Ecological Farm

Haren, The Netherlands

This farm in Haren was designed to function as a ecological care farm. The programme for the ecological farm consists of several specific farming functions, combined with a few recreational facilities such as a teahouse, a shop, an educational space and a children’s farm. We have chosen to bring all facilities under one continuous roof, providing a literal translation of the programme. The wooden roof is the connecting element under which all parts of the programme take place.

Within the clear and compact lay-out under the roof, two area’s can be distinguished: ‘the house’, a climatologically determined area in which all parts of the programme are established by architectural definitions, and ‘the stable’, the area with the farming functions. The climated part has a low energy use by high isolation values and the use of old wood for heating. We have let go of the lay-out of this second area, the ‘farmer’ gets all the freedom to determine the lay-out under the roof at his own discretion.

The entire building is made ​​of different types such as untreated wood, laminated and impregnated Larix and modified fire.

The surroundings of the farm consists of two islands. The first island is decorated like walled nursery with a classical structure, the routing on this island is set in the pavement. On the other island, the farm was built. On this tree-lined island, as a contrast to the nursery, the routing is not fixed. The concrete elements found on this island of a former sewage purification we used to build upon. They have been transformed into elements having a function to match the altered use of the area.