Gerrit Rietveld Academy

Joseph Campbell famously wrote that “if you want to understand what’s most important to a society, don’t examine its art or literature, simply look at its biggest buildings”. Architecture and urban design are expressions of the dominant powers and ideals of their time. Photographer Lewis Bush uses a similar approach to visualise the transformation of his hometown of London.

In 1861, the town Pomerode was founded in the northeast of Santa Catarina by Pomeranian Germans (who originate from the North of Germany). Out of the roughly 25,000 inhabitants, some 90 percent still speak German, and even more curiously, with a distinct 19th century Pommersch accent.

The architecture profession tends to assume that there is always more to build. We need more infrastructure, more houses and more office space to accommodate economies and societies that are forever expanding. Greedy though it may be, this mindset is supported by the pervasive belief that a society’s success is best measured not in terms of humane measures such as the capacity for care and play but in economic terms such as market expansion.