17/02/2012

Architecture, Sustainability and Beauty

Second Green Building Club this year was marked by beauty, sustainability and optimism topics. The main question concerned the first-mentioned one - the beauty. Is building beautiful just because it is sustainable, on principle? And how to determine the scale of beauty? Must beautiful building be well-designed or the beauty not be constrained by practical considerations?

The evening was held at the new premises of the HUB Prague and was accompanied by architect Henry Hanson, a lecturer at the Faculty of Architecture CTU in Prague and the director of the Center For The Future.

Guests were the architects: Joseph Barry Martin (W Architecture & Landscape Architecture, LLC), Andrew Hofmeister (Projectile architects ARCHIP) and Martin Čeněk.

A large part of the discussion concerned the question of beauty - a traditional point of controversy. Connection of beauty with sustainability even intensified the debate – what is more important the beauty or the sustainability? Current regulations are on the side of sustainability and therefore the architects have a difficult task to implement beauty. But as it was mentioned in the discussion, architects often do not have space for it or willingness of the client is missing.

Some comments from the discussion:

Perfectly friendly building would be a non-existing building.
The question of beauty is complex, and most often not comprehended and not considered.
Beauty is what the client says.
The architect is actually a choreographer – he must put together everything into a one harmonious unit.
A way to sustainability - not to build family houses and cancel advertising with a happy family in a house in the countryside.
Prague is beautiful in the center, outside the center begins another city.
Sustainable design takes into account the future - but if we forget about the present (present time and immediate usefulness) the result may be dismal.

Next Green Building Club will take place on 14th March at Mosaic House. Evening will be held in Czech language; the main topic will be friendly housing and the question of how to establish it a Czech standard.

Photo: Jaroslav Pašmik