Modernity is partly responsible for the imminent climate catastrophe
The so-called modernity - the style of the last century, with its slogan "away from ornament" - rational, cool and inhumane - is partly responsible for the future climate catastrophes in this world. Nature has no place in modernity.
Man and nature are only dummy´s in a selfish theater production of individuals. On a cold, colorless and unfeeling stage on which even a dust grain disturbs.
Man as an easy-to-influence prey, selected and found by megalomaniacal builders, for an architecture of concrete urban deserts, in which it attracts more and more people from rural to megacities for decades, degenerates into his consciously educated mental poverty.
The retreat of people from the countryside and thus away from the closeness to nature is not just due to the jobs offered by the cities. It is also the result of decades of re-education through a pathogenic building philosophy that has consciously influenced us in all situations.
The small-mindedness of the modernists - better brutalists - led to an alienation of humanity to its natural environment. Man is on the way to extinguishing himself. The proponents of modern architectural language do not understand that the earth is a divine work of art, colorful and varied in form and color. It seems that the modernists have managed, with an unbelievable arrogance, to achieve the Olympus of the inaccessibility of nature with man to cold and colorless architecture. The result is on a broad front around the world, as destruction of our earth. Modernity has failed. A rethinking of architecture must take place. Nature must once again become the focus of construction. Man as part of nature has to adapt and protect the foundations of all life.
It can not go on like this anymore. Modern architecture was an attempt, as once the Tower of Babylon, to face God. The tower is broken and modernity has to give way to the creation of "nature" again. If the philosophy of modern architecture continues to be taught at the universities of the world, in many parts of the world cruel arguments about the shortage of water and food can no longer be prevented. If it is not already too late.
20.5.2019 Udo Heimermann
Modern architecture: Responsible to the climate change?
Why do we construct and live as we do today?
Why do we destroy so much nature by living and building?
Why did we have forgotten how to live in harmony with nature?
How can we learn to accept the nature as she is?
How shall we construct and live in the future without destroying the nature no more?
There are many questions and even more answers. I´ll try to illustrate some of the answers by using my experience of life.
Introduction:
Why do we construct and live as we do today?
The history teaches us, that the people in the past lived and built climate-adapted, whether in the steppe, in the mountains or at the polar circle. The humans did build their houses from the regional building resources and adapted themselves to the climate.
Where high crops have formed, exploitation to the underdogs wasn’t profitable no more and one didn’t stick to the rules of climate-adapted building, cities and cultures started to disappear. The basics of this defiance got laid in the ancient, the Babylonian times. The Babylonian architect Hammurabi drafted the first plan city, Babylon, which got built without consideration of the nature and the environment. Later this system of a city got improved and converted by the Romans and Greeks for their imperial conquests and got continued by the town planners of today. The new editions of the imperial ideas are the American cities of today. In there is no space for nature. Nature is and should only be a accessories. The human, as a part of the nature, should adapt to the specification of planners and only is allowed to enter free spaces of the environment. The totalitarian reissue of absolutist urbanism got created by the architect Le Corbusiers during the 20th century. Many architects copied his style and even nowadays some do so. His style is an architecture of destruction and inhumanity. Human and nature shall be slaves of the planner!
Why do we destroy so much of our environment by building and living?
The history teaches us to handle the nature with care. 200 years ago 1 billion people shared the world, nowadays 7,5 billion can do so. A few decades ago we only knew organic waste that got easily decomposed by nature, nowadays there are a few types of waste, which are hard to get decomposed and will exist centuries. Many people don´t expect the advanced development of this problem. Even the responsible like architects and politicians do miss the knowledge of moderate use of resources.
Why did we unlearn how to live in harmony with our environment?
The human is a part of nature and has to be considered as such. The humans were helpless, born with the instinct of eating food. Most of his abilities he had to learn by himself. If one doesn’t do so in the today’s society, he will fall through. The opposite side is the nature, where most of the animals already get born with the needed instincts and pass a long time of learning. Cage-Animals can´t really get back in their wild life again. It is the same with humans. If young people grow up between glass and concrete, without any education about nature, it is justifiable that these won´t know how to live in harmony with nature. The philosophy of the modern architecture is as old as our cultural development within the last 5000 years. The nature only shall be decoration and is underneath the modern style of today. It´s important that, if our planet shall survive, the modern architecture has to be banned into museums and won´t be teached no more.
How can we learn to accept the nature as she is?
The answer is really simple. We have to rediscover the Nature. We have to recognize the beauty of nature. To find the right way, might be versatile and to many townsmen it will be really difficult to do so. To create a new type of architecture it will take a long term of time.
How shall we live and construct in future, without destroying the nature no more?
At first we should unleash from the shackle of the imperial architecture and ban it into a museum. At Second we would have to get a climate data from every settlement on our earth. The data should be used for a development of a new style of architecture, new, climate adapted but also ancient organic architecture. City’s and Valley´s should be filled with greens. A new togetherness of people and nature has to be lived and teached. Existing areas have to be used for new buildings. Streets have to be reduced as much as we can and the public transport has to be improved. Areas that aren´t needed can be greened by everyone. Even gardens in city’s and valley´s have to be encouraged. Flat roofs should be greened. The worldwide rail-network has to be improved. Constructing energy saving should be obligatory. Using of regional and ecologic items should be teached. The constructional standards should be regional. Static standards should be adapted to a mass saving standard. Energy-consuming building materials like ferroconcrete should only be used, where it is needed. Chemically problematic and carcinogenic materials aren´t allowed to be used no more.
The construction biology should be promoted…
By Udo Heimerman
Housing affects every human.
Show me how you live and I tell you who you are.
The urban world created by the human race influences us all. Our living spaces which we let create by the daily surrounded advertisment, influences all our deeds. Here we need a transformation of the urban space and the housing spaces we are working in and living is taking place.
Keeping distance from hard forms, better working towards smoother forms and if possible use natural building materials. As long as we stay in grey and dark stone deserts our way of living and the constant pursuit of repose and satisfaction won’t change. People who are living in an organic environment created with natural building materials are living more sustainable, thus ecoconscious.
The organic building ist the building of the future.
2.8.2017 Udo Heimermann