Artikel in der trans 20

Advocating the relevance of architecture – a field report. Nikolaus Hamburger and Dario Pfammatter write about communicating architectural concepts and ideas outside of architecture.

Extract from the article: “It raises the question as to why it is so difficult to establish architecture as a relevant and thus also correspondingly rewarded quantity. Over the long term, urban and architectural quality attains an external value that is difficult to quantify. For this reason, it can only rarely win against the arguments of short-term returns. It is the responsibility of the architect to advocate architecture and to sell it purposefully. The defence of its own relevance is most likely to succeed by means of a strong, intellectual framework as the basic idea of each building. This must be able to exist for a long time and be constantly communicated. For this we rely on clear images and ideas. In a similar way to writing about architecture, the sale of architecture outside the profession needs to be argued in the language of the respective interlocutor. Being allowed to perform this acrobatic bridge-building from image to material, idea to building, is something we regard as a great privilege.”