#gemeindebauten

Woven into the very fabric of Vienna are 400 buildings known as Gemeindebauten (tr. community buildings), which began construction in the 1920s, during a period subsequently known as Red Vienna.

It was a comprehensive urban project that set itself (the) task of making Vienna a more equitable environment...in which housing, social services and cultural institutions were distributed throughout the city.

The Gemeindebauten...were urban apartment blocks inserted into the existing urban fabric of Vienna. At first glance, the Gemeindebauten appear to be traditional Central European perimeter blocks that have been monumentalized and provided with large garden courtyards so that they often occupy an entire urban block and sometimes several.

..the new buildings both preserve the existing urban structure of the city and superimpose their distinctive superblock scale and organisation on it. The result is a complete interpenetration of public, private, and communal spaces. The effect is to blur the boundary...between inside and outside (and between) socialist housing blocks and bourgeois city. [1]

Such is the scale and ubiquity of the Gemeindebauten that they can be hard to appreciate fully as architectural entities and for their legacy in shaping Viennese society.

Wohnhausanlage Rabenhof is located in the 3rd district of Vienna, just a short walk from the remarkable Wittgenstein Haus, which is another notable example of architecture in Vienna.

Rabengasse forms the backbone of the complex as a diagonal, arched connecting path between Hainburger-Straße and Baumgasse. There is a mighty archway on Rabengasse to Hainburger-Strasse, that is opposite another arch on Baumgasse. These two conspicuous gate structures are the main entrances. There are three more courtyards south-east of Rabengasse. The rear courtyard on Leonhardgasse impresses with tall trees and a winding path flanked by park benches. In the large courtyard, there are three free-standing structures erected at 90 degrees to the rest of the complex, indicating an asymmetrical sequence of open and closed courtyard spaces.

Therefore, the Rabenhof residential complex gives the impression of an open fortress or castle and has a romantic appearance, especially due to the many winding paths and the irregular square formations. The painterly sequence of courtyards, passageways, squares and streets captivates with a wealth of expressionist details in the groups of balconies and loggias or in the patterns of the brick cladding. [2]

[1] https://www.austria.org/revisiting-red-vienna