By Frei Otto & Bodo Rasch

Primeval architecture is an architecture of necessity. Nothing is there to excess, no matter whether stone, clay, reeds or wood, animal skins or hair are used. It is minimal. It can be very beautiful even amidst poverty and is good in the ethical sense. Minimal architecture can be structure and ornament at the same time. Good architecture seems to be more important than beautiful architecture. But really good architecture is also beautiful, and only buildings that are at the same time ethically good and aesthetically beautiful are worth preserving. Our age requires buildings that are lighter, more energy-saving, more mobile and more adaptable, in brief more natural, without disregarding the need for safety and security. This logically leads to further development of light constructions, the building of tents, shells, awnings and air-supported membranes. It also leads to a new mobility and convertibility. The architecture of tomorrow will again be minimal architecture. Without making any claims to completeness the working material shown illustrates the fundamentals and methods of finding form as a part of our working method.