BiUM

The inhabitants of the city K. felt the earth shaking for several years now. And everybody knew that the stronger tremblings would eventually approach the city. The first cracks were, indeed, appearing here and there. That is why the people were very cautious and during day- and nighttime they involuntarily watched what was happening beneath them. The inhabitants of the city K. almost never looked up. And so they didn’t notice that between themselves and the world above very lightly constructed buildings were forming that floated above the existing buildings. As if the city K. was trying to disengage itself from the unreliable earth and had far more confidence in the laws of thin air. 

A building is only worth something when it is capable of letting people dwell in better circumstances than outside. That is why a building needs to protect against the rain and wind. And inside a building the temperature is, of course, somewhat easier to amend than in the open field. Furthermore, the circumstances inside a building are sometimes better than outside, because it is much safer there. And it could be the case that things have to be stored which would be lost outside. But that is about it; several specific reasons left aside. A building actually does not have to do that much. Let’s make buildings that differ only slightly from the open field so that they can be of as much value for people as possible. 

Maybe it would be a good idea to let buildings arise which are not all meant to form some sort of judgment about. This is, in fact, the case with most new buildings. Here, it is a question of features like daring, exceptional, impressive, essential, intelligent, stylish, spectacular and that kind of things.  It is never said of of tree, a wave or a gust of wind that ‘it could have been different’; that more or less would have been better. The time has come for buildings with exactly this sense of self-evidence and non-negotionableness.