n continuation to the previous article Significance Of Materiality In Architecture, this series of interviews seeks to push the conversations surrounding materiality and its influence to shape the vision and and final design of projects, regardless of its scale and scope. Beginning the series with German architect Anna Heringer, who believes that the world is not changing with one big decision but it is changing with every day smaller decisions, we try to understand her design idea and the process in this conversation.

Megha Balooni: The most successful development strategy is to trust in existing, readily available resources and to make the best out of it instead of getting depended on external systems. What has been one of the best project memories which can support this

Anna Heringer: The answer to this might be every project that I have built with mud. It is amazing how one can dig it and use it. People bring in the material by carrying it. The mud itself is for free but you invest in the people that bring the material and that helps build the material. It is fantastic if you have to repair something, one can do it easily by just adding water. You can recycle it a million times without any loss of quality. It is fascinating yet the same regardless of whether one is in Bangladesh or Europe or anywhere in Asia or Germany.

We just built an altar in a very famous Cathedral in Germany where there is a lot of gold and precious material in the background, designed by a well-known Baroque architect. It looked symbolic of what our society has become; we are not lacking in material but we lack in good relationships and the sense to well utilise the same. For our team to build this altar, we thought of bringing in not any fancy kind of sculpture but to bring in the material- the mud which, for us, is more precious than the gold. It is the Earth which gives us food, a space to create our shelter and be our habitat. But gold- you cannot eat it; it has no life! In that sense, Earth becomes much more a precious resource for us. So, we brought in the Earth and then the community started ramming and building their own altar in this absolute sacred space. With the kids coming in as well as the elderly people getting involved to help, brought the same feeling as for one of our projects in a village in Bangladesh. 

We have to take care of the Earth, our planet. We all, equally, long for good relationships and meaning in life implying that we are somewhere the same. Somehow, all that translates through a thoughtful building process, when you build it with the right material and are able to involve a lot of people and eventually, give meaning to the project. 

Megha Balooni: Low-cost construction is one of the strongholds of your organisation. Could you share some challenges with material selection for a project with such a concept?

Anna Heringer: Sourcing the material is never difficult for us- just ask the farmers! They know the soil and are able to guide really well.