Andreas Derrer has been shaping the projects of OOS since 2000. As a founding partner and member of the management board, he is responsible for the architecture division and drives the further development of the design process. In the following interview, he gives an insight into what goes on at OOS and explains what Clever Architecture is all about.

Through their spatial manifestation, our projects inevitably always have an impact on people and society. With our architecture, we want to create spaces that go beyond the specified requirements and promote well-being and health as well as encounters and community. Spaces that create identity and orientation and support appropriation by the users.

We design beauty not just for beauty’s sake, but with responsibility. This also includes designing places for different target groups with appropriate measures and designing architecture that can be transformed.

Conflicting objectives in these areas are unavoidable in architecture. I see uncovering these conflicts, putting them up for discussion and finding out which aspects are relevant for the specific task as an important part of our job. In doing so, we have to rethink our opinions and perhaps even dogmas.

But we also have to convince customers, users and other stakeholders of the importance of their less prioritised topics and goals. The best projects often emerge from this debate.

We want to design cleverly conceived buildings that, among other things, manage with little to no building services and can therefore be operated in a CO2-neutral way. Or buildings that function as carbon sinks thanks to certain materials. In this way, we can make a positive contribution to the environment.

Due to its CO2 emissions, the construction industry has an immense responsibility and at the same time a significant lever. We want to utilise this with holistically designed architecture. This requires curiosity and knowledge about all aspects of a building. For a holistic view, we can simulate energy with our digital building models and now also calculate the CO2 balance directly.

There are hardly any projects that are not directly or indirectly about economic interests. In order to develop the right design, we want and need to understand these interests.

Beauty creates value just as much as functionality and durability. What is beautiful often lasts longer, supports our well-being and makes a positive contribution to our living environment. How aesthetic quality can be created within the respective budget is our daily task.

We have been working with digital building models and the BIM methodology for almost 15 years. Of course, not from the very beginning as comprehensively as today. The transition from traditional 2D planning to modelling and using digital building models took a lot of time and changed the design process considerably.

Today, however, much more fundamental and existential questions arise about our future roles and tasks, especially with regard to artificial intelligence. We are exploring these questions and trying to find answers.

We cannot escape contemporary architecture. But we don’t want to be guided by trends. Recently, the preservation of buildings as an architectural practice and its quality has been regularly written about as if it were a new invention. We have been involved in the transformation of old buildings and sites for over 20 years and we see enormous design potential in this.

Spaces that would be planned or built very differently today form the basis for surprising and unique results. It’s great that people are once again working more with what is already there. Is that a trend? Perhaps we are simply becoming more aware of our responsibilities again.