Diversity is not the same as abundance, which can indeed be very arbitrary. Diversity implies more: it also comprises unity.
And unity implies more than restriction to a single unit. Unity can only be perceived in diversity; without it diversity cannot exist. The many folds of a single garment are an image that gives visual expression to this concept.
The world we live in is monotonous? This is hard to believe. It is more likely that the way it is perceived is monotonous and that it is made monotonous. Diversity is obscured by a single consideration or a small number of them: for example, returns on money invested, or quite simply the way the system works.The architect who allows himself to be influenced primarily by these considerations and who disregards the many other aspects will produce monotonous work.
Such interests which are indeed powerful, and often monumental, hardly need much promotion from us: their claims are powerfully represented by other parties. There are other considerations that are in need of our commitment: ecology, for example; our fellow-men, children, people, working methods, communal living and many others. We can uncover and investigate as many as possible of the almost unlimited number of facets of a brief – that we receive in the deceptive guise of a single concept, such as a hospital – facets that otherwise remain unrepresented. We are in a position to enable hidden forces, neglected in the reality of our society, to find expression and to assume their visible form.
The more such aspects we can identify, the more richness we will recognise in the brief and the greater the diversity of the resultant architectural form. Additional techniques of harmonisation – be they mathematical, geometrical, formal or of any other type – become superfluous. Architecture assumes a special quality if it is constantly new, different and many-sided, or if it can never be definitively understood or interpreted: architecture as the mirror of the diversity inherent in our environment and as the reflection of our concern for it.
Read more about Günter Behnisch's architecture in Daylighting
Berlin Academy of Arts