A
Inside Out : Rethinking energy renovations
Name
Alejandro Mata Zenteno
Education degree
Kandidat
Fagfelt
Architecture
Institute
Design and Visual Interaction
Program
Strategic Design and Entrepreneurship - Architecture, Design and Business
Year
2025
Awards
Duravit
The EU’s and Denmark’s 2050 decarbonization goals are fast approaching, yet current solutions fall short. How can we change course? Can we design spaces that adapt to our needs and the planet’s? Can efficiency align with material sufficiency? This project explores a holistic path to energy renovation, proposing a strategy to transform homes from static shelters into adaptable systems of living.
This project was developed and designed together with Or Hoyben
Our homes need to change
The time to decarbonize our housing stock is now
By 2050, all EU buildings must be carbon-neutral. 85% of those buildings already standing today. Currently, these structures consume 40% of EU energy, with 70% operating inefficiently. In Denmark, only 8% of buildings meet future requirements.
Parcel houses represent 41% of Danish housing stock (1.17 million homes), mostly built in the 1960s-70s. Within this critical segment, a mere 0.5% meet our climate goals, making them the frontline in our climate response.
But we are on the wrong path
The good intentions lead to unsustainable outcomes
Current renovation rates fall drastically short of meeting 2050 targets. Expensive renovations with uncertain returns drive about 1,100 Danish homeowners annually to demolish instead, generating 150,000m² of waste yearly.
Even when homes are renovated or replaced with more efficient alternatives, the actual energy consumption often remains high. This "energy gap" between theoretical efficiency and real-world performance undermines our goals and maintains business-as-usual patterns.
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How might we formulate an holistic approach to energy renovations in the Danish housing stock?
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We must think beyond the walls
A responsible solution must align user, climate and economy
Current policies trigger choices that undermine our climate goals. Sustainable housing requires thinking beyond technical solutions. We need an approach that balances climate imperatives with environmental protection, social equity, and economic realities.
This holistic vision considers all stakeholders: policymakers, market forces, homeowners, and material supply chains. Only by considering the ripple effect of our actions can we find a path that accommodates human and environmental needs alike.
Efficiency has to meet sufficiency
Reimagining parcel houses for a low-carbon future
Our strategy centers on modifying user behavior by reducing heated spaces to lower energy consumption with minimal new materials. We embrace circular economy principles: harvesting what exists, minimizing new construction materials, and using biogenic resources when necessary.
Flexibility is key, acknowledging both homeowners' emotional connections and changing needs throughout seasons and lifespans. This approach creates adaptable homes that better serve inhabitants while meeting climate targets.
It starts with one house
Built in the early 1960s, a house in Kongens Lyngby with an E energy label was served as the case study for this project. Through site visits, archival studies and interviews with previous and current owners, we have attempted to learn about homeowners' aspirations, connections to their houses and how they used or plan to use them. This, has helped us shape our strategy, while at the same time translate it to an architectural solution.
From strategy to design
As improving the energy efficiency of houses doesn't assure the necessary reduction of energy use, we have to reimagine the lives in our houses. As parcel houses use much more area than needed for a comfortable living, we're able to reduce the heated space and propose a new flexible way of living: living smaller in the cold months, expending for the warmer days, and creating new qualities in the house.
In our design, we propose locating the main living areas in the middle of the house, creating a new barrier layer that could also act as a passive heat generator. The inside-out space introduces an opportunity to a new dynamic inside the house and forge a new relationship between the interior and the outdoors.
Additionally, this renovation proposal takes into account the changes happening in the house over time. While one cannot know what the future holds, the need to renovate presents an option to prepare. In this case, the spaces are organized to allow a quick and easy way to divide the house to two.
Floor plans showing the flexibility of the proposed house after the renovation
The Royal Danish Academy supports the Sustainable Development Goals
Since 2017 the Royal Danish Academy has worked with the Sustainable Development Goals. This is reflected in our research, our teaching and in our students’ projects. This project relates to the following UN goal(-s)
