City block
The design of city blocks started with the emergence of cities, in the Middle Ages. Medieval Hanseatic cities already used city blocks. The design can also be found in baroque inner cities, such as the Dutch Quarter in Potsdam. It is typical of absolutist urban development and the tenement districts of major German cities that were built after 1870 during the Wilhelminian era. In response to the housing shortage of the 1920s, housing associations built apartment blocks with large courtyards and small apartments. At the same time, however, city planners were also looking for alternatives to the perimeter block development that was common at the time. What they did was build blocks perpendicular to the road; they would then build footpaths as access. This has the benefit that all apartments get the same amount of sunshine. It has the drawback, that larger arrangements look monontonus.This kind of city planning was widespread during the reconstruction of Germany after the Second World War, in the 1950s and 1960s. Another benefit of this model is that neighborhoods have a better airflow.