In 1892 Oscar Wilde described in Lady Windermere's Fan »a cynic as a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.« It seems as though everything that is not measurable, that cannot be captured by calculations becomes worthless and superfluous when the term »value« is equated to »price«.

As a consequence of this abstraction to a measurable quantity expressed in numbers, Karl Marx’s exchange value became the predominant notion of value — as the product of capital, the surplus.

Architecture has also been highly influenced by this logic and has become a commodity to accumulate wealth.The side effects of this situation are unaffordable land prices, short lifespans of buildings and the most dramatic crisis of all – climate change – which pose constant challenges to tomorrow’s society.

The project »Das wertvolle Haus« takes this situation as a given and attempts to reflect on these issues by working with the methods born out of this system. As a critical form of building practice, perhaps we can use standardised products – the ultimate outcome of late capitalism – and combined with lavish materials, rethink the issues of our time.

Because only by reshaping this mistaken idea of »value«, can architecture move beyond its current position as a standardised commodity of exchange in a capitalist market.