The house was built as an element of the model, experimental housing estate accompanying the WuWA exhibition, which is an excellent example of the implementation of modern trends in European urban planning and architecture of the 1920s .

History

The building was erected in 1929. It was designed by Emil Lange, with the interiors designed by Emil Lange, Paul Heim, Eugen Weigt (fitted kitchen furniture), Hilda Krebs (furniture design); the garden was designed by Erich Vergin.

Description

The building was designed as the first in a row of buildings forming the western frontage of Tramwajowa street.

It was designed as a multi-family house. The building contains four apartments with the surface area of 45.5 sq. m. each as well as four larger apartments the living space of which measures 62 sq. m. each. The building also features common utility rooms.

The walls of the basements were made of brick, while the walls of the ground floor and first floor levels featured a steel frame (the so-called “Spiegel” system) with “Schima” aerated concrete boards used as infills. The walls featured a plaster finish. The internal partitions were made of cinder blocks as well as cinder and plaster boards. The staircase features wooden half-landing stairs running around the empty space of the stairwell. The house features a flat brick roof with a layer of cinder, clad with roofing felt. The entrance door is a modern item, much like the window joinery; some of the wooden originals were replaced with PVC windows.

The silhouette of the building comprises two distinct, cuboid sections designed on a rectangular plan, positioned in an offset arrangement. Initially a two-storey structure with a low attic level, the building was designed so that the storeys of the individual sections were not positioned at the same level; instead, one of the sections was half a storey higher than the other. Today, the southern section is a three-storey structure with a tall semi-basement, its attic level converted into a third residential storey. The building features a single staircase. Both sections of the building have separate entrances. The façades are devoid of any architectural divisions, their windows positioned in a regular arrangement.

Limited access to the historic building. Private property - interior tours not available. The housing estate can only be viewed from the outside.

compiled by Bogna Oszczanowska, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Wrocław, 06-10-2014.

Bibliography

• Urbanik J., Wrocławska wystawa Werkbundu WUWA 1929-2009, Wrocław 2009, p. 333.