Frei Otto, Bodo Rasch: Finding Form

Primeval architecture is an architecture of necessity.Nothing is there to excess, no matter whetherstone, clay, reeds or wood, animal skins orhair are used. It is minimal. It can be very beautifuleven amidst poverty and is good in the ethicalsense.Good architecture seems to be more importantthan beautiful architecture. Beautiful architectureis not necessarily good. Only buildings that are atthe same time ethically good and aestheticallybeautiful are worth preserving.We have too many buildings that have becomeuseless and yet we still need new buildings, frompole to pole, in the cold and in the heat.Man's present areas of settlement are the newecological system in which technology is indispensable,even in hot and cold areas. ...Our age requires buildings that are lighter,more energy-saving, more mobile and moreadaptable, in brief more natural, without disregardingthe need for safety and security.This logically leads to the further developmentof light constructions, to the building of...