A palette of native clay, sand, hemp and wooden was used to create Hedeskov Living Lab, a analysis and academic centre in Rønde, designed by Danish structure studio Djernes & Bell.
Located on rewilded farmland, the centre is devoted to analysis and training on regenerative practices and occupies a collection of buildings, together with an outdated stone college.
Djernes & Bell‘s design, which was lately shortlisted within the sustainable renovation class of Dezeen Awards 2025, is meant to embody the ethos of its consumer, researcher Heath forestby utilizing native, pure supplies and vernacular building strategies.
It gives instructional and co-working areas, alongside lodging for residencies and a barn workshop.
“The undertaking is constructed across the perception that structure ought to now not be an remoted object, however an energetic participant in ecological restore,” studio companion Justine Bell informed Dezeen.
“It is an illustration of how a constructing can turn into a dwelling laboratory for regenerative observe – not simply by lowering impression, however by actively bettering the programs round it,” she added.
“It’s about making structure that clearly reveals the landscapes, supplies, and constructing cultures that produced it, and in doing so, makes seen the relationships between people, land, and time.”
Collaborating with UK-based round materials specialists Local Works Studionative farmers and craftspeople, Djernes & Bell surveyed the panorama for pure supplies that could possibly be used to assemble Hedeskov Living Lab, together with clay, timber, bulrush and typha fibres.
The construction of the present college constructing was conserved and restored utilizing bricks discovered on-site, earlier than its floor ground was given a brand new lining of clay plaster pigmented a reddish-brown tone utilizing native sand and linseed oil paint.
Inside, a double-height entrance corridor connects the residency bedrooms and classroom with a big assembly room and co-working area above, positioned beneath the unique timber rafters.
Built-in cabinetry on the primary ground was created by repurposing the outdated floorboards, which have been taken up and changed to insert insulation.
An adjoining storage constructing was given a extra in depth overhaul primarily based on conventional Danish bindingsværk, or half-timbering. An fully new picket body was infilled with hemp-lime panels and raised on limecrete foundations and a neighborhood clay ground.
“Unfired clay bricks, hemp-lime infill and clay plasters strengthened with typha fibres from the positioning have been chosen for his or her low-carbon, hygroscopic, and non-toxic qualities, but additionally for the tales they carry of seasonal cycles, historical craft data and the gradual processes that form the land,” stated Bell.
“There was an enormous quantity of on-site reuse and re-crafting,” Bell added. “All new inner partitions have been comprised of bricks discovered on web site and all of the outdated timber flooring have been recrafted to make the joinery of the undertaking.”
“It’s a reminder that reuse and restore will not be new concepts – they’re how nature, and people, have at all times constructed. Iterative enchancment, utilizing what’s already there, is the essence of a reparative constructing tradition.”
Accompanying the storage and college constructing is a brand new green-roofed shed containing a workshop and kitchen, constructed on the footprint of an outdated shed, in addition to an open pavilion with a recycled brick ground.
The timber buildings of each of those have been completed in a deep shade of purple, a conventional function of many Danish agricultural barns, whereas massive round home windows and skylights type a motif that unites each the outdated and new parts of the positioning.
As a part of the centre’s ongoing analysis in partnership with Aalborg BUILD University, college students will observe the centre’s inner local weather, emissions and moisture behaviour.
Other tasks competing for sustainable renovation of the yr within the Dezeen Awards 2025 embody Space House in London, which was renovated and prolonged by British studio Squire and Partners, and the overhaul of the Palais Rameau exhibition corridor in Lille by Atelier 9.81 and Perrot & Richard.
The images is by Johan Dehlin.