Maarhuizen 1 is one of the three farms located on the "Wierde" of Maarhuizen. The farm is a national monument and the oldest wooden beams date back to around 1500. Over the years material got added and removed which brings it to the state it is in today.
When I entered the farm I came across a room with all sorts of different materials. The materials differed in size, texture and color. The materials were not…
Maarhuizen 1 is one of the three farms located on the "Wierde" of Maarhuizen. The farm is a national monument and the oldest wooden beams date back to around 1500. Over the years material got added and removed which brings it to the state it is in today.
When I entered the farm I came across a room with all sorts of different materials. The materials differed in size, texture and color. The materials were not carefully selected but it was a accidental collage of elements that got added throughout the years. Bricks, concrete blocks, poured concrete, OSB panels and historical wooden beams and floorboards. The materials formed an accidental aesthetic.
The previous owner of the farm used materials that he knew or just happend to get his hands on throughout the years. He used the materials in a very pragmetic way. Where he needed insulation he just sprayed it on. If he needed a new wall he just made one out of bricks he had laying around. But by doing so he created a pletora of different problems.
My proposal for an intervention uses the pragmetic way of thinking used by the previous owner and applying this to hempcrete. I will use his way of thinking to renovate the building and undo the mistakes that he made but leaving the accidental aesthetic of the place intact.
The spray-on insulation does not allow the construction to breath.That’s why the insulation gets removed and replaced with hempcrete, a material that regulates moisture. The hempcrete must be protected against the rain but it’s also aestheticly pleasing thats why I try to leave it as much exposed as possible only plastering the parts of the facade that are not protected by the orientation of the building itself or the big gutterline.
By using prefabricated blocks of hempcrete I designed a wall pattern in a very pragmatic way, if the blocks do not fit horizontally I lay them flat, if they don’t fit the right way I rotate them 90 degrees and if a whole block does not fit in any orientation I fill the gap up with in-situ hempcrete as infill. Hereby creating a playfull pattern where the outcome of the pattern is entirely dependend on the blocks you have for hand.
Lees meerEXISTING
The drawings and photo’s are a carefully assambled documentation of the farm in its current state. The building is now in ownership of Staatsbosbeheer. Bram, the person who is managing the renovations at the farm invited us in Groningen to visit the farm. The farm is now being renovated by people with social – and mental problems.
NEW
For my intervention I took the aesthetic of the inside room and reflected it to the outside of the farm. This way the outside is very much informed by the inside. The farms orientation forms the basis of my design. The farm and traditional big gutterlines of these farms create the perfect circumstance to leave the hempcrete exposed at certain places.
PROTOTYPE
The prototype is an experiment to unlock the aesthetic of bio-based and geo-based materials in combination with material found around the farm.
The materials used for the prototypes are:
Lime plaster, bricks from maarhuizen 1, lime mortel, prefabricated hempcrete blocks, white lime putty, airlime plaster, in-situ hempcrete, Stainless steel, copper, brass and aluminium.
