ideas to innovate‌designers to deliver
VOL 25 (6) FEB 2012 ` 200
18 IA&B - FEB 2012 Anna Heringer is an Austrian architect and a recipient of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture. Anna has worked and continues to work with communities in third-world economies to create meaningful architecture from a thorough understanding of the local culture, climate and capacities. Her engaging designs make use of and innovate on local materials and techniques. Her extensive work in Bangladesh and subsequent teaching in Austria and USA have brought her much acclaim. She and her studio, BASEhabitat, work with governments and NGOs in many countries developing architecture fundamental to the region in question. She presently teaches in Harvard University.
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Architecture in Public Interest
Anna Heringer talks about her ideas of practice at the grassroots of innovation in third-world economies and tells IA&B about her ideas on beauty and sustainability. Image: courtesy The Curry Stone Design Prize
IA&B: “For me, sustainability is a synonym for beauty,” does this statement summarise your practice? Tell us about your passion for working at the grassroots. AH: Beauty for me is beyond form and shapes. When a building is in harmony within it’s socio-cultural context, the place, the environment, appropriate regarding usage, climate and material use, when the building process doesn’t exploit people but supports small local economies and enhances skills it is sustainable, has a lasting value. And to me that harmony in that greater context is beauty. IA&B: How do you find working in developing countries like Bangladesh and South Africa? What drew you to work in such contexts? AH: I think the greatest happiness is to do something that is truly needed and meaningful. Working in Bangladesh is greatly joyful. There is so much potential all around with all this fascinating craftsmanship. What drew my work in this context was my passion for development work. I had the great luck to be volunteer with a Bangladeshi NGO Dipshikha when I was 19 years old and I learnt incredibly much from them – I wanted to give something back. The lesson that I learnt from my Bangladeshi friends is that the most sustainable development strategy is to make the best out of existing, locally available and one’s own resources. That is what I tried to translate into architecture. I personally find it much more interesting to be forced to concentrate on very limited material resources and to form the architecture out of the material’s language rather than having a wide choice of unlimited resources. It makes it so much more authentic. IA&B: You have worked with technologies that are fundamental and contextual. Do you find people responding pragmatically to your efforts or do they resist the innovation? AH: Innovation always takes time, but in the end what counts is what makes sense. We have a great learning environment at the site, everyone is learning from each other. We have a lot of mutual trust and that is the basis for a profound learning process.
IA&B: You have been educated in the most formal architecture schools. How did you diversify in thought and in practice to create this incredible niche? AH: At the University of Arts in Linz, we were trained to be useful architects not star architects. But I also didn’t learn about architecture only in school, my time learning from Dipshikha and the people in Bangladesh was as important for me as the formal studies. It taught me about life and that’s what architecture is about. IA&B: When working in a country like Bangladesh, how do you manage to interact with and influence local crafts? AH: The users are part of the building process, that is very important for me. Therefore they understand the concept and are part of it. And I’m not afraid of the creative input of others, it is welcome! The local crafts are a great source of inspiration. I always walk through the villages collecting ideas. For example the verandah of the DESI building is inspired by the local basket weaver. It is just a bigger scale. To me it is very important to bring in a lot of craftsmanship in the buildings. I think you could compare it with giving tenderness to a building. Craftsmanship needs time and passion, yes also love to a material, a product and that is, what makes it precious. IA&B: Your projects are highly acclaimed and appreciated. What lies ahead? AH: Coming March we will build a temporary extension of the Harvard’s Graduate School of Design in Boston with students. The project is called ‘Mud Hall – a different shade of green’. We need a reflection on the common thinking and practice of sustainability in the industrialised countries. It can’t be an exclusive thing, that again only a minority of the worlds population can afford. High-tech is not the only solution and we need to find some global approach for sustainable development that is meaningful and appropriate for the global South and North. And hopefully in future there will be also more projects on the Sub-Indian continent – I love it here!