Description of the project

Karl Marx-Hof is one of the best-known Gemeindebauten (German: municipal tenement complexes) in Vienna, situated in Heiligenstadt, a neighborhood of the 19th district of Vienna, Döbling.
Karl Marx-Hof is built on land that, until the 12th century, had been under the waters of the Danube, deep enough for ships to travel over the area. By 1750, all that remained was a pool of water, which was drained by Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II. Gardens were then built in the area, but these were removed by the Vienna city council, and then controlled by the Socialist Party of Austria, to make room for the erection of Karl Marx-Hof, financed by a special tax named after councilor Hugo Breitner, commissioning locally and internationally renowned architects.
Karl Marx-Hof was built between 1927 and 1930 by city planner Karl Ehn, a follower of Otto Wagner. It held 1,382 apartments (with a size of 30-60 m² each) and was called the Ringstraße des Proletariats, or the Ring Street of the Proletariat. Only 18.5% of the 1,000 meters long, 156,000-m² large area was built up, with the rest of the area developed into play areas and gardens. Designed for a population of about 5,000, the premises include many amenities, including Laundromats, baths, kindergartens, a library, doctor offices, and business offices.
Karl Marx Hof is the symbol of the 398 housing complexes which were built in Vienna between the wars by the social democratic city council (1919-34) and immortalized in a workers' song as the "little red brick to build a new world". There were 64,000 dwellings in total, but mainly in outlying districts and financed by taxes on luxury items such as the employment of servants and cars, and steep graduation of taxes on housing construction.
The tenants, however, paid rents which were well within their means (5-8% of their wages) for the relatively small flats; gas and electricity rates were low and there was no charge for water. The scheme also offered excellent community facilities such as baths, laundries, community rooms, public house... More > shops and libraries, nursery schools and paddling pools; but not least there were many green areas which made living in the "Welfare Palaces" more agreeable.
I am presenting this project because in a way it was the starting point of our project and we have some similarities with this project, especially the courtyards and the passages.
Even if the development is quit old and some can say that it hasn’t functioned very well I believe we can learn many things from this project and we can develop these ideas in better projects.