Architects must finally also become psychologists, communication strategists and brand experts.
ASSELMEYER ARCHITEKT Hamburg: Architecture for brands and companies – “Revolt against modern architecture because it is cold and without identity”.
Hamburg – At a much-noticed lecture in Berlin to employees of ista Express Service GmbH, Dipl.-Ing. Architect Justus Asselmeyer formulates the importance of corporate architecture and pleads for identity architecture that sees people at the center: “The revolt of many users of modern buildings arises primarily because architectural concepts are often implemented in a cold, off-putting manner and entirely without identity. I argue that architects need to become much more psychologists, communication strategists, and brand experts in order to meet all the fundamental human needs of architecture. Architecture for brands and businesses also needs the appropriate understanding of them.”
The presentation at ista Express Service GmbH was no coincidence, as the company has set out to develop sustainably valuable buildings for their employees, customers and owners. “We deal with the core question of how we can better understand the (experience of) life and behavior of people in built environments and positively change it with our architecture,” says architect Asselmeyer, describing his approach and his motivation to focus his architectural solutions on people.
According to Asselmeyer, architecture that only aims for the most pompous possible external effect will never create a sustainably functional building for the users and thus the people over the entire period of use. “It must be the goal of every architect not only to work for the client, but to satisfy the needs of the people in the building, otherwise modern architecture cannot work. A building must be identity-creating to inspire all users and support the work and life process physically and mentally.” https://www.asselmeyerarchitekt.de
Identity of employees or residents of a building always the focus of all efforts
All character traits and values as well as the corporate philosophy must be expressed in a building. In concrete terms, this means for architecture to first take care of the wishes and requirements of the people who will use the building for a long time. Only after this analysis is a strategy and identity cluster developed, says Asselmeyer: “From the character traits and user needs, we develop what is known as typifying, i.e., translating the user identity into an individual design language and concrete design parameters as the basis for the subsequent building architecture.”
Honest architecture for ista Express Service GmbH: “You see what you get!”
True architecture must be honest. “We use real wood and not fakewood in this building project, we work with real materials and high quality surfaces, but we don’t need ostentation and splendor! Cheap and raw smoothed concrete instead of cold marble, oiled raw oak wood instead of polished high gloss Corian. Inviting welcome space and public open space instead of ostentatious entrances with hundreds of steps or large open but useless spaces that staff and residents must negotiate every day. After all, the building’s users should feel accepted by the building and not have to fight with the ostentatious architecture day after day. Architecture must be identity-forming and motivating and be a positive signal of the company to the outside world,” says Dipl.-Ing. Architect Justus Asselmeyer.
Info on the architectural firm at: https://www.asselmeyerarchitekt.de
Information on ista Express Service GmbH at: https://www.ista-express.de/
ASSELMEYER ARCHITEKT Hamburg
Lange Reihe 29
20099 Hamburg
Tel.: +49 (0) 40 524 764 040
E-mail: info@asselmeyerarchitekt.de
Web: https://www.asselmeyerarchitekt.de
