The aesthetics of sustainability (part 2)

"Permanence is a function of design. Design as beauty is essential to permanence. Committees are rarely formed to save eyesores. Design as function can assist in the goal of permanence by making maintenance easier. Design as beauty is the easiest to explain because everyone can think of an example. Builders for centuries have known this trick. Design it to be beautiful and the powerful will insure access to premium materials and labor. Build with good design, premium materials, and skilled labor, and the result is the Acropolis in Athens, the Vatican, or the Eiffel Tower. Apply this principle to a city and you get Paris, Prague, or Copenhagen. The only reason to restate such an obvious notion is that one cure for industrial waste must be permanent structures. No law has been found that says a powerplant, or sewage treatment plant, or waste recovery center must be ugly. Humanity must arrive at the conclusion that this is the only planet for light-years in any direction that will support human life. Structures necessary for human survival will be with us for a very long time and we are going to have to look at them. They may as well be beautiful."

Elegant Technology pp. 121-122 (first written 1986)

Gropius' steel-and-glass factory joins World Heritage list

DW   28.06.2011

For 100 years the Fagus Factory has been the production site for model feet. Now the United Nations has recognized the massive factory in central Germany as a landmark architectural masterpiece.

A glass-and-steel shoe last factory designed by Bauhaus architect Walter Gropius has become the latest spot in Germany to gain the title of UNESCO World Heritage site. 

The United Nations' cultural organization announced Saturday in Paris that the Fagus Factory, located in the central German town of Alfeld, would join the list of World Heritage sites - which includes such structures as the Pyramids of Giza and the Statue of Liberty.

The factory, constructed from 1911 to 1925, is a "landmark in the development of modern architecture and industrial design," UNESCO said in a statement.

The statement said the complex, which still produces model feet for shoemakers, "foreshadowed the work of the Bauhaus school and is a landmark in the development of architecture in Europe and North America." more