A
When a Building Breaks Open: Strengthening and Transformation Instead of Demolition and Downcycling
Name
Jens Kristian di Stefano Larsen
Education degree
Kandidat
Fagfelt
Architecture
Institute
Architecture and Technology
Program
Architectural Technology
Year
2026
Hersted Industrial Park is undergoing a major transformation. Large parts of the area's existing buildings are being demolished and dismantled to make way for new housing developments. This project begins with a simple question: What happens when we start with what already exists?
The project investigates how an existing warehouse can be transformed into a co-living community. However, its ambition extends beyond the housing programme itself. It is an exploration of how existing materials and structures can become the starting point for new architectural and structural systems.
Through the reuse of concrete, a fundamental challenge becomes visible. Much of the existing concrete - particularly unreinforced concrete wall elements - possesses significant load-bearing capacity through its high compressive strength, yet fits poorly within contemporary building systems, which are largely organised around tension and bending. As a result, concrete is often crushed and downcycled, even when its structural potential remains intact.
The project therefore proposes a different perspective: What happens if we stop adapting materials to building systems and instead adapt building systems to the materials?
Through experiments with splitting existing concrete elements using stone wedges, concrete is transformed from its industrial form into smaller blocks. These blocks are stacked to form columns and arches that work exclusively in compression. Steel is used only where tensile forces are unavoidable. The structure is therefore organised according to the properties of the existing materials rather than the other way around.
The project points towards an architecture in which methods of material processing, structural logic and spatial form are inseparable. The traces of splitting, the properties of the materials and the flow of forces become visible and acquire architectural significance. The construction is not concealed behind the architecture - it is the architecture.
The Sketch that Initiated the Project
Visualisations
Drawing Details
Concrete Waste as a Resource
Concrete is one of the most widely used building materials in the world and at the same time constitutes a significant share of the construction industry's waste streams. In Denmark, approximately 1.1 million tonnes of clean concrete waste are generated each year, the majority of which is downcycled through crushing. Although this practice is often described as recycling, it results in the loss of the energy, resources and structural capacity already embodied in the material.
What if concrete were not considered waste, but an existing resource?
The project investigates how existing concrete elements with limited direct reuse potential can be processed, transformed into blocks, and reintroduced into new structural applications through columns and arches.
Material Processing
As the reuse and recycling of concrete become increasingly important in the future, we should also be critical of the methods used to recover and process it. Diamond cutting requires large quantities of freshwater, while the production of industrial diamonds is highly energy intensive.
The project therefore investigates splitting with stone wedges as an alternative. Originating from traditional stone masonry, the technique divides the material along its natural fracture lines. The process requires physical engagement and manual craftsmanship, while the traces it leaves behind reveal the forces involved in shaping the material.
In this way, the project explores not only new approaches to concrete reuse, but also how traditional craft techniques can inform a contemporary circular building practice.
High-Tech Supporting Low-Tech
Splitting existing concrete elements raises a fundamental question: how do you split something that is held together by reinforcement?
The project therefore investigates Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) as a high-tech tool that supports a low-tech process. Through non-destructive scanning, the location of reinforcement can be mapped, allowing a precise splitting strategy to be developed and diamond cutting to be used only where necessary.
At the same time, the investigations indicate that many concrete wall elements produced between 1960 and 1989 are lightly reinforced or entirely unreinforced, making them particularly suitable for splitting.
The Structural System
Although large quantities of existing concrete still possess significant structural capacity, the material is rarely reused directly in new buildings. One of the main reasons is that contemporary structural systems are largely organised around tension- and bending-dominated principles, into which existing concrete elements rarely fit.
The project therefore adopts a reversed approach. Instead of adapting the material to the system, the system is adapted to the material.
Concrete performs optimally in compression, and throughout history this has given rise to structural forms such as columns and arches. The project revisits these principles through the use of reclaimed concrete blocks and explores how they can be translated into contemporary building systems.
Strengthening the Existing
If existing buildings are to play a central role in the green transition, preservation alone is not always sufficient. New programmes often introduce new loads that the original structures were never designed to carry.
In the transformation of a warehouse in Hersted Industrial Park, the project therefore introduces new structural layers that make it possible to accommodate housing and shared facilities without replacing the existing structure. Inspired by the mast of a sailing boat, an exoskeleton of compression and tension members is developed to stabilise the columns, while beam under-tensioning increases the load-bearing capacity of the existing beams.
These reinforcements are deliberately exposed and become part of the building’s architectural expression. The structure therefore functions not merely as a technical solution, but as a narrative of the building’s continued life and of the new flows of forces that emerge around the existing structure.
An Arch System Adapted to Contemporary Standards
The work with columns and segmented arches points towards a potential for using reclaimed concrete in compression-based structures. At the same time, the investigations show that such systems must be adapted to contemporary construction practices if they are to achieve wider application.
The project explores a segmented arch system based on straight, prefabricated components. Unlike curved segments, the individual elements can be more easily manufactured, transported, disassembled and reused in new contexts.
The system is developed around the construction industry's existing three-metre modular system and combines historical compression-based principles with contemporary demands for prefabrication, assembly and flexibility. The ambition is to develop a structural system in which reclaimed concrete can participate in multiple life cycles over time.
.
.
.
.
The project explores how existing buildings and materials can be extended through strengthening and transformation. The ambition is not merely to reduce waste, but to develop new architectural and structural systems that begin with the resources already available.
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)
