A farmhouse community on higher waters.
Imagined by the Visual Methodologies Collective for Regenerative Futures: a SPACE10 AI design competition
In the last month, the Visual Methodologies Collective participated in Regenerative Futures, a month-long design challenge to envision what a more desirable future could look like. Launched by SPACE10, a research and design lab based in Copenhagen, the call invited to use different AI generative models to develop a vision of the future home, community, or city.
The call invited to reflect on different speculative briefs:
- resilient futures (How will future communities co-exist with non-human species? And how might the design of our homes and communities nurture surrounding ecosystems?),
- symbiotic futures (As we look to the future, how can we design homes as spaces of refuge and resilience? How will they flex to sudden climatic changes, while being conscious of the land and ecology around them?)
- collective futures (What would a self-sustaining city look like? How can we adapt and evolve existing structures and streets to better support collective living?)
Using ChatGPT and Midjourney, we envisioned a floating farmhouse community in the Netherlands prioritizing sustainability, resilience, innovation, flexibility, and community integration. The concept addresses the housing crisis and the potential effects of rising sea levels by looking at past radical architects and using AI generative models to distill key factors of sustainable living within Dutch ecosystems. The envisioned design incorporates green roofs and walls, water harvesting systems, and smart home automation to reduce the ecological footprint. It emphasizes flexibility and adaptability to accommodate changing water levels and encourages community interaction and engagement.
The floating farmhouse community concept revolves around blending with and nurturing Dutch biodiversity and water ecosystems, while fostering a community based on shared spaces and goods. The design provides nesting possibilities for local wildlife and protects water wildlife through diverse water-based crops. The modular nature of the farmhouses allows for flexibility and supports place-based production of building materials. The proposal is informed by artistic research and collaborations with scientific institutions, geography teachers, students, and artists. It aims to reimagine living scenarios in the Netherlands with higher waters, considering water not only as a threat but also as a source of sustenance and habitat.
Influenced by Superstudio, an Italian architecture collective from the seventies known for its radical views on architecture and activism for environmental awareness, the proposal emphasizes architecture as a means for social change. It seeks to create a stronger sense of living in harmony with nature and fosters a (more-than)human community that embraces resilience and regeneration.
By Carlo De Gaetano