The little house to make it big

The Petite Maison stands a little lost on the wide, sealed area in front of the university campus. Surrounded by the comparatively huge architectural one of a kinds of the University of Luxembourg.

The scene is distantly reminiscent of the animated short series The Little House, which appeared in the 1950s. But the comparison to the idyllic country house is misleading. The inconspicuous construction is not threatened by progress and urbanisation, but is rather meant to exemplify the building method of the future.

Carole Schmit has been dealing with sustainability issues in the building industry for years and knows the institutional structure between companies, ministries, municipalities, administrations and other actors very well. "We thought of contributing to Esch2022 to be specific and also very precise in what we mean in terms of circularity", says the architect, who holds a visiting professorship in the architecture master's programme at the University of Luxembourg. The goal, she says, is to keep high-quality materials in a life cycle for as long as possible, but also to be flexible with them. "We can no longer assume that a building will stay as it is for 100 years", she notes. It is true that, in order to conserve resources, it makes the most sense in principle to use a building for as long as possible (and to think about a possible change of use at the planning stage). But needs change, as do norms.