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]]>It was here that Jane Sanders, our Associate Principal, pointed out some impeccably repaired stones and mentioned an upcoming workshop with Cathedral Stone, an opportunity for me to learn stone repair firsthand.
Eager to absorb as much as I could, I arrived early on the workshop day. The warm-up session, guided by a skilled technician, involved learning the basics of brick building. Eric Hammarberg, our Associate Principal, and Maxwell Medley, our Assistant Project Manager, joined in. Eric emphasized the importance of strength and control when working with fluid materials like mortar. He likened the process more to a quick, determined action than the delicate art of cake decoration. This approach, he explained, ensures a solid, well-constructed outcome where the operator’s physical engagement directly influences the quality of the brick wall.
Armed with this foundational knowledge, I eagerly approached the main task: stone repair. My chosen project was a ‘broken’ veneer model, which illustrated the crucial step of squaring off a crack before patching. The first step involved moistening the area and applying a ‘peanut butter’ coat – a sturdy base layer for the Jahn mortar. I learned to mold the mortar into golf-ball-sized clumps, filling the squared-off space and then smoothing the surface with a sponge. Carving and scraping would follow once the mortar dried, a process reminiscent of Michelangelo’s design tool, the Modani, which is a full-scale template drawing made by Michelangelo, used by stone carvers to guide details and ornaments.
Jane, tackling a panel with a complex floral pattern, showed how intricate carving can be. A technician’s advice to “carve out the residual part” offered a practical insight into the interplay of positive and negative space in restoration work.
This Cathedral Stone workshop was more than just a hands-on exercise; it was an immersion into the craftsmanship of preservation and restoration. The blend of onsite observation and practical training provided a rich, authentic learning experience, deepening my understanding and appreciation of the art of repair.
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]]>Henson Architecture’s Senior Associate, Cory Rouillard, will be giving a guest lecture on this topic on Tuesday, September 19 for Françoise Bollack’s course at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation.
At Henson, Cory promotes technical guidance for the appropriate care of existing buildings to both protect our cultural heritage and meet our carbon mitigation targets. Her lecture will introduce students to our firm, our core values, and will cover diverse strategies in traditional buildings for climate-based design.
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]]>Scott has been recognized locally and nationally for his expertise in historic preservation, adaptive re-use and sustainable design with a commitment to finding technical, innovative, and economical solutions to complex problems. He advocates for Passive House and Net-Zero standards for many of his projects and for the broader development of this expertise within the profession.
Cory is an active advocate for Climate Leadership through Preservation and promotes technical guidance for the appropriate care of existing buildings to both protect our cultural heritage and meet our carbon mitigation targets.
At Henson we cultivate, within our office and beyond, the expertise, technical knowledge and care, and investigative inquisitiveness that are critical to successful carbon mitigation, preservation, and stewardship of our built heritage.
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]]>At Henson, Cory promotes technical guidance for the appropriate care of existing buildings to both protect our cultural heritage and meet our carbon mitigation targets. Her lecture will introduce students to our firm, our core values, and will cover diverse strategies in traditional buildings for climate-based design.
https://www.classicplanning.org/academy
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]]>At Henson, Cory promotes technical guidance for the appropriate care of existing buildings to both protect our cultural heritage and meet our carbon mitigation targets. Her lecture in Bruges will introduce students to our firm, our core values, and will cover diverse strategies in traditional buildings for climate-based design.
https://www.latablerondearchitecture.com/summerschool-2023
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]]>The post Wildfires: Solving an Immediate Climate Change Challenge with Passive House Solutions appeared first on Henson Architecture.
]]>PM2.5 particles, less than 2.5 micrometers in width and invisible to the human eye, caused the color and smells. The air we breathe has particles in all forms of matter of this small size; while some are benign, the combustion of fossil fuels adds chemicals and gases makes the mix harmful. These pollutants are especially dangerous to people with pre-existing breathing conditions such as asthma or emphysema. Additionally, PM2.5 particles are small enough to infiltrate directly into your blood stream, affecting other organs and body systems as well. On June 7, the amount of these particulates was measured at 14.5 times the World Health Organization’s annual air quality guideline value. Prior to this wildfire-induced spike in PM2.5 particulates, we were already experiencing this form of pollution through cars, coal, and cigarettes.
The best defense against PM2.5 particle inhalation is to have airtight homes, offices, and buildings that have active ventilation and filter the air that they use. These are key components of Passive House, or Passivhaus, a design strategy that improves indoor air quality while making buildings far more energy efficient, comfortable, and cost-effective over time.
In Lloyd Alter’s article “Wildfires are another reason that every house should be Passivhaus”, he highlights Chie Kawahara’s experience with wildfire in California as a Passive House homeowner. She is able to keep the air inside her home filtered and fresh through the heat recovery ventilator, while the air-tight enclosure of the building mitigates the risk of unfiltered air entering the home.
Henson Architecture specializes in retrofitting existing buildings to follow the Passive House EnerPHit Criteria, the certification for retrofitting existing buildings. The guidelines are slightly more lenient to allow for retrofitting challenges, but these buildings can still reach similar performance levels as new construction Passive Houses. Moving towards Passive House construction not only creates safer indoor environments with filtered air in dire situations, but it also helps to reduce the carbon emissions that are exacerbating the frequency and intensity of climate-related events such as these wildfires in the first place.
Photo credit: Kohana Henson
Sources:
Wildfires are another reason that every house should be Passivhaus (substack.com)
PM 2.5 – What does it mean, and why does it matter? (cleanairresources.com)
https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240034228
https://aqicn.org/station/@402292/
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]]>Carl Elefante and Lori Ferriss will discuss the role of buildings and infrastructure within the CHN, activities taking place in 2023, and opportunities to participate as a volunteer.
Scott Henson, Principal of Henson Architecture, is a co-chair of the ZNCC. At Henson Architecture, we promote carbon reduction through care for and appropriate retrofits of historic and existing buildings, in our own work and in the work of our colleagues around the world.
Join Zoom Meeting
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