Knud Peter Harboe, Søren Koch, Kongens Lyngby, Copenhagen, Denmark, 1976
OfHouses guest curated by Graham McKay ( Misfits’ Architecture ): “The
First Oil Crisis was felt around the world and architects in Denmark were also devising
responses. In conjunction with his teaching at the Technical University of Denmark,
architect Knud Peter Harboe developed this prototype for a zero energy house. It’s
a genuine attempt to derive a house not from ideas of visual beauty but from the
fundamentals of energy gain and loss. The house was designed to integrate all
energy systems within the building and its analysis covered all factors now
routinely included in energy audits, including the heat given off by people. The
aim of the house was to achieve zero energy use. It achieved a 60% reduction,
which wasn’t bad. This is an important house in the history of performance
beauty for, like vernacular architecture, it shows us what an unselfconscious architecture
based on a non-visual aesthetic would
happen to look like. I like to think that some day in the future when we
value energy more, we will come to appreciate the inner beauty of this house.” (Photos: © Knud Peter Harboe. Source: “Nul energihus (Zero energy house)”, DTH Danmarks Tekniske Højskole, 1977.)
