In Architecture is a Tool to Improve Lives, published recently by Birkhäuser, Anna Heringer impressively demonstrates what architecture can achieve for people, places and life itself. The atmospheric photographs by Iwan Baan speak for themselves.
Sandra Hofmeister
Anna Heringer, Dominique Gauzin-Müller, Iwan Baan, Architecture is a Tool to Improve Lives, Englisch, Französisch, Deutsch, Birkhäuser, Birkhäuser, Berlin 2026 → order now
Architecture for people
In 2020, Anna Heringer won the Obel Award for the Anandaloy building in Rudrapur, Bangladesh. With her new large-format book, the architect aims to convey what she learnt from the project and the philosophy behind it. The volume therefore offers insights into the context of Anna Heringer’s work, though not in the manner of a traditional architectural monograph. This is because the context is highly diverse, given the transdisciplinary nature and complexity of the processes and projects undertaken by Studio Anna Heringer and its many partner organisations. It is therefore about how “social design aspects such as empowerment, grounding, identification and community are interwoven with building technology, aesthetics and architectural form”, as Jasper Eis Eriksen of the Obel Award Foundation notes in the foreword. The Dutch photographer Iwan Baan has captured all these invisible layers with his camera. His photographs capture impressions from Bangladesh and Europe – places where Anna Heringer has worked. Baan’s photos are always at their best when conceived as photo essays – and that is precisely the case in this book. Landscapes and people, atmospheres and architecture blend together to form an emotional portrait of places at the heart of life.
Rudrapur, Bangladesh, photo: Iwan Baan
A sort of diary
The result is an impressive visual diary featuring texts by Anna Heringer herself and Dominique Gauzin-Müller. The Meti School in Rudrapur is depicted here in close-ups and lively photographs capturing everyday life at the school. Elsewhere, we see rice fields and atmospheric lighting, or the ornamental bamboo weaving on the veranda of the Anandaloy building. The latest extension to the Dipshika site in Rudrapur is used as a centre for people with disabilities. The first floor houses the Dipdii Textiles production studio. Textiles and plans, drawings and photographs coalesce in this book into a single entity that chronicles life.
St. Michael Campus in Traunstein, photo: Iwan Baan
Return to Europe
“Nature provides us with so many resources for free. All we need is the sensitivity to perceive them and the creativity to use them”, says Anna Heringer. The bridge she has built between Europe and Asia, Rudrapur and Upper Bavaria, is remarkable. The architect explores her experiences in a separate essay in this book. The buildings and projects in Germany are also featured. The St. Michael Campus in Traunstein is Anna Heringer's project, the rammed earth structures is the largest in Germany. Like the projects in Bangladesh, the façades of the central campus building are constructed from 100% raw earth. It is the first self-supporting rammed earth building in Germany. “A good way to give buildings a soul is to physically infuse them with energy through skilled craftsmanship and maintenance,” says Anna Heringer. Good architecture needs people and a sense of purpose – no matter where it is.
Anna Heringer, Dominique Gauzin-Müller, Iwan Baan
Architecture is a Tool to Improve Lives
English, French, German,
192 pages, 200 illustrations
Hardcover
Birkhäuser, Berlin 2026
ISBN 978-3-0356-2864-7
Anandaloy, photo: Iwan Baan
Photo: Iwan Baan
