“Rationalization Takes Command: Zeilenbau and the Politics of CIAM,” excerpt from Building Culture: Ernst May and the New Frankfurt Initiative, 1926-1931

Chapter seven, of Building Culture, Rationalization Takes Command: Zeilenbau and the Politics of CIAM, addresses the New Frankfurt housing and settlement initiative at the onset of the depression of 1929. The shift into decline, saw some initiatives completed, others stifled, and new ones emerge. Thus the 1929 CIAM Congress held in Frankfurt began with performances of experimental music, poetry and dance, and ended with the consecration of the existence minimum as the new housing standard. Meanwhile, Ernst May pushed forward with a revised housing strategy based on the minimal dwelling, the existence minimum, and the superblock (Zeilenbau). The CIAM Congress is organized and brought to fruition amid internal politics and debates that say much about the particularities of the Frankfurt approach and the evolving of nature of CIAM