ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a history of the Austrian Settlement and Allotment Garden Association as a counter-narrative to some of the grand theses of modern architecture in the early part of the twentieth century. The Austrian settlement movement, emerged after World War I, due to housing and food shortages. Crucial for the architectural process and building procedures in settlements were Gartenstelle and Bodenstelle which administered the allotment of gardens and the expropriation of the owners of large estates. One of Neurath's first tasks as secretary of the Association was to secure allotment gardeners' and settlers' rights to the lands they occupied. In the early 1920s many intellectuals such as Kampffmeyer had high hopes for settlements. In reality however, the settlements did not become a dominant typology during the period of Red Vienna. Adolf Loos, who had propagated adequate plumbing and hygienic sewage systems already at the turn of the century, made an exception when it came to the houses of settlers.
