The history of the architectural, urban, and social phenomena of siedlung (en: settlement or housing estate) can not be considered separately from the ideological movements, social changes or technical innovations of the modern era. Welfare state housing policy, alienation and volksgesundheit, prefabrication and standardization, cooperative movement and paternalism etc. are DNA sequences of this ambivalent term.

The siedlung: an architectural vessel for a variety of community living experiments offered once an ideal projection surface for utopian fantasies, reformist attempts and philanthropic ideas. However, the utopian core of the idea, its pedagogical mission, determined the fate of the siedlung. In the research and exhibition project SiedlungsRequiem we reflected critically the phenomenon by means of four structures: a monumental mausoleum dedicated to the progressive objectives of the siedlung and by the art objects entitled altar, machine, and ground.