Germany's BIG DUMB BOXES ARE AWESOME.

[@TypeAshton]

Buy a DNA kit here: bit.ly/TypeAshton Use the coupon code ASHTON for free shipping. As an added bonus, you can start a 30-day free trial of MyHeritage’s best subscription for family history research - and enjoy a 50% discount if you decide to continue.

[@Apurvanotfound]

Hi ! what are you doing on diwali?

[@TypeAshton]

To be honest, today my entire goal is to survive. 😂 I am on day 5 of single-parenting while Jonathan is on a work trip.. which means I am at home with an active toddler and a 6 month old with a mission to never sleep. 🤪 So please, have fun and enjoyment for me! I can live vicariously through someone else. ❤️

[@SheLeftMeUnsupervised]

I would never give any company or government body my dna. Not by choice. You will never know who they will sell it to or give it to. What companies and governments say they do and what they actually do are not the same. (Not paranoid just not very trusting)

[@gesus6613]

Those DNA testing companies sell your data to 3rd parties (insurance companies, advertisers etc). They also have had data breaches. There is also and ethical concern your decision to put your DNA info out there gives companies info on your brothers, sisters, kids, parents, cousins etc.

[@dropshot1967]

@@gesus6613 so true

[@conniebruckner8190]

I agree with everything you said. I just wish buildings had more colours, or at least distinguishing elements of colour such as window frames, doors, balconies etc. Or a bit more use of tiles/mosaics on the fascades.

[@Colochoide]

For Germans, those houses are already TOO colourful. But that's just Germans, they don't like noise, even visual.

[@listohan]

When it comes to tiles and such, be careful what you wish for kzbin.info/www/bejne/qaGWpX5ui9apb9k

[@reniesulaweyo4383]

My town renovated theirs and they installed exactly that. They look cute now.

[@seanthiar]

people do not like those colorful houses. We had a street where they changed the rental houses to colors in the violet scale. They did not look bad, but it took not long and they were white again. They are now still called the Milka houses , because the color scheme looked like the color scheme from Milka chocolates. And we have a house in the city called the blue house - it was blue about 30years ago and it's now white/gray. But it is still known by the locals at the blue house. Colors are okay if they look natural like red bricks, green ivy on the walls, but screaming colors are seen as problematic.

[@stevieinselby]

@@seanthiar Agree that generally houses should be in muted colours and/or colours that reflect natural building materials such as brick and stone, rather than random primary colours just for the sake of it.

[@yorgunkirmizi]

So, I’m an architect in Germany. I worked in couple housing projects that are “dumb boxes” let me tell you, there is a lot of thought go into these. For housing, people dont want weird shapes that is hard to furnish. And also as you said, it is cost effective and still they have a charachter. It is also more enjoyable living in these buildings, as they are very well isolated for heat and mold (which is a big issue in old buildings here) also you pay less money to heat your home. I believe these kinds of buildings are ideal for housing, but when it comes to public buildings like libraries I think we should think outside of the box. These are not just building that “form follows function” these are landmarks and stuff that stay in peoples minds. I aggree with all the critism and we as construction industry should do better to prevent these undesirable outcomes. We have the tools for it but as most industries, architecture is also run by dinosours who are resistant to change from the traditional methods. In general I aggree with you and thank you for this video 😊

[@mdhazeldine]

Good point. I was going to say the same thing about the library. Every city needs landmarks that draw attention and act as a tourist attraction. It would ever make sense to build every building like that, but I think it's allowable, even better, to have a few buildings that are a bit out of the ordinary.

[@kuldan5853]

That really is a very important factor - I go with Ritter Sport on that one "Quadratisch, praktisch, gut". I want 90 Degree corners and straight angles in my rooms, thank you ;) (Also, I recently viewed a place that was nice and modern and very well lit due to a lot of floor-deep windows... unfortunately, the living room had those windows on THREE sides, so you almost had no place to put ANY furniture in that room against a wall at all or it looked very weird.

[@-----REDACTED-----]

Fine, make landmarks look good, but the specific Freiburg case is an example of what not to do. The oversight that the shell would turn into a dangerous hazard for example should not have become an oversight and is a glaring failure in simple due diligence by the designers involved, and the designers responsible should be renowned for their failures.

[@KaiHenningsen]

@@-----REDACTED-----It's astonishing how often problems with reflections happen. If I recall correctly, there's one architect who designed two buildings that at times focused sunlight on the space before the building (at least one of those was parking) and made it extremely hot (enough to melt plastic). I can perhaps see how that mistake happened the first time, but how can anyone explain the second time? The guy *knew* about the possible problem.

[@TerryMcKennaFineArt]

Whenever I see a really odd structure built to impress - so Frank Gehry for example, I think of what will happen after 40 years of expanding and contracting - so how ir will be maintained. The value of stone and concrete in historic structures is partly in how well they age.

[@boldvankaalen3896]

A lot of people are quite fed up with those sterile modernistic boxes, also in Europe. I can recommend "the aesthetic city" channel for a different perspective than the modernistic monoculture that is predominant under architects. But like with the historic examples that you showed, you can have a box shaped building with the colour, details and ornaments, that make it lively and liveable.

[@ThibaultKreutzer]

love you for mentioning this.

[@alastairhewitt380]

Yes, don't mind the shape as long as it is beautiful. Although with this approach I will say the buildings must look real. I lack the vocabulary to describe it, but for example, when you go to Las Vegas or the Cheescake Factory. You can tell all the buildings are fake and artificial which also makes me want to vomit. It can't be a piece of cardboard with some paint on it. It has to look like a well crafted, beautiful, and real. If they can achieve this to the point that it is indistinguishable to the discerning eye, then by all means, bring on the boxes

[@jamesneilsongrahamloveinth1301]

Disagree with the speaker here. Stark, flat roofs are ruining Stuttgart - more and more buildings built without the traditional pitched roofs. Developers love flat roofs because they are cheaper to build, yet a building with a flat roof is not only ugly, it is unhealthy - no circulation of air above the accommodation. Streets of buildings with pitched roofs have a more human feel than streets of buildings with flat roofs. They are easier to be around . . .

[@iamwhatitorture]

thanks for the recommendation

[@werbrotvomstammederbrote9424]

There the "Berliner Dach" comes in handy, flat but pitched. @@jamesneilsongrahamloveinth1301

[@lfmsimoes1]

Here in Portugal we love "the beauty of simplicity".

[@ZebraJess92]

Some more info about the University library: the designers originally used a specific glass but the state decided to cut costs and just use normal glass and that's where all the problems started. The sun reflecting from the glass was getting so hot, it actually started melting plastic parts of cars parked in front of the building. It was insane.

[@rikulappi9664]

Dump boxes create a canvas for aesthetics. They need not be dull or monotonous, since it is the surface rather than the inside structure people see. Like in the early 1900' we shoul keep decorations separated from the functional parts to get both better and cheaper.

[@johnclements6614]

Yes you can paint (or render) them different colours, window frames etc. Also orientation and height differences so that you break up lines between buildings.

[@SeiShinCasios]

i absolutely agree, green facades and beautiful colours go a long way to make boxes look much nicer.

[@gilde915]

you can even use an outer "shell" and those can although benefit the energy balance of a construction, replacing some panels with solar cells or use an air gap between outer and inner layer. Boxes can be to an extend be build much sturdier then other constructions, regarding to earthquakes or other enviromental hazards or cheaper using prefabricated parts.

[@boldvankaalen3896]

But decoration is still taboo among architects.

[@adamabele785]

But the 1900s with "Jugendstil" was a time when functional parts of the architecture were also used as beautiful decorations. It was not just a plain box and some artwork glued to the surface to make it pretty.

[@lindas2219]

As a student from Freiburg, I truly appreciate someone presenting the insanity that is our university library to the world. It is one of the biggest running jokes among students here that the building is just terrible and how everything about it including it's design and construction is dysfunctional in some way or another.

[@Never_again_against_anyone]

It was already a running joke from the start (Enough to inspire Extra3 and I considered it nice of them back then that they did not go further.).🤐 I studied in Freiburg back when it was reopened and would be lying if I said I liked it. At least it was open 24/7 back then😎

[@unicorntulkas]

It wasn't even mentioned that the top floor is permanently closed because it lacks a second fire escape route, reducing the space available to students even further.

[@gargoyle7863]

It's not terrible. The stairways in the silent section is to loud, but the big non-silent part is win for students. I like it's look and shape.

[@Never_again_against_anyone]

@@gargoyle7863 Dunno if it changed since I finished my bachelor, but back then it was always terribly crowded. Almost no chance to load laptops without causing the staff to complain about too long cables. I also used to bring Ohropax... Just the notorious things.

[@gargoyle7863]

@@Never_again_against_anyone My times at the bib are over as well but I agree it's crowded. I think they underestimated the demand. So yes, maybe they should have build a boring box for maximum space.

[@andreassumerauer5028]

Those dumb boxes have a long and proud history in Germany. My grandmother and later my uncle as well as my father used to live in the Westhausen settlement in Frankfurt/Main. One could say that Westhausen is an early prototype of those unpretentious settlements consisting of simple square and dumb boxes. That apartment was handed on from one family member to another because as a mere mortal you would otherwise haven't had a chance to rent a place in such an attractive neighborhood. As it turned out, people feel at home and love to live there. In the 1920s when the neighborhood was built, many of the design principles you are presenting here were revolutionary new developments (others, like the emphasis on mixed income neighborhoods are even older). Still it seems the original builders got a lot if it right, since after all much of the original installations are still functional and appropriate today.

[@roaxeskhadil]

"Big dumb boxes" are all fine, especially if they are newly built to modern energy-saving norms. If they just weren't so damn boring to look at, most of the time. The small frills you find on old housing, the fact that even when they had been built to match each other's style, is what makes old buildings / quarters "humane". And this is something modern housing dearly misses. I'd take some 19th century or older building that was cored and modernized internally any time over the house I live in right now.

[@amyloriley]

So how about this compromize: a big dumb box with an old-style street-side facade.

[@enrif3099]

i'm with you on this. big dumb boxes might be, from a technical point of view, great. But they sorely lack in soul nourishing design. And i think there can be a compromise that has the best of both worlds. And i think if we look at those 100+ year old buildings, that are similar to those big dumb boxes, but more stimulating, we already see how to accomplish that. But we have to reject the brutalist design and all those metal and glass facades for that.

[@l.c.8475]

That's why landscaping around them and creating good common areas is so important, I pass through several dumb box neighbourhoods every day and none of them are ugly neighbourhoods, they're surrounded by greenery, playgrounds and ponds. I've even seen GDR era dumb boxes that manage to look good by maximising greenspace between buildings and adding murals to strategic areas which also helps deter graffiti.

[@reniesulaweyo4383]

There is ways to make them cuter! E.g. my home town upgraded some of the smaller ones and put in wooden lattice shutters, some neat sliding shutters and more green stuff on them and they look good! They can absolutely be redeemed and even fancy façade elements made from moulds wouldn't cost a lot.

[@Crotaro]

Right? I feel like the "big dumb boxes" are the McDonalds Hamburger of architecture. Upsides: Pretty cheap materials, very simple assembly, makes you feel alright (especially if it's the only thing you've been exposed to, yet), fulfill the basic requirements for humans to exist. Downsides: You can't tell if you're in a box neighbourhood / eating a McD Hamburger in Munich, Paris, Moscow, New York, Tokyo or any semi-rural town that still has their own McD for some reason, unless you look at outside factors like air humidity or temperature. In the form I currently see modern buildings, they're so incredibly bland and same-y. For me as a German, the only way box-neighbourhoods could be even more boring, would be if we adopted a grid layout for the streets.

[@christiancanty2036]

These buildings are also very normal in Denmark. They are so well insulated that in winter, even with the heating on, you often get ice on the windows in the mornings before the sun hits them.

[@agn855]

Getting iced windows inside means your windows aren’t insulating that much. The humidity contained within the warm air (breathing/cooking/showering/…) is condensing at the window and freezing at its surface. Kinda bad (from the insulation perspective).

[@GlumandaHD]

​@@agn855i thinked he meant iced on the outside pretty sure

[@christiancanty2036]

@@GlumandaHD yeah, I meant on the outside 😅

[@CaroAbebe]

@@agn855 We also get ice cream- on the outside, which is an excellent sign ;-)

[@FreakAzoiyd]

We also have ice on the outside of windows (when I don't put the outside blindes down which I usually do). Whats weird is that the facade also has ice or condensate water on it, and in the morning sun it sublimates and steams of the wall on the east. Looks really unusual to me 😅

[@barryrobbins7694]

In Stewart Brand’s book, “How Buildings Learn: What Happens After They’re Built” he wrote about the need for buildings to built in such a way as to allow flexibility for future use. A building can be built for one purpose and be used for something completely different decades later. Occupants may have planned for one thing, but through living in the structure may discover the need to make adaptations. Box shape buildings are inherently more adaptable for changing needs.

[@cayreet5992]

I've been able to see a new quarter grow in my home town over the last couple of years. It's made up of 'big dumb boxes,' but they all are built a little differently. Some a little wider, some a little more narrow, some a floor taller or shorter (I think there's nothing over six floors there, either), and they have different shades of browns, whites, and earthy reds. They all look nice, they form a nice new area to live in, having green spaces in-between them, and I know that they were easy enough to build as well. They don't even look that much like boxes to me, they just look nice. That's a lot of living space on an area which used to hold a fair ground (used only twice or so a year) and a large market hall that is now outside the town by the Autobahn access where it's much easier to deliver and pick up the fruits, vegetables, and flowers traded there.

[@MichaEl-rh1kv]

At the core "dumb boxes" heed the maxim "form follows function". You can still got your individual touch by applying color, small ornaments or even piling a slightly bigger box onto a slightly smaller box, like you can see in many medieval cities. And boxes consisting of two or more semi-detached houses are more efficient and even in many cases more aesthetically pleasing than rows of detached houses showing each the exactly same playful details.

[@eliaslindqvist54]

I have been binging your videos past weeks and this one is for sure my favourite so far. The beloved downtowns of European cities are essentially mid rise boxes with decorations. This partly goes for the grocery store video too. I grew in a walkable mid rise dominated neighborhood mainly built in 50's to 70's. The funniest comparison to America where everything is built around convenience is that for some reason this illegal mid rise mix use suburb miraclously had space for anything one could desire in daily basis and everything was withing 15 min travel, without a car, as an elementary school student. Even as a high school student I could go weeks without leaving the two connected neighborhoods. Our family had a car but we really never used it on daily activities because walking two blocks is faster than driving. Not just bikes often uses the frace, built for human scale. These mid century suburbs have undergone a boom of popularity in Helsinki and prices have spiked. Originally when built, middle class viewed these as the developments for the poor and the reputation was terrible. Now many have found the convenience and beauty of this perfect compromise of downtown accessibility and open space of American style suburbia. Apart from some public buildings, it's all boxes with varying amount of decorations. Affordable, convenient and cute.

[@TypeAshton]

Ah wow thank you so much for the kind compliment. The "missing middle" is a big issue in the states and something that could greatly benefit their cities.

[@NormanF62]

I live in a box. The original inspiration behind was the Bauhaus. “Form follows function.” A simple and timeless design. The first box building in Germany was built in Dessau in 1925. Simplicity was behind its design and the American version, the Mid Century Modern, was based on the same principle. Modernism is about architecture and the things contained within it, not calling attention to themselves.

[@ebahapo]

Unfortunately, though not entirely due to its own fault, the Bauhaus motto often led to beauty being relegated, if not outright ignored. Methinks that beauty is a function necessary for humanity.

[@harryhirsch3637]

@@ebahapo You're right about beauty being necessary to humans but the better Bauhaus designs are absoluely beautiful!

[@ebahapo]

@@harryhirsch3637 Yes, many of the original work was. But even some of the original work had abandoned beauty. Even more so by its followers. As it so often happens to those intending to revolutionize, the proverbial baby gets thrown with the bath water.

[@wjhann4836]

But the first what was lost: Form follows function. 🤥

[@urlauburlaub2222]

@@ebahapo Buildings are also areas, where you stay or not. If you are dehumanized in a building or row, but you have to serve it's proposed idea, you are not a free man anymore unlike you really choose that. Bauhaus is nothing more than what you see in 2:10. That being said, it's a shame and crime to use it on a wide scale. Other designs are less penetrant.

[@johnatkins-qn2lk]

Great video, as per usual. You really have taken KZbin vlogging to another level. So well researched, and so well represented. Always look forward to these vids.

[@terryross1754]

Beautiful place to live. Very central. Close to France, Switzerland, Austria and Italy. Short run to the Bodensee. Bohemia (Czechia) and Hungary not far away. Idyllic. I hope you and your family have a great life there. Your vlogs are exemplary and show the way for other KZbinrs. Well-researched, impassionate, factual and informative.

[@steemlenn8797]

In my "dumb box", build in the 60s with moderate slap-on isolation, the averaage energy use for heating is 1/5 of a single family home. Now, there are several 1-room apartment (german counting) in here as well as family apartments, so if you only count families it might be down to 1/3. But that is still a huge difference (And also a reason why I was a bit confused about the costs people were throwing around last winter. What I pay in a whole year is what they claimed they had to pay more per month.)

[@paulagil1323]

Building lower-cost properties it´s so so importante in a world with very concerning housing problems. Thank you!!

[@reinhard8053]

I'm not against boxes, but I don't like flat roofs. They might be nice in a warm dry climate, but not in northern Europe. I witnessed the problems several times over the years (thank god only in my surrounding). My school had water leaks and needed some rebuild. The students home I lived in had leaks and I made some bucks by getting the gravel from the roof down so that the roofers could go on their search. And the home of a friend in a terrace style blockbuilding also had leaks on the roof. With a tiled roof you only need to change some tiles if something happens. Of course the room usage is worse but you can have the isolation in a well workable dry surrounding and not burried under gravel and foils where the rain may stand.

[@EngRMP]

I get so pulled in to the topics of your videos that I forget to thank you for putting together such well presented videos. It must take an enormous amount of time and energy... getting the video snippets, developing a script, narrating and then editing it all. We are so lucky that we have people like you who will take the time and effort to thoughtfully present and discuss these issues that effect all of us.

[@anubarak9184]

It's important not to forget that architecture is first and formost about designing spaces for people to live and work in, not gigantic pieces of art to look at. thanks for the vid, loved it.

[@annepoitrineau5650]

Brilliant architectural+environmental presentation. Loved it. I used to live in Switzerland (dumb box. Cofortable, well-insulated). Now I live in a British terrace. Quirky but it is hard work keeping mould away and warmth in. I am also for the dumb box: fater all, I live inside, and I can make the inside original. As long as the outside has a nice colour and it is clean and in good repair, with greenery not too far, as well as shops/schools/doctors, I am very happy. Switzerland (as well as Germany, Slovakia etc) have got it right!!

[@swibo5920]

I've never liked those "dumb boxes". Thanks for giving me a new perspective!

[@walkir2662]

One of the reasons I'm so glad for homeoffice is that my office is in one of those glass designs. After over a decade, they never got the internal climate right and I had health issues for a long time due to that. My homeoffice is in a recent-built "big dumb box", and I pity everyone who has to spend most of their day in a terrarium like the one holding my office, where teh only actual walls surround the staircases and bathrooms.

[@bjarkih1977]

A sloping roof can save on cost in the future, especially in areas were snow sits on the roof for periods of time.

[@NickfromNLondon]

Great blog Retired British structural engineer. Interesting post. Dumb boxes often used but I have some bêtes noirs when it comes to medium rise social housing. These are often dumb boxes with load bearing masonry walls and precast concrete. Cantilever balconies. Balconies with posts at the outside corners are easier and faster to construct. Failure to stack the flats. Large multi bedroom flats at ground floor requiring transfer structure to support the upper floors with steel columns threaded into partition walls.. Level thresholds obtained by dropping the insulated structural ground floor well below external ground level. This puts the underground drainage lower which increases excavation and inspection chamber sizes. I personally consider having the wall plate of a timber framed building below ground level is asking for problems.

[@aileenmarzanna]

Much of the newer suburbs in Gdańsk, where I'm from, are also those "dumb boxes" - which I also believe are great. First, this city is originally built on a narrow coastal plain between a tall glacial moraine and the Bay of Gdańsk, which means a lot of sandy soil and the need for intensive water management in the hills. After some particularly damaging flash floods in the summer of 2001, most of the new development in these hills has been 4-5 story boxes to make space for retention basins and leave large areas of the city forested opposed to single family homes and paving the foothills fully in concrete. Personally, I think some of the developments like in Jasień, the next neighbourhood over, are really interesting with a commuter rail station in the middle, and a neighbourhood of "dumb boxes" surrounding one of the retention basins where they have small retail and cafes and services on the ground floor, parking underground to pedestrianise the entire neighbourhood, and a second pedestrian layer on the first floor. It's incredibly simple, but so well thought out. One other aspect of building to 4-5 stories in regions with a climate like ours, is that the tops of the buildings are below the tree canopies, not only allowing for a very "human" scale, but when one is living in a very forested city like where I live, allowing the actual ecosystem to protect the building from the elements and save on heating costs in winter, while keeping the temperature down during summer heat waves, although the latter is less of an issue in Gdańsk than it is in Freiburg which gets intense heat in summer.

[@bongi6811]

Having a fair share of "dumb boxes" around my neighborhood I agree that they can be quite beautiful with their simplicity and efficiency. The only think I somewhat worry about is the style of the buildings themself. If all of them are near identical in the same modern minimalist, all white style they might look decent today, but in 50 years they might look as outdated and soulless as many brutalist concrete boxes do today. You've shown how older houses in other styles can also be these efficient boxes at their core, so creating a bit of variety in facade materials, color or roof shape might be worthwhile.

[@Llortnerof]

I think part of the problem here is that the box design is being equated with spartanic exterior design. You can build a box and then still decorate it on the outside. It's not like we expect our box shaped living rooms to just stay bare walls, either. The box is just the foundational structural element. Decorations are extra.

[@jamesneilsongrahamloveinth1301]

bongi6811: Stark, square buildings with flat roofs are ruining Stuttgart. Developers love flat roofs because they are cheaper to build, yet a building with a flat roof is not only ugly, it is unhealthy - no circulation of air above the accommodation. Streets of buildings with pitched roofs have a more human feel than streets of buildings with flat roofs. They are easier to be around . . .

[@jensschroder8214]

In the Netherlands, houses were built in the shape of a ball. The idea was to reduce the surface area. But the glaziers had great difficulty getting the arched windows sealed. The round interior is anything but practical. No further houses were built in this form afterwards.

[@bobkowalski7655]

One of the entrepreneurs in building box houses was a famous czech entrepreneur by the name of Tomáš Baťa nciknamed The king of shoes. In the city of Zlín where his shoe factory was he built entire neighbourhoods of (for that time) modern and affordable houses that stand to this day.

[@chrisk5651]

When looking at New York - most people think of Manhattan but there are 5 boroughs with Staten Island being very suburban as is much of Queens. Also many of the skyscrapers were built for business/non-residential purposes. So it’s not that surprising when you mention density comparison with Paris.

[@amtorraziert]

5:08 they may be more walkable, but you cant tell me that doesnt look ugly as shit. I feel like just painting a few of thoser buildings different colours and adding some ornamentation would go a long way in making the street scape more visually appealing, something which, from what I understand, is exremly important when it comes to how an area is percied and csan impact mental health in the area as well.

[@susannekalejaiye4351]

Finland uses lots of dumb boxes. Very pleased with this video. I do have a new priority: handicapped accessibility. Not for 70 year old me (yet) but for my 18 year old granddaughter! The newest dumb boxes are really not quite practical even though the technical measurements say "sufficient"

[@MrAronymous]

This why I am happy to live in Amsterdam, where even the new build 'boxes' at least don't look like boring central European white boxes. Facades are generally done in a relatively varied way and have some sort of refinement detail. Always brick, because that works best with our weather and building heritage. And also looks better than stark plaster. I don't see what some pastel colours on the boring boxes would have cost that much more. I'm not advocating for richly decorating the boxes (though secretly that would be my wish), but big white boxes from your example are a literal horror scenario for where I live. It is very noticable that German new buildings usually look very stark compared to Dutch buildings. And no thats not always because they would be more efficient, it's also a matter of taste of what is good architecture.

[@aileenmarzanna]

The Dutch also lead Europe in building single family homes in suburbs. It's perhaps the most "American" country in the EU.

[@oskarsyren]

@@aileenmarzannaWhaaat?

[@miles5600]

@@aileenmarzanna wdym by that? most of our housing are apartments and row houses, single family housing is prety rare for the low to upper class family, you'll find that most new suburbs built here are multi-family houses.

[@michaelburggraf2822]

The white colours might seem boring but actually it makes sense. In Freiburg at least because it's in the warmest and sunniest region of Germany. An insulating plaster not only keeps the warmth in winter but also helps keeping a flat cool during hot days.

[@Kesrak]

Brighter colours help to lessen the Heat Island Effect that plague most cities. So in that sense, white facades do make sense. Yet I really like to see more creativity in architecture. Maybe in interesting shading or greenery.

[@seboost4999]

Before moving to the US we lived in Freiburg Vauban. In my opinion this is one of the best examples of modern neighborhoods. All buildings have to have a high energy efficiency standard but the buildings are not the boring white cold rectangular boxes that you see in many other newly developed neighborhoods. Instead you see a variety of individual colorful houses. Despite being one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in town it is one of the most sought-after one and the quality of live is awesome. Anyone who is interested in modern, energy-efficient, urban development that serves the people who live there I can highly recommend a (guided) tour through the neighborhood Freiburg-Vauban.

[@cdg-hzg]

5 1/2 years ago my wife and I moved into a new dumb box in Kohlscheid ( a small suburb of Aachen). It is absolutely fantastic. The building has two stairwells, each with 4 one bedroom, 6 two bedroom, and 4 three bedroom apartments over five floors. There are storage rooms for each apartment in the basement, as well as a garbage collection room, heating, and an underground garage. We have a 3 bedroom apartment on the fourth floor. There is an elevator from the basement to the 5th floor. Everything in really ideal for us as we're retired, and mobility will someday be an issue. With a large pantry in the apartment, we have our washer and dryer here, and like most Germans we can dry our laundry on our balcony if the weather permits. Our energy costs in the box are substantially lower than in our previous home. I love the German construction methods. Seldom does one see wood frame construction. The insulation between apartments is superb. We never hear our neighbours unless someone is moving in or out and you hear drilling. We're 300 meters from a very nice supermarket and bakery, and bus service into the city. Doctors offices, pharmacies, other shopping are all easily accessible,.

[@barryrobbins7694]

As shown in this video, the “big dumb box” isn’t really dumb, and need not be unattractive. There is also room for more complex structures; it is a matter of balance. We can have modern equivalents of gothic cathedrals and historical row houses.

[@nejdro1]

As architect Louis Sullivan said, "Form follows function". There is a reason why the majority of single family homes are boxy with a gabled roof. Those Swiss chalets are not built to look idyllic, they are built to handle the snow loadI look at some of the commercial buildings that Helmut Jahn built here in Chicago, and they were replete with problems of heating and air-con-ditioning, sound control, leaks, and in the case of the new air terminal at O'Hare airport, a glass roof where the reflection off it blinded the air traffic controllers in the control tower!

[@SonjaHamburg]

The members of the "form follows function" cult always forget that "joy of use" and living in an aesthetic city that makes your eyes happy are also part of the FUNCTION! We built wonderfull buildings during historism or belle epoche but after that it was so much brutalism and boring blocks. There are youtube videos online why we dont build beautifull anymore. Its such a shame that my city demolished the most beautiful train stations to replace them with brutalism because all architectural students get taught "form follow function" without this IMPORTANT part of the function!

[@SonjaHamburg]

(I wrote my thesis about Joy of Use and Emotional Design because i was so fed up being indoctrinated by Form Follows Function maniacs that all forgot that making the user happy was a function. )

[@Just_Lars]

@@SonjaHamburg Imo too many confuse "Form follows function" with "Building efficiently". I know I am not an architect, just some rando from the internet, but even for me, the difference between "Function dictates form" and efficient building is rather clear. If we took the first sentence literally, we all should live in ball-shaped houses, because spherical shapes maximize surface-to-volume ratio. But from an efficiency viewpoint, that's just the most idiotic thing you can do, because circles just don't scale well when placed next to each other (the old "stacking tin-cans vs boxes" problem). Not to speak of the structural problems it would bring with it. But to get back to your initial comment: aesthetically pleasant buildings don't clash with efficient building in my opinion. Take dumb boxes for example: On the inside, they are usually more spacious, "sun-flooded" and friendly than most older buildings I know from personal experience, while being better at keeping the temperature at the level you want. They have larger windows, better isolation and the way the rooms are shaped is more to our "modern" standards. The thing that many people seem to dislike is the facade. And while I personally like that style of architecture with lots of glass and blocky aesthetic, I get why people perceive it as boring and "cold". But there are SO MANY examples of how to make it better. Easiest is of course to just paint them. But you can use greenery on the facade, which also helps cleaning air and cooling down the surroundings. Or add some fancy ornaments onto the main wall, add some wooden elements to break up the surface, organize a street-art competition and the winner can decorate one of the walls with their art etc. So many possibilities! Architects and Builders just have to use them.

[@wernerviehhauser94]

​@@SonjaHamburg you can go for pretty&unusable if you want to. Maintenance cost will easily double without any benefit beyond looking good from the outside. You know, I TEND to look at MY house from the inside 99% of the time, if I'm outside I look at my GARDEN 99% of the time. Going for "looks" is usually nothing more than make-believe, like most modern Haute Couture is utter crap that can't be worn beyond the catwalk. Architects should be forced to live in their concoctions for a couple of years - they wouldn't be doing them anymore. Learned that from an architect with a Civil Engineering degree.

[@ricci8497]

So often these days form follows function seems to have been replaced with from over function I've walked into some buildings and end up boggled at how poorly the interior planned out and how they increase work loads and reduce productivity because staff rooms toilets are all poorly located even the entry and exit points.

[@EngRMP]

As a 67 yo engineer, I'm totally with you on the importance of smart architecture. You didn't discuss balance, but I'm guessing you'd acknowledge that we humans also have a creative side that responds strongly to artistic design. Not that each and every building needs to be artistic... but, a sprinkling of whimsical buildings here and there can go a long way towards scratching that artistic itch. In many European cities you have the wonderful contrast of the new, old, and really old, so that's where I think the box design makes lots of sense... don't aesthetically compete with the old... dumb down much of the new to accentuate the old. And, "suburban" neighborhoods can be more about the outdoor and communal spaces. Keep the housing simple. For the last 10 years I've been thinking that our current trend towards open concept inside our homes is creating the feeling of kitchens, dining tabes and couches all stuffed in gymnasiums... I just see inside noise pollution... where do you go to read book or quietly watch a TV program. I'd like to see movable internal walls that would allow us to reconfigure the space for different needs... a box design would be just fine, and then go crazy with movable wall configurations for that artistic itch.

[@jwestney2859]

My wife's dad actually build a round house... to minimize surface area. I miss him now that he is gone. He would have loved your video!

[@Aine197]

I am a big fan of dumb boxes with triangles (roofs) on top. I find them prettier, and they make more sense in places with lots of precipitation. Flat roofs and rain/snow only go well together for a while. You always ebentually develop issues with a flat roof, while slanted roofs just „shrug off“ the rain falling on them.

[@chrisb508]

I'm a function over form kind of guy. I find beauty in added function, durability and cost savings. I live in a "cookie cutter house", and I love it for its simplicity.

[@mdhazeldine]

As a British architectural photographer, I enjoyed the video and learnt a lot (particularly the cost/efficiency stuff), but I'm left a little bit confused about what is unique about the German "big dumb box". Are you referring specifically to a 5-6 story building with 4 sides and a roof? If so, those exist all over the world, including Paris as you mentioned, London and also in the US in the form of 5 over 1s. Are you just saying the US should build more mid-rise buildings? Or are you saying they should make buildings with simpler shapes? The biggest beef I have with some of the examples you showed is that the facades are so bare. I love minimalism, but when you have too much of it, it becomes monotonous. The historic centre of Freiburg looks to be full of "big dumb boxes", but they are all slightly different, with different detailing and decoration, and that's what makes it interesting to look at vs the modern development you showed. In the UK, the most desirable architectural styles are Victorian, Edwardian and Georgian. Fundamentally, the structures of these buildings are often very simple, but it's the detailing that makes them delightful. I think we need to get more of that back into architecture.

[@JohnDoe-us5rq]

I just wished for those boxes to be a little prettier and that not every architect designs exactly the same house. There are parts in Bremen and Hamburg that are very hard to distinguish.

[@patrickm3981]

This is really unfortunate, because there is no need to do it that way. I know a smaller city (a bit over 30000 inhabitants) that did also such kind of development in a better way. They wanted to avoid creating a ghetto for the poor, therefore they planned ahead. The first thing was that they split it into different parts where not every part was developed by the same company. In addition they also demanded that living space for all kind of different types of income was created. Therefore neighboring buildings look similar because they are based on the same "building blocks" but each a bit different. They have different heights, some have a bit more green around then others and so on. In addition there are not 20 of the same type along a street, but maybe 2 or 3 and then a different type of these blocks starts. Some have edges, some have rounded balcony, there are different colors (not bright ones, but more subtile) and so on. Due to this the city block looks a lot more "organic" and not like a bee hive. Of course this is slightly less efficient, but I think its worth it.

[@pampelius1267]

I really think architecture went wrong somewhere over the last hundred years. Whenever I see a "new" building (be it from 1960 or from yesterday) I think "did we forget how to make simple but nice and pleasant looking buildings?". I really hate the kind of dystopian concrete blocks that our cities in Finland are unfortunately full of. Somehow I feel like we adopted the "commie blocks" without ever being communist ourselves. But whenever they try to build something new and "modern" instead, it always just ends up looking too complicated and weird. There's nothing wrong with the shape of a box. We do like the walls to be at a 90 degree angle in our homes after all. What makes the old cities in central Europe so beautiful in my opinion is that they actually put some effort on the facade. Make the colors nice, put up some decorations maybe, and then no one will even notice the building is actually in the shape of a box. It's really important for our mental health that the places around us look nice, so please don't just ignore that in the name of efficiency. But making facades look pretty is probably much cheaper than making the buildings some kind of weird innovative shape that just ends up looking weird anyway.

[@rebeccarendle3706]

Love your passion for your housing videos. Lots of information/facts in this video. So glad you have taken the scientific route for your videos.. you've come a long way from when you were "the Blackforest Family" and had just started your channel.

[@cotiocantoro7564]

Thanks for showing St. Louis, MO. It never gets any praise or good attention. Before urban renewal it was a true gem in America but has become chopped up and disconnected to the max. My Grandma grew up around the area where Pruit Igoe was built and hearing her stories about city life in the 1930s to the 1950s made me question why we ever built suburbia and ran away from city life so quickly.

[@TypeAshton]

It has always been so interesting to me because when I hear other researchers in my field of study talk about urban decline they usually point out what occurred in Detroit - but what happened to St. Louis was on another level.

[@ehoops31]

I live in California and we are desperately trying to build more housing fast. This is a great video that I learned a lot from. Thank you!

[@justaname999]

Thanks for a great insight into all of these factors!! We recently bought our first apartment and the outside is so ugly but we were floored by how little energy is needed, both during the super hot summer and the colder months. We have to use heat eventually but the temperatures had to drop considerably for us to start using our floor heating. And in summer, all our American friends were like "how do Europeans live without AC?!" and we really did well all summer, even though temperatures did go up a lot last summer. I also love that you included the community aspects and the decrease of segregation. It's not going to disappear completely but even a decrease is extremely valuable to community building and reduction of harmful effects of differences in starting positions. I'm not naive enough (anymore) to expect them to completely disappear but any improvement is a step in the right direction.

[@flamedealership]

With your rather sober analysis you really put a dent in the aspirations of future architects. The term "form follows function" exists for a reason. For sustainable future housing of a growing world population achitectional escapades don't provide any more solutions than ultimately just pleasing the egos of the builders-owners or the architects. The dumb boxes may not be the solution that most pleases the eye but they're certainly suitet to provide affordable housing and the possibilty of creating living communities. As always, a profoundly researched and very well argued video. Perhaps it should even be made a standard reminder of developing departments in city councils to keep them level headed. Have a nice week.

[@ThomasMunich-f1k]

To your last question: what would I suggest to increase both quality of life and climate saving? I would suggest a big choice of shops for everyday necessities within walking distance. I live in an absolutely boring neighbourhood, but I can reach about 100 shops on foot within ten minutes. That is quality of life. A neighbourhood without shops is a dead neighbourhood and CO2 production by use of cars is inevitable.

[@janinekaufmann5293]

Freiburg was never really on my radar. The only thing I knew was that the classic horror film "Suspiria" was filmed there. But it seems like a really cool place. Freiburg has a university, a university clinic, the Europa Park is close, there are at least 2 large water parks nearby, the beautiful Black Forest, Switzerland, Lake Constance and France are just a stone's throw away and Freiburg is also progressive in renewable energy. I think I should move there.

[@TypeAshton]

It's a great place to live. A very vibrant, fun city.

[@tillneumann406]

If you can afford it... Even when I studied there for two semesters in 1980/81, renting a place to stay was far more expensive than in Hamburg.

[@jwestney2859]

Recently re-habbed a big box (literally a cube with zero modulation) in a downtown instead of building in a green-field on the edge of town. Everything you say in this video is true, and so little understood by most people. Your video does a great job describing the benefits of this green building, with great depth-of-understanding. Great examples. Great contrast with less successful designs. GO ASHTON!

[@asmodon]

Thanks for your insights. Good to hear from your field of expertise!

[@Bobrogers99]

Some of the newer skyscrapers try so hard to look distinctive, but they end up looking weird, and their styles won't age well. The interiors have odd-shaped rooms that waste space. They are expensive to maintain, expensive to heat and cool, and I suspect that some may eventually be demolished prematurely and replaced by buildings that are more efficient.

[@maddean3893]

13 years ago we were looking for our family home. Being a chartered HVAC engineer I thought I‘d know what to go for. No chance, my wife simply wouldn‘t even consider visiting one of the boxes on sale, absolutely no chance. At the same time most of our female friends loved the new build boxes 2 storey or 6 stories. All I would be asking for would be a roof with less maintenance - not flat. One thing is colour, we now live in a row of small houses build in the 30‘s. We don‘t share cm of property (as is nowadays normal) nor are their any regulations on colour for the neighbourhood. Although all build the same, none of them got the same colour as it’s neighbours by now. It’s very colourful and often people walking by would stop, take a look and simply enjoy 😉

[@jamesneilsongrahamloveinth1301]

Your wife has good instincts. Stark, square buildings with flat roofs are ruining Stuttgart. Developers love flat roofs because they are cheaper to build, yet a building with a flat roof is not only ugly, it is unhealthy - no circulation of air above the accommodation. Streets of buildings with pitched roofs have a more human feel than isolated clumps of buildings with flat roofs. They are easier to be around . . .

[@luigigaminglp]

Only issue with dumb boxes is if they are placed in a rain heavy area. Slap a sloped roof on them and they are good to go. Or the neighborhood is really fancy old buildings.

[@RealConstructor]

I like the different people living in the new development Alte Güterbahn Viertel in Freiburg, student housing, retirement home, social housing, commercial rent apartments. I hope there are also homes/apartments you can buy, shops and work studios, for dentists, doctors, sculptors, painters, furniture craftsmen or just a little cafe or döner shop. I also saw a playground and some greenery and trees. This all makes/builds a vibrant community even if it’s new.

[@katie.r.vannuys]

Thanks! I always learn something from your videos. I like a big dumb box, but have seen other parts of Germany where they are painted bright colors. Makes the area so cheerful. Who needs all that fancy design when you can have a functional building in a bright sunshine yellow or baby blue?!!

[@SirHeinzbond]

About the height, certain towns in germany have a max height limit, just to keep the silhouette of the town, also there is some regulation for elevators, i think at new planned buildings about 4 stories, there is a must to build a elevator, but not sure if this 4 stories is still a thing, or the made it change. Those Boxes are not looking fancy, from the outside, but the inside can be really cozy, useful and even fancy too... with that, i do not look at the facade of the building at first, i look at the inside, just like a book, you are supposed to choose the content, not the cover...

[@TypeAshton]

Yes, there's an elevator requirement with certain building heights. Although I have often felt that today, particularly in multifamily buildings, they are pretty much standard nowadays. We lived in an older building (1860s) before in Freiburg in the attic apartment... Pretty sure the movers hated us for asking to get our passive dining room table, washing machine, and refrigerator down three flights of spiraling stairs. 😂😬

[@SirHeinzbond]

@@TypeAshton i cant believe anyone hates you... i like the older buildings, no wall straight, corners are something, and small Windows at places you don't want them and not on places you want them... and the spiraling, uneven stairs from the time... lovely... but today very not useful... yes it feels like all these new dumb boxes have always a elevator included...which is good, not everyone is just as mobile as young olympian sportsmen... what i miss in architecture is the broader thinking of inclusion of disabled people... on public building, sure, there are some laws, but on living space boxes, it's still to less for me

[@QemeH]

Funnily enough, the height restriction of most towns is based on the fire department 😂 Let me explain: If even one of the city’s buildings is taller than 3 stories (the maximum height you can easily reach with ladders you can carry) the city is legally required to have an aerial firefighting apparatus in their departments portfolio. So while a general „we don’t want huge houses“ is an aesthetic decision, the absolute most common exact height restriction is based on firefighting requirements.

[@TheWampam]

@@QemeH I would claim, that the towns/cities one would want to build that higher building will have that ladder truck anyways. And they often already have some appartment blocks from the 70s with 7 floors. The reason they are not built that high anymore is probably, because they would be towering over their surrounding neigbourhoods too much.

[@mathsiecat]

@@TypeAshton Personally, I think you forgot one of the most important features of the Big Dumb Box that is often overlooked today, even by professionals: ACCESSIBILITY! A Big Dumb Box can more easily and cost-efficiently be updated or correctly planned to accommodate everyone from families with buggies to full-time wheelchair/powerchair users. My building has four floors with flats plus basement/garage level 1 and garage level 2. On each storey from E-3 there is one complex designed flat made for the needs of a renter who is (next to) constantly in a wheelchair. Door openings are wider, there is no lip to the balcony, door handles and light switches are lower down, wall plugs a bit higher. The rest of the flats are adjusted enough that parents with buggies, seniors, or disabled visitors can manage easily enough. Common areas are completely accessible, two staircases and a lift, automatic doors triggered by flat push buttons or inserting one’s key and turning. Lighting is automatically triggered by movement. I live in GER‘s worst city for €/m2 - Munich. Over the last ten years I have seen our neighbourhood go from labelled ‚decaying industry‘, ‚blighted‘ and ‚one of the more „dangerous“ Viertel Münchens‘ to a lovely, vibrant full Viertel that is mostly a mix of normal and Sozialwohnungen, more recently some townhouses, one rise of luxury flats, a Netto, multiple KiTas, dozens of playgrounds, a few parks of differing sizes and the last parcel of land is under construction for next autumn: our very own Grundschule!

[@Equulai]

The boxes can look a bit sterile and unwelcoming, but with greenery, green spaces, pedestrian lounging areas (benches, gathering places, public barbecue places etc.) this can be alleviated a lot. Münster has a model district with a lot of walkable areas connecting low-story boxes that form a very pleasant neighborhood. The Vauban neighborhood in Freiburg is another example of this concept done right and expanded upon well. And don't forget awesome roof-terraces and gardens that you can potentially put on the flat roofs. The most important thing is that we build way more of these multi-story buildings of 2-4 floors (higher becomes too intimidating and dominating and oppressive) instead of detached single family houses in towns and cities. These dumb boxes also work really well with renewable energy integration. All in all a boatload of positives for society, cities, livability, sustainability.

[@Cowboy-in-a-Pink-Stetson]

A thought provoking video again. Thank you I would love to see more art incorporated into the facades like it was in buildings before the mid 20th century. The art could reflect the taste and fashion of the time. As you pointed out, the budget saved on building a "dumb box" could then be used to make the view from the outside morre interesting.

[@rebelheartavalon]

Many thanks for your profound research and entertaining explanations.

[@TypeAshton]

My pleasure!

[@nabun111]

I live in Freiburg too, and I agree with many things of your video. But I have a problem with the flat roofs, because they leak very often and require a lot of polysterol insulation which is bad for the environment and bad for fire protection. Insulation made from wood, is far better in both categories, but you can use wooden insulation only on angeld roofs.

[@johnsbone]

HI, as a Building Regulations officer for last 50 years, (Building code official) in the UK I really enjoyed this big dumb box article a lot of good common sense. May I point out that it is only 2 years ago that the English National Government woke up to the facts on solar reflections and overheating of apartments and new dwellings, and published Overheating Requirements in out mandatory building regulations Check out Part O (oscar) "Approved Document" for our new code on this topic. Shame it took a melted car in a London street and apartments with 35-40 degrees C to wake them up. John Bone, C.Build.E MCABE

[@johanmolin3213]

Interesting as always, Ashton! My late father was an architect, studied as such in the 1940's and thus steeped in "functionalist style", which was much about doing away with heave ornaments and making for better living conditions for "the masses". He would probably endorsed this episode of yours. The idea of this as an architect stile was somewhat derailed by the industrialized building techniques of the 1960's. But building boxes doesn't necessarily equal lack of style. Another thing which you hinted at is that the size is important for the environment to be livable. Personally I don't understand the present vogue about building 30 - 50 floor buildings. It is not what we used to do in Europe. No matter what country you study, traditional housing has been about 3 - 4 story buildings. My father used to compare Denmark and Sweden in the 1960's, when we had a big building boom in Sweden. In the inner cities then, if one house in a blocks condemned, a big construction company bought the whole block and tore it down, building a new, much too large to be esthetically, box instead. That made for city centers mordor less all looking the same. In Denmark however, they still were poorer than in sweden (it's quite the reverse these days). In the same situation therefore, they tore down the condemned house and squeezed a dew one in where the old one had been standing. Thus the new house automatically didn't differ too much in dimensions from the old one. And the over all environment looked pretty much the same as before.

[@uncinarynin]

I'm in the process of buying an apartment from a company that focuses on building condominiums. They say that white cubes ("dumb boxes") are most versatile because they are so neutral. There's certainly some expressive architecture, but the vast majority of apartments built is not among it. With a practical floor plan that most can agree on, the same apartment can be furnished for singles, couples or families and the rooms can also change their purpose to some extent, for example when children grow up and move out and don't need their rooms any more. The exception are the bathroom, toilet and kitchen, which all require some installations that are decided upon from the beginning. Then by the placement of freshwater and wastewater connections and electric outlets it's pretty clear where your sink, dishwasher, stove and fridge goes even if the apartment isn't sold with a pre-installed kitchen. The rest is flexible and can be adjusted, probably better than a more "styled" apartment would.

[@michaelschuckart2217]

6:28 You are nearly right, but it is the other way round: "High rise means higher than 22m (highest inhabited floor). But the standardized ladders' performance is reach the building in a hight of 23m from12m (DLK 23/12) away. There do exist higher ladders and telescopic platforms, but these are not normally needed for rescuing people from high rises but are mostly for industrial use. Such buildings have (as you said) either two different staircases or a safety staircase either as a separate tower outside of the building oder a staircase inside which is kept under higher air pressure than normal, accessible through air locks.

[@williamlucas4656]

Big dumb boxes without any architectural flourishes or differentiating colors are the bane of the existence of boxes. The boxes themselves are done somewhat differently in Europe with more retail on the bottom and less scale so that they don’t seem so overwhelmingly dominant. Those details like color and architectural flourishes add to the visual interest and personality of a building and are worth the money.

[@pcread]

4 floors is also a sweet-spot. In some countries that's the elevator limit. Above that and new builds require the extra cost of a shaft, machinery and operation.

[@snc4278]

That was an informative video. I lived in a post Soviet county filled with big dumb boxes. Many of which were easily repaired, remodeled, and esthetically pleasing. I wish the US was filled with big dumb boxes. From a cost standpoint, it would cut rent in half, promote more engagement in community plus give people more of an opportunity to have clean, comfortable, and affordable housing.

[@Charlie_..]

With more than 40 years experience in construction it‘s still fun to listen to architects and their ideas and discussions… We hear them… while we build buildings… and mostly the stuff we build is good although they planned it… and of course those „dumb boxes“ are the logical consequence for sustainable construction… as much as architects aren‘t… At least here in Austria…

[@EliasHansenu7f]

It's not just the box, the factor for good places are living spaces liked defined by Strong Town (see Jason Slaughter, Not Just Bikes) making it possible to have have walkable cities, not dominated by the car. The Netherlands are often mentioned but a town like Gijon in Spain has partial elements of this concept. The buildings in downtown are 10 stories high but the the life in the evenings is bustling, because the plane at street level has always a cafe, shop or restaurant.

[@stemid85]

I've taken this style for granted growing up in Europe, but now I know the origins of it. Thanks.

[@Thorai161]

How well does green Facades work? It could improve the look of the "dumb boxes" and if you vary the plants, the buildings still can look a bit different, even if the builing itself is the same dumb box. Should be good the the look, atleast in my opinion. Also i guess it should reduce heating and cooling costs and can be pretty good for the biodiversity in the area. Does it come with higher constructing or maintenance costs? Nice video btw

[@michaelmedlinger6399]

So, Ashton, I wonder what you would have to say about the Elphilharmonie in Hamburg. Every single one of the glass plates on the outside and every single one of the plaster plates covering the walls and ceilings of the hall itself are unique and had to be manufactured separately.

[@tillneumann406]

Ashton doesn't seem to be so much into Basel architects :-).

[@TypeAshton]

It's a cool building to look at and I hear the acoustics are outstanding. It is definitely a "duck" as Robert Venturi would term it. 99percentinvisible.org/article/lessons-sin-city-architecture-ducks-versus-decorated-sheds/ And ducks like the Elphilharmonie mean that they are inherently more about "art" than anything else, including sustainability. If that's your goal, cool. Own it. My only grind is when art projects like these try to then turn around and tout how "green" they are (like what happened with the Freiburg Library).

[@michaelmedlinger6399]

@@TypeAshton I think it‘s safe to say that at the time the Elphi was designed, criteria of „green“ and „sustainable“ did not play quite the significant role we find today. In any case, I don‘t recall ever hearing anyone make any such claims for the building. Otherwise, I could go on for ages about the building. While the hall itself is excellent (although I am highly skeptical of the vineyard-style halls in general) and I‘m very happy to have it here in Hamburg, the location is a disaster.

[@mdnickless]

Rainwater management is another thing to consider. When we concrete over areas, those places can not naturally drain, which shifts the burden elsewhere. When there is heavy rain, the water falling onto buildings has to go somewhere, and ultimately that usually means rivers, creating the potential for floods. There are strategies to avoid excessive runoff, but they depend on the right building densities to ensure there is sufficient space to provide natural soakage.

[@RobertWeigelt-df6lb]

GO BLACK FOREST FAMILY!!! Schön euch hier zu haben!!😊😊😊

[@jmi5969]

The most amazing thing about these tiny boxes is ... that someone called them big! It's so refreshing to see human scale in low-cost construction (okay, not exactly low-cost but certainly not luxury). A typical new construction in my city is at least 30 floors, often 40+.

[@bmolley]

So many good points in this video!

[@schmidtchristian1401]

Gut das ihr da seid ❤❤❤❤❤

[@deirdrevergados971]

Our house is two dumb boxes set at right angles to each other so that the rarely used "formal" living room can be completey isolated from the every day part of the building. There are doors closing off the stairs to the bedrooms to prevent drafts and heat loss. Each area has its own thermostat so we only heat what is currenty occupied. Because the walls are stone blocks and 50 centimeters thick cooling is not required.

[@kleinerELM]

I am a building material scientist and really want to thank you for pointing out the huge amount of embodied energy in glass facades. Everybody is talking about how bad concrete is in this manner, but especially architects seem to forget, that a replacement with glass is even worse. In my opinion huge windows make a flat less livable than more conservative designs with smaller windows. You have less wall space, it has to be cleaned, in the summer the room heats up more and you need artificial cooling, Edge constructions are more prone to failures and are heat-bridges,... I am also not a big fan of lame dumb concrete boxes, but they are much better than glass boxes with a fancy geometry.

[@CaroAbebe]

Agreed. However, our windows (big, but not overly large, admittedly) help heat our house in winter, while the shade provided by the roof protects from the summer sun, or else the sunscreens do for the short time they may be needed.

[@kleinerELM]

@@CaroAbebe While writing the comment, I was thinking about pure glass facades, corners made of glass or huge window areas. And I agree, if your windows have a good insulation value, they may help heating the rooms on sunny days.

[@imrearat7620]

Great video with an important message! A lot of people say: "AHHH! BOX BAD! Need fancy house!" My opinion: simple house = good house. Love this channel! 👍😀

[@TypeAshton]

Thank you!

[@cinnamoon1455]

I really enjoyed this video. Very interesting topic. I recently read a really good book on the topic, it's geared towards people planning a house of their own to help you understand how and where you can save money. It's called 'Attraktiv bauen mit kleinem Budget' by Achim Linhardt. It's amazing how many decisions you never thought about can have huge impacts on the price whereas others that seem more obvious are far less impactful. For me, clearly number one would be size and clever planning to get rid of all the dead space and make the most use of what you have. But good and cost saving planning also includes less obvious things like bundling all the plumbing in one space. I don't think most people appreciate how much thought and planning goes into a design that is appealing while still being as cost-effective as possible.

[@wantin42]

What I think a lot of our modern buildings lack, compared to our ould dumb boxes is the flourishing, that could differentiate them from each other and make them look nice while still keeping them as efficient midrises

[@Vaati1992]

The apartment I live in is almost a big, dumb box. It's exactly six storeys tall and contains eight apartments. The highest storey has a roof-top terrace and is pretty small, the other apartments have loggia-style balconies. Due to its location at a five-road intersection, it's staircase-shaped. But the building is very well insulated, the apartments get a lot of natural light, it's lovely. Literally the only downside is that the footprint of it is quite big, which for the folks living in it mostly means we all dread it when the Kehrwoche arrives or it's winter, meaning there's about an hour or more of labor necessary to keep the sidewalks clean and accesible xD Also, after having gotten into urbanism (as an amateur), I have realized that if I ever have the luxury of building my own home, it'll definitely be a pretty simple bungalow with a flat, greened roof (and solar panels), to make it an efficient little box to live in.

[@BuenoSuertes]

I worked in a building designed by someone who passes as a starchitect here in Malaysia. The problem was that all the curves did not fit well with our company, which dealt with PCs. PC boxes cannot fit flush against the walls. The basement which we used as a warehouse had ceilings that were too low. And the transparent roof panels (not sure if they were glass) had permanent water stains and leaked when it rained. I later worked in another IT company that used a dumb box. The place was a dump in comparison, but it was far more functional.

[@birthebalesini1537]

Really interesting perspective on the "Dumb Box". I think one trick when it comes to how they work in a city would be in the surroundings. The box it self is kind of dull and can be really depressing in a city landscape - but if care is being applied in how they "communicate" with one another and how the surroundings (read plants, streets, places to rest etc) connect with the box is key then the box is an element. They are not the main event. Dumb boxes should be seen in connection with their surroundings and with other boxes.

[@jmonsted]

I'm a landlord and we love these dumb boxes, too. Simple to maintain, efficient, making it cheaper to build and run, lowering rent and generally nice to live in.

[@performingartist]

I live in a 5 story dumb box outside of Freiburg. It's pretty great from an efficiency standpoint. I hardly have to run the heat at all in the winter ( never have to turn it on in the bedroom), and of course AC is unnecessary.

[@TypeAshton]

Same! We have been holding out on turning on the heat as well. Sometimes the floors feel a bit cold on bare feet but our internal temp is still holding steady at 20C despite all of the cold rain (and quite a chilly morning today!)

[@performingartist]

At our last apartment we had a guy under us who installed a high efficiency wood burning heater that vented through our interior wall. We had warm floors and walls. It was pretty awesome. It would be nice to see some sun soon wouldn't it?

[@TypeAshton]

OH man it has been such a grey and rainy week. Yesterday morning the sun peaked out for a little bit and I immediately took the kids on a walk.

[@ezraabbadon5082]

My biggest problem with these buildings is that they most often come in boring, sterile whites and greys. Add some colours to it. And some greenery, like a rooftop garden or something for insects and birds and it would be much better

[@paulinemoira8442]

I really like pretty whimsical architecture and dislike uniformity, so I totally get the hate people have of "dumb boxes". But I also think that beauty can be achieved by other means, like interior design, pretty gardens, public parks or art projects that are interwoven into the neighborhood. Which simultaneously also means that lots of people are included into designing and personalizing their neighborhood, not just a tiny elite team of architects. The plainness of dumb boxes can be a feature not a flaw.

[@NeovanGoth]

Very interesting! I'm from Munich (even more expensive than Freiburg ;)) and genuinely thought that these middle-sized boxes make renting _more_ expensive, because they provide (far) less density than high rises.

[@pfalzgraf7527]

There are so many things to think about when talking about something "beautiful"! In terms of cities, I think you are absolutely right: multi unit houses with no more than 6 floors and more or less cube-shaped are probably a good, sustainable and on various levels resilient way to go. Variation and individualism can be brought in by different kinds of surface materials and structures as well as colour. In older or more traditional quarters of the city, I'd go for gabled roofs, rather than flat. Mainly for aesthetic reasons. Similarly single family homes: If they are built on the outskirts of a city or town, you can go for the cubic design. In real small European villages, I'd also go for the trad-adaption of a gabled roof. I did mention materials. From my point of view, wood is a very good material IF the house is allowed to stand for a long time! This way, the carbon that is captured in the wood will stand with the house and not be set free by the wood rotting or being burned. Recently in my neighbourhood, there were two block houses built. One of them I don't like because the wood was imported over a few thousand kilometers and the design is not one that fits in this area. The other one, however, is made of wood from the same Bundesland (German State), looks like any house, just woodier, is nicely isolated and can stand there for centuries. The inside walls are made of clay which means the interior climate is not too much dominated by the wood. I really like the idea. And this wooden building captures carbon, whereas cement or bricks need a lot of energy in their production. The only problem: these huge stems don't grow so fast! So, for houses built from massive wood, I'd prefer a technique where you can use younger trees.

[@mettelindegardnielsen9411]

While I agree with your points, it is important to consider as well, how our surroundings effect our mental health. If I remember right, having colour, beauty, nature and so on can improve ones mental health (fx historical buildings also helps). But of course these things can be done to an extend with boxes as well, since landscaping and murials can work well with boxes.

[@eyvindr]

Thanks for this. Having moved from practicing architecture in Europe to the US, I'm still struggling with this attitude.

[@knowledgeandpleasure]

In terms of walkability, I’d still like the facades of the boxes to at least be interesting. Some of the older brick buildings with some basic ornamentation that you showed would do fine for me.