panAm productions: wienFotografie

Samstag, 10. März 2018

wienFotografie | Janecek-Hof

⇐ wienFotografie | Topos Zwischenbrücken: Survey

Public housing in Red Vienna

"In 1919, the federal parliament passed the Housing Requirement Act (Wohnanforderungsgesetz) to enhance the efficiency of existing housing structures. Low private demand for building land and low building costs proved favourable for the city administration's extensive public housing planning.

From 1925 (the year in which a strong Schilling currency replaced the devalued Krone) to 1934, more than 60,000 new flats were built in so-called Gemeindebau("community construction") buildings. Large blocks were situated around green courts, for instance at the Karl-Marx-Hof (one of the hot spots in the civil war of 1934) and the George-Washington-Hof. The tenants of the new flats were chosen on the basis of a ranking system in which e.g. persons with handicaps got extra points to be chosen earlier. Forty percent of building costs were taken from the proceeds of the Vienna Housing Tax, the rest from the proceeds of the Vienna Luxury Tax and from federal funds. Using public money to cover building costs allowed the rents for these flats to be kept very low: for a worker's household, rent took 4 percent of household income; in private buildings it had been 30 percent. If tenants became ill or unemployed, rent payments could be postponed." (Quelle)

||| Objekt 1: Janecek-Hof ("Kakao-Hof"), Geoloc