In conjunction with the housing cooperative Freie Scholle Trebbin eG, the Institute for New Industrial Culture organized the conference “Frei Scholle Trebbin – a symposium concerning housing strategies in rural areas” in order to call attention to the buildings by Bruno Taut.

Six of the apartment buildings and the layout of the housing project bear the signature of the architect Bruno Taut, a significant representative of classic modernism.

At the conference the restoration work—completed in 2002—was presented and participants discussed the future of the cooperative Freie Scholle. The goal of the conference was to evaluate the extensive restoration and modernization works and to direct the focus on the idea of housing cooperatives as a true and tried concept of communal living.

Commissioned by the Berlin housing company GEHAG, Bruno Taut conducted the work in 1924. As an architectural consultant to GEHAG he also planned the “Britzer Hufeisensiedlung,” in cooperation with Martin Wagner, and the large housing project “Onkel Tom’s Hütte,” in cooperation with Hugo Häring and Otto Salvisberg.

The non-profit housing cooperative Freie Scholle Trebbin eG was commissioned to produce the documentation of the conference. The ministry of urban development, housing and traffic of the German federal state of Brandenburg financed the printing of the publication.

Management: Prof. Raimund Fein and Prof. Markus Otto, Dr. Lars Scharnholz
Period: 2002
Organization: INIK e.V., Lausitz University of Applied Science
Topics: The architect Bruno Taut, buildings in rural areas, the architecture of housing projects and housing cooperatives