A Seasonal Material Practice - Responding to the local climate in Hesnæs

Abstract

Situated in Hesnæs, Falster, this thesis projectstudies the local, traditional reed cladding method, originaly applied to answer the local harsh climate. It proposes three interventions, aiming to protect the built environment from further decay, and to revive the social potential of the harbour.

Facing the baltic sea, a storm flood, back in October 2023 caused complete destruction of the local harbour and affected several private houses. By investigating both the potential of a local private brick house and the public harbour area, these climate responsive interventions seek to align with the seasonal wind fluctuations, enabling a carefully developed material practice.

This practice consists of reinterpreting the local reed-based cladding method, aiming to address different wind conditions through a conscious material manipulation, resulting in an adaptive system.

Challenged by harsh wind, the house facades have since the 19th century been covered with a protective layer of reed, resulting in a traditional building practice, specific to this area.

Fieldwork, Mapping & Research

Visiting our site allowed us to understand it from various interconnected perspectives. The mapping process was a way to break down our preconceptions on the site and to grasp key elements that contribute to the site’s identity. Through the mapping process, we aimed to understand the different components of the site: the landscape, the available resources, the stakeholders and the climate. As the project is focused on the implementation of our research on the site, it is important to carry out a detailed study of the village and its potential anchor points for the project. Our registrations were carried out with the following tools:

• Photographic registrations as a means to create a visual database.
• Hand-drawing and sketching for a sensitive registration of the area and its history and as a tool to catalyse thoughts and discussions
• Collecting materials as a way to narrate stories about the place. To witness human presence or climate influence on the context.

Working along with practitioners

Working along with a craftsman for a day gave us a better grasp of the challenges of reed as a building material, his approach and the roof thatching and cladding methods and reasonings. This knowledge has formed a strong basis to start both our reinterpretation of the cladding approach as well as the experimentation process.

Reacting to seasonal wind fluctuations, how can a new form of material practice protect the built environment from further decay, while reviving the social potential of the village?

Project Framing, Strategy explanation

00 - ON-SITE STRATEGY

After having collected the mapping around the existing material practice (C) and analysed our site registrations, we established the framework of our design strategy. This framework can be divided into two sections, namely the site of the ‘domestic brick house’ (A) and the ‘harbour area’ (B). These two sites are co-related and have informed each other in the design process. 

Even though the principle is applied on both to the house and public realm of the harbour, the aim of these interventions remains the same. They attempt to offer a protective shield against the local strong winds and enable spaces that can be inhabited throughout different seasons of the year.

01 - CLADDING A BRICK HOUSE (A)

As the practice of the traditional cladding method was originally applied on resi- dential houses in the village, we intuitively decided that our investigation should take point in departure within the domestic field. After having gained insight about the facade leakage damages, caused by the storm, on the red brick house of Hans and Anette’s house, we decided to use their front facade as a first study case. The first task we set ourselves was to develop a proposal for a facade cladding that could offer a natural protective outer layer, while still accommodating their dwelling patterns.

02 - THE HOUSE AS A CATALYST (A > C)

Throughout this first phase, we realised that this first cladding proposal should become the catalyst to form a base module that would be part of a scalable system that is transferrable to other sites. To develop this module, we generated a re-interpretation of the traditional cladding method, which eventually helped us to establish the guiding principles.

03 - FORMING A SYSTEM & THE BASE MODULE (C)

The design of this base module, developed as part of a larger system, can be considered as a generic part that can become specific, once it is adjusted to a specific situation. In this sense it is scalable and can be implemented to respond to different wind conditions, in order to protect the built environment and develop new public meeting spaces.

04 - APPLYING THE SYSTEM TO THE BRICK HOUSE (C > A)

In applying the system to the brick house, the protective layer protects the front façade from further decay, while simultaneously activating the façade as an inhabitable membrane.

05 - TRANSFER OF SYSTEM TO THE HARBOUR AREA (C > B)

In a second, but intertwined stage, this system is then transferred to the public context of the harbour.

Facade cladding - wooden structure, reed volumes, brick base

The protective facade layer is composed of various reed-thicknesses, responding to house’s orientation in regards to the wind exposure. By framing the reed externally, the reference to the traditional cladding method is kept, in which the wooden plinths are visible on the outer layer and the reed volumes are able to be adjusted according to wind directions.

Inhabiting the protective membrane

The protective layer becomes inhabitable by extending the window sill and thereby blurrying thresholds between interior and exterior. The brick base can be appropriated as seating to facilitate the inhabitant’s habits of spending time in the front garden.

Building the base module can be described with the following stages:

• Organising - The front plinths are detached for the reed to be placed within the structure. Reed bundles are delivered on site.
• Filling - The rope-tied bundles are placed into the wooden frame.
• Framing - The bundles are being untied while the wooden plinths are being attached to the load-bearing structure.
• Adjusting - The reed volume is (in most cases) being trimmed in the top, in order to adjust to the roof inclination and to avoid air-gaps.
• Maintaining - After about 15-20 years, the reed will be worn down and will be replaced with new reed bundles with the help of local residents and the local roof thatcher.

As the principle of the base module is to be anchored in an existing brick volume, the wind shielding modules are anchored on top of the lower brick and stone wall in the harbour. 

Intervention B.1

By positioning the volumes in three sections, the first two are placed in front of the bakery, serving as a protective windshield, while the third section shields the square next to the bakery. 

The windshield module in front of the bakery can be inhabited on both sides. While the protected side facing the bakery allows for benches, tables and bicycle parking, the side facing the sea focusses on different variations of seating, exposed to the weather. 

In lowering the height, moving the reed adjusted walls to the edge of the roof to avoid large overhangs and gaps where the wind can get trapped, and extending the slope of the roof till the lower brick wall, we carefully re-adjusted how the wind forces would affect our structures. The new principles are meant to deviate the wind above and around the structure, providing a protective layer to Hesnæs’ bakery.

Intervention B.2

Within the second site, three spaces are placed in conjunction behind each other, forming one larger volume, anchored on the existing stone wall between the harbour and the sand dunes. 

Taking into consideration the western and eastern wind directions, the largest volume (the kayak storage space) is positioned facing the West in order to shield the behind-lying lower volumes. Traditionally in the village, it used to be the barns that were positioned strategically in front of the residential houses, in order to protect these from the strongest western wind. The “terrassed” layout of the three volumes not only protects the small volumes from the West but it also enables these spaces to be shielded behind the existing wall. The observation hut, in which one would spend the longest duration, is the one that is the most shielded from wind, as its reed-walls are almost covered by the stone wall. 

The façade-walls facing the sea towards the East and South-West are composed of thicker reed volumes, while the northern-facing side only requires a thinner volume.

These CFD wind simulations illustrate the wind protected areas (in blue), with wind forces coming from West