THE HOMING CHOICE

HOUSES IN LISBJERG

STUDIO 2C
SPRING 2021

Spring semester

“One might suppose that the ultimate home is one that you do not
need to leave or travel to” Bernd Heinrich, The Homing Instinct

This Spring we will continue exploring the idea of ‘Feeling at home’.

This time, we move out of the city, into the countryside, still within the
Aarhus municipality limits, where a quite new trend on allegedly sus-
tainable suburban development is going on in places like Lisbjerg or
Nye. These new structures pose similar challenges and questions
than those in Aarhus Ø, in relation with creating a sense of community,
belonging and home. Which are the tensions and opportunities that
arise in such places, when a quite big number of newcomers move
into the outskirts of these small towns? How can these people make
that place their home?

The trend of bigger segments of the western countries population op-

portunity and wish to spend more time at their own place, has acceler-
ated in the past two years. This is obvious for more and more people
being able to work from home, totally or for a few days a week. Most
houses and apartments were not designed for this. Which are the op-
portunities that this societal need can translate into a different kind of
communities, and into new typological branches.

To explore this questions we will design a place for people who spend
their days at home for different reasons. All they need is within their
tiny community.

Arkitektskolen Aarhus I Nørreport 20 | 8000 Aarhus C I +45 8936 0000 I a@aarch.dk | www.aarch.dk
 Site
The site will be located in Lisbjerg’s new development area, in plot E.1
36.

Program
The program of this semester will be a group of several homes, where
a bunch of people who want or have to spend a long time at home
have joined forces to nd an architect who will design a community
responding to their speci cities. The architect they chose is you.

Your project should accommodate the needs of the following citizens:

-A widowed retiree with no family or friends.
-A truck driver who has been paralysed from the waist down due to an
accident.
-A refugee family that has recently arrived to Denmark (couple with
two children of ve and 12 years old and a grandmother).
-A young couple with one and three year old children who have decid-
ed to do homeschooling.
-An engineer who is a wind energy consultant and works from home.

You can choose if each of those live alone or with others, and their
gender and place of birth. However, at least one of the inhabitants is
born and raised in Lisbjerg.

You should choose the occupations and/or characteristics of other ve

inhabitants for whom you design the houses, with the premise that
each spends most of her or his days at home.

However, there are guidelines that should be followed:

- Number of units: between 20 and 30

- You should follow the guidelines established at the Udviklingsplan
for Lisbjerg
- The structure should be mainly built out of wood
- The empty space close to your building and within your site is also
part of your proposal, including the public space suggestes in the
Udviklingsplan.

From these initial requirements, each student should develop her/his

own speci c program that responds to her/his approach to the as-
signment.

As an opportunity to further develop the knowledge on timber building

systems, we encourage you to use wood as the structural material.

Arkitektskolen Aarhus I Nørreport 20 | 8000 Aarhus C I +45 8936 0000 I a@aarch.dk | www.aarch.dk
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 Studio 2C has a weekly calendar as pdf, which is handed out at the
beginning of the semester, and a daily calendar on Moodle, which is
continuously updated and revised. See attachment for the weekly cal-
endar (preliminary).

SF Special Focus
Third semester (Special Focus) students will work on a project which
shares the area and theme of the rst and second semester students
assignment. However SF have slightly different guidelines, on top of
the ones for 1 and 2 semesters:

- The project needs to include a common facilty for the neighbours

(your own project and the whole Lisbjerg).
- You can choose a different site within Lisbjerg’s new development
area, included in phase 1 of the Udviklingsplan.

SF students will exercise critical and re ective writing within the thesis
format. This includes the preparation of a Summary Report.

Process
The semester is divided in ve phases:


Phase 1: Contextual analysis. Understanding the place.

- One drawing that explains the main quality you have discovered
while visiting the site.


Phase 2: Diagnose, strategies and exploration of architecture ideas

- Diagnose and critical revision of the commission and its require-
ments in light of the learnings of Phase 1.
- Study of relation with the surroundings (site, neighbourhood, town,
region).
- Exploration and de nition of the fundamental architecture ideas, also
but not exclusively related to the theme of feeling at home.
- Development of strategies that will guide the project’s materialisa-
tion.
- De nition of the new neighbourhood’s inhabitants.
- Analysis of a case study of your own choice relevant to the assign-
ment, through a 1:20 scale model of a room within that case that
explains the main idea contained in it.

Phase 3: Design development


- Analysis and development of program.

- Diagrammatic study of spatial organisation.
- Detailed de nition of between 5 to 10 living units and its immediate
surroundings, which include half of the inhabitants suggested in the
assignment, and the other half of your choice.

Arkitektskolen Aarhus I Nørreport 20 | 8000 Aarhus C I +45 8936 0000 I a@aarch.dk | www.aarch.dk
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 - Model study of building volume/s and context.
- Process models and drawings.

Phase 4: Systems de nition

- Study and de nition of the building’s anatomy as a whole. Building
systems.
- Detailed study of the building’s physiology and how it is inhabited.
Energy and uids.

Phase 5: Critical revision and communication

- Critical revision of the whole project in its various scales.
- Graphical and oral communication of the project.


-
CWR Critical Written Re ection
The CWR teaching team will take care of the CWR contents and coor-
dination.

Final requirements
Site
- Context plan, e.g. 1:2000
- Site plan w/ roof plan, e.g. 1:500
- Exterior spatial representation (collage, watercolour, rendering, mod-
el pictures etc.)

Building
- Plans, sections and elevations 1:100
- Diagrams / Sketches
- Physical working volumetric model in context, 1:500

Living units
- One unit plan and sections, 1:50
- Interior spatial representation (collage, watercolour, rendering, etc.)
- Physical model of one unit, 1:50

Process material
-Models
-Most relevant sketches, plans etc…

SF Summary report
Summary report (maximum 25 pages): The report should present the
background studies on which the project is based, summarised in the
form of a document that can inform the conclusion of the project. The
report should not exceed 2000 words and comprise more than 25
pages including text and optional supporting material in the form of
illustrations, photos, drawings, etc. The summary report should brie y
address:

Arkitektskolen Aarhus I Nørreport 20 | 8000 Aarhus C I +45 8936 0000 I a@aarch.dk | www.aarch.dk
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 - The relevance of the assignment (Why?)
- Description and delimitation of the program (What?)
- Re ection on the chosen location (Where?)
- Method to develop the assignment (How?)

Deadlines / Pin-ups
Phase 1
Pin-up: Friday, February 4

Phase 2
Pin-up: Wednesday and Thursday, February 23 and 24

Phase 3
Mid-Reviews: Monday and Tuesday, March 21 and 22

Phase 4
Pin-up: Thursday, May 12

Phase 5
Deadline for upload to moodle 2nd sem: Wednesday, June 1
Deadline for upload to moodle 1st and 3rd sem: Friday, June 3
Examination: June, 7-9

Critical Written Re ection

Deadline for upload to moodle: *

Special Focus Summary report

Deadline for upload to moodle: Friday, June 3

*See details in the calendar in CWR’s moodle.

Literature
See Moodle and semester shelf in the library.

Workshop
From March 28 to April 1, in collaboration with the With Love from
Spain exhibition at the Utzon Center, Aulets Architects will run a work-
shop where students will build 1:1 mock-ups of fragments of their own
project.

Excursion
One day bus-trip around Jutland to visit old and new buildings relevant
to the semester’s assignment. April 21st (TBC).

Arkitektskolen Aarhus I Nørreport 20 | 8000 Aarhus C I +45 8936 0000 I a@aarch.dk | www.aarch.dk
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