Heidi Merrild is an architect who is deeply rooted in both academia and practice. She has been teaching at the Aarhus School of Architecture, where she is also currently finishing her PhD1. She works between physical prototypes and theoretical research which aims towards a re-understanding of pre-modern ways of building through a new way of understanding architecture and materials as layers, connections and cycles.
Her work includes research on reversibility of architectural products through prolongation of material lifecycles, which she sees strongly connected to material visibility and readability of construction layers. She opposes modern building techniques, where all components are “casted, glued or compressed into a wall where [you] no longer see [them]”. Questioning how all elements of the constructed entity can be redefined in layers and how their “cycles are reflected in the way we layer the materials in architecture”. With this she bridges between initial growth cycles of the plant, which provides the material to build with, life cycles of those materials and usage cycles defined by the human participant. Recategorizing architecture into layers of temporalities. Heidi illustrates this understanding of layers through a tree trunk, where the core is the structural part and the outer layers of the tree which have different functions as the lighter and more permeable ones.
“[...] we need to rethink and find new ways of connecting materials in terms of the tectonics. And it's not only that, but it's also an architecture that is readable and not as we see in more modern construction, where everything is sort of either casted, glued or compressed into a wall where [you] no longer see the tectonics or the structural elements anymore, so it's more like one surface and one wall that contains all of the structural elements. I am trying to define the structural elements in layers and not only the structural elements but all the layers are sort of investigating how the cycles are reflected in the way we are layering the materials in architecture. [...]
Of course, this demands that we use materials that are within that framework of a short cycle on the sacrificial layer, meaning all parts of that layer need to address that short cycle, and that's the sort of idea behind that. The layers reflect the cycles of the materials and use the functions. “
“[…] flax [which] has a very short [growth] cycle, that's about 120 days, and that informs us that this is a possible sacrificial layer so we can actually throw it out after perhaps 20 years and we have still not made a negative impact on the environment”
Her work, while positioned in architecture unfolds through knowledge from many different disciplines. She ties connections between amongst others, experts in architecture, forest ecology and agriculture. The different temporalities of layers and species used translates back to how and where these materials originate from. Heidi advocates the use of multispecies and with this an increase of biodiversity in the repertoire of materials in architecture, where the “building reflects the biodiversity” in its layers of construction.
“[…] it's not one sort or one type of wood or one plant […] it's multiple species that have to be translated into multiple layers within the building.
As architects, we have to work harder on understanding the different qualities and the different aspects of forestry and how you can use parts of the forestry […] every tree is unique and only together they make a forest. […] don´t necessarily think we should stop using the forests, but it has to be done in a different way”
Through the thinking of layers, connections and multiple species as material sources, readability of the construction moves into the foreground. Only through visibility, and the possibility to read how the architecture has been put together is it possible to later introduce repairing techniques. Within her research she has explored the tradition of Norwegian loghouses, which are built to be fully dismantled and rebuilt at a new location. While craftsmanship and material understanding is a crucial part to keep a continuous rebuilding cycle possible, these houses do not only speak through the skillfull craftsmanship, but also the valuation of material. The loghouse she examined specifically has been rebuilt twice in Norway within a short distance over the timespan of 150 years. The wood used to build the house has been grown for “at least 100 years” and the distance between the relocations is within 500 m from each other, which points to the valuation of the material of the cabin, but also the situatedness of the material. Through her work she questions how architecture could be rethought in terms of connectedness to the building´s location, the choice of materials that flow into the construction according to their cycles, properties and availabilities, additionally to the need to prolong the lifecycles of the longterm or strong materials of a construction. Furthermore, she emphasizes the urgency for higher material valuation and a move away from mass production.
“we have to be more specific in terms of the point of lives the actual situatedness of where we are designing or we are creating architecture. That's more important than anything else. […] Availability of wood that would make sense for this where you take it, pick it out of the forest like individual items - Unique elements and then you adjust it “