BT High Tech Low Tech – Future Farmhouse
The thesis project explores the reconstruction of a burnt-down farmhouse as a speculative design investigation into the future of rural living and production. The central questions are: Which functions of the farmhouse remain constant over centuries? Which ones evolve into new forms of productive space? How have living and working historically been intertwined in the farmhouse, and how can this relationship be reinterpreted for contemporary and future needs? Which architectural languages and typologies should be carried forward?
The project integrates two complementary perspectives: on the one hand, low-tech construction with natural materials as an ecological approach to building; on the other, the growing impact of high-tech agricultural production processes on spatial needs and architectural form. Productive spaces—whether for storage, processing, or technologically advanced cultivation—generate specific environmental, hygienic, and logistical requirements. Understanding how these influence architectural typologies and the relationship between living and working is a key task of the thesis.
The design task emphasizes material sufficiency and passive strategies. The project is to be developed with low-processed materials and simple constructive methods, testing how sufficiency-based comfort can be redefined. Key guiding questions are:
- How can the embodied energy of construction be minimized while reducing operational energy through spatial assembly, solar orientation, and natural ventilation?
- Which spaces demand high thermal control, cleanable surfaces, or controlled environments, and which can remain raw, flexible, or less conditioned?
- How do high-tech farming processes (e.g., automated production, indoor cultivation, processing machinery) reshape the architecture of the farmhouse, and how can these coexist or hybridize with low-tech living environments?
The outcome is a speculative project that integrates farming, dwelling, and productive activities into a coherent architectural proposal. The work links sufficiency-oriented concepts of comfort with constructive strategies of hybrid natural-material construction, while critically reflecting on the tensions and synergies between low-tech building methods and high-tech production needs.
BT High Tech Low Tech – Future Farmhouse
The thesis project explores the reconstruction of a burnt-down farmhouse as a speculative design investigation into the future of rural living and production. The central questions are: Which functions of the farmhouse remain constant over centuries? Which ones evolve into new forms of productive space? How have living and working historically been intertwined in the farmhouse, and how can this relationship be reinterpreted for contemporary and future needs? Which architectural languages and typologies should be carried forward?
The project integrates two complementary perspectives: on the one hand, low-tech construction with natural materials as an ecological approach to building; on the other, the growing impact of high-tech agricultural production processes on spatial needs and architectural form. Productive spaces—whether for storage, processing, or technologically advanced cultivation—generate specific environmental, hygienic, and logistical requirements. Understanding how these influence architectural typologies and the relationship between living and working is a key task of the thesis.
The design task emphasizes material sufficiency and passive strategies. The project is to be developed with low-processed materials and simple constructive methods, testing how sufficiency-based comfort can be redefined. Key guiding questions are:
- How can the embodied energy of construction be minimized while reducing operational energy through spatial assembly, solar orientation, and natural ventilation?
- Which spaces demand high thermal control, cleanable surfaces, or controlled environments, and which can remain raw, flexible, or less conditioned?
- How do high-tech farming processes (e.g., automated production, indoor cultivation, processing machinery) reshape the architecture of the farmhouse, and how can these coexist or hybridize with low-tech living environments?
The outcome is a speculative project that integrates farming, dwelling, and productive activities into a coherent architectural proposal. The work links sufficiency-oriented concepts of comfort with constructive strategies of hybrid natural-material construction, while critically reflecting on the tensions and synergies between low-tech building methods and high-tech production needs.