Towards a Tectonic Sustainable Building Practice

TOWARDS A TECTONIC SUSTAINABLE BUILDING PRACTICE

Can a tectonic building practice be strengthened through new creation processes, where resources are used more purposefully, deliberately and systematically?

Which new measures are necessary if we are to develop a strong tectonic building practice with due consideration for increasing climate and environmental problems?

The objective of the project is to analyse and develop the tectonic practice based on case studies, in relation to: - Cultural anchoring and identity creation - Building culture and creative processes - Sustainability, lifecycle and resource management The research project is divided into a main project and various subprojects, respectively, two levels that mutually feed each other.

The main project, which constitutes the general level, seeks to identify a coherent strategy towards a new tectonically sustainable building culture.

The subprojects look at partial issues and go into specific questions dealing with central aspects of the overall project: tectonics, identity creation, cultural heritage/recycling and sustainability.

For more information please visit our webpage: www.tektonik.dk

The research project is funded by: The Danish Council for Independent Research - Humanities and spans across three of the most important research institutions within the architectural field in Denmark:

Mittelschule Klaus Weiler Fraxern, Dietrich Untertrifaller Architekten Photo: Johannes Greisen

Main project Anne Beim, Professor, M. Arch, PhD The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture Karl Christiansen, Professor, M. Arch, PhD Aarhus School of Architecture Charlotte Bundgaard, Prorector, Assistant Professor, M. Arch, PhD Aarhus School of Architecture Objective The specific objective of the main project is to evaluate and update the concept of tectonics and make it more operational (in terms of models and methods) within an architectural research tradition as well as in architectural practice concerning sustainable building culture.

Issue Throughout the years, the concept of tectonics has been considered as a non-explicit field of knowledge. In general, tectonics has been understood as a implicit, experiencebased knowledge integrated directly into architectural design and building practice. As mentioned previously, external influences in form of the global resource situation, the climate crisis and continuous industrialisation challenge the implicit character of the concept praxis, which, as a result, risks losing its capacity to create cohesion. The ultimate consequence will be inappropriate construction solutions, loss of architectural quality and a risk of undermining sustainability.

In the research field of tectonics, a number of potentials exist.

These need to be indentified and reinterpreted as active parameters in architectural processes of creation, if presentday production methods are to meet the future demands for sustainable design solutions.

Housingproject Mulhouse, Lacaton Vasal Photo: Anne Beim

Sustainable Tectonics The Building as a Resource Responsible and Dynamic Structure Subproject Ulrik Stylsvig Madsen, Assistant Professor, M. Arch, PhD The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture Objective The subproject seeks to pinpoint and discuss the challenges and problematics that will occur in the development of tectonic practice in the future, considering that it is both necessary to ensure responsible resource consumption and to make it possible for the culture and the everyday situations, for which it creates space, to unfold and develop over time.

Issue The project is based on the thesis that architecture, in order to be sturdy, must be able to develop and change over time. The building should be seen as a dynamic structure, whose building parts, functions and meaning can be changed or replaced continually. A building’s life, therefore, depends not only on the interplay between its different parts, (which have varying service lives), but also on its capacity to be an active framework for the cultural and social processes that it accommodates. The project aims to discuss how the interplay between these different parameters can form the foundation for a tectonic practice that will ensure the most responsible use of resources throughout the building’s entire life.

Brickwall, Bengt Edman Photo: Thomas Bo Jensen

The Tectonics of Brick Towards an Architecturally Sustainable Brickwork Practice Subproject Thomas Bo Jensen, Associate Professor, M. Arch, PhD The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture Objective The project is to conduct theoretical studies and practical experiments in order to contribute to a new foundation for the future use of bricks. The intention is to investigate how our knowledge about the thermal, acoustic and other climate-related advantages of bricks can be operationalised in concordance with a tectonically clear and more long-lasting design of brickwork.

Issue The brickwork architecture that is being constructed today is far below the tectonic standard that characterised the Danish brickwork tradition up until around 1970. It is also evident that there has been a movement away from the use of the brick’s structural and thermal properties towards a more one-sided focus on the use of brickwork as the facing. If we continue to follow the predominant building culture blindly, the brick will not be able to live up to future tightened energy requirements, and other materials will replace brickwork.

Eco Boulevard, Ecosistema Urbano Photo: Ulrik Stylsvig Madsen

Climate-Adapted Architecture A Categorisation of Existing Strategies Subproject Claus Bech-Danielsen, Professor, , M. Arch, PhD Danish Building Research Institute Objective The aim of the subproject is to map and describe possible strategies in connection with the necessary reorientation towards ‘climate-adapted construction’. The intention is to establish new targets for sustainability in architecture fashioned by the new demands that have emerged in relation to this subject because of the increased focus on climate change and CO2 emissions.

Issue In recent years, the demand that sustainability and climate change be considered has gone from being an isolated and marginalised issue to a necessary central challenge to architects.

This has given rise to the outlining of a number of new and more dedicated approaches to sustainability in architecture. It is necessary to map these new green approaches and discuss both the environmental and architectural potentials they contain.

Centro de Estudios Hidrográficos, Michel Fisac Photo: Anne Beim

Concrete’s Tectonic Potentials A study of Current Possibilities and Obstacles Subproject (PhD project) Ole Egholm Pedersen, PhD-student, M. Arch.

Aarhus School of Architecture Objective With tectonics as the focal point, the PhD project investigates how concrete’s form-related potential can be utilised better, while at the same time reducing the amount of concrete used is.

Issue Today, concrete is the most widely used material in modern construction. The material’s structural strength and its resistance to climatic influences make it a suitable and cheap building material. At a time where it is essential to reduce the consumption of the world’s raw materials and limit the emission of residual products, an increasing need has emerged for a reduction of concrete’s environmental load. In other words, it is necessary to use the material in a way that ensures optimum utilisation of its physical and structural potentials, which is now possible due to advanced casting techniques. The project looks at these new technologies and uses the tectonic conceptual framework as a starting point for developing a greater degree of concordance between the use of concrete’s structural properties and architectural design.