Editorial

摘要

Homogeneous materiality has always emanated a special aura. In our April issue a tower of exposed red brickwork, a crystalline artist's studio cut out of fair-faced concrete, a timber building with metal roof and a gleaming, all-over white coating, and a weekend house with thatched roof and straw facades are chosen as representatives of aesthetic exclusivity and radicalism. Why do we find this kind of mono-materiality, which can easily tilt into monumentality, so fascinating? Like with all aesthetic questions this has psychological roots. Large structures made of a homogeneous material tend to be rare in our built environment; the diversity of life prefers a heterogeneous use of materials. Nature, in contrast, likes to build big and uniformly. Deserts or soaring cliff faces create the same thrill as monumental buildings in which innumerable large stones are stacked one upon the other.