During the interbellum, after the abolishment of the Austrian empire and the founding of the first republic, Vienna became a stronghold of extreme Social-Democratic politics. This period in the Austrian capital is therefore often referred to as Red Vienna (“das Rote Wien”). One of the results of this political direction was the city’s large scale construction of municipal housing, mostly financed by a special housing tax (“Wohnbausteuer”).
With 1587 housing units, the Sandleitenhof in the Ottakring (16th) district of the city is Vienna’s largest from this period.[1] It was built in five stages between 1924 and 1928. Renovated in 1980, it is still in use and provides an exquisite example of Red Vienna’s municipal housing projects that won acclaim even outside of Austria. (A full slide show with impressions of the Sandleitenhof follows at the end of this post.)
It was deliberately decided to locate this large housing complex on the outskirts of the city, and make it a “city within a city”. For its design, the city council decided to organize a competition between seven architecture companies or consortia. Eventually two consortia were chosen, one to be responsible for the smaller northern section of the complex, and one for the larger southern section.
With its playful design and lots of open spaces with squares, courtyards, terraces, and gardens, the Sandleitenhof distinguishes itself from most other Viennese municipal housing complexes, which tended to have a more straightforward rectangular design with several almost identical apartment buildings, often resembling army barracks. The Sandleitenhof design also included space for 75 shops, a theater with 600 seats, a coffee house, 58 workshops, 71 warehouses, three bathing and laundry facilities, a garbage collection point, a library, and a post office. To complete the infrastructure of this “self-sufficient city”, the adjacent Kongresspark provided an outdoor recreation area for the Sandleitenhof residents.
Source: dasrotewien.at [2]
In 1936 a church was also added to the complex. However, this was actually done at the request of the Christian-Socialist city government that had taken over from the Social-Democrats in 1934, and was therefore somewhat of a provocation to the Sandleitenhof working class residents. Although this church was originally built in a style matching that of the housing complex, it was recently completely renovated and now stands out quite dramatically.
References
- H. Weihsmann. Das Rote Wien – Sozialdemokratische Architektur und Kommunalpolitik 1919-1934. Promedia, 1985.
- SPÖ Wien. Sandleiten. Weblexicon der Wiener Sozialdemokratie.