Weekend House Project, Plan and Elevation

The second meeting of the European Congrès International d’Architecture Moderne (CIAM) in 1929 was devoted to exploring a standardized minimum dwelling for the working class, capitalizing on current research on the industrial rationalization of housing production. CIAM architect Walter Gropius theorized that the world was rapidly moving from an individualist to a more collective society in which most domestic functions would be centralized in community buildings. In the United States, this idea translated into the ideal of providing single-family houses for every family. Schweikher experimented with different models for low-cost housing in the 1930s. This plan for a minimum house reflects Schweikher’s absorption of European ideals, as well as the burgeoning American interest in the small suburban house.