Transformation of a barn at Camphill Rotvoll

Abstract

The barn at Rotvoll farm has a history of 140 years. Nowadays it is owned by Steiner school that uses its part mainly for storage and Camphill Rotvoll that use their part for workshops and keeping a few animals.

The future use of the barn would include residential units for Camphill Rotvoll and living and teaching premises for FRAMskolen, which are both part of the Camphill movement. Camphill commmunities are "life-sharing" communities and schools for adults and children with learning disabilities and other special needs that provide services and support for work, learning and daily living.

The aims of the project included reusing as much as possible from the old structure, while ensuring a good energy performance. Also architecturally, reuse and fitting the existing barn structures was a crucial theme for functional distribution and interior and exterior concepts.

The design project consists of four chapters dedicated to important themes of the project:  The Barn - the history and investigations of the existing structureDesign - architectural design drawings and considerationsMaterials - details for new and reused materials and embodied emissions accountingEnergy - energy targets, performance and evaluating energy supply options The programs used for the project include SIMIEN for simulating energy performance and Autodesk Ecotect and Radiance for daylight simulations. Emission accounting for materials was done using database EMPA Ökologische Baustoffliste (Version 2.2e) originating in Switzerland.