Alexander Klein was an architect from the beginning of the 20^th century. He is originally born in Odessa (now Russia) but he was mostly active in Germany, Palestina and America. He is most known for his work around the existenzminimum.

The existenzminimum was a new idea on how to live during the interbellum. After the first world war there was much destroyed and a lot of people needed a new home. The architects of that time thought that small costly-efficient buildings were the answer. And this was executed in terms of minimally-acceptable floorspace, density, fresh air, access to green space, access to transit, and other such resident issues.

Klein’s design in Bad Durrenberg is a very good example of the existenzminimum. It is a neighbourhood with a lot of big apartment buildings in rows parallel to each other. In one apartmentbuilding there are a few common stairs and on each floor one staircase provides access to two apartments. One apartment exists of a living area with a dining area, a kitchen, a bathroom and 2 or 3 bedrooms. Every apartment has also its own terrace. All rooms are as small as possible but in a way it is still bearable to live. The separation between the kitchen and the dining area is however not a wall but a big cupboard from floor to ceiling and from wall to wall. In the cupboard there is a hatch that you can open so it is possible to communicate between the different rooms. The kitchen and bathroom are minimalistic but with clean materials so it forms a healthy environment to cook and a hygienic place to wash yourselves. All these things about small spaces, hygienic rooms, access to fresh air through a terrace and good accessible apartment buildings that form a neighbourhood show it is characteristic example of the existence minimum.

References:
-https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Klein
-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Objectivity_(architecture)
-Alexander Klein and the Existenzminimum: A ‘Scientific’ Approach to Design Techniques, Bevilacqua, Marco