Man is the focus
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2. December 2024

From the beginning, the work of ISA Internationales Stadtbauatelier has been backed by human philosophy and an urban design theory, which based on it. Man is the focus of the work of the office. Man, independent of sex, age, race, culture. Man, as he has been understood since thousands of years by cultivated initiates in all cultures.
Man is seen as an individuality, which is unique as an ego and has not only body and soul, but also spirit: body, sex and race are seen as temporary dresses of Man. For this reason Man is a human being, which has physical, mental and spiritual needs, which must be satisfied by his environment.

Cities are the Task

Cities are this environment; they are seen as the third dress of man: clothes the first, houses the second and cities, especially the public space, as the third envelope of the human body. Cities are understood as real microcosms, small man-made worlds, destinated to satisfy all needs of man, physical as well mental and spiritual from birth to death. Cities, therefore, are not understood as the accidental compilation of buildings, as the overwhelming number of cities like that all over the world could make believe, but as creative, comprehensive design tasks in space and time, giving every city her own image, her own design, a city architecture designed like a building.

Serving Human Needs

The essential task of the ISA Internationales Stadtbauatelier is therefore not only to work for the satisfaction of the physical needs of Man - this is only the prerequisite - but also, and especially, for the psychological and spiritual-intellectual needs of Man. This means, seen in a philosophical way, that mental impressions, qualities like variety, stimulation or surprise in urban space, and intellectual, if not spiritual experiences of Man through artistic beauty, for instance, in his urban environment are as important for the quality of life as the physical life conditions in housing, work, communication, etc.

Creating Emotion and Experience

Planning rich spiritual-intellectual experiences, producing attractive mental atmospheres with the help of the rich collection of psychological urban design principles and visual tools is the real objective of the projects of ISA Internationales Stadtbauatelier. That this can only be done on the basics of the highest development of physical planning, is obvious and always the foundation of every project of the office. Therefore, urban design concepts as, for instance, the development of urban design images or the application of urban design principles like the synthesis of order and variety, of continuity and change or the union of the specific and the general - nothing else as the creative urban design transformation of the principle of the synthesis of yin and yang - are important design instruments of the ISA Internationales Stadtbauatelier.

Understanding Cities as a Work of Art

Last, but not least, the philosophy of the office requests to consider cities as a work of arts, as cities have been seen by great leaders, since thousands of years, in all cultures all over the world. Cities as art, not to satisfy the aesthetic desires of an over cultivated minority, but to create not only functional and interesting, but also beautiful urban environments. And this, because the timeless truth - man first forms environment, environment then forms man - is today so valid as yesterday.
Modern, living, beautiful cities are the best way to educate, cultivate and develop Man and his culture, as well in the mental and intellectual aspect of Man as in the moral and spiritual character. In this sense ISA Internationales Stadtbauatelier tries to follow a very old global wise saying: “Only beauty will save humanity”.