It was an international showcase of modern architecture's aspiration to provide cheap, simple, efficient, and good-quality housing.

The remainder of the Estate, and some adjacent streets and buildings, are a part of the Site's buffer zone.

The estate was built for the Deutscher Werkbund exhibition in 1927, and included twenty-one buildings comprising sixty dwellings, designed by seventeen European architects.

What they have in common are their simplified facades, flat roofs used as terraces, window bands, open plan interiors, and the high level of prefabrication which permitted their erection in just five months.

The exhibition opened to the public on 23 July 1927, a year late, and drew large crowds.