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WOHNEN • LIVING THEORIE • THEORY

T he Asemwald project was one of the large construction projects intended to remedy the housing
shortage in the post-war period. The original concept by architects Otto Jäger (1910–2004) and Wer-
ner Müller in the late 1950s envisaged a single continuous building 650 metres long and 50 metres high,
which would have become one of the largest residential buildings in Europe! The Asemwald project was
promoted by the then Lord Mayor of Stuttgart, Arnulf Klett. During the ten-year planning process, buil-
ding mayor Walter Hoss was able to contribute to the decision to first bend and then divide the building
into two, and eventually to give it its current three-part structure. After some building societies had re-
jected the project, the architects were able to win over the trade union-affiliated Neue Heimat Baden-
Württemberg as the client for the urban planning experiment at the beginning of the 1960s. The focal
points of the Asemwald project were: provision of housing close to the city to alleviate the housing shor-
tage, improvement of housing standards, development of urban communication with a variety of shop-
Fotos: Thomas Ferwagner of as many identical prefabricated concrete elements as possible, low land and development costs com-
ping, recreational and leisure facilities, economical and low-cost housing through the rationalised use
pared to individual houses, an alternative to the alarming increase in urban sprawl, protection of the

and lifts to the front door of the flats.
Atemberaubende Ausblicke – keine Einblicke • Breathtaking views - no insights existing woodland and integration of the natural landscape, three two-storey underground car parks,
Natur und Landschaft so weit das Auge reicht • Nature and landscape as far as the eye can see Designed for condominiums from the start

The planning application submitted in November 1963 included three high-rise buildings, one with 21
and two with 23 storeys, a total of 1,143 flats for around 3,600 residents. After ten years of planning,
the residential town was completed in 1972 after four years of construction, providing 90,906 square
metres of living space, realised on a built-up area of only 10,829 square metres! Magdalena Scholz
writes in her remarkable architecture master’s thesis “The Controversy of the Residential City of Stutt-
gart Asemwald 2017”: “In the end, Jäger and Müller were able to implement their ideas of the city in
the high-rise building while rationalising the architecture. Although this did not happen with their ori-
ginal designs, the architects nevertheless created a residential town that implements the idea of the
village structure in a building complex. Due to their close cooperation with politicians and the devel-
oper, one can speak of a community project.” The Asemwald was designed for condominiums from
the very beginning and was therefore free from social housing planning requirements. Nevertheless,
the planners wanted the costs not to exceed the then applicable cost limit for social housing and offer
more comfort through larger floor plans and better equipment of the flats – without public subsidies,
Intelligent strukturierte Hochhausfassade • Intelligently structured high-rise façade this was to be achieved through a rationalised construction method with identical prefabricated con-
crete parts in large quantities. The idea was a vertical village, as the Asemwald is sometimes called
to this day. The dimensions and the silhouette visible from afar make this residential town a built sym-
bol of 1960s urban planning concepts. Architecturally, the buildings can be assigned to Brutalism. The
extensive planning process was accompanied by an intensive public discussion throughout Germany.
Long articles in the national and local press dealt with the building project – mostly critically with pre-
dominantly ominous prophecies. At first, planners and project participants called the project “Hanni-
bal”. They thought of it as a kind of marketing name, but it also contained a historical allusion: the
large buildings at the gates of Stuttgart were reminiscent of the famous elephants of the Punic com-
mander. When the concept was first published in 1959, the Stuttgarter Zeitung reported under the
headline “Hannibal – a herniated disc of the landscape” and warned that by quartering residents, they
would inevitably suffer from physical constraints. It was expected that the residents would become
mass people in a housing machine, who are even more dangerous to the community, especially in
times of crisis, than exaggerated individualists. Have any of these negative predictions come true? Ab-
solutely none! Of course, Asemwald is also subject to constant change, but to this day it has proven
to be a valued residential community. There are four main reasons for this. First, Asemwald was con-
ceived as a pure condominium complex with above-average, sustainable and economical standards.
In addition to a certain proportion of tenants, it is still predominantly owners who live here today. Se-
cond, this basic attitude has given rise to an identity-forming way of living together – in contrast to
other rental housing complexes with a similar design. This identification has sometimes been passed
on from generation to generation; some families live here in the fourth generation. Third, purchasing
a condominium also means purchasing a share in the entire neighbourhood! Outdoor facilities, un-
derground garages, swimming pool, forest and walkways are common property that must be jointly
cared for. This creates responsibility and awareness beyond one’s own property! Fourth, unlike te-
nants, flat owners pay much more attention to value preservation and good neighbourliness. The ar-
chitectural design was closely oriented to construction and production technology, allowing for rational
building with above-average housing quality: a spacious construction with a clear building floor plan.
Since only the walls separating the flats were designed as load-bearing walls, this resulted in large
ceiling spans of six to seven metres, which allowed the loads to be transferred very economically to
the strip foundations – without elaborate supports on the ground floor or the otherwise usual slab
foundations. Although the large ceiling spans required more material, the additional costs were more

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