Sustainable and Improvised Construction: The Primitive Hut

The international workshop project brought together Trier University of Applied Sciences and the Nagaoka Institute of Design in Japan. In times of scarce resources and growing ecological responsibility, the SDG project “Serendipity – The Primitive Hut” sought new ways of sustainable design. 

The focus was on the hut – as an archetypal, minimal structure and the origin of architecture – and the question of how new architectural forms of expression can be created from reused materials. Under the direction of Prof. Jörg Obergfell and Prof. Junya Sato, the idea was further developed and finally implemented.

Based on Marc-Antoine Laugier‘s idea of the “primitive hut,” it was understood as a field of experimentation for simplicity, reduction, and design. After a preparatory online phase, students from both universities first met in Japan and then in Trier to work together on designs and a 1:1 prototype and put the theoretical plans into practice. Sustainable and everyday objects such as used doors, wood scraps, and found objects were used. 

The result is less a building than an attitude—an experiment in sustainable, collaborative design and conscious use of resources.