Anna Heringer's book “Form Follows Love” is a confession. What is it all about and why does form follow Love? A portrait of an architect who fights for justice and beauty with clay, a lot of time, love and enthusiasm.
Text: Isabella Marboe
Her posture is upright, her somewhat unruly hair is cut super short and her blue eyes are alert: Anna Heringer is not your typical architect. She is not pale, but tanned, does not wear black and radiates a positive, world-embracing energy that is simply infectious. She begins her talk at Interventa Hallstatt, a four-day symposium on rural spaces between tradition and innovation, with a cheerful “Servus, Hallstatt!”. Long before this place became a World Heritage Site and the setting for a Korean soap opera, she measured an old house there in the first semester of her studies and developed a project for it. She added new apartments to the renovated building. A very sustainable, respectful approach. However, her supervisors gave her clear doubts as to whether she was suitable for architecture. Nevertheless, she presented her design. It was well received. “That was a great relief for me. It confirmed to me that I was on the right track.” Since then, she has perfected the ability to stay with herself despite all resistance.
METI-handmade School in Rudrapur ©Benjamin Staehli
Reverse proportions
Heringer wears a multi-colored pied, woven top with colorful threads. It comes from rural regions in the north of Bangladesh. There, women are given a new sari once a year on their highest religious festival, while men are given a new lungi. Once these are worn out, they are made into sheets. The women sew up to six layers together by hand, and over time the top layer peels off, revealing the lower layers. Heringer and master tailor Veronika Lena Lang had the idea of developing the Dipdii Textiles design line from these fabrics, which have so much history behind them. Women from Bangladesh sew them by hand. This secures their income, nourishes their self-confidence and reverses the situation. No underpaid fast fashion under inhumane conditions, instead authentic design that proudly measures its value in a considerable price and sustainably improves the living conditions of many families. This is precisely the aim of Anna Heringer's architecture, which takes an unusual approach. She always wears pieces from this collection, which is exclusively unique.
METI-handmade school ©B.K.S. Inan
From Bavaria to Dhaka
Many members of Anna Heringer's family work in development cooperation. One uncle is in Chile, another in Brazil, and both brought a lot of experience reports and international topics to the kitchen table. After graduating from high school, Heringer wanted to see something different from the tranquil town of Laufen on the Bavarian border where she had grown up. In 1997, she traveled to Rudrapur in Bangladesh for the first time to work in development aid with the small, committed NGO “Dipshika”. At that time, the internet was still in its infancy, there was no email, she received no reply to her letter to Rudrapur, but she flew there anyway. And then someone was actually standing at Dhaka airport to pick her up.
© Studio Anna Heringer
Poverty and beauty
Rudrapur is in the middle of the countryside, the houses were made of mud, there was a pump well, water buffaloes, cows and not a day of continuous electricity. “It was a culture shock and blew all my preconceptions out of the water,” says Heringer. “I imagined an ugly place, I didn't have a nice dress or any jewelry with me. Then I learned that poverty has nothing to do with an absence of beauty.” On the contrary. Beauty requires mindfulness, and there was plenty of that in Rudrapur. Back then, people made almost all the things they needed to live themselves. Heringer was overwhelmed by the beauty of the simple, hand-shaped mud houses and the everyday design that results from good craftsmanship. “It made a deep impression on me. There were the most incredible knives that look more beautiful than the Eames bird,” she says. ”Being able to make almost everything yourself is a huge empowerment. And this ability to make something else out of something that has already been used. And again. And again. And once again. This raises the question of who is now the developer and who is not.” If the power went out, you couldn't even read. “Those evenings were wonderful. We sat down together, massaged each other's heads and feet, chatted and sang an incredible amount.”
Ghana Classroom @Erwin Wagenhofer
It couldn't be more sustainable
After a year, she flew back and began studying architecture at the University of Art in Linz. Then came the clay building workshop with Martin Rauch. The trained ceramist, stove builder and sculptor from Vorarlberg has long been an expert in the use of this archaic building material. Thanks to his decades of practical and research work, this ancient technique is now being taken seriously and recognized again in our part of the world. “When I had my hands in the clay, I knew for sure: this is my material, I won't let go of it,” says Heringer. “Development cooperation, social justice, design and harmony with nature: clay combines everything.” Clay is one of mankind's oldest building materials, available everywhere, it costs nothing, comes from the earth and goes back to the earth again. Clay bricks don't need machines, you can make them with your hands and feet. It couldn't be more sustainable.
METI-handmade School in Rudrapur ©Benjamin Staehli
In the village community
She visited Rudrapur once a year, had long since mastered the language and was something of a family member of the village community. When she was surveying the villages with fellow students from Linz, she learned that a school was needed, and Heringer wanted to build it. And she wanted to use the regional building materials bamboo and clay. “It only worked because the people trusted me. They only allowed it for my sake,” says Heringer. “Since the colonial era, they have been told from the outside that concrete, steel, cement and bricks are worth more than what they have.” She made the school the subject of her dissertation, the design was ready in 2004, she spent a year raising money and drumming up a team, and in December 2005 the group began constructing a building made of bamboo and clay together with structural engineer Eike Roswag. It stands on a foundation of baked clay bricks, has one more storey than the other houses in the village, natural ventilation, colorful awnings, a beautiful canopy on an artfully bundled bamboo construction that protects against wind, rain and heat. Bundles of bamboo columns support the upper floor, and there are holes in the thick mud walls where the children like to lie between two classes. “It was a real unplugged building site,” says Heringer. “We built this school with four Akubohrs, the power of many people and a few water buffaloes.” After six months of construction, the METI handmade school was completed in May 2006. The building was awarded with the Aga Khan Award and is still there. The people of Rudrapur have long
Bamboo Hostels China©Jenny JL
Bamboo and grass
Since then, Anna Heringer has built in many countries - the DESI center in Rudrapur, three youth hostels enclosed by a woven bamboo mesh in Baoxi, China, a kindergarten made of wood, grass and some cement in Zimbabwe, but also projects in Europe: the birth house in the garden of the Women's Museum in Hittisau, Vorarlberg, whose rounded shape covered with red wooden shingles is reminiscent of a pregnant woman's belly. Inside, a cave lined with clay provides a sense of security. Heringer's first building in her native Germany was an altar for Worms Cathedral. She won the competition for it in 2018 together with Martin Rauch. The two responded to the baroque splendor with a simple, modest altar made of clay, which people from the community were asked to stamp themselves. What is lacking in the affluent West is not money and expensive materials. It is spirituality and community. The building process was physically exhausting and emotionally liberating. “Everywhere I build, I experience the same thing: that it makes you happy to have a goal that goes beyond personal pleasure. You have to make an effort, trust your own abilities and share this experience with others.” Anna Heringer is currently working on an educational campus in Ghana for the same client - the Salesians. As a European woman who wants to build with clay, she has to fight against some resistance in a country with a colonial past. Then there are the countless African languages spoken by the workers, but as construction progresses, so does confidence. And the right local partner. Anna Heringer has now found one. “The process is crucial, as soon as you become part of something, things go well.” transsolar's climate engineers calculated exactly where the openings in the building should ideally be, how large they should be and where solar energy is needed. The building is constructed using only manpower. It is not easy to really understand the local building traditions in different countries. “Every project is a special learning experience that helps you mature.” Heringer's office is small, she relies on the right local partners.
© Studio Anna Heringer
Form follows love
“Form follows function”, postulated Mies van der Rohe and his regime in the Villa Tugendhat was so strict that it did not tolerate a picture on the wall. The Tugendhat family who built it had invested half a fortune in the house with its bespoke furniture and advanced heating system, which became an incunabulum of modernism. The view alone was intended to have an effect, framed by a window in the position and proportion that Mies van der Rohe had planned. This is how architecture worked for decades and still does. Mies van der Rohe used onyx that was polished so thinly that the light shines through as if it were amber. “Form follows vision” was Frederick Kiesler's motto; his material was utopia. Anna Heringer's material is clay, which is rooted in the earth and in life; her message is clear. “Form follows love.” This is a small revolution in a tough, male-dominated industry with a penchant for control. It is difficult to assert yourself with this attitude - especially as a woman. “Authenticity helps,” says Anna Heringer, smiling so brightly that you know she will prevail.
This article by Isabella Marboe was published by our media partner genau!
Dominique Gauzin-Müller, Anna Heringer, Form Follows Love, Building by Intuition – from Bangladesh to Europe and Beyond, hardcover, 160 pages, 24,1 x 16,5 cm, Birkhäuser, Basel 2024, ISBN 9783035628548
