A commissioned film for Schweizerischer Werkbund (SWB), Die neue Wohnung was produced for the Basel architectural and interior design exhibition, WOBA, to demonstrate innovative aspects of modern architecture and highlight their differences from the event’s highly conservative approach. Despite its ad campaign roots, Richter's touch is not absent; The surviving version, aimed at a "bourgeois" Swiss public, presents decluttered, functional architecture and decor as superior to the traditional and luxurious "ancient" ways of living.

Die neue Wohnung, Version Atelier Richter, was made a year after the SWB version, for screenings in Germany that began in January 1932. This version, of similar length, is a complete re-edit, in which there is no mention of SWB, but there are new intertitles.