Hardtwald housing development

One hundred years ago, the architectural practice Pfeifer & Großmann was commissioned to produce a development plan for the first housing development in present-day Nordstadt by the non-profit building society Hardtwaldsiedlung, initially a tenant and craftsman’s cooperative established in 1919. The streets, which are interrupted by small squares, are mainly oriented in north–south rows. In line with the concept of a garden city, each building has its own, large kitchen garden. The gardens, which face each other, are connected by footpaths called ‘manure paths’. The Waldring, a series of semi-detached buildings laid out in a semicircle, forms the ‘head’ of the housing development. Today, this is considered its distinctive feature.