Houses in the Dammerstock district

Walter Gropius – Dammerstock district in Karlsruhe Germany, 1929

The neighborhood, designed by arch. Walter Gropius, is considered an important example of modern architecture. The construction (1929) was preceded in 1927 by a design competition, which was attended by the major German architects of the time.

The residential area was developed as a model social housing project by Walter Gropius, Otto Haesler and many other architects in a period of only seven months in 1929. The city of Karlsruhe had set clear priorities with its housing program and its competition of 1928: Dammerstock was not intended as a playground for the artistic avant-garde, but rather as a test bench for feasible solutions for social housing. Walter Gropius emerged as the winner and, together with Otto Haesler and others in second place, eventually finished 228 of the 750 apartments planned. The construction of housing development stopped due to the global economic crisis, but was continued with conventional buildings in the 1930s. It was not until 1949 that the city resumed building according to Gropius' original plans. The Dammerstock neighborhood, which has since been renovated in line with accepted conservation practice, is still fully inhabited today.