Henning Larsen has released details of its newest K-12 project in the Danish village of Rønde.

The project worked to add an ultragreen extension to the village’s existing Feldballe School that offers carbon sequestering while incorporating plans for its future disassembly and reuse as components in other constructions.

Using straw, seagrass, and locally-sourced timber as its base palette of materials, the design will eventually have a carbon output equivalent to -3kg of CO2e per square meter per year following Danish standards.

A passive ventilation system helps to further reduce the consumption of energy on a daily basis. Solar panels have been installed on the timber roof, adding a further capacity for carbon independence. Compressed straw panels contained by wooden cassettes form the exterior of the walls, which are then completed with a clay plaster support coating and interior veneers made of the same untreated plywood used in the school’s built-in furniture. 

“With an agenda that extends far beyond the site’s 2,700 square feet, our work on Feldballe School acts as a guide, not only for ourselves but for others in confronting our industry’s carbon emissions across the value chain,” the firm’s Director of Sustainability and Innovation, Jakob Strømann, said in a project announcement. 

“The result of this is a new aesthetic language that goes far beyond simply pleasing the eye or being grand in scale, it is lined with social and environmental responsibility, and more importantly, an impactful offering to both.”

Strømann added that the solutions are now in the process of being scaled up for a forthcoming 140,000-square-foot design.