renewables | materiality | May 2022

The elite performance

Towards a new building culture

Concluding my time at the Aarhus school of architecture I tried to summarize the interests I have had during my master's studies into a thesis project. The title of the project is called "The elite performance - Towards a new building culture defined by the exploration and manufacturing of renewable materials" and referees to the intrinsic aesthetics of a material. Its elite performance is here understood, as the highest formal expression that the material can convey. The most meaningful way for it to manifest in a structural composition.

I started the project by surveying and cataloguing renewable resources in Denmark and found there to be an abundance spread across the country. The geographical conditions foster a variety of available earthen and biogenic resources. Especially agricultural bi-products can be acquired in bulk. I was also investigating how the resources could be treated into usable materials. Realising that the less we can treat a resource, the more sustainable it remains. So, what kind of architecture can these materials inspire, and how can we achieve their utmost potential? Through working with a series of architectons, I explored the physical and aesthetic properties of the biogenic materials.

It quickly became apparent that the materials have difficulty manifesting themselves independently in a built construction. This is mainly because they tend to decompose with prolonged exposure to moisture. It therefore requires an increased attention to the constructive protection and assembly of the building. Natural materials can rarely perform all necessary functions on their own and therefore they need to synergize with other materials. Here, its importance how to work with construction details and understanding how materials are put together.

All natural materials have an inherent scale that we instinctively recognize. There are limits to the length of a straw, the height and width of a tree, as well as the weight of a boulder that we can move around with our bodies. These scales are often repeated in the construction structures, where different materials are referring to their given scale.

What began as an exploration of material production through resource treatment, I later choose to alter into a speculative transformation of an "industrial" building. Instead of proposing a new typology for sustainable material production, it was more potent to work with how we can adapt our current productions. Therefore, I investigated the possibility of transforming the "Helligsø brickworks" located in Thy.

The current production facility of the brickworks is rearranged so that more production lines with less complexity can take place. The tunnel oven is removed while processing is retained to produce unfired clay bricks – the vacant space is utilized for new production.

A public loop is introduced through the building complex, giving visitors access to see the production. On the north side, the rough processing can be viewed from the outside and in. In the southern complex, walkways and viewpoints are introduced as a new layer, raised above production.

The existing administration buildings articulate with their skewed placement a secondary axis, which is reinforced in the transformed building. A new square is established in front of the new administration, which binds the existing complex together.

The former administration and service building is transformed to accommodate a new extended program. The existing rhythmic brick facades are preserved while the interior walls are replaced, and the exterior walls insulated. By using renewable building materials, the spaces are curated according to the functional requirements. Some rooms have large spans and are open, while others are compressed and heavy. The new layers in the building support the spatial progression through the building and create entirely new experiences. Likewise, the new thatch roof creates niches, openings, and new in-between zones between indoors and outdoors.

Read more about the project in the Summary Report.