From my earliest years of training, buildings with low energy and environmental impact seemed emptied of any compositional value and devoid of poetry.
The reference buildings, whether small, medium or large, were often designed with no relationship to their context and all seemed alike: compact forms, large south-facing windows, correctly designed eaves.
Topics such as reducing energy use, energy performance and certification, natural materials, wall build-ups and the analysis and solution of thermal bridges seemed to be the only content of design. These practices, objectively essential, were not – and still are not – enough to give the architecture being built a soul of its own.
When designers adopt these values dogmatically and apply them flawlessly but clinically, they remain in the realm of building. Architecture needs much more: space, light, gravity, lightness, empathy and emotion.
All of us, architects or not, are moved by the great masterpieces of history; of a well-built, “soulful” building we remember the wonder of discovering it, looking at it, walking through it and living in it. None of us remembers the build-up of its walls or how virtuous it is in terms of energy saving.
Of course I say this provocatively, without denying my years of training and my first experiences in the field; but above all the world needs beauty and, indeed, soul.
The soul that designers must seek, and that clients must ask for and find in the project they have entrusted to them.
