House from Radheim (show home)

Dismantled: 1979
Reassembled at the museum: 2018/2019
Show home with permanent exhibition: from spring 2023

The House from Radheim was put into storage at Hessenpark in 1979. Now, the box frame building from southern Hesse is being reconstructed as a show home. The timbers that had been stored were in poor condition and extensive modifications and repairs needed to be carried out. Following six months of repairs and three weeks of levelling the timber frame, the topping out could finally be celebrated in September 2018. The show home, which includes a permanent exhibition, is now undergoing further construction and will be opened in spring 2023.
The idea behind the show home is to get people excited about living in timber-framed homes and to highlight the potential that lies in timber-framed houses and accommodation in need of repair. Here in Germany, our towns and cultural landscape are characterised by around 2.4 million timber-framed houses which need preserving sustainably. The House from Radheim showcases exemplary solutions for achieving contemporary energy-efficient living in historic timber-framed houses by means of renewable building materials. On display are a variety of options for professionally renovating historic timber-framed houses while keeping an eye on pricing. These include selected solutions for choosing specialised insulation materials and examples of repairs. Structural elements are left open to reveal how the walls, ceilings and floors are constructed as well as to show how insulation materials are layered. Another topic is building technology. All the solutions that have been put in place are analysed structurally and the results presented. The show home will serve as a place to address issues relating to timber-frame renovation and energy efficiency. To this end, it will house a permanent exhibition, seminars and lectures for interested visitors and experts alike. The show home is part of the Centre of Expertise for Climate Protection in Timber-Framed Towns project led by the Consortium of German Timber-Framed Towns. Up until now, there have been relatively few energy-focused renovations for timber-framed buildings in Germany. The project aims both to increase this figure and to modernise timber-framed towns more generally.