„We do not need to see nature as our enemy to be ruled and conquered, but learn again to co-operate with nature. Nature has a 4.5 Milliards long experience. Ours is much shorter.“ (Hans-Peter Dürr, German physicist)
2015 or: Crisis and possibilites for the snowman
Dear colleagues, clients and like-minded people,
again a very exciting year finds its end. It has been an eventful year 2015 with a bunch of good projects, initiatives and co-operations. Thank you very much indeed for this!
BLAUSTUDIO was invited to some exciting events, e.g. at the German Architects day in Hanover, taking place only every 4 years. It focused amongst other topics on the energy transition and the urgent need for affordable housing, also under the circumstances that Germany faces a big number of refugees. The question about the quality of buildings under this special condition was put on the table. And I challenge the question of being able to afford NOT looking at quality in that special condition. The built environment influences our society and the environment on a long term basis. Everything not realised today in terms of quality will accompany us during the next decades.
Also at the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences we engaged ourselves in the topic of humane and sustainable homes for refugees. The designs show sustainable and socially inspiring solutions being on top even economically favourable.
The Meeting on climate change in Paris, since many years for the first time, was a success. All attending countries agreed on the 1,5° goal. For me personally this lets me hope that, apart from all other crisis, the important topic of the climate change and with that the sustainable built environment will have more presence in our society in the future.
However, now at Christmas time we do not have any snow any more, and even the achievement of the 1,5° goal will most likely not change it. What to do?
Why not building the snowman (or snowwoman!) out of spice nuts? An instruction you will find here:
In that sense I wish you reflective Christmas days with a number of snowmen and –woman and a wonderful start into an eventful year 2016!
Heide Schuster
Stuttgart, December 2015
