Location   Nyborg, Denmark

Surface area   1,463 square feet

Photographs   © Stamers Kontor

	CO2 low consumption
	One material construction: solid brick
	High insulation   Natural daylight

This cottage is part of the Mini-CO₂ Houses project initiated by the Realdania charity foundation, which sets out to develop affordable and sustainable housing with a small CO₂ footprint. To achieve this, the aim is to create houses that require no maintenance for fifty years and have a life span of at least one hundred and fifty years.

The house walls are built entirely of clay, to enable the house to breathe. The use of bricks creates a simple, solid, and homogeneous exterior wall that echoes traditional houses that have stood the test of time. By using a single building material, the number of joints between different materials is reduced, and the possibility of construction defects is minimized.

Leth & Gori’s work rediscovers the knowledge and techniques used in traditional Danish brick houses. They focus on creating a contemporary home with a long life span, drawing on the best of historic building practices and meshing these with new knowledge and architectural techniques. The result is a home that exudes quality in its architecture and craftsmanship, with solid brick walls that render it strong and healthy, with low maintenance requirements and a pleasant indoor climate.

North elevation

East elevation

West elevation

South elevation

Street view

Veranda view

 The brick walls provide a solid and healthy home with a long useful life, pleasant interior climate, and low maintenance.

Section A-A

Section B-B

Detailed roof section

  1.  Recessed light ceiling

  2.  Plywood cladding with acoustically perforated boards

  3.  Visible collar tie roof construction

  4.  Exposed steel cord

Floor plan

  1.  Bedrooms

  2.  Utility room

  3.  Entrance

  4.  Storeroom

  5.  Kitchen

  6.  Dining room

  7.  Living room

  8.  Bathroom

Axonometric view

  1.  Homogeneous brick wall

  2.  Facade render colored

  3.  Corten steel 100 x 150 x 8 mm

  4.  Interlacing masonry

           Homogeneous brick wall

           108 mm bricks, standard format

           30 mm cavity filled with mortar

           425 mm clay blocks

           Gypsum plaster (finished wall surface)

  5.  Light ceiling

  6.  Interior plywood cladding

           Acoustically perforated boards

  7.  Collar beam

           Exposed

  8.  Steel cord

           Exposed

  9.  Hip Roof / 35º – 55º

           Interlocking roof tiles

           Underlayment: board sheating, tongue and groove

10.  Paper wool insulation

11.  Standard trusses

12.  Hip rafter

13.  Roof overhang

14.  Eaves

           Copper downpipes

           Copper eaves flashing

15.  Facade niche

16.  Corten steel border

           15 mm corten steel

17.  Veranda

           Clinker surface

Private spaces

Common space

Daylight through lit space

Wall construction detail

  1.  Interlacing masonry

           brick (108 x 228 x 55 mm)

  2.  Clay blocks

           248 x 425 x 249 mm

  3.  Cavity

           30 mm cavity filled with mortar

  4.  Interlocking brick

 The interior is sophisticated yet simple at the same time: all bedrooms are organized around a central space, and the exposed bricks complement the wood floors and surfaces.