Form Follows Love by Anna Heringer

“There is a lot of good-looking architecture around, but I think that good-looking architecture is not enough. It must bring meaning to people and add to a healthy planet and to social justice, and that is what I am trying to do with my work.” — Anna Heringer

The above quote also epitomises the essence of what OBEL wants to achieve year on year. Thus, we are proud to have played a part in taking Anna’s message and success further with this publication and its upcoming sequel, titled “Architecture Is a Tool to Improve Lives”.

Anandaloy, which means ‘The Place of Deep Joy’ in the local dialect, is the name of Anna’s building in Rudrapur, and was the deserving winner of the 2020 OBEL Award. In many ways, it was the social design which won Anandaloy the award and, secondly, the building design itself. For Anna, form does indeed follow love! The love of our planet and all its peoples—expressed through architecture.

In Form Follows Love, published by Birkhäuser, Anna Heringer talks to author Dominique Gauzin-Müller about her career as an architect, her studies, her experiences during a workshop by Martin Rauch, her practice in the Global South, and current projects in the Global North. She shares with us the insight that clay is not only an environmentally friendly material, but in the best cases, it can even trigger socially beneficial processes.

“Beauty has nothing to do with money or finance, but everything to do with creativity and love”, says Anna.