Anyone who has a new house built for themselves and their family or buys a newly built house is setting an example for the future for decades to come and making a statement: this is how we want to live.
Two major trends can be identified in architecture today: On the one hand, there are traditionally inspired architectural styles, and on the other, concepts of form and structure based on modernism, the International Style, Bauhaus or Neues Bauen.
"The public debate often articulates unease about so-called modern architecture, which is perceived as cold, inhospitable, monotonous, indifferent, loveless and a disruption of local identity," explains Prof. Dr. Michael Heinrich from Coburg University of Applied Sciences. Architectural experts often focus on classical modernism and refer to the social reformist approach. Conservative architectural styles are then sometimes described as kitsch, commercialism or bourgeois idylls.
Both trends turn public space and building culture into a projection surface for political and ideological ideas. This is nothing new. Extreme opposites are currently in vogue.
Prof. Heinrich is a member of the management team of the Institute of Human & Aesthetics at Coburg University of Applied Sciences and deals with the aesthetic-emotional criteria and needs by which people evaluate their surroundings: the built environment should feel good, strengthen well-being and resilience. Heinrich advocates integrating knowledge from various disciplines and taking people's physical, psychological and social needs seriously.
The economic requirements of investors, legal framework conditions, increasing comfort requirements, construction, material and planning techniques as well as the different aesthetic demands of different milieus also play a role. What is needed is contemporary architecture that is far removed from the political and ideological exaggeration of traditionalism or modernism. Last but not least, it is also about finding new ways that take sustainability, diversity and the realization that warmth and local identity are important human needs seriously.
Photo: © Pat Schnidrig, Pixabay
