Master Class MC303

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Sustainable Architecture Report

Master Class, Gilleleje, Denmark, 27-30 August, 2003

Klas Tham - professor at the University of Lund and practising architect in Sweden, responsible for the acclaimed development project Bo01 in Malmø
Which he presented at the master class. He referred to philosophy and vision, following the principles of sustainability with due attention to both environmental, social/human and economic issues.
Klas has been accused of biologism in terms of architecture. Both culture and biology are important factors in architecture and both are reflected in his work.

Klas, who worked a number of years for the British architect, Ralph Erskine, has spent ten years researching and developing his passion: Physical sensual needs, emotional needs i.e. What do our senses allow us to observe, to see, to hear, to smell - Social contact in a space of limited size.
He has been researching the concept of our three brains: the reptile, spinal one. Subconsciousness. The limpic system. Like the brain of mammals. The limpic system we cannot control.Cognitive ability. The neocortex, which controls the left and right brain. The study of this is important in the architectural realm – how people react to their environment.

Key Words:
Order
chaos
complexity
richness
mysticism
barriers
layers
drama

“We should create - design - according to the flow of our time”

Chris Butters (South African/Norwegian) - architect, professor and until recently Head of NABU, the Norwegian Association for Sustainable Development, presented facts and views on sustainable architecture.
Including LCA,- materials analysis and awareness, using building indicators, psychology.
Architects want attractive products which are reasonably cheap. Working sustainably for an architect means complexity. He cannot work in isolation but work must work with many specialists. That sustainability is a mixture of old wisdom and latest technology.
Chris believes that we are in a period of overdevelopment.
Work with nature as far as possible and then add what you need of technology. Urban planning parameters are equally important as is use of environmental psychology.

Chris completed his input with a recall of his 10 year stay in Bhutan where he built schools and a hospital .
The west is rational, logical and consistent. Tibet and Bhutan are not logical and consistent. They are more chaotic and don't care too much about consistency. Gross domestic happiness is more important than GDP
Decoration is the Buddhist expression or interpretation of the cosmos. Decoration of buildings is a must and all decoration has a deeper spiritual, historical meaning.
The hospital is an important building. This is where healing takes place and community care. It has to be beautifully decorated as an expression of respect.
The local tradition and craft based working methods became the foundation on which Chris designed and built the hospital with due respect to the community values and beliefs.

Key words on Sustainable Architecture:
Simplicity
Materials knowledge
Wisdom
Layers
Flexibility
Traditional tools
Small amounts of hi-tech
Passive design use.
Creativity
Common sense and
old sense

Vibeke Grupe Larsen - architect and Head of the environmental section of the Association for Danish Architects.
Vibeke discussed the implications of the ‘ecological footprint’, as well as definitions of sustainable architecture which includes considerations of:
The qualitative aspects of the place: biodiversity, use of land, materials, energy, transport, global impacts, waste, indoor climate.
People: quantitive social conditions, life between buildings, life in buildings.
Cost and evaluation difficulties.
Vibeke believes that ecology is quantifiable in terms of organisation, planning processes, legal framework, mortgages, quality control environmental management and tools.

Vibeke presented her work on environmental project planning and design.
Her company is working on a practical handbook on this, which will be unique for Denmark. It includes the following:
Management overview of environmental conditions
Ranking of environmental concerns
Definitions of policies and goals
Auditing and compliance.
Vibeke went through the various aspects discussing considerations
involved i.e. Standards ISO 14.000 and EMAS, scale and content, scale/shape/function, environmental effects, lifecycle phases a.m.o.

Key words:
Good architecture is sustainable architecture.
Good architecture is about attention to detail.
Sustainable architecture is no more complicated than that.
Put environmental impact into a matrix to get an early overview,
Its simple and easy to do.
Social
Cultural
Spiritual
Aesthetics.


Claus Bech Danielsen - architect and Senior Researcher at the Danish Building Research Institute presented both a historical aspect of sustainable architecture and a vision and a philosophical view of a new paradigm for architecture encompassing the technical, behavioural and the architectural aspects.
Claus’s main view is that technology is fine and it can solve many problems, but the the future aspect of living continues to involve people and psychology has to play an important part if we are to create sustainable architecture.
We will have to create a new culture.

Key words:
Think of the seasons, the climate, the position, culture and tradition.
Vegetation in cities
Learn from the past, wisdom
Use common sense.

Claus then introduced us to an educational project that he launched with the four schools of architecture and design in Denmark. The students were divided into multidisciplinary groups of 8 students in each group with the challenge to tackle a competition to design the ‘dwelling of the future’ with two focus points: accessibility and sustainability.

Force 4 presented their project which was the winning entry for the group of students consisting of 4 architect- and 4 designstudents.
The project concerns a citydwelling for the future and the goal was to develop a strategy for the solution to a global problem: contaminated soil.
The site the students worked on is situated in the middle of Copenhagen.
The idea is to plant willows and other vegetation which cleanses the polluted soil and above the vegetation on easily erected structures, to build housing from ready-made units, made from new types of sustainable materials.
(www.dk-designskole.dk/boase/)

Keywords
Solving pollution problems: soil, water, air etc
Accessibility
Flexibility
New materials
Innovation
New ways of living
New ways of socialising

Other Lectures:

Manisha Basu
Manisha shared the story about an area in India where the population used to consist of approx. 2.ooo poor families, living in bad conditions with no purpose or hope. How one person’s vision and commitment helped change this area into a lively selfsufficient community of 18.000 people. This has been achieved from the production of mangoes and derived products. A school (which Manisha designed) is now being built, the people are developing the area themselves and have become financially selfsufficient.

Holger Koch-Nielsen
Director of the architectural consultancy Development Advisory Group - spoke on building principles relevant to the extremes of hot, dry and warm humid climates based on 30 years of experience from working and living in the areas. (see his book Stay Cool, James & James, London 2002 – contact the author at: holger@koch-nielsen.dk)

ICIS Center - September 2003

ICIS is a platform for knowledge-sharing on subjects and tools in connection with a broad spectrum of issues regarding sustainable development.
We offer seminars, courses, tailor-made forums for companies, and brainstorming models where we connect creativity, innovation and sustainability.

© ICIS 2003