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Høst til Hus -Harvest to House


The seminar has happened.  You can see some photos here and you can read Emmy Laura Perez’s Speech here. 

We premiered the short film at CAFx Life Forms in Copenhagen and you can watch it here.  

11.11.22-13.11.22

Høst til Hus (Harvest to House) workshop seeks to investigate the interface between agriculture and the built environment. Høst til Hus is the beginning of a dialogue between those who work with the earth and those who build with the earth’s materials, we hope to generate interest and ideas for a regenerative future.

We will discuss land-use, material culture, carbon capture, ecological interconnectedness, deep-time and beauty. We will look to pre-industrial and vernacular cultures, scientific advancements, ecological thinking, regenerative sytems-change, questions of climate and intergenerational justice, and concepts of care. 

By weaving stories, scientific research, and regenerative practices we hope to reconnect humans to the land and the living. 

This cross-disciplinary workshop emerged as part of Building The Symbiocene, a larger initiative advocating regenerative change. Høst til Hus - Harvest to House is hosted by Djernes & Bell, Local Works Studio, Høstskole & Dinsen/ KADK Residency.

This workshop is the beginning of a larger inquisitive, experimental, built and grown investigation into the interface between agriculture, architecture and the potential for regenerative and ecological progress.

Høst til Hus is generously supported by Statens Kunst Fond under the Building The Symbiocene Initiative and hosted by Dinesen X KADK summer school & residency programme. 

Organisers

Djernes & Bell (DK)
Local Works (UK)
Høstskole - Janne Dinesen (DK)
Dinesen x KADK Summer School (DK) Nicholas Brooks (UK)

Programme

Click here.

Food

Menu.

All food is grown and prepared by local Regenerative Farmers from Stensbæk Grønt. Tobias and Nina have designed a seasonal menu that compliments the programme. Eggs are from local Abilgaard and cheese from Jernved.


Practical

Information for participants.

11.11.22-13.11.22.
Vråvej 2, 6630 Rødding,
Southern Jutland, Denmark.   Dinesen x KADK Summer School & Residency. 

Site

Dinesen x KADK Summer School & Residency.


Resources

Useful Links.

Findings of the workshop will be documented, shared & presented in 2023. 

Contact 

Justine Bell (architecture)
Janne Dinesen (agriculture)




Mark

Friday 11 November 2022


15h00: Arrival & Settling in
17h00: Walk & Sauna (Optional)
18h30: Dinner & Introductions
19h30: Place: Welome to Residency

Introduction to Dinesen X KADK Summerschool & Residency by Hans Peter Dinesen & Peter Møller Rasmussen

20h30: Stories: What is The Symbiocene?

Project Origins & Bedtime Reading by Justine Bell, Djernes & Bell


Saturday 12 November 2022


07h00: Yoga (Optional)

07h30: Breakfast
08h30: Fieldwork: Growing for Building 

Agronomist Janne Dinesen leads an immersive field & meadow wandering, soil underfoot and surrounded by growth she will present the agronomic aspects of cultivating crops for thatching. Why should farmers grow for building? This will include a short contextual history, and current agronomic status, crop types, challenges & possibilities, environmental, climatic & biodiversity aspects of culitvation.

12h00: Lunch

13h00: Material: Building with Plants

Cross-cultural dialogue led by Local Works (UK) & local Danish thatchers (Stråtagets Kontor) this dialogue will consider the vernacular heritage of thatching and the possibilities of thatching to contribute to a regenerative future for the Built Environment. How is thatching linked to local context, climate and land-use. How have thatching traditions developed as different expressions of living reciprocally with the landscape. What advancements in understanding of plant species might mean on thatching crafts?
13h00: Jørgen Kaarup from Stråtagets Kontor (DK) will give a visual presentation of thatch and thatching materials, seaweed, straw, water reed and miscanthus and show examples from Laesoe, Denmark, Holland, China and Japan, leading us to the growing of miscanthus in Denmark and the chances of improving the growing of water reed in the new wetland areas in Denmark.
13h30: Local Works (UK) Present Case Study:  Building with Plants in Broadridge Farm,  Devon, West Country, UK. 
Local Works will present two drawing exercises, how they looked at a site in Devon to explore potential material palettes and their viability for use in construction of new farm buildings and repair of existing.
14h00: Dialogue on Building with Plants. Based on the presentations from agronomist, thatcher, maker & builder perspective, we will discuss opportunities and obstacles of growing & building with plants.

15h00: Tea
15h30: Building: Reparative Ecologies

13h00: Djernes & Bell will give a short presentation on Making Good & Making Do and their thoughts on reparative ecologies in architecture and care, repair, maintenance and craft as drivers for regenerative change.
13h30: Dialogue with participants on how growing building materials might inspire reconnection to the earth, plants and other beings that metamorphasise together to make our world. 
14h00: Local Works will lead a mapping exercise on Landscape Layers. With focus on geology, ecological habitats, land use, culture/habits/routines? We will look at current crops and landscape bi-products, building & craft typologies (vernacular & current, that use thatch). Participants will do this landscape mapping on Dinesen’s farm and the larger local context. Thinking, mapping and drawing together. 
Finally, we will look to the future, considering together the barriers and solutions to growing, procuring and building with regenerative plant-based materials and identifying opportunities for the future.
The purpose of this exercise is to fulfil some of the promise of this project, to promote synergy between practitioners and realise the potential for new perspectives, ideas and solutions.

18h30: Dinner 
19h30: Stories: Weaving Ways

Emmy Laura will present ways of working and thinking with more-than-human architecture and landscaping. She uses weaving, environmental history, poetics, and cultural geography to query human practices of landscape care, repair and connection. 

As an experimental ritual we will plait/ weave/ braid local plant fibres to try and achieve a greater connectedness. 

Sunday 13 November 2022


07h00: Sauna (Optional)

07h30: Breakfast
08h30: Making: Weaving, knotting, threading

Local Works will lead the practical making activity, which is inspired by the woven interior lining of early rural sleeping alcoves.
08h30: Local Works & Djernes Bell will present inspiration for the Making exercise.
08h45: The thatchers & Local Works will show some knotting & stitching, and give thatching craft based tips.
10h00: Making Activity

12h00: Lunch
13h00: Making: Weaving, knotting, threading

We will continue the afternoon with practical activities relating to weaving and knotting interior structures. This will be hung and exhibited on the drying-rungs in the atrium of the residency. Hands-on tactile contact to the various thatching, weaving materias should inspire dialogue and thoughts on the next steps for growing and building with plants.

Harvest to House/ Høst til Hus invite participants to reflect and return with ideas for the next steps or experiments towards agricultural & architectural & ecological harmony.

15h00: Tea
15h30: Packing Down & Goodbye

Ordering, tidying and home making. All hands on deck to return the Residency to its pre-inhabited state. Good-byes and sharing contact details.

17h00: Latest Departure from Vråvej