Anna Heringer

Anna Heringer:The METI School, Rudrapur (2006)

Anna Heringer (13 October 1977, Rosenheim) is a German architect. A proponent of sustainable architecture, she has designed a number of notable buildings including the METI Handmade School in Rudrapur, Bangladesh.

Biography

Heringer grew up in Laufen, Bavaria, in the far south of Germany. She studied architecture at the University of Arts and Industrial Design in Linz, Austria, graduating in 2004. In 1997, she spent a year carrying out voluntary work in Bangladesh and has travelled there every year since. In 2004, after completing her university thesis "School: handmade in Bangladesh", she immediately embarked on fund raising for the project which she then implemented in Dinajpur, Bangladesh, for the NGO Dipshikha until its completion in 2006 Other important projects include the nearby DESI (Dipshikha Electrical Skill Improvement), a school for electrical training, completed in 2008, and the Training Centre for Sustainability in Marrakech, Morocco, built in 2010. Since 2004, Heringer has lectured widely, both in universities and at conferences, and has undertaken consultancy work. She now lives in Salzburg, Austria.

Anna Heringer's work has been shown at MoMA in New York, la Loge in Brussels, Cité d`architecture and du patrimoine in Paris, the MAM in São Paulo, the Aedes Galery in Berlin and at the Venice Biennale in 2010.

Projects

Anna Heringer: DESI Vocational School, Rudrapur (2008)

Heringer's projects are designed to provide craftsmen and the local community with confidence in their abilities, methods and potential. They are also aimed at fostering ecological balance through architecture. The Bangladesh projects have been seen as instrumental in opening up a new approach to sustainable building by drawing on local materials and making use of local workers.

The METI Handmade School, a primary school for 168 students, relies on regional construction and local materials but introduces new approaches for efficiency and structural integrity. Improvements were made to the bamboo structures and lashing, facilitating the addition of a second storey. Brick foundations were used to prevent moisture softening the earthen walls. The bricks were made by local craftsmen while the remaining construction work was a collaborative effort by the architects, teachers, students and locals.

DESI, a vocational school for electricians, is notable not only for being powered by solar energy but as the first mud-built structure in Bangladesh with indoor plumbing. An extension of the METI project, it called on the services of local students and craftsmen in the hope that the skills they learnt would be reapplied in the region. While local materials, mainly mud and bamboo, were used, structural stability and viability were improved with a masonry foundation and damp-proofing. Apart from the assistance of cows for mixing the earth, water and rice straw, no machinery was used in the construction. The building houses two classrooms, two residences for the instructors with bathroom and toilets, as well as a student bathroom with toilets and sinks on the ground floor. These are unusual in mud houses as they normally require concrete or masonry structures.

The Training center for sustainable construction in Chwiter, Marrakesh, again draws on local craftsmanship and materials including earth, wood and cermanics. The project has been seen as having the potential to become a model for Morocco and elsewhere.

Awards

• For the METI School: Aga Khan Award for Architecture (2007).
• For the Training Center in Marrakesh: Bronze for Africa and Middle East, Regional Holcim Awards competition 2011.
• Global Award for Sustainable Architecture (2011).