Year: 2025
Location: Aarhus, Denmark
Status: Completed, research project
Collaborators: Aarch, Realdania
Visualisations: SLETH
Photos: SLETH

SLETH has taken part in the research project Genbrug på matriklen, led by Aarhus School of Architecture and funded by Realdania. As part of the project, we developed a circular design study with its point of departure in the former industrial complex, Listefabrikken in Åbyhøj, now facing demolition as part of a larger urban development.

The design process began with the existing rather than the expected. Traditional building principles found on site were translated into rhythms and diagrams that informed the facade: a living surface composed of patterns, bold lintels, and the tactile character of the materials. Transitions – such as the meeting of brick columns and glulam beams – were not concealed, but emphasized as narratives of honesty, transformation, and respect for what was already there.

Through the project SLETH has worked with innovative methods and experimented with new ways to give new life to the existing materials and let them define a new building system. SF-stones, cut concrete, and curved glulam beams were examined, processed, and re-used in a flexible system adaptable to new housing typologies in line with the local plan. Here, the materials were not mere raw matter, but active collaborators, whose inherent qualities and limitations shaped both the architecture’s structure and its aesthetic expression.

Genbrug på matriklen thus became an exercise in building upon the existing with care, patience, and openness to the possibilities of materials. A project where sustainability is not only about resources, but also about discovering beauty and meaning in what we already have.