ABSTRACT
The Modern Movement of the 1920s developed a preferred housing scheme that arranged parallel building rows to run from north to south, with bedrooms facing east and living rooms facing west. This strict orientation scheme—known as Zeilenbau (line building)—was more or less unanimously shared among the architects of High Modernism. However, their arguments for Zeilenbau varied widely: improved hygiene; cost reduction in the building industry; accommodating the day rhythm of working families; implementing scientific investigations in the design process; aesthetics; and others. This paper focuses on the discussion about the relationship of social equity and best sun orientation by studying particularly one proponent of this argumentation: Hannes Meyer. Investigating this debate in High Modernist architectural discourse can help us reflect and critique today’s newly occurred debate on strict building orientation with its very different emphasis on energy efficiency.
