Reform-orientated housing

This is a collective term for various initiatives which, from the mid-19th century onwards, called for an overhaul of housing construction in terms of design and concept. Germany’s reform housing construction had its roots, among other things, in the garden city movement that spread from England to mainland Europe around 1910. It is thus closely linked to the founding of housing associations and the ideal of "light, air and sun" that was pursued in Berlin. Unlike the advocates of New Building, however, the proponents of reform housing stuck to traditional building methods and materials instead of relying on concrete, glass, extensive standardisation and mass production. From today's perspective, it is instructive to see how the construction of reform housing estates was cleverly linked to pre-defined quality standards and the new house interest tax.

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