MUSEUMSDORF DÜPPEL
The museum village was founded in 1975 with the aim of building an entire medieval village on the archaeologically excavated house layouts and vividly portraying the daily life of the residents. The houses in the simultaneously emerging Berlin-Cölln of the late 12th century probably didn't look much different. There is history here - not just to look at like in other museums, but to touch, try out, hear, smell, experience and participate.
This project is a combination of photography and collaborative work with colleagues on architectural illustrations for "building techniques" analysis done at Technical University Berlin with "Natural Building Lab", architecture institute.
Through analyzing the houses and interviewing the local community we have been able to distinguish typical traditions and building techniques. There were two types of houses built in Düppel: German and Slavic. All of the houses have been built with simple tools like axes or hand drill using only what was available in nature – wood, clay and straw.
Using only primitive technologies the built house provides decent protection from the environment and a surprisingly good indoor climate.The orientation of the house depends on the direction of the wind so that it doesn’t enter the house through the openings. The timber construction provides for load-bearing. The clay provides sound, heat and wind protection. It absorbs moisture from the atmosphere and gives it off again creating a pleasant and healthy indoor climate.
