Weltgebraus

Weltgebraus' is a German compound word describing the (incessant) roaring of the world. With no direct translation in the English language (as it is the case for words such as Sehnsucht, Zeitgeist, Schadenfreude, or Leitmotif), its use in German is also rare and may be even exclusive to the motto “Steh fest mein Haus im Weltgebraus” (Stand firm my house in the roaring of the world) by lyricist Richard Dehmel. A sort of Godspeed that Peter Behrens decided to take over and inscribe on the facade of his house in Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt, wishing it may be “vaccinated” against the altering conditions evolving around it. Yet Weltgebraus doesn’t necessarily imply a scale, form, or intensity through which the roaring of the world is broadcasted. In fact, we like to imagine it more as tinnitus or an effervescent sound—much like an aspirin pill dissolving in a glass of water. And while the term Zeitgeist may still be specific to peculiarities found in particular periods of time or geographies, Weltgebraus is much more an overlay of basically everything: modernism, Internet, crises—a synonym for multidisciplinarity. The decision to dedicate our office to the observation of these “sounds”—and understand architecture, urbanism, graphics, etc, predominantly in a multidisciplinary context—may indirectly also put under scrutiny Behrens’s hope that his house may survive its context without any adaptation. As if he would put his house unmanned “at sea,” hoping it will not collide with anything and the waves won’t break into its keel. We want to know what this sea consists of and aim to create projects that are not necessarily made to withstand these storms but are and keep being the result of the awareness and recognition of their own context: you have to change to stay the same.