kitchen-garden-city
The history of the Garden City is manifold, from an utopia, to the concrete the ideas and implementations transformed strongly. In Zurich garden cities at the outskirts, were planned with the idea of providing affordable housing with a garden for workers who relied on self-sufficiency as the Siedlung Au or the Steiner Extensions of Zurich Nord.
With the arrival of the mobile grocery store of the cooperatives migros and coop, making procurement easier and more diverse, the gardens started to lose their nutritional meaning making space for green easily maintainable lawns. With time and growth of the settlements the trucks turned into supermarkets.
As Letchworth demonstrated, the basis of the Garden City was not only a simple typological pattern of row houses and delightful gardens, but rather a holistic rethinking including a health food store and kitchenless cooperative housing experiments as Homesgarth. (1) Similar ideas were readopted in the cooperative movement of Zurich. (2)(3)
(1) - Hagen-Hodgson, Petra. «Die gesunde Stadt: Letchworth Garden City, 1903» in: Werk Bau+Wohnen 1992. zhaw.ch
(2) - Haupt, Isabel. NIKE-Bulletin 29, 2014, p.17. e-periodica
(3) - Andreas Hofer, Hochparterre 11, 1998 p.20. e-periodica
images
1 - Garden City, Diagram 2, Ebenezer Howard: To-morrow: A peaceful Path to Real Reform, 1898, S.12 https://portal.digitale-diathek.net/detail/1342787
2 - »Selbst-Versorger» Schema für Kleinstsiedlungen - Je mehr Kinder, desto mehr Land, Leberecht Migge, https://www.espazium.ch/de/aktuelles/zerstoert-geglaubte-dokumente-gerettet
3 - E. Howard, 1905, To-Morrow, A peaceful path to real reform, Routledge, London, 2003, S. 199 https://portal.digitale-diathek.net/detail/1331739
4 - Baugeschichtliches Archiv, Katzenbachstrasse 105, Seebach, 1945 https://baz.e-pics.ethz.ch/latelogin.jspx?recordsWithCatalogName=BAZ:198425)
5 - Lebensmittelverein Zürich (LVZ), S25_50 Sozarch_F_5033-Fd-0116.jpg, https://data.stadt-zuerich.ch/dataset/sozialarchiv-lvz
6 - Plan Homegarth Letchworth Gardencity, Clapham Lander, 1906, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Homegarth-plan.JPG
7 - Haupt, Isabel, NIKE-Bulletin 29,2014, http://doi.org/10.5169/seals-726883 p.17
8 - Annette Spiro & Stephan Gantenbein, Zürich, in Hochparterre 11, 1998 p.20
9 - Arazebra, Andrea Helbling, 1998, in Hochparterre 11, 1998 p.20
1 - city and agriculture
Garden City diagram, Ebenezer Howard, 1898
2 - Migges selfsupporter
Leberecht Migges scheme for small settlements
3 - Garden city's temperance and vegetarianism
The Food Reform Restaurant and Simple Life Hote, 1905
4 - kitchengardens in Zurichs garden cities
Katzenbachstrasse 105, Seebach, 1945
5 - croping the garden
mobile grocery store of the LVZ (Zurich Food Association) in a residential neighbourhood
6 - Cooperative Living in Letchworth
Plan Homegarth, Clapham Lander, 1906
7 - communal dining room in the «Amerikaner Haus» in Zurich
Floor plan, building application plan, 1915
8 - kitchenless living
Karthago at Zentralstrasse 150, 1997
9 - communal kitchen at ground floor
Karthago at Zentralstrasse 150, 1997