Straw insulation and sustainable renovation - Building with renewable raw materials, two work reports (lecture only accessible in German)
Guntram Jankowski - WERK A ARCHITEKTUR

Kita Fürstenwalder Straße - Renovation of a type building
The "Kinderkombination 180" is a well-known figure in East Berlin's urban layout. The typified reinforced concrete skeleton building was erected in large numbers in the early 1970s and continues to be in use today in various versions of the refurbishment.
Between August 2015 and July 2016, the building on Fürstenwalder Strasse underwent energy retrofitting. The primary energy demand was reduced from 317 KWh/a*sqm to 86 KWh/a*sqm - i.e. by almost 75% - by insulating the exterior walls, renewing the windows, adding insulation to the roof surfaces, insulating the floor slabs and the basement ceiling, and renewing the heating system.
As part of the interior renovation that will follow by November 2018, the rooms for the daycare center with 120 childcare places and the attached family center were reorganized.

Straw Insulated - Garden House Daycare Seepferdchen Seddin
The simple structure complements the building ensemble of the Seepferdchen daycare center in the Seddin district of the Seddiner See municipality. It encloses the outdoor area at its northern edge, the boundaries between inside and outside are fluid when the sliding windows are open, turning the building into a garden house. What you can no longer see, but experience through a year-round balanced indoor climate, is the unusual insulation material in the exterior walls and roof surfaces. Renewable, virtually climate-neutral and local - straw.
The use of straw as a building material is closely linked to industrialization and the mechanization of agriculture. It was the production of compressed straw bales with a steam-powered baler that produced the first simple shelters for farm workers in the forest-poor regions of Nebraska (USA) at the end of the 19th century. Many straw bale houses built in succession in the early years of the 20th century in the USA are still standing today. In Germany, building with straw has been experiencing its renaissance since around the turn of the millennium. The European Technical
Assessment ETA-17/0247 "Baustroh" regulates the use of straw in construction. The use of straw as an insulating material is regulated by this certificate of usability, but load-bearing construction with straw is not yet regulated in Germany and is associated with complex verification procedures and approval in individual cases.
The proximity to Lake Seddin is reflected in the design both inside and out with the "herringbone" pattern. In the interior, emphasis is placed on a clear materiality of the building elements - the outer shell in plain white, interior walls of solid wood and floor coverings of ceramic split tiles and mosaic parquet. Organized in principle as a single-story building, the room program is extended by retreats at the ceiling level of the adjoining rooms. The acoustically effective roof cladding reduces noise, which is none before the law.