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I often remis on my cycling days in the netherlands. There was this great bar called the "Hemelches" meaning heaven.  The bar was located in the middle of nowhere, but clearly on a cycling path.  During my husband and my long rides (100km+) we often wish there was a perfect place...

That's what I felt like after biking 35km to the Fifth Town cheese factory in Prince Edward County. Designed by Lapointe Architect, it has been on my architecture bucket list for many years for a few reasons; it was designed by an architect; it gave me hope that an architecture career in a...

I can just image how the conversation would go after that introduction...Farmer; "why do I need to put a sprinkler system, fire alarm, washrooms, in my building? its just a barn! With all this red tape and regulation your going to put me out of business!!" Building Code; "The require...

When would a farmer ever think to turn his barn inside out?  Sometimes it takes an outsider to rethink, reinvent, and make something beautiful.  That is exactly what SPF architects have done. This horse barn has been turned inside out.  The architect used the hay bales themselves to ...

If you been in farming for a long time or exposed to the farm life you are aware of the economic struggle that the farmer encounters daily. In fact, the economics of the food dollar don&#39t look good for farming. From 1910 to 1990 the percentage of the food dollar has been consistently de...

The world is becoming very multi-cultural and globally connected. The scale of communities is drastically changing. How can rural maintain a distinct culture and connected community.  If we look back at the farming community it has traditionally be centered around a few key pieces of infrastr...

The following infographic describes the average size of farm in Canada, taken from stats Canada. copyright, VELD architect 2008

In November, I attended a discussion on Sustainable Food Systems the Arts and Cookery Bank(a great venue and enterprise) in West Lorne. Hosted by Roxana Roshon and Tom Schell and the London Training Centre working on an amazing research project on Food Systems. They are taking an cross-system (...