(K)ein Idyll – Das Einfamilienhaus

The consequences are visible today: agglomerations are dotted with low-density single-family detached house developments. The costs of building and maintaining infrastructure are taking their toll on local authorities. What is more, many house owners from the “baby boom” era are now old and no longer able to tend their homes and gardens and leave vacant properties when they move away.
The book is divided into separate, clearly structured chapters – from the social, historical background of this type of housing and its triumphant progress in the latter half of the 20th century to the current situation. It also describes strategies for use intended to preserve and refurbish ageing areas, enabling moderate densification and thus revival.

Stefan Hartmann (lic.phil. I) has been working as a journalist for more than thirty years. For more than ten years he has been focusing on real estate and energy-efficient renovation of houses and writes for NZZ am Sonntag, among others. He has recurrently come to deal with the subject of single-family detached houses in the course of his work. Lacking a review of its history and a contemporary discussion of this form of building and housing, he began to perform his own research. This publication is a compilation of the knowledge that he has gathered over the years along with source material and findings from interview transcripts and notes. It thus also provides the basis for further research and work on this topic.