סמינר ירושלים באדריכלות

עיצוב ירוק // מתאוריה למעשה

25-27.01.2009

דוברים

Thomas Herzog

Prof. (em.), Dr. (Univ. Rom), Dr. h.c., Dipl.-Ing. Architect BDA

Studied architecture at Technical University, Munich, where he received his Diploma in 1965.His dissertation on ‘Pneumatic Structures’, University of Rome “La Sapienza”, was submitted in 1972. Herzog was a professor of Architecture at University of Kassel since 1973, and later in TH Darmstadt, and TUM Technische Universität München. He was Dean of the Faculty of Architecture and 2007 Emeritus excellens at TUM. Guest professor in Lausanne (EPFL), Beijing (TSINGHUA), Philadelphia (PENN), Copenhagen. Since 1982 commencement of research and development work.

Prof. Herzog founded his own practice in 1971. Since then has worked jointly with different partners (housing, administration, industrial and exhibition buildings, etc.), since 1994 partnership with Hanns Jörg Schrade.

He is a member of several institutions, among which are: Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste, Munich, Russian Academy of Science and Arts, St. Petersburg, Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, International Academy of Architecture at UNESCO, Sofia and Faculty of Architecture at University of Ferrara/Italy, Doctorate 'ad honorem'.

Prof. Herzog won numerous awards for his research work and projects, among which are the Mies-van-der-Rohe-Prize, Gold Medal of the Bund Deutscher Architekten BDA, Auguste-Perret-Prize, Award of ‘International Union of Architects’, UIA, Den grønne Nål of the Federation of Danish Architects, Grand médaille d’or , Académie d’Architecture, Paris, Fritz-Schumacher-Prize for Architecture and the Leo-von-Klenze-Medal.

Author and editor of a series of books including monographs in different languages.

Where issues of sustainability are concerned, we architects are in the front line. One might think that was a position occupied by those engaged in the manufacture of materials or recycling. But as architects and planners, we are responsible for the fact that about 40 per cent of the primary energy used in the world is consumed in the thermal operation of buildings. We are also responsible for the volume of traffic resulting from urban planning measures. Sustainability plays a role in many different dimensions of building: in the selection and origin of materials; the amount of energy needed for their transport and processing; the various processes carried out in the erection of buildings; their thermal performance or degree of thermal efficiency; the outlay for running buildings/ for their maintenance and upkeep / their lifespan / their internal user flexibility / their adaptability to new technologies, especially in the field of supply and waste-disposal services and telecommunications; the degree to which buildings lend themselves to processes of assembly, dismantling and reassembly; the scope they provide for alteration, conversion and recycling; and above all, the potential they offer for harnessing environmentally friendly forms of energy, especially solar energy, for heating, cooling, ventilation, the control and use of daylight and the generation of power. This is certainly not an exhaustive list. I refer to it simply to indicate how immense the area involved really is.

And now to the question: "How high is high enough?" Obviously, where signs and symbols are involved, the height of a structure can have a special significance. Cézanne was once approached by an art critic who thought that in a painting of a young man in a red waistcoat, the artist had painted the upper arm far too long. Cézanne is said to have answered that if an arm is beautiful, it cannot be long enough. I believe the question about the height or the size of a structure, how many square metres it should cover, or whatever else it has to demonstrate when measured in Olympic categories, should not be expressed as an absolute value. It should be set in relation to the message it conveys. Where expression is concerned, a dimension that exceeds the norm may be absolutely right on occasion. I also believe that if a building structure, for example, conveys the right message, it can be as big or long or wide as it pleases. That is also the line we follow in terms of the criteria and categories evoked by the word "sustainability".

Thomas Herzog

SolarCity, Linz-Pichling/Austria 1995-2004.
photographer: Verena Herzog-Loibl

Deutsche Messe AG Administration Building, Hanover/Germany 1997-1999,
photgrapher: Dieter Leistner

Hall 26, Hanover/Germany 1994-1996,
photographer: Heike Seewald