• kitchen looking into the communal courtyard
  • bedrooms
  • entrance
  • private courtyard towards landscape
  • living room towards private courtyard
  • storage/shed module
  • the first floor is delievered without interior walls
  • the final ramp will be concrete and won't touch the house

bbb low-cost housing, tegnestuen vandkunsten

bbb low-cost housing, kvistgård, elsinore, denmark.
architects: tegnestuen vandkunsten, 2004-2008.

new photos and text, june 2009.

prefab courtyard low-cost housing. flat, wood elements. you are looking at a single unit in two floors. this is a prototype done partly to serve as a sales pavillion and partly to learn how to assemble the next 124 houses effectively.

four different courtyard houses are archieved by combining 5.2x5.2 meter modules. nine by nine, the courtyard houses are gathered around intimate communal spaces (kitchen always looking into this space). the resulting enclaves are placed freely in the gently sloping landscape.

facades are carbonized (that is baked or heat treated) wood and aluminium. the windows were not particularly low-cost but the client was looking for certain details whereby he could increase the quality of his project in a single move, so to speak. we recommended the windows. the client's own input here was to increase the interior ceiling height to 2,6 meter.

there is a lot to tell about this project, it has a long and troubled history already, but that won't be today.

we did a similar project for IKEA but I didn't work on that. this one is for a highly ambitious Danish client.

client's project web site
www.vandkunsten.com

this photo was uploaded with a CC license and may be used free of charge and in any way you see fit.
if possible, please name photographer "SEIER+SEIER".
if not, don't.

Comments and faves

  1. ★

    Ben Jones Photography, jmtp, p2an, ekainj, and 133 other people added this photo to their favorites.

  2. Ben Jones Photography (64 months ago | reply)

    Nice.

  3. Iqbal Aalam (64 months ago | reply)

    Thanks for the clarification and the details. Once again I have to say that the overall standards seem to be much higher there. I also think that the 'layman' in Denmark will find the design readily acceptable.
    Roger's design aesthetics are intensely disliked by the general house buying population. The cultural expectations won't sell any design without its own front and back garden.

  4. seier+seier (64 months ago | reply)

    thanks, ben and iqbal.

    let me just link back to your photo of richard rogers' low cost housing in milton keynes in case anyone reads this :)

    www.flickr.com/photos/iqbalaalam/2228499160/

    offices that focus on large buildings sometimes have difficulties scaling the details in small scale housing correctly. that might be an issue with rogers in this case.

    I really admire his work, though, also above that of the other team4 guy...

  5. Doctor Casino (64 months ago | reply)

    Faboo! I have been thinking more and more that I may want to focus on low-income housing in the long run, so it's always nice to see this stuff from you. Judging solely from the outside, I would have no problem living here...

    Our project this quarter is for a housing scheme, but not with any particular income bracket defined...for various reasons I have not been fully enthused about the project, but it is still getting ideas popping around in my head....

  6. Ben Lepley +_+ (64 months ago | reply)

    "offices that focus on large buildings sometimes have difficulties scaling the details in small scale housing correct" yeah I see your point Might be better as a corporate office park, or Dental village

    What a difference Wood cladding can make on the feel of a building, its a dumb statement, but one forgotten by those pre-occupied with form-maiking

  7. seier+seier (64 months ago | reply)

    dental village! I don't even want to know what that is!

  8. seier+seier (64 months ago | reply)

    and yes, wood cladding can have an almost therapeutic effect. somehow, it is easier to imagine yourself with bare feet and a cold beer next to a wooden house than next to some twisted stainless concoction.

    there is something like a psychology of materials - in terms of how we respond to things and surfaces. asplund and aalto were masters of this.

    with the aluminium windows shown here, we had the factory take them off their production line before the coating, to leave the aluminium raw, untreated.

    its a small move with no extra cost, but suddenly you meet the actual material instead of some product and I believe we respond differently to the two.

    (the lamp, as you can see, is still in coated aluminium. I am hoping we can change that)

  9. seier+seier (64 months ago | reply)

    doc, good luck with your assignment and thanks for the "faboo" - my first :)

  10. pnwra (64 months ago | reply)

    Does the heat treatment on the wood have anything to do with how dark it is? Or is that just a stain?

  11. seier+seier (64 months ago | reply)

    absolutely, the wood comes out of the heat treatment quite dark.

    usually, we would paint it black but in this case we used a new paint with much less pigment, like a stain. when you move along the building, particularly in sunshine, you catch a glimpse of the dark brown beneath the black.

    I am sure that the buildings will eventually be all black when they have been repainted a number of times - but as with classic paints such as linseed oil paint, you can choose to refresh the paint using more or less pigment.

  12. seier+seier (64 months ago | reply)

    the site plan might make the project easier to understand:

    www.vandkunsten.com/show/billede.asp?id=452

    EDIT: dead link, sorry

  13. pepe peralta (63 months ago | reply)

    Interesting building

  14. seier+seier (63 months ago | reply)

    thanks, p.p.

  15. superka_01 (62 months ago | reply)

    It is interesting, simple and beautiful. Thank you for sharing
    Maybe more trees (fruit trees!) will be good on a site plan?

  16. seier+seier (62 months ago | reply)

    thanks, superka, we are planting fruit trees in all the courtyards!

  17. Daniel R. Schultz. (62 months ago | reply)

    fabulous...
    :)

  18. seier+seier (62 months ago | reply)

    thanks, d.r.b.

  19. frustrated architecture student (58 months ago | reply)

    im from somewhere in asia and i really admire modern architecture. i was really having hard time looking for an idiot's guide for prefab construction until i found this on the web.

    anyway, in terms of prefab..do prefab bldgs have any columns or somekind of footings underneath. is it stable enough from being blown off from the ground by super strong winds like a typhoon or so? thanks!

  20. seier+seier (58 months ago | reply)

    dear frustrated architecture student,

    the concrete foundations of this project are very traditional by local standards, they go down 90 centimeters into the ground which is a depth unaffected by frost in the winter and thus stable throughout the year.

    we don't have typhoons in denmark, but the house is anchored to the foundations and will stand extremely heavy winds.

    good luck with your studies!

  21. stadtbild (58 months ago | reply)

    hi seier+seier+seier,
    i was recently talking with a friend about vandkunsten and we wondered where the name comes from, I think I'm able to translate it and google told me that theres a spring in kobenhavn, I also came by the streetsign....is that just the adress or is there any story behind?
    as I understand you're working there and seem to know everything about danish architecture ;) so do you know?

  22. seier+seier (58 months ago | reply)

    ha! well, this one I know...

    it is simply the address where the office started (which is right by the well you mentioned). I think they decided on the address because the office was a collective right from the beginning.

    it still is, by the way, with most of the original crew still here. they have since hired some of their students from the school of architecture, who have since hired some of their students...a nice way of achieving continuity, I think.

  23. stadtbild (58 months ago | reply)

    ah thanks, that was fast.
    so theres no big secret behind;)
    this kind of continuity right now makes it hard for me to find a job, cause i changed the city after studying....not only usual at vandkunsten

  24. seier+seier (58 months ago | reply)

    that is probably true...

  25. OscarFalcon (56 months ago | reply)

    I would love one of these. I am getting married next year and we are in need of temporary cool housing. Neat.

  26. seier+seier (56 months ago | reply)

    thanks, I have to admit that we have been talking about moving there ourselves.

  27. seier+seier (47 months ago | reply)

    new photos here: www.flickr.com/photos/seier/3678135417/ :)

  28. seier+seier (44 months ago | reply)

    you are welcome :)

  29. p_magisa (41 months ago | reply)

    Hello Sir

    I am currently making a website for house loans, etc

    may i ask for your permission to use use pics of these wonderful houses as my main images?
    thanks and hope to hear from you soon

  30. seier+seier (41 months ago | reply)

    you are free to use the photos with a CC-license :)

  31. Elio-X (39 months ago | reply)

    I love the black color. I know it catches sunlight and keeps the house warm during cold times. In Colombia is imposible to use that color, because we are in the tropic zone, so if we use it...Everything would be hotter than what already is

  32. seier+seier (39 months ago | reply)

    true, and of course it is not strictly about climate here...black is a good colour for buildings for a number of reasons

  33. strahovochka (35 months ago | reply)

    It is a very nice picture, may I use it at my blog
    http://strahovochka.blogspot.com/?

  34. seier+seier (35 months ago | reply)

    of course, go ahead :)

  35. ep_jhu (33 months ago | reply)

    I'd live there. Love the design and materials.

  36. seier+seier (33 months ago | reply)

    thanks eric, you are too kind :)

  37. Daniel R. Schultz. (30 months ago | reply)

    WOWWWWW!
    This is a great place and pic!

  38. seier+seier (29 months ago | reply)

    :)

  39. Mischa Mauch [deleted] (28 months ago | reply)

    Simply beautiful, powerful answer and projekt.
    Today a got a bit deeper into your work set, I'm watching the sheets on the www.vandkunsten.com site.
    It has the atmosphere that village cores have.
    An answer beetween big housing tankers and isolated objects.
    What beautiful trees and water, the site is inspiring.
    Have a nice day, greetings, M

  40. seier+seier (27 months ago | reply)

    thanks mischa. you are right to point to the site as something special.

  41. nononononoyesyesyesyesyes (22 months ago | reply)

    Nice photo, may i use it for my website.

  42. seier+seier (22 months ago | reply)

    yes :)

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