A
Ingenious Houses
Researcher
Nicolai Bo Andersen
Research unit
Centre for Sustainable Building Culture
A building is more than its physical form.
At Centre for Sustainable Building Culture, we explore and analyze the buildings around us with an eye for their embodied knowledge. We document infrastructures and extractive landscapes to be able to view them critically. In scale 1:1 we test and demonstrate how our existing buildings may inspire new approaches.
Our research breaks with existing understandings.
This happens through our insistence that sustainability is not just figures or equations but rather a synthesis of technical qualities, cultural-historical values, and aesthetic experience.
We believe that this holistic perspective points in a new direction of real sustainable building culture through repair, reuse and retrofit which can extend the life of buildings and simultaneously strengthen the experience of meaning and belonging. Our aim is to foster new considerations about how we dwell and new understandings of how we build. Both with deep consideration for the planetary boundaries.
Nicolai Bo Andersen, Professor
Research Motivation
The projects derive from a wish to understand human dwelling on a planet with limited resources. I am enthralled by the beauty of the world and worried about its state.
As an architect, I am driven by exploring how our discipline can make the world better, and how the aesthetic and ethical practices in architecture can secure a more safe and just future. The physical environment around me is a constant source of inspiration.
For there is wisdom in old buildings that continue to surprise me.
As an architect, I am driven by exploring how our discipline can make the world better, and how the aesthetic and ethical practices in architecture can secure a more safe and just future. The physical environment around me is a constant source of inspiration.
For there is wisdom in old buildings that continue to surprise me.
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Friland Reclaimed. Video: Victor Boye Julebæk
Friland Reclaimed. Foto: Victor Boye Julebæk
Friland Reclaimed. Photo: Victor Boye Julebæk
Lundager Retrofit. Photo: Victor Boye Julebæk
Lundager Retrofit, interior. Photo: Victor Boye Julebæk
Haubarg. Photo: Victor Boye Julebæk
Haubarg. Photo: Victor Boye Julebæk
Bibliography
Bibliography
Open Access
[1]
C. Steenberg, ‘PARCEL - HUS - KVARTER: Det levende værk’, PhD thesis, Det Kongelige Akademi, 2026.
[2]
L. Rolfsted Mortensen, ‘The Infrastructural Sublime: The Spectacle of Dams as a Catalyst for Environmental Consciousness’, Sophia Journal, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 192–203, Jan. 2024, doi: 10.24840/2183-8976_2023-0008_0001_14.
[3]
L. Rolfsted Mortensen, ‘Infrastructure as Heritage’, in Heritages, J. Cirklová and A. Marey, Eds, New York: AMPS, Apr. 2023, pp. 554–566. [Online]. Available: https://amps-research.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Amps-Proceedings-Series-35.2_2024.pdf#page=566
[4]
I. Marie Schacht, R. Andersen Svedin, and T. Kampmann, ‘Comparative LCA Study of Preservative Restoration Strategies for 1970s Single-family Houses in Denmark’, in IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, IOP Publishing, Nov. 2025, p. 012066. doi: 10.1088/1755-1315/1546/1/012066.
[5]
T. Hacksen Kampmann, T. Serrano, and M. W. Ryberg, ‘Life-cycle assessment of transformation scenarios of a traditional Danish house’, in Concepts of Transformation, A. E. Toft and M. Rönn, Eds, in Nordisk Arkitekturforskning, The Nordic Association of Architectural Research, vol. 2023–1. Nordic Academic Press of Architectural Research, Dec. 2023, pp. 289–322. [Online]. Available: https://adk.elsevierpure.com/ws/portalfiles/portal/83120690/NAF_Symposium_2021_-_LIFE-CYCLE_ASSESSMENT_OF_TRANSFORMATION.pdf
[6]
T. Hacksen Kampmann, ‘Biased Building Regulations For Windows?’, in Nordisk Arkitekturforskning, The Nordic Association of Architectural Research, Sep. 2021, pp. 77–106. [Online]. Available: https://adk.elsevierpure.com/ws/portalfiles/portal/65483332/210712_Naar_mal.indd_120_29_PB_1_TK.pdf
[7]
N. B. Andersen, V. B. Julebæk, Y. W. Lund, N. C. Bergø, and A. Møller, Drawing on the Archives, vol. 1–3. Det Kongelige Akademi, 2024. doi: https://issuu.com/kadk?ps=24.
[8]
N. B. Andersen and V. B. Julebæk, ‘Retrofitting Lundager’, in Heritages, J. Cirklová, Ed., Prague: AMPS, 2024, pp. 419–432. doi: https://amps-research.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Amps-Proceedings-Series-35.2_2024.pdf#page=566.
Not Open Access
[1]
N. B. Andersen, ‘Architecture Enactment: Understanding the Architectural Model as Embodied Participation’, in STOÀ 01 - [Modelli], vol. 1, A. Calderoni, C. Gandolfi, J. Leveratto, and A. Nitti, Eds, Napoli: Thymos Books, 2021, pp. 26–43. [Online]. Available: https://stoajournal.com/Issue-01-1
[2]
N. B. Andersen, ‘An ecopoetic architect: The resonate presencing of material properties and environmental conditions in the case of Jørn Utzon’, in Structures and Architecture: A Viable Urban Perspective?, M. F. Hvejsel and P. J. S. Cruz, Eds, in Structure and Architecture. CRC Press/Balkema, 2022, pp. 329–336. [Online]. Available: https://books.google.dk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Ky51EAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA329&ots=_zG2jYyRi5&sig=GtjkULhcRyBJ9yvBim6qfnsX7T8&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
[3]
N. B. Andersen, ‘New Phenomenology in architecture: embodied environmental communication for meaningful situations’, ARQ : Architectural Research Quarterly, vol. 27.4, pp. 325–336, 2024, doi: 10.1017/S1359135524000083.
[4]
N. B. Andersen, T. S. Jessen, V. B. Julebæk, and A. E. Warring, Eds, Kloge huse: Formidling af bæredygtighed på Frilandsmuseet. København: Arkitekturforlaget B, 2025.
[5]
N. B. Andersen and V. B. Julebæk, ‘Spoken Matter: Towards a Specific Vocabulary for Architectural Design and Description’, in Space and Language in Architectural Education, K. Nawratek, Ed., Routledge, 2022. doi: 10.4324/9781003258933-6.
[6]
N. B. Andersen and V. B. Julebæk, ‘(Re)making the Haubarg’, in Design for Rethinking Resources: UIA World Congress of Architects 2023 Copenhagen, M. Ramsgaard Thomsen, C. Ratti, and M. Tamke, Eds, København: Springer, 2023, pp. 249–262.
[7]
V. B. Julebæk, M. B. Jørgensen, and C. Harlang, Eds, Hands On: The Value of Building Culture. København: GEKKO Publishing, 2020.
[8]
L. Rolfsted Mortensen, ‘Nexus, Artery and Reservoir: a taxonomy for an embodied perception of infrastructures’, in Design for Resilient Communities: UIA World Congress of Architects 2023 Copenhagen, København: Springer, 2023, pp. 111–124.
