Farm Design/Build: Working Building and Landscapes

Instructors: Buzz Ferver & Jesse Selman

Contact:
Jesse Selman –jesselman@gmail.com
Buzz Ferver- buzz@buzzferver.com

Course Description

This course is aimed at those involved, or aspiring to be involved, in small, integrated, local farms. We will cover the wide range of topics that relate to the many systems involved in a local food source. The Studio experience will be an opportunity to imagine, prioritize, and plan a farm infrastructure and system. Students are encouraged to bring a design project to the class to workshop through the week. In the event you have no concrete project to work on the instructors will help you to design a fantasy farm project. A building project (most likely a chicken coop for Yestermorrow) will give the students a chance to safely learn the basics of construction while aiding a local food producer with a small project. Farm visits, presentations, and guest lectures will provide a first hand opportunity to see how others have taken on the noble challenge of building a farm.

Course Objectives

• Visioning & Programming
• Site Analysis
• Intro to design theory and practices
• Intro to basic carpentry and building techniques
• Expanded knowledge of Farm development
• Fun

Materials to Bring - Below is a short list of items that will be needed for the class. Please contact us for a more detailed discussion about the project data you will need to bring.

• Project Data - information from your farm / site / structures
• Maps, pictures, soil maps, history, etc.
• Sketch pad / notebook
• Pencils and pens
• Digital Camera (optional)
• Lap top (optional)
• Work Clothes – outdoor / indoor

TentativeSchedule (subject to massive change)

Overview –

Arrive for a Sunday welcome dinner.

Week 1

Mon - Introductions; Foreshadowing course and individual expectations;

Review studio and building projects;

Big picture - history, site, climate, bioregionalism, & ecology.

Tues - Site and Landscape – (farm visits)

Wed - Programming - Animal, Vegetable or Mineral products

Thurs -The Handmade Farm (visit to a year-round, all-around CSA)

Community Integrated Farming (visit to a farming network)

Fri - Mass and Energy Flow - Composting, Permaculture, andGravity

(visit to the miracle of soil production)

Sat - Mid-week design review & visit to Farmers Markets

Sun - Relax

Week 2

 
Mon- Animal Infrastructure: dairy, meat, paddocks and fencing, barns

Tues- Vegetable Infrastructure: greenhouses, high tunnels, coldframes, rootcellars (farm visits)

Wed- Community Interface - local food movement, farm economics, labor

Thurs- CompleteProjects, both personal and class

Fri- Presentations of design projects, wrap up…

Typical Day – autumn in Vermont – always beautiful, never predictable, bring warm clothes and rain gear, and a bathing suit…

am Studio time (optional)

8 am Breakfast

9 am – Noon Morning session

Noon- 12:45 Lunch

12:45 – 5:00 pm Afternoon session

6:00 – 7:00 pm Dinner

Evening – Evening activity or optional studio time

Morning sessions will typically be in the studio working on design projects, while afternoons will be a hands-on building project. Weather and the interests of the group will guide how we specifically tackle the topics with presentations, discussions, and farm visits being integrated into the course in the most logical fashion we can muster. Please understand that this is a tentative schedule and the actual schedule will evolve somewhat to fit both the class attendees and the guests speakers and field trip location availabilities. These topics will be woven into the greater context of sustainable agriculture and intelligent ecological design/build, as well as varied techniques to organize and present design concepts.

Big Picture

• History
• Climate Change
• Ecology
• Bioregionalism

Site

• Site Planning
• Landscape - Water and soils
• Weather, micro-climates

Program

• Master planning
• Goals, hopes & needs
• Resiliency

Mass & energy flow

• Composting
• Permaculture on the farm
• Ecological design

Infrastructure

• Inventions – Yankee Ingenuity, small farm equipment, etc.
• Fencing, paddocks
• Small Dairy
• Small sheds / outbuildings / Coops
• Barnyards
• Barns – Renovation & new construction
• Root Cellars
• Greenhouses, coldframes, etc.
• Energy Efficiency – basics of building science

Community Interface

• Local food movement
• Farm economics
• Safety
• Housing / Labor
• Heroes and resources
• Much Much more

Readings

Farm design is an enormous and diverse topic which has not had a book that comprehensively covers it since the 19 th century. Below is an annotated bibliography of some of our favorites. Please contact us if you want a specific recommendation for your interests.

Books

Water

• Water Storage – Art Ludwig- He has a great intro with a set of design principals that are well worth the read.

Livestock / husbandry

• Salad Bar Beef – Joel Salatin
• Small Scale Livestock Farming – Carol Ekarius

Permaculture

• Edible Forest Gardens:Ecological Design for Temperate Climate Permaculture - Dave Jacke with Eric Toensmeier

Design Theory

• Cradle to Cradle - William McDonough and Michael Braungart
• Pattern Language - Christopher Alexander
• An example of architecture touching agriculture comes from Pliny Fisk and The Center For Maximum Potential Building Systems. As an architect Fisk has taken on the responsibility of creating many forward thinking projects. Most relevant to this work is “The Laredo Blueprint Demonstration Farm, constructed in Laredo, Texas in 1990, [which] employs a flexible building system designed to respond to farmers’ changing needs due to climatic variation, market demand, and added value potential.”
• Dwellings - Paul Oliver and Marcel Vellinga of the Oxford Brookes University School of the Built Environment’s International Vernacular Architecture Unit (IVAU), through extensive research and publications, look at “the way in which vernacular traditions are of fundamental importance to the sustainable development of the world's built environment.” They also examine the “transmission of indigenous, traditional and vernacular skills, expertise and knowledge.”
• Sustainable landscape design is a field with much to offer the pursuit of a sustainable agriculture environment. Landscape Architect John Tillman Lyle in Regenerative Design for Sustainable Development and Design for Human Ecosystems, provides excellent examples and analytic tools for the organization of a healthy and productive landscape, with many direct references to food production. E. Gregory McPherson, editor and contributor to Energy Conserving Site Design, looks specifically at how site design can inform and assist the challenge of energy conservation. The first chapter, “A History of Microclimatic Modification 1600-1980,” by John R. Stilgoe (as well as Stilgoe’s book – Common American Landscape) utilizes examples from predominately agricultural land-use techniques in European descended America.

Housing

• Homing Instinc t – John Connell – The Yestermorrow original, this book is a must for owner-design/builders.
• Insulate and Weatherize – Bruce Harley – If you are renovating an old farm house, then this book will save you money and heartache. A great text for energy efficient retrofits.

Periodicals

Acres USA: The Voice of Eco-AgriCulture

Small Farm Journal

Stockman GrassFarmer