less is...

Is less more or is less really less? I think the ideology of having less be more gets engrained into our heads to a point where the concept almost gets put on a pedestal. Quality over quantity. It’s even become the mantra of the minimalist lifestyle that people have taken up to practice all over the world. This “architecture of austerity” could sometimes come across like it’s done for aesthetics rather than necessity. But I think that austerity and scarcity can be viewed as just two different approaches to a problem. Designing anything with a “moral action” of simplicity creates a different end product than designing the same thing with scarcity. In each of the cases, a project gets redefined based on a specific set of constraints that could range anywhere from context to materiality to space. The only difference between the two, as Till so clearly put it, less is the reality. Austerity is a choice. 

An architect that I think balances the two concepts pretty well is Josep Ferrando. He investigates the nature of the materials that are essential to his projects and designs in an almost “animal-like” construction such as when an animal that builds its habitat, it uses whatever is available in its environment. This is designing with scarcity in mind. For him, defining the material is crucial to determine how the material will react in its setting. Instead of seeing the material or site used in a project as a constraint, the tactility of these projects requires a depth of innovation and technology which he implements from a building model to real life. Through his projects, he builds his own rules to apply to the characteristics and character of the material to fully take advantage of the material in the purest way.