There's a programme on ntv about "The most beautiful houses in the world". Wonderful - finally some airtime for architecture! It's understandable that the most spectacular homes are brought into our parlours. We look at plots of land in a dreamlike landscape, the neighbours are far away. These are the commissions that all master builders dream of: high budgets and, with today's resources, almost limitless creativity. Architecture like this manages without any reference to the city. If possible, it is located outside in front of a spectacular landscape. They are yachts on dry decks. Beautiful and dreamlike for all up-and-comers: they are white, they are horizontal, they have five bathrooms and they are located in a photogenic landscape. Of course, I am happy to accept such commissions if they are offered to me. But the architect as a citizen should be aware of this: You can't build a city with this. It is not urban architecture if you put designs on plots with 5,000 square metres of land. Let's imagine that the properties in the programme were located in a housing estate with 500 square metre plots: They could not work, because such marvellous ideas need space, lots of space.

These sketches are solos, played by great musicians. But when it comes to musical solos, the rule is: "There can only be one." A colleague in the next room within earshot cannot perform their piece. Music can only be performed together if the musicians form a band or orchestra. Otherwise a cacophony is unavoidable.

For me, urban architecture is a good big band. Everyone plays their instrument together. There are a few properties and building projects that could do with a solo part. These are museums, operas or monuments, but if someone is fiddling their solo on the corner of every building in every street - who wants to hear that? A good rock song doesn't always have a guitar solo. I remember a school friend who played the drums. He practised a lot on his one solo and wanted to perform it. But once his teacher told him: "Save it! A good drummer can be recognised without a solo."

And that is the problem at the moment: talented and capable architects are throwing themselves into their solo architecture in order to show off their skills and gain the little bit of attention that architecture gets in the current media society. The rest of the building tasks are consigned to irrelevance. We see star architecture and a flood of buildings without cultural aspirations. If we architects were musicians for a day, we would all be soloists - some experts, others wannabes. And I see that as a challenge: we don't have orchestral musicians who contribute to an overall composition and only play a solo in a nice place. This problem forms a control loop: famous architects have designed their designs to attract attention at all costs. This is the only way they currently have a wafer-thin chance of being recognised at all. However, the majority of people only see the majority of rubbish buildings and lose interest in good architecture. So the star architects have to go to even greater extremes the next time they draw lots. This has set in motion a downward spiral that has been going on for several decades. What would happen in the restaurant scene, for example, if we only had star chefs? Imagine if there were only five great restaurants with star chefs in five major cities in Germany. The other restaurants, however, would all be quirky pubs with lukewarm dishes and stale drinks - the majority of the population would soon lose interest in gastronomy and wouldn't understand why it's worth spending 200 euros on a visit.

But when the food is being cooked on all TV channels, the public gets an appetite for something tasty. And the five top restaurants earn money from this because their tables are reserved for weeks on end. The public has more knowledge and doesn't have to be lured in with crazy show cooking. The whole society benefits from this and it would be the same with good architecture. The audience then recognises the good drummer even without his solo.

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First published on Facebook on 9 January 2021