Headergrafik | Anna Heringer

Ways of life in the past were entwined with nature. The seasons gave life a rhythm. There was a time of high activities outside, in summer and a more calm period within a small household in winter. Following this spirit, we called our house "Capriccio"

The open space on the ground floor you can't use when it's cold. There will be a time in winter, where you are forced to live introverted, in that tiny warm space upstairs. And then when it's getting warmer you can expand your activities

Ways of living and building with nature to us means using local, natural potentials, to craft them and to transform old wisdom in a way that it meets our needs and dreams.

Ways of living and building with nature to us means using local, natural potentials, to craft them and to transform old wisdom in a way that it meets our needs and dreams.

Site plan: Edersee, Germany

Cultural context is important in all our projects in Asia or Africa. And Germany has beautiful traditions too like the Fachwerkhaus (timber frame structures). We gave it a little peculiar touch.

Ways of Life: Fachwerk Capriccio

This project is part of WAYS OF LIFE for experimenta urbana 8 in Kassel for which 19 international architects propose a dwelling encompassed in nature. 

It is a house that sits lightly on the earth, both in terms of ecological and actual footprint.  A house that demands from it's inhabitants to follow the circle of seasons. As only half of the space is closed, there is a time for reflection and preparation (winter, spring) and a time for action and implementation (summer, autumn). Made from materials of the surrounding, the house uses and crafts the local potential as well as plays with the building tradition. The order and elements of a traditional timber-frame-structure are cited but a bit "offbeat" and assembled in a new way. 

The building process
... is just as important. As Maslow states in his Hierarchy Of Needs self-actualization as a very important element of human nature, we believe that the possibility of self-building adds to an intensified living quality. In addition to that it creates work opportunities and know-how. This is why we could also imagine this building being constructed during a Design-Build workshop. The techniques chosen are low-tech and require lots of hands: A good scenario to include architecture students as well as refugees. Particularly for earthen structures there aren't many hands-on learning possibilities.

The ground floor is an open, shaded space that can act as a workshop for dirty works. If needed it can be closed with a very basic rolling shutter. 
The top floor is a living area for two persons. A furniture block in the middle contains all the essentials units like kitchen, bathroom, beds and working tables. 
In order to get more autarkic there is a garden for food cultivation and the wooden tower for the staircase includes solar collectors and a small windmill on the top to generate electricity.
The structure is built out of the materials found in the direct surrounding: timber, limestone, mud, lime plaster.

Ways of living and building with nature to us means using local, natural potentials, to craft them and to transform old wisdom in a way that it meets our needs and dreams.

Design: Studio Anna Heringer (Anna Heringer, Stefano Mori) 

Location: Edersee, Germany 

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WAYS OF LIFE - EXPERIMENTA URBANA (Kassel/Germany): 

Curators: Christoph Hesse and Neeraj Bhatia

Other participants: Atelier Alter (China), Bernaskoni (Russia), Dogma (Belgium), Fake Industries Architectural Agonism (FKAA) (Australia / USA), 
Jurgen Mayer H. (Germany), KWK Promes (Poland), NOA (Italy), The Open Workshop (USA/ Canada), Organization for Permanent Modernity (USA / Belgium), Penda (China/ Austria), Pezo Von Ellrichshausen (Chile), 
RICA Studio (USA / Spain), SsD (USA / Korea), ), Somatic Collaborative (USA), Stinessen Arkitektur (Norway), Tatiana Bilbao (Mexico), Yamazaki Kentaro Design Workshop (Japan)