The built environment represents, for most of us, the background of everyday life, and yet, when we look at a building, we rarely understand what it is made of. In doing so, we also fail to understand its impact on us and on the larger systems of nature. Office Kim Lenschow aims to draw attention to this and to provoke critical thinking in relation to architecture and the materials that make it. By focusing on small-scale, mostly residential projects, the office seeks to reveal this hidden narrative of materials and cultivate more awareness and engagement with the structures surrounding us. For their involvement in the exploration of materials and sustainable development, Office Kim Lenschow has been selected as one of the ArchDaily 2023 New Practices. Every year since 2020, ArchDaily has curated and highlighted emerging offices that bring a new perspective to the field of architecture and design.
For Lenschow, each material tells a story, and the job of the architect is to make those stories available by making them part of the architecture. The expressive use of the materials is, however, not simply an aesthetic pursuit. By understanding the components of our homes and where they come from, we can gain an awareness of nature, its processes, and our impact on it. The sustainability component is therefore not an expression of high-tech, but a reacquaintance with the raw state of materials and the low-tech ways of achieving efficiency.
This interest in the story of material becomes for Lenschow an opportunity for contemplation, resulting in a more balanced way of “securing this place on Earth.” He describes his process of designing as an opportunity to take pause and “rethink what you actually need before entering a project.” The focus on materials is also a shift from the typical way in which architecture was taught during the late 90s, when the main interest was on shapes, with little to no interest in how the building would be made, and the interplay of materials within the construction and their production systems.
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The Aesthetics of Circularity: Detachable, Rustic, LightI have developed the way I look at materials as not only products, or not only something taken from nature but actually as parts of a whole system, telling the story of where they come from. I think this is a really important way of looking at materials at the moment. - Kim Lenscho
Projects such as the Between Birch House, developed in collaboration with pihlmann architects, demonstrate how building lighter structures can minimize their environmental impact and create a more humble presence within the surrounding context. This contributes to creating a new language of aesthetics based on circularity and conscientious material use. The small summerhouse rests on helical pillars, thus avoiding the use of concrete foundations. The lightness is also emphasized using a wooden construction and a limited material palette. Structural elements are left visible, as the birch plywood is economically applied in order to reveal the different layers of the construction.
We want the connection between the materials to be emphasized, that’s where you become aware of the difference in the tectonics of the materials, in the layering of the materials. Everything sort of happens in the detail. So that is the architect’s craft, solving these details. - Kim Lenschow
Besides the narrative embedded within the materials, the craftsmanship needed for the construction is also relevant for telling the complete story of architecture. By exposing the labor needed to assemble and adapt these elements into the building structure, the expression is enriched. In this way, the collaborative nature of the profession brings together the needs of the owner, the vision of the architect, the hand of the craftsmen, and the expressivity of materials, all bound together and openly expressed.
All of these objectives play a role in the practice of the office. When talking about the challenges of starting an architectural practice, Kim Lenschow delves into his strategies for ensuring that every project, regardless of its scale or budget, comes with a small accomplishment. He talks about identifying “one or two interesting things” about the project in its early phases. Once identified, that potential becomes the main task of the project, the main area of focus, like striving to make visible the wooden structure or emphasizing a particular combination of materials. The small success of accomplishing that one task can then be taken as lessons for the next projects, accumulating experience while finding the joy and potential of each endeavor.
Every little project can become great architecture. - Kim Lenschow
On the occasion of the 2023 UIA World Congress of Architecture held in Copenhagen, Kim Lenschow participated in a panel talk “To build with nothing – On planetary boundaries and strategies of avoidance.” The talk called for the rethinking of material use, the need for new buildings, and the changing role of architects. The theme aligns with the 10 Copenhagen Lessons, drawn as overarching conclusions of the conference. Several other offices selected as part of the 2023 ArchDaily New Practices are also tackling the theme of sustainable material use. Among them, Willow Technologies works with agricultural by-products to create building materials in Ghana, while RoarcRenew Architects explores alternative construction systems through a sustainable and product-oriented approach.
