Method of Small Apartment Plan Design, Evolution, and Application in A. Klein’s Projects of the Second Half of the 1920s

This paper carries out a detailed analysis of the method of designing a plan of a small-sized apartment developed by Alexander Klein, a Russian-German-Israeli architect. This design tool was created by him in Germany between 1927 and 1938, drawing on the interdisciplinary research prevalent at the time and on his own experimental results. It allowed architects to independently develop an optimal solution for “minimum housing” or evaluate an existing project. The fundamental principles of this method were explained by the architect in a series of articles published during the latter half of the 1920s and early 1930s, earning him recognition within the architectural community. A thorough examination of Klein’s “invention” makes it possible to appreciate the uniqueness of his concept, while also comprehending its relation to the ideas of his contemporaries, colleagues, and theorists in the field of small-sized architecture. The article primarily relies on an in-depth analysis of Klein’s theoretical works and those of his colleagues. This analysis explores the evolution of the methodology, its reception, and its implementation in the context of Germany’s economic decline in the late 1920s. Additionally, the study explores the interplay between the architect’s earlier ideas from the mid-1920s and his later work in the early 1950s. This research incorporates hitherto unpublished archival materials and foreign-language sources into scholarly discourse and contributes to a deeper comprehension of German architects’ strategies in addressing the challenge of “minimum housing” in the last half of the 1920s.