Step Into the Rundhaus

Discover Carl Fieger's imagined solution to Germany's 1920s housing shortage

By Google Arts & Culture

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, Carl Fieger, 1924, From the collection of: Bauhaus Dessau Foundation
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Members of the site office of Walter Gropius in Berlin, including Carl Fieger (1929) by unknownBauhaus Dessau Foundation

Carl Fieger was an innovative member of Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius' private firm. 

He sketched visionary architectural designs in his spare time, many of which were never built.

Round house, architect Carl Fieger, 2 variants with ground plan, section and views (1930/1931) by Carl Fieger (design)Bauhaus Dessau Foundation

This neat living space, the Round House, was a proposed response to the acute housing shortage in 1920s Germany.

The unusual house was to be made of standardized building elements, with an optional round (left) or polygonal (right) ground plan. At 70 square metres it offered room for an entire flat.

The plan was to make the house either of shotcrete sprayed on to a metal frame (left) or of 16 self-supporting lightweight panels (right). Fieger called for a new type of house that could be industrially manufactured and built in series.

Fieger said, "We need today to invent the house incorporating all modern technical achievements, and that must be cheap enough to be affordable for the majority of those who need housing.”

Though the building was never realized, you can take a tour around this innovative living solution in a 3D model here.

Discover more in Bauhaus Everywhere

Credits: All media
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