Architectural Design V-IX: Circular. From Material to Location (GD Boltshauser)

Abstract

We as a society, but also specifically we as architects, must use land, resources and energy as sparingly as possible in the future. Therefore, the focus of the design is a holistic consideration of climate-conscious building: we are developing hybrid systems made of earth in combination with re-use building components.

Objective

• Dealing with dense, sustainable, simple building • Development of a broad theoretical and historical knowledge of a topic in order to transfer the resulting findings to the current context • Understanding of sustainable building techniques and building materials, rammed earth • Holistic design of spatial atmospheres in the interplay of context, construction, climate, sustainability, and materiality • Recognizing the potential of building materials with different technical properties in order to develop own ideas for new building systems and translate them into a design • Practical work on the model and in the visualization program as part of the design process

Content

The Binz - an urban fragment, which with its contrasts and heterogeneous development forms an ideal area of investigation, is to be analyzed in the coming semester. The possibilities of a spatial redensification of the entire area will be examined and a vision for the future in the form of a master plan will be developed. In addition to the large-scale studies, the focus will be placed on the material clay, as a low Co2 building material, right at the beginning of the semester. Inspired by the history of the Binz region as a clay mining area, clay samples taken on site will provide information on the composition and processing potential of the material. Not only the local availability of clay, but also the positive physical properties of the building and the low proportion of gray energy speak for an examination of this material. Based on the findings of the clay samples and the knowledge about synergies and compensation potentials with other materials such as wood or recycled materials, prefabricatable hybrid nodes will be developed at the beginning of the semester, which will be realized as mock-ups during the seminar trip. The development of the nodes thus becomes the primary design element. In addition to material technology and construction issues, we will pursue a climate-based design methodology that sees the responsible use of finite resources and thus cycle-based construction and the reuse of building materials as the potential of a new, contemporary architectural expression. A new awareness and thinking in dealing with finite resources will also let us this semester explore the material clay for its various properties. In addition to the low proportion of gray energy and the outstanding physical properties of the building material, the local availability of the material is of interest. Millions of tons of clay-containing excavated material are produced worldwide every year, for which our construction industry has no use and which therefore has to be disposed of (over 25 million tons in Switzerland alone). So why not use this unused resource to build with? From our point of view, however, this requires new building methods that correspond to today's standards and needs for a rational construction method and that better exploit the physical potential of the building material. Prefabrication, a hybrid clay building technique or liquid clay technology are examples of possible answers.

Resources