Ästhetik Effizienz; Aesthetics Efficiency

H.M. Nelte

Roughly ninety percent of all functional architecture in Germany is built without architects. The inhospitableness of new industrial estates increasingly marks and mars the appearance of our cities and countryside. Nobody would willingly stay longer than his paid hours of work in these 'arid industrial savannahs' where, obviously mistaking 'cheap' for economical has justified anonymity, banality and plain ugliness. Already in his day, automobile king Henry Ford, known for his acute sense of economy, disproved this misjudgement that has had such serious consequences. True to his motto, 'good design pays' he also determined the architectural identity of his enterprise. The Ford factory buildings of the 1920s were highly profitable production facilities, but also examples of superior architectural quality. Functional architecture should again be designed by architects. The results could and would be extremely efficient production plants, well-proportioned interior spaces, fascinating structural frameworks and pleasant workplaces.