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Anna Heringer Keep Calm and Prevent We will need to partially rethink our spaces with the purpose of prevention, but not driven by fear. We really need to focus on the tempering of this attitude that, of course, might be enhanced by the epidemic
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IOARCH_Special Issue
What I see right now is that Covid-19 is confronting us with our most essential fears. And what I see more and more in design and architecture, is that regulations and layouts, basically everything, is increasingly based on fear and control. In Germany, for instance, we want control on everything. We design kindergartens and playgrounds based on safety rather than the joy of play, or their beauty, which I think is a reversed understanding of their purpose. We have to change our system and our design, on trust and faith rather than fear. We will need to partially rethink our spaces with the purpose of prevention, but not driven by fear. We need really to focus on the tempering of this attitude that, of course, might be enhanced by the epidemic. Another point is that with this epidemic we are regaining consciousness of the most essential needs, and that of course implies taking care about our environment. Thinking about prevention and health, we have one bigger problem and one bigger patient which is our Earth. We do not have to fix the problem once it is too late, we need to prevent. We need to have a healthy ecosystem. Since the health of this bigger subject is ours too. As well, systems learn continuously. This obsession with perfection, with super-safety, does not really matter, since there is always a breaking point. Instead of more steel, more concrete, and the tendency of always pushing everything to an extreme degree of control, needs to leave some space for ongoing adjustment, since that has always been normal. That is the reason why I prefer to work with materials that can be adjusted, that can be crafted, that have a great duration
Anna Heringer and Eike Roswag, METI school in Rudrapur, Bangladesh, 2006. One of the rammed earth caves in the ground floor classrooms (ph. ©PMK Bauerdick). Anna Heringer e Eike Roswag, la scuola METI a Rudrapur, Bangladesh, 2006. Una delle aule-grotte in terra cruda al piano terra della scuola (foto ©PMK Bauerdick).
