The resilience of a farmstead – the continuation of a structure

Large cities and their structures are partly at the edge of their capacities for human needs. Rents are becoming more expensive, free spaces for workshops and studios are very rare in the inner city, and a growing society could be the reason – in a futuristic scenario – for a collective urban exodus of all production and workshops. Today already, workshops and studio spaces are victims of different phenomena of gentrification and have to settle down on the outskirts. Pulsating cities, progressive economic growth and worldwide networking through globalisation make the individual seem even smaller. As a result, people long for a place of refuge, a place where they can meet their needs. The aspect of constant growth affects not only the urban but also the rural fabric. In order to adapt to the acquisitiveness evoked by large corporations, in terms of capacity in structural terms and yield, a homestead is in constant transformation over the years and across different generations.

From the point of view of monument preservation, constant reconstruction and further construction are the consequences. Central aspects of the present work are the question of the implementation of a city dweller in a rural structure, which is subject to constant adjustment and adaptation, as well as the further development of an existing structure. The approach of the design methodology makes use of three essential elements, which are ”incorporating what exists“, ”continuing what exists“ and ”making visible what has been lost“, and which are intended to create a rebuilding attitude that is a continuation of existing elements and structures. A city dweller in dialogue with the time and place in which he primarily seeks refuge and the socio-economic cohesion with a person who, shaped by this place, tries to understand the world, is to work through the stigmas of our time. A symbiosis between an urban collective and a farmer, both on a sociological and constructional level is to be created, which will open up an alternative possibility for the preservation of a homestead.

A typological experiment for the resilience of a homestead through further use and conversion, represents the central thesis of this work. Thereby a group of sculptors shall implement themselves in the homestead.