A Book About Life

This book nourishes. I often nodded in agreement while reading it. I was moved, felt sympathy and, yes, even admiration. Supported by her friend, author Dominique Gauzin-Müller, Anna Heringer tells her life story in Form Follows Love: Building by Intuition – from Bangladesh to Europe and beyond — from the scout camps of her youth to her year of civil service in Bangladesh, which was to shape her world view, and her time at university through to motherhood. The architect from Bavaria spares nothing, no self-doubt, no mental crisis, not even the feeling of not being taken seriously or the painful experience of being called a bad mother by some. This openness requires courage. And it shows strength: Anna Heringer appears to be a tenacious fighter for her ideals, someone who prefers to tackle things rather than waste time complaining. “I never felt small or powerless,” she says of herself. “All my life, I've been and remain firmly convinced that I can change the world.”

Anna Heringer not only shows her buildings and textiles in her book, she conveys, above all, her attitude to life and convictions. At its core, Form Follows Love is a critique of capitalism and consumerism and a call to learn from the Global South. For example, instead of focusing on durability, we should focus on renewability: in 2008, Anna Heringer received the news that the bamboo construction of her METI school was infested with beetles and could not be saved. With the worst fears, she flew to Bangladesh, only to find that the incident was not a big deal for the workers. They replaced the damaged roof and were happy about the unexpected opportunity to earn money for their families. 

“Before this experience, I thought durability was the most important thing,” recalls Heringer. “Since then, I believe it is to design in a way that no waste is left behind, only knowledge and skills.” Accepting vulnerability like the people of Bangladesh, she writes, would help us to build in a more environmentally friendly way: “A core problem of sustainability is overcoming our fear of decay and death. Because out of this fear, we pump our structures full of much more cement than needed, and also more steel, more stabilizer, more glue and chemicals than ever necessary. It would be reasonable and important to design decomposable buildings, and to have a ‘plan of decay’ for every structure.”

In addition to the fear of transience, Anna Heringer believes that our unwillingness to make personal sacrifices and our fear of responsibility also prevent us from building sustainably. Another problem is the perfectionism anchored in our culture: “Building in tropical climates was a good lesson for me. Nothing stays perfect there for long, and that's also kind of liberating. [...] If the concept really makes sense, and if the architecture is good, then we can tolerate a few imperfections in the details.”

In terms of economic policy, Heringer's most important demand is for cost transparency for building materials. “It's just not acceptable that a wall in CO₂-neutral earth, built by craftspeople from local regions, costs more than a wall of reinforced concrete,” she writes. “We need to heavily tax materials and processes relyin on non-renewable resources that produce CO₂, while human energy — the labor power we put into buildings — should receive tax breaks and subsidies instead. Our most creative and important energy source, the human being, must become affordable again.”

With Dipdii Textiles, the architect is reversing wasteful and exploitative economic practices. Fashionable clothing is usually produced cheaply and under appalling conditions for the fast-fashion industry in Bangladesh, for example, only to be disposed of in countries such as Ghana after being barely worn. At Dipdii Textiles, on the other hand, the workers make blankets and garments from used fabrics, which are popular and long-lasting in Europe due to their artistic craftsmanship.

Not only does the book show wonderful architecture, it changes the way we look at the countries of the Global South and reverses the arrogant and essentially colonialist idea that we have to help the people there with our knowledge and our supposedly superior technology. They become our teachers; if we want to live a sustainable and happier life, we have to learn from them. Heringer internalized the most important lesson early on, namely to “see the beauty in the ordinary things, and use the unique talents each person has to make the best out of what is locally available.” Personally, I was also encouraged to read how many crises and inner struggles she had to endure, and that her tenacity paid off time and time again. Not only have I learned and thought a lot, I also feel more upbeat after reading it.