Four types of workers colonies from the Ruhr Area

After the first industrialisation of continental Europe in the Sillon Industriel in Wallonia, the next wave of industrialisation was more widespread and also involved the Ruhr Area resulting in a rapid development of mining and other industrial activities within the Ruhr Revier. These factories and collieries needed workers, that were brought in from elsewhere, often far afield. Small numbers could be absorbed into existing settlements, but the rapid expansion of mining in the Ruhr Area meant that extra housing provision was needed, so dedicated rented accommodation (Mietskasernen) and colonies were built.

There are roughly speaking four types of workers colonies: the street colony, the grid colony, the open colony and the high density colony. The first type comprises, as the name suggests, of little more than a street with houses built on one or either side. This is the oldest type. The earliest colonies comprised of little more than a row of houses built along an existing street (Hüttenheim) or a new street built near the workplace on whatever plot of land could be acquired. Within this type there is great variation. There could be a single straight street with housing on either side. This housing could comprise of apartments in larger blocks, Mulhouse Quadrangles or linked family dwellings (semidetached cottages). As the size of colonies grew the single street was repeated to form a series of parallel streets. This situation could grow over time, but was also consciously planned. In rare cases the single streets are placed at an angle as one runs off from the other. Examples are plenty in Essen, Oberhausen, Moers, Mülheim, Gelsenkirchen and Bochum. Dorplein and Lommel-Werkplaatsen (Campine) also belong to this type.

The simple colony consists of little more than a street with workers cottages (left) along as street upwind from the colliery. After the 1855 World Exhibition in Paris the Mulhouse Quadrangle quickly spread. This resulted in a row of these building between two paths (right) as a variation on the street colony.

Not that colonies with connected streets are a rarity. Mostly such colonies were planned on a grid layout. This is a very common type in the Ruhr Area and beyond (Campine and Limburg). It allowed for cheaper developments as everything could be standardised and housing could be repeated. The kind of housing could again be variable and depended on the company. This type was popular throughout the latter part of the 19th and the first quarter of the 20th centuries. Examples can be found throughout the Ruhr Area (Essen, Dortmund, Gelsenkirchen, etcetera) and in the Low Countries (Genk-Waterschei, Genk-Zwartberg, Houthalen, Eisden, Overpelt-Fabriek, Olen, Gompel, Heerlen, Heveadorp).

As colonies grew the grid was a well-known solution for organising the settlement. These colonies typically comprise of housing and some amenities (a casino or hall). Often the type of housing is differentiated according to the class of worker. In Germany hostels for single male workers are often included.

Influenced by changing attitudes towards urban planning in Germany based on the movement towards a more artistic kind of planning, the regular grid was gradually abandoned. Shortly after both the Garden City Movement and Modernism (Neues Bauen) advocated an open housing estate. The result could vary tremendously with at one end a village-like Unwinesque housing estate with curving streets and at the other end a geometric composition of long rows of family houses and higher apartment blocks on parallel streets.

This shift also coincides with the move towards social housing provision. This means that companies are now setting up building societies and that colonies morph into company housing estates and become similar to the other social housing.

The Mietskaserne developed into the Gartenhof around the same time. So from 1900 onwards high density housing of airy apartments wrapped around a communal garden with additional amenities spring up in several German cities. Again this type occurs more often as social housing (Vienna) than as company housing, but there are several examples in the in Essen (Luisenhof, Albertshof, Alfredshof).The type is also copied for social housing in for instance Amsterdam and London.