Jedva bi se i jedan grad u Europi po tradiciji kvalitetne socijalne stanogradnje mogao usporediti s Bečom. U svega petnaestak godina – od kraja Prvog svjetskog rata do građanskog rata u veljači 1934. godine – bečka je socijaldemokracija izgradila nevjerojatan stambeni fond s infrastrukturom koja je trebala poslužiti cjelovitom projektu ostvarenja nove kvalitete života prije svega pripadnika radničke klase. Postojalo je čvrsto uvjerenje da se arhitekturom može promijeniti svijet, kao što je to izraženo u Corbusierovoj paroli: “Arhitektura ili revolucija”. Program socijalne stanogradnje bečka je građanska uprava nastavila nakon Drugog svjetskog rata, no sa znatno manjim programskim i graditeljskim zamahom no u herojsko doba “crvenog Beča”.
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There is hardly a city in Europe to be compared to Vienna when it comes to the tradition of high quality social housing. In not more than 15 years – from the end of the First World War to the civil war in February 1934 – the Social Democrat local government built an unbelievable number of housing estates, complete with infrastructure, which should have contributed, more than anywhere else, to the overall project of establishing a new quality of life for the working class. There was a firm belief that architecture could change the world, as stated in Le Corbusier’s slogan: “Architecture or revolution”. The authorities of Vienna continued the programme of social housing after the Second World War, but, understandably, within a considerably lesser programmatic and construction swing than in the heroic times of Red Vienna.
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