The Berlage Project
2014

Tutors:
Sanne van den Breemer (NL)
Matthijs Bouw (NL)
Olaf Gipser (CH)
Nelson Mota (PT)
David van Severen (BE)

Participants:
Tritip Chayasombat (TH)
Nafsika Efklidou (GR)

 

Territory-Bound Domesticity:
Minimum Interventions for Territorial Decline in Oldambt

Salvaging Desolation
Tritip Chayasombat 

The project salvages the decayed Oldambster farm type by means of inhabitable bracing cube structures.

The Oldambtster farm is one of the most recognizable icons of Oldambt: The volume, the design, and what it symbolized, are the living histories of the area. Hundreds of farms are scattered from linear villages to isolated plots, but only a handful of them survive. The up scaling of agriculture industry made many of the farms redundant and modern family activities now seem unsuited to fill the enormous space.

This is a minimum intervention to help maintain the glory of the Oldambtster farms. Modular cubes act as bracing structure to help the original wooden frames stand tall amidst the decay of the farm. The strategy preserves the most important qualities of the farm, its uniquely massive interior space and what it represents to the community. The modular system makes it efficient to pre-fabricate and assemble, allowing for minimum manufacturing and investment. It can be expanded over time depending on the amount of users and space required. The contrast of old and new material helps dignify the original architecture and creates multiple spaces for community appropriation.

The plug-in inhabitable units penetrate the decomposed barn in order to change the experience the space, reframing boundaries and un-objectifying architecture placed upon scenery. Reorienting experience from one of admiring each other from afar, to one of truly appreciating coexistence.