Detail 01/1961 - Paul Seitz [Diskussion]
The intentions of the construction launcher must be actively received, developed and consistently maintained both in the work of his own office and by appropriately qualified forces of industry and crafts as well as in the construction management. The details must testify that clear sense of leadership, such active investment cooperation in the plant.
A good construction is in itself a closed work, which represents a harmony of shape, material and colour; if it also works, it is particularly popular. Above this fulfilment, i.e. beyond the visible characteristics, a building can have a good fluidum, a good atmosphere, which can only be achieved by the beautiful power of a shaping personality. This atmosphere distinguishes the building from the machine; it is in architecture as well as in music. Calculation, organisation and construction alone are not enough to produce one.
A good building can be recognised wherever the power of a designer personality was sufficient to formulate a construction task and to think it to the end. How far it is possible to fulfil this ideal depends on the most diverse components. One of them is certainly the preparation and processing of the construction project. In the manifestation of a building idea, in the upperposition of the design on a small scale into reality, the clear guidance of the designer is required. It gives the team that takes on this task the impulses necessary to achieve agreement between the whole and the details.
With the short construction dates usually common today and when demanding the most accurate compliance with the cost estimate, it is necessary to determine as far as possible all the details in the planning. In addition to their concerns about timely and scheduled execution, the construction management should not be burdened with the solution of architectural details.
Surely it will not work without schema details with such an accurate processing of a building; however, these schema details must be constantly reviewed and improved, otherwise their use will not lead to the desired success. Cooperation with experts in industry and crafts is particularly important here. Many construction projects suffer from the fact that they were started in execution at a time when the same was not yet mature in planning, which leads to a discrepancy between the whole and the detail. In addition, with a certain certainty about construction costs, it will only be possible to make a statement if the construction is fully worked through in planning.
A separate problem is always the elimination of dis Understandings between the planning office and construction management. The room book can be of great help here. Each room has a separate sheet in this book, which contains the description of this room in all details, both in construction and material and equipment.
But these are all just aids; ultimately, the finished building is always decisive, and if it has succeeded, you will look at it and feel when entering whether a group of professionals under the leadership of an enthusiastic architect worked here.
Paul Seitz, 1. Construction Director in Hamburg
P.S.: translation from Deutsch to English through scan to text and auto-translation. The original is provided. I am not a german native, although I lived a few years and can understand some basic german, I leave this as it is. Will accept any help on the correction of the translation if provided. Thank you for your understanding.
