Architectural freedom and industrialised architecture: retrofit to passive house level

Architectural freedom and industrialized architecture.

Inge Vestergaard, Associate Professor, Cand. Arch.
Aarhus School of Architecture, Denmark
Noerreport 20, 8000 Aarhus C
Telephone +45 89 36 0000
E-mai l inge.vestergaard@aarch.dk

Based on the repetitive architecture from the "building boom" 1960 to 1973 it is discussed how architects can handle these Danish element and montage buildings through the transformation to upgraded aesthetical, functional and energy efficient architecture.
The method used is analysis of cases, parallels to literature studies and producer interviews. This analysis compares "best practice" in Denmark and "best practice" in Austria.
The modern architects accepted the fact that industrialized architecture told the storey of repetition and monotonous as basic condition. This article aims to explain that architecture can be thought as a complex and diverse design through customization, telling exactly the revitalized storey about the change to a contemporary sustainable and better performed expression in direct relation to the given context.
Through the last couple of years we have in Denmark been focusing a more sustainable and low energy building technique, which also include the production and the montage on site. The clients, the architects, the producers and the building contractors have through different projects developed a working method which raises several ways to handle the retrofitting of the existing concrete element blocks from the period. Related to the actual demands to the building physic problems a new industrialized period has started based on light weight elements basically made of wooden structures, faced with different suitable materials meant for individual expression for the specific housing area.

It is the purpose of this article to widen up the different design strategies which architects can use - to give the individual project attitudes and designs with architectural quality.
Through the customized component production it is possible to choose many different proportions, to organize the process at site choosing either one room components or several rooms' components - either horizontal or vertical. Combined with the "mechanical joint" the "playing" with these possibilities the new industrialized architecture can deliver variations in the choice of solutions for the retrofit design. If we add the question of the installations e.g. ventilation to this systematic thinking of the building technique we get a diverse and functional architecture. Creating a new and clearer story telling about new and smart system based thinking behind the architectural expression.