For the ‘House Poor’, Theodora Giovanazzi

Abstract: In his seminal article “On Typology”, Rafael Moneo asserts that the emergence of a new type should be considered a tangible signifier of changed architectural and historical circumstances. In response to this statement, the paper argues that the Fugger foundation in Augsburg should be held up as a case in point of typological innovation. Built in 1523 by the Fugger family and often regarded as one of the first examples of social housing in Europe, the Fuggerei was established to accommodate the so-called “Hausarme”, or shamefaced, ‘house’ poor, in two-storey, dual-occupancy row houses within a walled compound. In the context of early capitalist development, the new religious ethos of the Reformation, and the rise of the High Middle Ages bourgeoisie, the Fuggerei’s architectural framework signals a departure from the previously established housing types for the poor to provide a new solution to a new, contingent problem: its deserving, ‘house’ poor inhabitants. Both the modern approach to architectural standardisation and repetition, and the structural promotion of familial privacy will be discussed in this study as progressive devices for the education of its dwellers to the new work-life values of the European Renaissance. By comparing the Fuggerei to other architectural precedents in Europe, while tracing this case study’s typological genealogy, this paper attempts to demonstrate the foundation’s novel architectural approach and its unique attitude towards its tenants.