's a 15 minutes away to the Sonnenhof.
We'll have the chance to see the whole area, including the wide yard with the kindergarden and several of Gutkinds strong staircases and well proportioned flats.
After we will have a walk to several of the nearby public housing projects from the 20ties: Archibaldweg 28-40 from Bruno Ahrends (1925-30), Frieda-/Irenen-/Metastraße by Adolf Rading (1930-33), Metastraße 2-30, by Rudolf Henning (1931), Lincoln-/Bietzke-/Eggersdorferstraße by Paul Mebes and Paul Emmerich (1926/27)
The tour will end in a place with drinks and food and discussions nearby.
Erwin Gutkind
Erwin Anton Gutkind was born in 1886 in Berlin. He studied architecture, city planning, history, history of art, and sociology at the Technische Hochschule Charlottenburg and the university of Berlin.
In the time of WW I he planed the reconstruction in the so called commission of ceasefire and than worked in the Socialization Commission to restructure the public housing. He worked for ten years as an architect and urban planer.
In 1923 to 1924 he designed the famous siedlung "Neu-Jerusalem" in Heerstraße in Berlin-Staaken. Right after for three years he planed the public housing "Am Eschengraben" in Pankow. From 1925 to 1927 the Sonnenhof was planned and built and after the "Grünlandsiedlung" in 1927 and the Pfahlerblock in 1929, both in Reinickendorf. In 1932 he was responsable for the inscenation "Sun, light, and air for all of us" as an exhibition on the Berlin Fair.
Being jewish, he had to emigrate in April 1933 losing all his personal belongings, first to Paris, than to London and Wales.
He never worked as architect again. He was director of the research project "Demographic Survey of the 1940 Council". After the war he was writing, often published in "Urbanistica" and "Architectural Design".
He went to the US in 1956 to teach there. He died in 1968 in Philadelphia.
His housing projects are probably the most urban ones of the Weimar times, one of the very few non-ribbon development, no garden city but a strong huge inner yard with private and common areas.
A good image of the Sonnenhof before the adding of a further level.
Postcards from the time of the erection of the
Ulmenhof von J. Goettel.
further information
>>> here
and
>>> here.
More on the
other tours.
The Tour is a cooperation of Büro Schwimmer and
architectureinberlin
