Today we have a very high population worldwide compared to the emigration. It is important to understand that the real estate market in cities needs to be kept healthy.
Joachim Krause says: What significance does this real estate industry and its lures have? Isn't the real allocation of living space still secondary to income?
Before we even talk about atmosphere, aren't the milieus more dependent than ever on income? At least traditional socio-economic criteria such as income and class still play the primary role when choosing where to live, while membership in so-called lifestyle groups is a secondary characteristic. This is also documented by the Difu study on return migration to the inner cities. The aestheticization and atmospheric furnishings of living primarily take place in the upper income bracket. However, since the housing of the rich has always had an acculturating effect and as a model filters downwards through society in a worn-out form, it is not only legitimate but also necessary to deal with the trends. You can distinguish between three levels of action:
The first level concerns the traditional domain of architects, namely the development of usable spatial concepts. From a market point of view, it is the acid test of floor plans and building types in the context of the new social complexity.
The second level is the product aesthetics already mentioned. In addition to the actual brokering of real estate, marketing with the well-known staging mechanisms of sales is gaining more and more ground. And of course it's about all those elusive qualities that an object promises in terms of image, self-portrayal and specialness - in short: it's about the atmosphere it provides. This applies to the interior as well as the rhetoric of the building and its location.
The third level, the organizational one, concerns the relationship between the developer and the future user. The gap between anonymous buyers and well-known builders is closed by new participation and financing models, which involve a different plan - but for architects it is extremely complex and remains open to change.
Conclusion:
In response to the question “What does the city need?” It can be concluded that the creation of atmospheres is a necessary part of concepts and strategies for change. These elements are also good syntheses of usage and design values through the symbolic value of their assignment of meaning to highlight the individual locations.
Talking to users and investors is a necessary part of managing change. This happens in direct discussions with those involved on site.
However, the market level, which regulates the distribution of local resources and finances, is dependent on connections with the global world of financial systems, especially in regions with lower population densities.
SOURCE 2006
- Joachim Krause in conversation with Sabine Kraft | Marco Gernt, Germany