2023-11-01 15:21:54
It is well known that those who are declared dead live longer. This also applies to the detached single-family home in the countryside, which is the subject of so much debate – because of its poor climate footprint and high land consumption. Nevertheless, this design is still the most popular among Germans.
Subsidized by the state, living in your own house became a symbol of freedom, self-determination and security in the post-war years. Since then it has lost none of its appeal. This is supported by a simple number: around 77,000 single-family homes were built in this country last year – more than ever before.
This trend is also reflected in the renowned “Houses of the Year” award, which was presented for the 13th time by the Munich-based Callwey publishing house. However, the jury of architectural journalists and representatives from the construction industry cannot escape the sustainability discussions.
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For a long time the villa with a pool and lake view was preferred, in whose open living area its residents could almost lose themselves, but now frugality and ecological awareness are the hallmarks. For the first time, only three houses with pools were presented, and these only in the accompanying award volume.
The winner appears without show effect but with more substance. The house of the young Stuttgart architectural firm Atelier Kaiser Shen has what it takes to be a prototype of the residential building of the future.
Consisting largely of environmentally friendly and resource-saving building materials such as straw bales and wood, it also meets high standards in terms of aesthetics and living comfort – which is not a given with eco-friendly buildings.
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The builder of the house, which has already been praised several times by architectural critics, is a man of conviction. Thomas Hoinka, a self-employed civil engineer and energy consultant, came across the ancient form of insulation with pressed straw bales while researching the most energy-efficient and CO₂-friendly building material. “I’ve been looking for something that’s easy to source and make for a long time,” he says. “Through my research work at the University of Stuttgart, I met the architect Florian Kaiser, who was also enthusiastic about this material and had already had good experiences with it.”
When a building plot near his in-laws’ house in Pfaffenhofen came up for sale, Thomas Hoinka was finally able to build his model house with Florian Kaiser and his office partner Guobin Chen.
With a gable roof and an elongated residential structure, it fits into the historic village center made up of old houses, the St. Lambertus Church and residential buildings from the post-war period. The new building appears pleasantly calm. Only the fact that it is mounted on concrete piles makes it the primus inter pares – elegantly floating two and a half meters above the ground.
The dense bales of straw are used for insulation
Source: Patrick Schneider
However, this detail has no aesthetic reason, but rather a purely practical one. Since the greatest danger to straw does not come from pests, as is often assumed – this is prevented by using clay plaster and insect screens – but rather from moisture and thus the formation of mold, the house was placed on stilts.
The client insisted on insulating the building from below with straw bales, so this side was not allowed to come into contact with the ground. To ensure that there is no flat, useless space under the house, the architects jacked it up on four high concrete supports at each corner and further reinforced the statics with a cross made of four concrete walls.
The side effect: a whole additional floor. This open space is used as a charging station for electric cars, as a workshop and, more recently, as a granny flat.
Bales packed so tightly that there is no major risk of fire
But what about fire protection? How do you prevent your beautiful new house from bursting into flames because of a carelessly discarded cigarette?
Architect Kaiser reassures: The bales are so densely pressed that they contain only a few air pockets. They are also covered by wood or clay plaster, so the risk of fire is low. And anyway: After all, insulating with straw bales is an old technology that has been around since the 19th century.
Referring to the experience of old master builders and early industrial construction techniques is a very conscious characteristic for the architects Florian Kaiser and his colleague Guobin Chen, who comes from China.
And this is what the finished interior of the house looks like
Quelle: Kaiser Shen Workshop/Brigida Gonzalez
Unlike their older colleagues, whose designs still dominate the construction industry, the two young architects, who are already seen as upcoming stars in the scene, apparently do not want to submit to the dictates of industrial modernism and its norms.
This is also evident inside the house, which doesn’t actually have to be a single-family home. Thanks to the hybrid wooden architecture, the two two-story apartments of 140 square meters each can be divided into two additional apartments if necessary.
This flexibility to adapt the rooms to the needs of their residents was still common until the Wilhelminian era. It was only the New Building era that abolished this at the beginning of the 1930s, creating other standards and a formative model that continues to this day, which the Stuttgart duo is now refusing to adhere to.
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Their hybrid spatial structure leads to less space consumption. When the two apartments are divided into four units for four people, each resident still has 35 square meters available.
However, what no amount of floor plan can create is the special living environment of a house made from natural materials. When builder Hoinka raves about the scent of the untreated wood, it sounds very credible.
The civil engineer does not see any serious disadvantages to the model house he helped develop. Rather, he regrets that many more single-family homes are not being built using natural raw materials. This has been common practice for a long time in Switzerland and Austria. And it makes some sustainability discussions about single-family homes unnecessary.
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“The idea of building with building materials that do not end up in the hazardous waste landfill, but can be returned to the natural cycle, is actually logical,” says Hoinka, who has developed life cycle assessment software and a building product platform with which he has been working for ten years For years we have supported architects and builders in the realization of demonstrably sustainable buildings.
Hoinka does not want to explain the reservations that still exist about the renewable raw material straw, whose insulating value is just as good as that of industrially produced raw materials. The insulation value of straw, at 0.05 watts per meter and energy unit (Kelvin), is only slightly worse than that of Styrofoam, which only allows 0.04 watts of energy to pass through one meter.
The 40-year-old Swabian inventor, who started his own business at the age of 27, also sees natural building materials at a disadvantage compared to a dominant plasterboard, metal and concrete lobby.
This is an unfortunate development, especially when you consider that the construction of a conventional building made of reinforced concrete alone consumes as much energy as heating it over a period of 50 years.
House of the Year juror and architectural journalist Judith Lemke is optimistic about the future. She writes in her jury statement: “The straw bale house is a building that gives hope. Perhaps the desire of many people to live in a single-family home and a sustainable lifestyle are not as irreconcilable as the current discussion sometimes leads us to believe.”
Houses of the Year The 50 best single-family homes. Judith Lembke, Katharina Matzig, Callwey Verlag, 59.95 euros
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In order to display embedded content, your revocable consent to the transmission and processing of personal data is necessary, as the providers of the embedded content require this consent as third party providers [In diesem Zusammenhang können auch Nutzungsprofile (u.a. auf Basis von Cookie-IDs) gebildet und angereichert werden, auch außerhalb des EWR]. By setting the switch to “on”, you agree to this (revocable at any time). This also includes your consent to the transfer of certain personal data to third countries, including the USA, in accordance with Art. 49 (1) (a) GDPR. You can find more information about this. You can revoke your consent at any time using the switch and privacy at the bottom of the page.
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