Archi­tec­tural state­ments. Ever­y­thing is a copy – some­times in the wrong place

While walking in the foot­hills of the Alps, a Swedish house appears in the distance behind a bend in the road: red and white wooden building, ver­andah, Bul­lerbü flair. Very pretty and homely, but somehow out of place in the local land­scape. “Ever­y­thing is a copy,” said architect Zaha Hadid – but even if inspi­ration from other buil­dings is part of all archi­tecture, she can hardly have meant planning and building without con­side­ration for the respective land­scape, regional tra­di­tions and resources.

In China, there is little hesi­tation to (cheaply) copy every con­ceivable product, whether design classics, sneakers and smart­phones or even entire buil­dings such as the Eiffel Tower, the Golden Gate Bridge, British town houses or even a com­plete Aus­trian village. Fake archi­tecture often seems strange to us, but copies are not uncommon in this country either. For example, Tuscan villas can be found in the Black Forest, aero painting in the Uckermark or half-tim­bered houses without any refe­rence to the local building tra­dition.

In response to this, num­erous initia­tives, foun­da­tions and net­works have sprung up across Europe in recent years with the declared aim of streng­thening regional building culture(s) and creating an awa­reness of their importance through a regional archi­tec­tural policy. In this context, the term “regional building culture” does not only refer to the building of houses per se, but is understood as an extended cul­tural concept and also includes local history and tra­di­tions. There is more to “good” building than “just” using locally available resources: Archi­tecture should also relate to the respective land­scape and take tra­di­tional building methods into account.

In our era, which is cha­rac­te­rised by ever more rapid change and fast evolving mobility, typical regional buil­dings provide a welcome coun­ter­point to advancing glo­ba­li­sation. Almost unli­mited travel and the worldwide movement of goods have led to the imi­tation of archi­tec­tural styles from all over the world in the most inap­pro­priate places, and as a result regional cha­rac­te­ristics are incre­asingly dis­ap­pearing and the archi­tecture is becoming similar and inter­ch­an­geable. This deve­lo­pment is favoured not only by the desires awa­kened when tra­velling, but also in par­ti­cular by the fact that any con­ceivable material can be pro­cured in almost any place in the world. Con­se­quently, even sus­tainably planned houses are ulti­m­ately the opposite of what they aim to be if the natural stones and woods used come from overseas.

In order to pre­serve regional diversity and create cha­rac­te­ristic building cul­tures, buil­dings – or even a design – must adapt to their respective context. It is about a har­mo­nious interplay of tra­dition and modernity and about high­lighting local identity without falling into clichéd formal lan­guage. For­t­u­nately, there are more and more archi­tects who are com­mitted to regio­nally typical, high-quality con­s­truction and who work with local mate­rials such as local wood and stone or sheep’s wool. The typical local con­s­truction method pro­vides the basis for a con­tem­porary reinter­pre­tation – archi­tec­tural prizes with a local con­nection pre­cisely promote this approach. Suc­cessful examples can be found in regions such as Vor­arlberg, South Tyrol or the Black Forest. Another charming approach is the Italian “Albergo Diffuso”, where the accom­mo­dation, reception and restaurant of a hostel are scat­tered throughout the village ­– in small buil­dings that blend natu­rally into the typical regional town­scape.

Tourism in par­ti­cular benefits from the return to the regio­nally typical, because: Who would want to travel to Umbria and find them­selves in a Finnish log cabin with a sauna – or vice versa? In addition to a distinctive land­scape and natural envi­ronment, a mature, typical local archi­tecture conveys the authen­ticity, charm and variety that we (almost) all seek when tra­velling. After all, there are won­derful dwel­lings that har­mo­niously combine typical regional archi­tecture with modern building ele­ments and design classics.

I like the sim­plicity and straight­for­wardness as well as the mate­riality of Scan­di­navian design very much – just as I am fasci­nated by tra­di­tional hand­craft tech­niques from Latin America as well as the colouring of African fabrics. A mix of styles is won­derful – in the interior. But a Swedish house in the Bavarian hin­terland seems a bit out of place to me – an archi­tec­tural statement in the wrong place.

Text: Tina Barankay, January 2022

About the author: Tina Barankay has been com­bining her passion for aes­thetics and design with her pro­fes­sional acti­vities for many years, among others as an editor for the archi­tecture magazine DETAIL. As a free­lance jour­nalist and con­sultant, she publishes articles, pro­duces publi­ca­tions and designs com­mu­ni­cation con­cepts in the fields of archi­tecture, interior design and design.