Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation

Improved cooking stoves (ICS) are intended to reduce indoor air pollution and the inefficient use of fuel yet there is often reticence to shift permanently to ICS. Drawing on a scoping review, this article aims to provide a comprehensive overview of factors affecting the acceptability of ICS. A scoping review was carried out using a systematic search strategy of literature. All articles identified in three major databases that included Pubmed/Medline, Scopus and Web of Science underwent screening followed by content analysis to generate major and minor themes using a structured social level analysis. The analysis identified factors at micro, meso, and macro-social levels that potentially contribute to an adoption of an improved cooking stove (ICS). The findings from the review were discussed and refined among a group of experts identified based on their prior academic or commercial contributions related to ICS. Adoption of ICS was dependent on functional outputs (e.g. cleanliness, and cooking efficiency) while meeting local social and cultural demands (e.g. cooking large meals, traditional meals, and taste). Health and cost benefits played an important role in the adoption and sustained use of ICS. The adoption of ICS was enabled by use among neighbors and other community members. Sustained use of ICS depended on fuel supply, fuel security and policies promoting its use. Policies offering subsidies in support of supply-chain garnered institutional trust among community members and resulted in the sustained use of ICS. In addition to design attributes of ICS that could meet both scientific and social demands, policies supporting promotion of clean energy, subsidies and supplies can substantially enhance the adoption of ICS.

In response to pressuring challenges such as climate change and the need for sustainable building and manufacturing, the Kalundborg demonstrator aims to develop innovative solutions grounded in education, inclusion, biology, and ecology. The experimentation conducted within the Desire project calls for a transdisciplinary approach for the learning environment, ensuring that graduates can work across educational levels and engage various stakeholders in co-creating innovative solutions. The city of Kalundborg aspires to develop a robust educational campus for about 1,250 students, researchers, teachers, entrepreneurs, and future job candidates. Located near the major Kalundborg biotech industry and just outside the city center, this campus is set to become a significant educational hub within biosolutions and biomanufacturing. This transformation highlights challenges such as the development of a shared vision, plans and programs for the future of the campus. Key challenges include fostering local citizen engagement, creating a vision for the sustainable educational campus that meets diverse needs, and ensuring long-term benefits for the city and its inhabitants. The experimentation conducted within the Desire project seeks to address these issues through comprehensive and inclusive development strategies, promoting sustainable urban development and community resilience.

Several studies have focussed on the impacts of B Corp certification, whereas little attention has been rendered to the experiences of organisations undergoing the certification process. This study provides deeper insights into how managers perceive the B Corp certification process by focussing on the relationship between certification requirements and existing sustainability routines. Based on interviews with 26 B Corp certifying organisations, this study demonstrates how the certification process can inspire actions ranging from validation of existing practices to more deep‐rooted changes in sustainability routines. Moreover, the study highlights the internal organisational conditions, which shape the routine performances in relation to B Corp certification. It is concluded that regular revisits of the organisation's sustainability performance and the mobilisation of local actors in sustainability work promote routine changes. This study expands on sustainability certification discussions by demonstrating how these tools shape, and in turn are shaped by, dominant patterns of sustainability work within the organisation.

The study examines: (1) how place-based organizational tensions arise in the context of local textile and fashion manufacturing, and (2) the strategies employed to address these tensions. Based on interviews with owners and/or managers from Norwegian textile and fashion companies, the study identifies three main categories of place-based tensions: (1) Mission: Belonging vs Performing; (2) Spatial: Belonging vs Organizing; and (3) Competence: Belonging versus Learning. Moreover, the study identifies four interrelated coping strategies used by actors to tackle place-based tensions and strengthen the position of local manufacturing in the global fashion industry. The findings contribute to the existing literature by identifying the key place-based tensions linked to local manufacturing business models and the steps taken by actors to address these oppositional demands in everyday organizational practices. Additionally, the study adds nuance to our understanding of how attachment to place can support organizational change toward practicing sustainability.

Architecture still excludes users despite decades of increased attention towards the designing of built environments to accommodate all. Partially, this grand problem is due to the uncertainty and plurality of future usage, which challenge architects in identifying potentially excluding mechanisms of their designs. Common approaches in responding to these challenges are either top-down assessment of architecture, or bottom-up collection of situated accounts from users. However, both approaches face dilemmas in developing representations of usage. This paper presents a framework that integrates qualities of both approaches using user-narratives and a rule-based generative algorithm to generate libraries of designs that each depict potential usage reflecting the narrative of users. The aim is to give architects and other decision makers tools to conceptualise the future usage of their design as plural and diverse. The presented framework is at an early stage of development. However, the principles proposed could hold potential to mitigate exclusion by explicating multiple potential use-events.

Background Care seeking was assessed in preparation for a study of the health impact of novel design houses in rural Mtwara, Tanzania. Methods A total of 578 residents of 60 villages participated in this mixed-methods study from April to August 2020. Among them, 550 participated in a healthcare-seeking survey, 17 in in-depth interviews and 28 in key informant interviews. Results The decision to seek care was based on symptom severity (95.4% [370]). Caregivers first visited non-allopathic healthcare providers or were treated at home, which led to delays in seeking care at healthcare facilities. More than one-third (36.0% [140]) of respondents took >12 h seeking care at healthcare facilities. The majority (73.0% [282]) visited healthcare facilities, whereas around one-fifth (21.0% [80]) sought care at drug stores. Treatment costs deterred respondents from visiting healthcare facilities (61.4% [338]). Only 10 (3.6%) of the households surveyed reported that they were covered by health insurance. Conclusions Quality of care, related to institutional factors, impacts timely care seeking for childhood illnesses in Mtwara, Tanzania. Ensuring accessibility of facilities is therefore not sufficient.

Background Anopheles gambiae, the major malaria mosquito in sub-Saharan Africa, feed largely indoors at night. Raising a house off the ground with no barriers underneath reduces mosquito-house entry. This experiment tested whether walling off the space under an elevated hut affects mosquito-hut entry. Methods Four inhabited experimental huts, each of which could be moved up and down, were used in rural Gambia. Nightly collections of mosquitoes were made using light traps and temperature and carbon dioxide levels monitored indoors and outdoors using loggers. Each night, a reference hut was kept at ground level and three huts raised 2 m above the ground; with the space under the hut left open, walled with air-permeable walls or solid walls. Treatments were rotated every four nights using a randomized block design. The experiment was conducted for 32 nights. Primary measurements were mosquito numbers and indoor temperature in each hut. Results A total of 1,259 female Anopheles gambiae sensu lato were collected in the hut at ground level, 655 in the hut with an open ground floor, 981 in the hut with air-permeable walls underneath and 873 in the hut with solid walls underneath. Multivariate analysis, adjusting for confounders, showed that a raised hut open underneath had 53% fewer mosquitoes (95% CI 47–58%), those with air-permeable walls underneath 24% fewer (95% CI 9–36%) and huts with solid walls underneath 31% fewer (95% CI 24–37%) compared with a hut on the ground. Similar results were found for Mansonia spp. and total number of female mosquitoes, but not for Culex mosquitoes where hut entry was unaffected by height or barriers. Indoor temperature and carbon dioxide levels were similar in all huts. Conclusion Raising a house 2 m from the ground reduces the entry of An. gambiae and Mansonia mosquitoes, but not Culex species. The protective effect of height is reduced if the space underneath the hut is walled off.

Despite a growing engagement in design strategies for longevity and circular business models (CBMs) such as resale, volumes of underutilized garments keep increasing at an accelerated pace. Within research, there is a lack of empirical validation of what actually takes place as garments enter the secondary market, as well as how the product journey of garments in situated contexts, such as local resale environments, is shaped. Therefore, this article presents an empirical follow-the-garment exploration comprised by (n)ethnographic data from two pilot studies and an ongoing Ph.D. project. With a point of departure in selected resale environments and focusing on the two Danish fashion brands GANNI and Baum und Pferdgarten (BuF), the article inquires selected examples of resale mechanisms that partake in the ongoing configuration of garment trajectories and emerge as vital co-creative powers in bringing longevity into being – or failing to do so. Combining empirical data with new materialist approaches that situate agency as a hybrid and distributed concept, the article delineates garment lifespans as inherently entangled in and dependent upon multiple agential matters. Arguing that product journeys cannot be predetermined, the article proposes a critique of design- and garment-centric longevity strategies that exaggerate the abilities of designers to control garment lifespans beyond the design stage. While having a narrow time–space horizon and a limited focus on two specific case brands, the article acts as a reflective comment that could have broader implications for perceptions of CBMs and design strategies for longevity in a fashion and textiles context.

In this paper we investigate the integration of living bacteria into a 3D printable biopolymer composite for architectural applications. We specifically focus on incorporating cellulose-producing bacteria to grow 3D bacterial cellulose in-situ as a localised protective skin on a printed geometry. To produce and test large-scale samples, the research relaxes controlled lab conditions and pursues a more resilient culturing method, a kombucha culture or SCOBY. This paper reports exploratory experiments that assess the compatibility of the living bacteria with the biopolymer composite matrix, the printability of this new material, and the ability to reactivate the bacteria post-printing to grow 3D bacterial cellulose films on the samples. Our findings show successful bacterial reactivation and significant bacterial cellulose growth. These findings contribute to the field by demonstrating a novel approach to creating printable engineered living materials, and by identifying their potential to enable localised adaptation in large scale architectural elements.

This case study explores ideas about biodiversity being communicated by protesting citizens engaged in Copenhagen urban development and expressing themselves in ways transgressing formal dialogue formats of urban planning and design. The aim of the study is to contribute to an understanding of citizen protest actions in relation to climate change adaptation, and to add new perspectives on action logics and change-potentials. Previous studies are connecting urban development to loss of biodiversity. A loss being classified as an urgent challenge for human and planetary wellbeing. Nevertheless, biodiversity loss has traditionally not been a focus area in Copenhagen urban development evolving without much attention. But with several citizen groups being established in Copenhagen, advocating biodiversity and challenging urban development, this has changed. Today, protesting citizens advocating biodiversity has a not-to-be-overlooked role in Copenhagen development, but are often referred to as being “driven by feelings” or said to “want nothing”. Current research points to the potentials of environmental activism in relation to an adaptive future. This chapter adds to previous studies by using a mixed method approach to collect and analyze diverse representations of protesting citizens, communicated in text and photographs. Data cover photographs, interviews, observations, and protest-/project-material. The study identifies key points, drivers and communication logics related to protesting citizens, suggests resonance with scientific theory, and discusses potentials and challenges within present urban development practice. The study points to permeabilities within today’s urban development maybe pointing toward further integration of alternative world views within urban development of tomorrow.

This article argues that much of what we refer to as privacy in present-day society was materialised, experienced, instrumentalised, and also, to some extent, protected before the 19th century, when it was broadly conceptualised as a value and a right. In a social-architectural approach, windows and facades of the private house are shown to have had an important regulatory function, mediating between the house and the neighbourhood, the open and the closed, and the public and the private. First ,we extract evidence from On the Art of Building in Ten Books by Leon Battista Alberti (1404– 1572) as well as from other architectural treatises of the period and region, in particular those by Joseph Furttenbach (1591–1667) and Leonhard Christoph Sturm (1669–1719), who cites Nicolaus Goldmann (1611–1665). Then, we combine the architectural insights with an in-depth reading of two well-documented but not yet analysed court cases of nocturnal window smashing in the university town of Helmstedt involving Professor Johann Barthold Niemeyer (1644–1708) in the opposing roles of both victim and instigator. The combination of these court cases and architectural treatises allows us to show how experiences of intrusions via broken windows share qualities with today’s conceptualisation of intrusions of privacy and thus point to the presence of notions of privacy in early modern societies.

Introduction The population of Africa set to reach 2 billion by 2050. There is therefore great demand for housing across the continent. Research on modified novel designs for housing is a priority to ensure that these homes are not sites of infection for diseases transmission such as malaria. One trial to assess the protection afforded by novel design houses is underway in Mtwara Region, southeastern Tanzania. After constructing 110 of such homes across 60 villages, project staff encountered a certain reticence of the target population to occupy the homes and were faced with accusations of having nefarious intentions. This article explores these accusations, their impacts on home occupancy and lessons for future housing studies. Methods This qualitative study drew on in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with ten occupants of the intervention homes, six community leaders and a further 24 community members. Interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim and translated to English for qualitative content analysis. Results In communities around the Star Homes, during construction and handover, project staff were widely associated with ‘Freemasons’, a term used to practices, secrecy, and other conspiracy theories in rural Tanzania. These connections were attributed to other community members and explained in terms of knowledge deficit or envy, with others hoping to be allocated the home. The stories were embedded in assumptions of reciprocity and suspicions about study motives, linked to limited experience of research. The relationship between the accusations of freemasonry and reticence to occupy the houses was not straightforward, with project staff or relatives playing a role in decisions. The stakes were high, because the recipients of Star Homes were the poorest families in targeted communities. Conclusion The results indicate the need for long-term and proactive community engagement, which focuses on building relationships and providing information through recognizable voices and formats. Given the stakes at play in housing interventions, research teams should be prepared for the social upheaval the provision of free new housing can cause.

A framework was developed to evaluate and compare cleaning systems and cleaning system delivery methods, collectively referred to as varnish removal methods, within art conservation practice. This framework was applied to two water-based cleaning systems, optimised for the removal of dammar varnish from an artificially aged brown earth oil paint, including the surfactant-containing microemulsion, Polar Coating B (from the Nanorestore Cleaning series) delivered via the chemical gel, Higher Water Retention (HWR) (from the Nanorestore Gel Dry series), and a surfactant-free microemulsion delivered via the microfiber cloth, Evolon. In addition, two water-based systems and one organic solvent were used to remove dammar varnish from an artificially aged lead white oil paint sample, including a xanthan gum-stabilised emulsion delivered via a synthetic brush, a surfactant-free microemulsion delivered via cotton swab rolling, and 2-propanol solvent delivered via cotton swab rolling. The evaluation framework was thus applied to two different oil paints, with different sensitivities to cleaning. Through this work, the comparative advantages and disadvantages of the varnish removal methods were demonstrated. Notably, cleaning system compatibility with multiple delivery methods afforded greater versatility, including for reducing unwanted interactions between the cleaning system and oil paint. In addition, a surfactant-free microemulsion proved to be a promising, clearance-free, inexpensive, and modifiable option within current offerings for largely water-based methods for varnish removal.

Making a Beam Social investigates how communities can gather heterogenous wood waste streams and steer them into load bearing building components. In response to the current wasteful wood practice being single use in the construction sector, there is a need to reconsider discarded wood’s potential. This research project seeks an alternative to relying on uniform traits and economies of scale, proposing novel, high value applications for waste wood. A full-scale loadbearing beam is constructed as an exemplar of alternative interactions between human and non-human agency, forming new social relations between locally salvaged timber artefacts, and community. Through a hands-on workshop, the project considers three aspects of facilitating local production with waste wood resources: • Archiving the existing traits of found timber pieces by utilising drawing as a means to represent the information of found materials. This situates the salvaged timber as evolving independent artefacts, and not only material resources. • Grading individual timber elements using established indicating properties as a means to predict material performance. • Fabricating the beam parts whilst retaining as much as possible their elemental identities. The physical outcome is a loadbearing member developed through interlacing the social and the technical. As an architectural element, it works towards a culture of local production.

In contemporary architecture, there is a renewed focus on resource production, consumption and use. Wood may be considered a renewable resource, potentially abundant, carbon neutral and recyclable. However, the environmental benefits of using timber are not straightforward. Also, it seems as if the architectural implications of designing with wood have not been fully articulated. As such, it seems necessary to rethink the potential of wood in contemporary architectural design practice. The aim of this paper is to investigate the topic of Rethinking Resources with a specific focus on the qualitative potential of wood as informed by traditional building culture. It is asked how knowledge embodied in crafts tradition and local vernacular may inform a contemporary architectural design practice and inspire the development of (more) sustainable building culture(s). A traditional farmhouse has been investigated and analysed with regard to technical properties, cultural-historical qualities, and experiential effects. An experimental timber structure has been built by students at the Royal Danish Academy, and the results have been described and analysed seen through a phenomenological-hermeneutic lens. It is pointed out that technical properties, cultural-historical qualities and experiential effects as found in crafts tradition and local vernacular may inform a contemporary design practice. It is argued that questions concerning sustainability should be seen in a holistic perspective and the building as situated within a larger material, environmental and social (eco)system. In this perspective, traditional building culture may supplement and qualify contemporary design strategies and may contribute to inspiring future (more) sustainable building culture(s).

This paper presents an analysis of the distribution of urban spaces, parks, and other green areas in the City of Copenhagen in relation to demographic indicators, notably concerning population density and the spatial concentration of different age groups. The broad health benefits provided by urban greenery to urban dwellers are well documented in urban studies. The aim of this paper is to further contribute to this scholarship through the analysis of accessibility to green spaces by different age groups and in this way to shed light on their opportunities for health enhancing physical activity in the urban environment. The analysis is part of an ongoing study of urban density mapping based on a collaboration with the City of Copenhagen. The analysis of distribution of green spaces is based on several datasets, including location of major green spaces and parks, location, and radius of individual trees and NDVI index. The Copenhagen Municipal Plan 2019 proposes to increase social equity through physical and mental health-promoting urban planning and through provision of good quality green public spaces. The analysis shows that vulnerable groups such as the older population (≥ 65-year-olds) are not particularly challenged in terms of accessibility to green spaces. Based on this analysis, the authors formulate urban policy recommendations for meeting the targets for healthy living set by the City of Copenhagen.