Onkel Tom’s Hütte.

Over the Christmas break we spent a chilly stay in Berlin and could not resist revisiting some of the city’s rich social housing schemes built during the inter war years.

While visiting the Zehlendorf Forest Estate, or Uncle Tom’s Cabin as it was originally named, I could not help but think of how appropriate in terms of scale/massing, use of communal spaces and tenant mix it is to meeting current housing needs in London and elsewhere.

Designed by Bruno Taut, Otto Rudolf, and Salvisberg the scheme was built between 1926-31. Uncle Tom’s Cabin is comprised over 1,900 dwellings in total, of which roughly 1,100 were apartments and 800 single-family houses. Today over 15,000 people inhabit the project which also included an underground station, cinema, and shopping.

Taking its name from the 19th century Harriet Beecher Stowe anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin reflects an idea of housing for those who have been abused and abandoned by society.

The living spaces of the single-family houses were generously sized for the time and each house was provided with a garden. The scheme was part of Berlin’s impressive slum clearing and urban expansion of the socially minded Weimar Republic. The scheme’s scale and positive impact is evident when walking the site.

Evident also is the role of the Architect as a “shaper” of the urban fabric and “thinker” of ideas to bring people together with clear, effective solutions for communal living.

Berlin met its housing needs 100 years ago through big idea principles that would forever positively change the fabric of the city. Our current UK housing crisis would benefit from learning from the past and looking around the world to understand how it was addressed elsewhere.

For me, Berlin is a good place to start