Sustainable houses are a need of the hour, but only a few can afford them. While traditional Dutch houses are famous for their Delft Red aesthetic with traditional brick and concrete construction, these materials emit excessive carbon into the atmosphere. The Netherlands-based ORGA has reinterpreted these Dutch homes into a bio-based, carbon-negative neighborhood in the village of Marknesse, the Netherlands.
The intent was to build affordable rental houses for low-income households and first-time buyers. The architects started intense research to build sustainable houses while keeping the Dutch tradition of building houses with natural materials intact.
The team, after receiving a commission from housing association Mercatus, put forth a concept to design a prototype consisting of 12 houses made with renewable natural materials. The concept was to create experimental houses using prefab timber and its natural wood fibers to make a mold-free, weatherproof, and insulated dwelling.
But the carbon-negative Marknessse neighborhood wasn’t hatched overnight. It took the ORGA decades’ worth of intense research, experimentation, and expertise to come up with such an incredible, sustainable idea. The architects specifically chose timber trees because of their ability to naturally capture and store carbon within them.
The team constructed houses with carbon-absorbing timber and other natural materials that won’t emit any carbon. The breathable fibers in the wood naturally regulate internal temperature and maintain healthy indoor air. Through this project, the team managed to achieve 75 percent of bio-based composition in the construction of the wooden neighborhood.
Another major aspect of this project was to keep site disturbance and construction waste to a minimum. To achieve it, the architects used prefab timber frame elements, manufactured off-site in a workshop. After transporting the frames, the frame was quickly assembled on-site to reduce construction impact.
The entire upper part of the building has a wooden finish, with only the foundation made with concrete. Its façade, fencing, gabled roof with chimneys on both corners, has the same wooden build and layout.
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These chimneys were built to serve as a place for bats to build their nests. The ORGA made a separate pathway on the lawn to separate each individual house from one another. The multiple glazing enhances the cozy aesthetics of the building and brings natural daylight indoors.
The ORGA constructed a carbon-negative Marknessse neighborhood with circular reusability of materials in mind. They will make mailboxes in the Salvation Army’s social workshop using the reclaimed wood left behind during cutting and construction. They even mapped each house using the Madaster dossier to keep a precise record of every natural material used to ease the long-term reusability in the future.
Via: New Atlas
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