The fact that architecture is effective via images, that communicate it, has long been overlooked, later on it has been abused as a blank cheque for meaningless referential games and exhibitionisms. Volker Busse and Andreas Geitner counter such overreactions with an intelligent as well as responsible handling of architectural form. It is an inseparable component of the substance and of the constructive composition. Persistent design development makes the image ever more precise until a seeming self-evidence has been reached: until the questions of use, material, context and symbolism have been resolved into a clear and consistent answer. The controlled abstraction works against any one-sided commitment towards either the past or the future and presents the architecture as utterly contemporaneous, complete also in terms of its functional qualities and the carefully selected and executed materiality. (V. M. Lampugnani)
Diébédo Francis Kéré works to improve living conditions for his compatriots in Gando, Burkina Faso.
Using local means and with numerous participants, he manages to turn the opportunities of globalization into reality. His basic design principles are now also being applied in other parts of the world.
Kéré’s work represents direct bottom up assistance for the continued development of a vibrant society. As a consequence of this initiative and within the framework of such appropriate architecture, a self-reliant, independent generation of people is gradually beginning to develop. Kéré thus proves that architecture can have both a fundamental reason for existence as well as a profound and every day meaning for people.
In times of intense urban restructuring and the search for economical residential building concepts André Kempe and Oliver Thill – Studio Kempe Thill – produce rigourous, single-minded and innovatively poetic, functional and beautiful buildings. With restrained architectural expression they create the antithesis of highly individualised architecture and demonstrate their interest in the questions that face society with every project.
With their comprehensive body of work Inge Vinck, Jan De Vylder and Jo Taillieu have challenged assumed wisdom about architecture in a short period of time. Their architecture challenges the expectations of the observers, the way we see buildings and the reinterpretation of materials. The incomplete nature of their buildings is the result of a process that aims to remain open to improvisation as long as possible.
The Mexican architect Rozana Montiel and her interdisciplinary team seek to artistically reinterpret public space. Exploring the scope for the design of inner city problem areas, with which politics and the professions have hardly concerned themselves, they combine analytical observation and direct, concrete design in consultation with end users.
