1881 Farm Park

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1881 Farm Park

Firm

Shape Architecture Studio

Type

Landscape + Planning › Public Park

STATUS

Concept

SIZE

500,000 sqft - 1,000,000 sqft

BUDGET

Undisclosed

1881’s mission is to reconnect the community with the delicate agricultural systems of the American West. A 15-acre community farm park and home to the Windler Center for Agriculture in Aurora, Colorado, the Centennial Homestead is one Aurora’s last remaining vernacular farms. At its height in the early twentieth century, Windler Farm measured some 800 acres, functioning as a dairy farm and cattle ranch. Its location on the high prairie and the remaining buildings continue to convey the story of the Windler family and represent early dryland farming practices in eastern Colorado. Leveraging ancient holistic practices and innovative new sustainable technologies, 1881 will be a working agricultural campus and destination for local food.

The new 1881 Farm Park will be an iconic agricultural exploratorium for the Windler community and Denver Metropolitan region at large. It will function as a dynamic ecosystem of people, plants, and animals that work in harmony to build healthy soils and systems. 1881 synthesizes various opportunities for communal gathering, learning, playing and eating including a farm-to-fork restaurant, a market/ educational building, and community greenhouse with hydroponics. The design, in collaboration with Superbloom Landscape Architecture imagines a regenerative landscape that incorporates restored prairie grasslands and pasture, no-till agriculture, food production, greenhouses, hydroponics, livestock, apiary and permaculture plantings.

The structures are designed to reflect the horizontality of the land and sky; long agrarian shed forms emerge from the landscape. Rusted steel siding evokes the history of the site and hues of the high prairie; expressed steel structures with exposed glulams, CLT, and solar panels harken to the expressive functionality of farming. New structures are integrated into the landscape and juxtaposed elegantly against the authentic farm buildings standing among them. The story of the past, present and future of farming is told through the site and building design.