wiedler.ch

book (design) story #276

g. lenk-berger, a. kellermüller:
sozialer wohnungs- und siedlungsbau

polygraphischer verlag a-g., zürich, 1944
printer: art. institut orell füssli a-g, zürich
size: 30 x 21 cm
designer: max bill

this book on subsidised housing was published in switzerland during ww2. the five authors, all architects, write about what the consider ecconomical and yet "healthy" buildings.

the cover design with its sans-serif title and picture in black overprinted by a floor plan in red is somewhat similar to this jacket (first edition version).

indeed it was designed by "architect max bill" as the impressum poits out.

although the suggested standardisation reveals a modernist approach, the architecture of the houses doesn't – by the late 1930s a conservative, pseudo-rustic "swiss heimatstil" (swiss vernacular style) had gained ground against the urban flat roofs of the modernists.