Dear Reader
In previous blogs, you have read about the Permaculture Incubator Programme. You understood that it is going to be a residential programme, right? So, you may be asking yourself: where are the PIP trainees going to live?
On Russon Family Farms property, there is a dilapidated barn foundation made of stone (see below). As part of its contribution to the programme, RFF is going to rebuild the foundation and erect a barn over it.
The barn is not going to house animals, equipment, or grain. We are going to convert it into housing for the trainees. It is something called a barndominium; barn plus condominium, barndominium. Get it?
On the outside, it will probably look like a regular barn.
It’s the inside that is going to be different. We are working with Spanish engineers to install a hypocaust under the ground floor. A hypocaust is a system of central heating in a building that produces and circulates hot air below the floor of a room.
Over the hypocaust, will be the kitchen, dining room, saunas & showers, (compost) toilets, and laundries.
On the first floor will be living quarters. I originally envisioned rooms around the perimeter of an open space above the common living space. I am afraid that Karen and our Spanish engineers have other ideas. No matter.
The cool thing about the barndominium is that it will be constructed with deference to the historical legacy of the farm and in anticipation of a climate change future.