Farm buildings and architecture

Abstract

In New Zealand farm buildings represent for many a practicality of form that complements a relationship to the land. New Zealand architects of the twentieth century admired these buildings for their humbleness and their functionalism arising from the needs of the early farmers of New Zealand. For these reasons far buildings are considered as part of the building tradition in New Zealand.

A desire for efficiency driven by technological innovation and economic motivation may be seen as a cause for change in agricultural practice. Farm buildings have developed alongside such imperatives. The nostalgia and relationship to the landscape that rural building previously had is being lost with this change. Another, more recent, cause for change in the agricultural industry is a growing public concern for farming standards in animal welfare and sustainability.

This project asks how an architectural involvement in the development of farm buildings might be approached? Or what an architectural approach might offer? The questions are researched and applied in a design project for the Tuakau Livestock.