In 1997, the Guggenheim Museum opened in Bilbao, and Frank Gehry’s eccentric new building transformed the Basque city into an overnight hotspot for international tourism.

Especially in big dense cities, roofs and facades are the only places left to make things greener.

“Doing away with everything superfluous creates the potential for an architectural quality all of its own,” says Florian Nagler about “simple building” in an interview with Frank Kaltenbach.

Naturstein und Hochlochziegel, Ortbeton und Stampflehm in vorproduzierten Elementen: Für die Massivbauweise kommen viele unterschiedliche Materialien in Frage, und oft ist ihre Anwendung regional motiviert.

Natural stone and perforated bricks, cast-in-place concrete, and rammed earth in prefabricated ele­ments – these are just a few of the diverse materials used in solid construction, and their use is often regionally motivated.

“A villa in the countryside with a large terrace, in front of you the Baltic Sea, Friedrichstrasse behind you …”. Thus begins Kurt Tucholsky’s 1927 poem, “The Ideal”. While Tucholsky’s ideal of urban life might be unattainable in Berlin, there are cities where it has become a reality.