The Apprentice's House - from the book: Climate - Building Resilience in the Era of Climate Change

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Climate

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materiality

resilience settlement

consumption

construction

Contributors Text: Nicolai Bo Andersen (Professor MSO), Thomas Kampmann (Associate Professor), Charlie Steenberg (Associate Professor)

Projects: Mia Baltzer Nielsen, Rasmus Helleskov Wieleman, Caroline Crüger Ahm Programme Cultural Heritage, Transformation and Conservation Institute Institute of Architecture and Culture Collaborations Dansk Håndværk, DTU Architectural Engineering, Royal Danish Academy — Conservation, Campus Bornholm. The Apprentices’ House project is supported by Realdania.

The Apprentices’ House

The Apprentices’ House project is the preliminary result of a semester assignment at the Master’s programme in Cultural Heritage, Transformation and Conservation in the spring semester 2019. A team of students and teachers from DTU and the Royal Danish Academy — Conservation were involved in qualifying questions concerning energy and resources (LCA) as well as colour archaeology.

The assignment was to design an exemplary restoration or transformation of and addition to an existing house that could inspire architects, building owners, authorities and not least craftsmen to work with sustainable building culture on a more informed professional level. The question was how to achieve a beautiful and sustainable result from a rundown building situated in an unsightly context. Mia Baltzer, Rasmus Helleskov Wieleman and Caroline Crüger Ahm’s projects were selected for further development and combined into an ideal project to be carried out by craftsmen apprentices as a demonstration project.

The main house, built in 1887, is proposed restored while preserving as many building elements originating from before the great ‘modernization’ of the late 1960s as possible. The intention is to ensure a robust and well-functioning floor plan that can accommodate a variety of future programmes. The smaller rooms may function as living rooms, bedrooms or offices and can be furnished as needed. The large classroom is a multifunctional space with access from both sides of the house.

All timber is restored by Dutchman wood repair. The chimney is rebuilt and broken masonry repaired with handmade bricks. Exterior ground floor walls are re-insulated with 75 mm hempcrete and the roof with 150 mm flax insulation. The floor is

← Exterior View. Project by Mia Baltzer Nielsen.

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Climate proposed re-insulated with 150 mm mineral insulation board. No damp-­proof membrane (DPM) will be needed, as all surfaces are treated exclusively with diffusion-open materials such as lime mortar, limewash, distemper and silicate mineral paint.

All existing doors and windows are preserved. Wood is restored by Dutchman wood repair, primed with boiled linseed oil and painted with three coats of linseed oil paint. All windows are energy-­optimized using secondary glazing, which will make them better insulated than similar new windows. In a longer perspective, an additional workshop house and a dormitory are planned. Both additional buildings are timber constructions with large wooden gates painted with pigmented pine tar. The roofs are thatched to correspond with the existing building.

Five principles of sustainable building culture are essential: 1 uncover the values of the site and the house systematically. Before any intervention, a thorough building survey, an analysis and valuation as well as a phenomenological description must be made in order to clarify and document the historical, technical and aesthetic values of the existing house; 2 respect the hierarchy and the structure of the house. A building is like a living organism that has evolved and will continue to evolve over time. Respect the main structure and the individual building parts and avoid making elements that will be in the way of others. The main structure of the building must not be weakened; 3 reuse as much as possible. For resource and historical reasons, as much as possible should be preserved. Original material must be restored, just as traces of wear and weathering must be preserved. Reconstructions can be allowed if based on reliable sources ​— ​e.g. building-archaeological traces, photos, drawings or local building tradition; 4 use quality materials that can be repaired. For technical and aesthetic reasons, only materials suitable for the specific house must be used. The materials must be of a high quality, healthy and non-toxic. All materials and building parts must be repairable and be able to weather beautifully; 5 build durable ​— ​technical, functional and aesthetic. The whole purpose is to extend the life of the building to the benefit of present and future generations.

Changes and new additions must be technically robust, the floor plan must be adaptable to present and future use, and the building must be aesthetically resilient.

↑ Exterior View. Project by Caroline Crüger Ahm.

→ Phenomenological Study. Project by Rasmus Helleskov Wieleman.

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The Apprentices’ House