Celebrated German architect Anna Heringer blends a deeply grounded fascination with earth, and with the future of the Earth, with a quasi-spiritual philosophy. The resulting buildings can be exceptional, and her deep-green philosophy of materials is absolutely of the moment. Few have made clay look so good or seem so vital.

Heringer made her name with a series of innovative earth and bamboo builds in Bangladesh which, as well as having great charm, build upon local sustainable vernacular techniques and materials. Having expanded her repertoire around the world, she is now beginning to build in Europe, something that is presenting a whole new series of challenges.

Heringer grew up in Laufen, a Bavarian town on the border with Austria. Her father was a landscape architect and committed environmentalist, who instilled in her a passion for ecology, while her mother was a kinesiologist who taught her to value the physical and trust her instincts. Both influences can be seen very clearly in her practice today. Theirs was an ethical household run on environmental principles, with no unnecessary consumer goods and homemade clothes instead of the latest fashions.

Another formative influence was the Scouts, where she learned to build using bamboo canes lashed together with rope. This wholesome childhood, against which Heringer appears never to have rebelled, has fostered in her an evangelical green design philosophy that some might call a little unworldly, hippyish and short on pragmatism. But then, all new ideas are unrealistic until they aren’t, aren’t they?

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