Celebrating regional building materials
At the EcoLut Centre near Cologne, you can celebrate weddings, anniversaries, and corporate events – in the bright and light-flooded rooms surrounded by nature. Two special guests are always present: regional wood and clay earth. They are a well-coordinated team and the ideal pair enriches your event in several ways. The pair set the scene, ensure an excellent indoor climate and look good doing it!
Wood from their own forest
It had long been the wish of owner Jörg Deselaers to construct the ambitiously planned building entirely from the local building materials wood and clay earth. To this end, he even bought a forest plot and had the construction timber for the house cut over a period of several years.
Following the plans of the architects Bernhard Bramlage and Stefan Mekus, a local carpentry workshop built the wooden structure, the inside of which was fitted with clay blocks using a dry stacking technique. The walls were clad with drywall clayboards and insulated with wood fibre products. This made it possible to adhere to strict energy standards.
The interior surfaces were plastered with clay earth. When the sun shines into the rooms through the large façade of windows, the walls begin to glow with a warm light.
Wall heating and cooling for hot parties and keeping a cool head
Not only the sunlight spreads warmth; wall heating elements, by WEM, provide warmth in a particularly pleasant and allergy-friendly way. The drywall panels made of earthen clay contain built-in pipes for hot or cold water, depending on the desired effect. The water for the in-wall heating is heated using wood chips.
Earthen-clay walls are ideal for combination with an in-wall heating system. The earthen clay radiates the heat evenly into the room. Radiant heating works, not by heating the air in the room but by heating the solid objects in the room directly. You are familiar with this pleasant type of heat from the sun’s rays.
If cooling down is what you need, cold water can be fed through the pipes. When this is done, the resulting effect is the same as in buildings with thick walls: The cool walls provide a pleasant room temperature.
A rammed earth wall is a real highlight
The interior wall next to the staircase was constructed as a two-storey rammed earth wall. It impresses with its characteristic horizontal stripes, which provide insight into the process by which it was made. To make rammed earth, earthen clay is placed in layers in formwork and compacted.
The classic technique gives the wall an archaic appearance and the appearance of a cross-section cut from native soil. You can never get bored looking at it. The eye always finds something new to linger on.
Read more »Modern architecture realised with clay building materials from Claytec
In the architecture of the EcoLut Centre, you will find clay building materials as part of the wall construction, the wall surface and functioning as a component in the building services. In all three areas, the natural building material provides specific advantages.
The combination of a wooden framework and earthen-clay blocks has proven itself for centuries. Clay earth has the ability to bind moisture and thus protects the wooden structure from moisture damage and mould. This means that chemical wood preservatives can be dispensed with.
For the wall surface, CLAYTEC clay topcoat fine was left in its original colour and not treated further. A rammed earth wall is a special design element. With rammed earth, various effects can also be achieved by using different clay colours.
Clay earth is also convincing with regard to room temperature regulation. As a good heat store, it can be integrated into modern low-tech heating concepts. For example, it stores the energy of natural sunlight and releases it again later when the room temperature cools. In this way, passive solar energy can be used to actively save on energy costs.
Share your experience
Back to overview
Back to Discoverie Description
Share what you experienced during your visit:
Other discoveries in this region: