Anna Heringer

“StudioAnnaHeringer @YouTube”

“Mudworks design-build installation & exhibition”

“Building Simply: Earthen Housing Prototypes in Tanzania by Wayne Switzer, assistant to Guest Professorship Anna Heringer & Martin Rauch, ETH Zürich.”

“Anna Heringer @{{w|Harvard Graduate School of Design}} (gsd.harvard.edu)”

“Anna-Heringer.com”

“[T]he honorary professorship of Anna Heringer and Martin Rauch at the Swiss Federal Technical Institute (ETH) Zurich developed two housing prototypes intended to serve as models of material and process-aware construction. The ethos of the Heringer-Rauch professorship emphasizes earthen construction as a catalyst for resourceful, low-impact, and self-empowering development.”

“Hand-built in four months by the local community and volunteer architects from Germany and Austria, the School in {{w|Rudrapur, Bangladesh}}, makes use of... local materials to create a new model for school construction that is beautiful, simple and humane. The architects Anna Heringer and Eike Roswag will share the Award with the craftsmen and volunteers.., and the Bangladeshi NGO for sustainable rural development, Dipshikha.”

“The question is "Form follows what?" "{{w|Form follows function}}"... is outdated. ...[A]rchitecture ...and society is much more complex, and we have to react to this. ...[W]e have a lot of functional.., good-looking buildings, but we need meaningful.., beautiful buildings... [T]he question is, "What is real beauty?" ...[I]t's a formal expression of love, so.., "Form follows Love!"”

“We are not lacking of materiality. We are lacking of good relationships, but this is something the process of construction and architecture can... provide.”

“You're not just building a building. You also build up a community, and that's the wonderful thing. In the past we came together as a society, built city hall, built the church, built the mosque... [etc.] [T]his kind of pulling on one direction to reach one common aim... is something that fostered... community, and now we delegate the act of building... to experts, and we don't have these community building processes... [T]hat's a huge loss, and we have to enable participation again.”

“We had everyone, from the choir.., the council.., the alter boys and girls.., standing in front of the finished object.., we couldn't let go. We constantly wanted to touch it...”

“Initially the concept was to... [put] in historic elements... from the rich historic times of Worms, but... people started to bring... personal items.., amulets went in, the best wine.., honey of the region, newspaper articles, letters, postcards.., and it became more and more... an object [or reflection] of the community. The children... put in some pink litter...”

“[A] competition for building a new altar... was... delicate because, first, it was the 1,000 year old birthday of the cathedral, and the interior is... by {{w|Balthasar Neumann}} so it was... difficult to put something in front of it. ...We decided... not to bring the ready-made object, but to bring the tools, the materials and the community [together]... to build... this alter... [and] to celebrate the community.”

“Between 2011 and 2013 China has consumed more cement than the United States in the past century. ...This is happening in India and so many countries around the world... [W]e clearly cannot continue like this. We have to look for alternatives such as timber.., earth... [etc.]”

“[T]hese ...three [youth] hostels ...we built with... an intensive bamboo weaving structure. The idea was to have a core that has all the facilities, and attached to this core and staircase there are... [bamboo woven] cocoons, like tents or Chinese lampshades. ...They did a fantastic job in the bamboo weaving.”

“I'm often asked, "Do you want to send people back to the Stone Age?" Of course not, but it's not a matter of how old a material is. It's a matter of our creative ability to use it today.”

“I was invited in China for the Bamboo Biennale... [T]he idea was to show and prove that you can build with old materials... in a modern way.”

“The garment sector... in Bangladesh because... drags... the labor force from the villages into... fabrication hubs... The women have to leave their families... and live in these... textile hubs where their life is... depending on external factors, where they lose a lot of independence and... life quality. So I wanted to bring in some work opportunities for the women to be able to stay with their families and... keep the village alive.”

“The last building I did in... Rudrapur... is a center for people with disabilities, and a workshop for fair clothes production... I wanted to show it's good that we have a diversity.., people that break out of the mode, and that is something beautiful.., something to celebrate. So this building is... celebrating this diversity and breaking out of the mold...”

“I want to be able in the end.., when I'm... summing up all my budgets at the end of my life.., to be able to tell myself that it ended up with those who really needed it, and not just making the rich industries even more rich.”