Arts, Culture, and Heritage as Drivers of Change
Heritage Farmhouse
Heritage Farmhouse: Rural Heritage Reimagined for Work, Learning and Belonging
Heritage Farmhouse transforms a 100-year-old rural house in Hungary into a living hub for belonging, remote work and intergenerational learning. Rooted in vernacular architecture and community care, the project connects heritage restoration, coworking, coliving and local craftsmanship. It offers a replicable model for making rural life attractive, sustainable and socially meaningful again for younger generations across Europe.
Hungary
Local
Dédestapolcsány
It addresses urban-rural linkages
It involves a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)
Early concept
No
No
Yes
Individual
Heritage Farmhouse is a rural regeneration concept that reimagines a more than 100-year-old farmhouse in a small Hungarian village as a living hub for heritage, remote work, shared living, and intergenerational learning. Located in one of Hungary’s most disadvantaged regions, the project responds to several connected challenges: rural depopulation, the loss of traditional knowledge, the underuse of heritage buildings, and the growing need for affordable and meaningful ways of living and working.
The concept combines heritage-led renovation with new social and economic functions. The restored building will host coworking and coliving opportunities, community programmes, cultural activities, and practice-based learning linked to vernacular architecture and rural craftsmanship. Its long-term aim is to make village life attractive again for younger generations while preserving the beauty, knowledge, and identity embedded in traditional rural architecture.
The project has already achieved important results. In 2025, the concept was recognised as a finalist in the New European Bauhaus Prizes, confirming its wider relevance and potential. Since then, the initiative has gained visibility, public interest, and trust. We have received donations of traditional building materials, including roof tiles and paving stones, which make an authentic and repair-led renovation more feasible. We have also started building relationships with universities and experts in vernacular architecture to explore how the renovation process itself can become an educational platform for students and a space for knowledge transfer from experienced rural craftsmen.
The expected results go beyond the restoration of one building. Heritage Farmhouse is designed as a replicable model for Europe: a way to transform endangered rural heritage into beautiful, inclusive, and sustainable infrastructure for belonging, learning, and resilient local futures.
The concept combines heritage-led renovation with new social and economic functions. The restored building will host coworking and coliving opportunities, community programmes, cultural activities, and practice-based learning linked to vernacular architecture and rural craftsmanship. Its long-term aim is to make village life attractive again for younger generations while preserving the beauty, knowledge, and identity embedded in traditional rural architecture.
The project has already achieved important results. In 2025, the concept was recognised as a finalist in the New European Bauhaus Prizes, confirming its wider relevance and potential. Since then, the initiative has gained visibility, public interest, and trust. We have received donations of traditional building materials, including roof tiles and paving stones, which make an authentic and repair-led renovation more feasible. We have also started building relationships with universities and experts in vernacular architecture to explore how the renovation process itself can become an educational platform for students and a space for knowledge transfer from experienced rural craftsmen.
The expected results go beyond the restoration of one building. Heritage Farmhouse is designed as a replicable model for Europe: a way to transform endangered rural heritage into beautiful, inclusive, and sustainable infrastructure for belonging, learning, and resilient local futures.
Heritage Farmhouse grew from a deeply personal motivation rooted in my own way of life. I still farm, and my grandparents also lived from the land, passing on practical knowledge about gardening, seasonal rhythms, animal care, materials, and rural self-sufficiency. Through them, I learned that rural knowledge is often passed on informally, through shared work and everyday life. Today, much of this knowledge is disappearing, and many children no longer have older generations around them to inherit it from.
This is where the idea began. I did not want to save only an old farmhouse, but also the living knowledge connected to it. For me, the house means memory, belonging, continuity, and the chance to turn inherited rural wisdom into a resource for the future. I imagined it as a place of informal knowledge transfer, where elderly people, children, young adults, and digital nomads could meet through organised events and shared experiences.
From this personal starting point, the concept developed into a broader response to urgent social questions: how to make rural life attractive again, how to give new purpose to heritage buildings, and how to reconnect younger generations with nature, craftsmanship, and community. This is how the combination of heritage restoration, coworking, coliving, and community use was born.
Being recognised as a finalist in the 2025 New European Bauhaus Prizes confirmed that the idea had relevance beyond my village and encouraged me to continue despite limited resources. Since then, I have consulted experts in vernacular architecture, reached out to universities, and started shaping a collaborative model in which students can learn through practice while contributing to the renovation itself. My vision is for the farmhouse to become a living learning ecosystem and a replicable model for rural regeneration across Europe.
This is where the idea began. I did not want to save only an old farmhouse, but also the living knowledge connected to it. For me, the house means memory, belonging, continuity, and the chance to turn inherited rural wisdom into a resource for the future. I imagined it as a place of informal knowledge transfer, where elderly people, children, young adults, and digital nomads could meet through organised events and shared experiences.
From this personal starting point, the concept developed into a broader response to urgent social questions: how to make rural life attractive again, how to give new purpose to heritage buildings, and how to reconnect younger generations with nature, craftsmanship, and community. This is how the combination of heritage restoration, coworking, coliving, and community use was born.
Being recognised as a finalist in the 2025 New European Bauhaus Prizes confirmed that the idea had relevance beyond my village and encouraged me to continue despite limited resources. Since then, I have consulted experts in vernacular architecture, reached out to universities, and started shaping a collaborative model in which students can learn through practice while contributing to the renovation itself. My vision is for the farmhouse to become a living learning ecosystem and a replicable model for rural regeneration across Europe.
Adaptive reuse
Vernacular architecture
Intergenerational learning
Social inclusion
Rural regeneration
Heritage Farmhouse addresses sustainability by showing how an existing rural building can be preserved and reactivated instead of being abandoned or replaced. The concept is based on adaptive reuse: a more than 100-year-old farmhouse is transformed into a living space for work, learning, and community life while respecting its original character and the intelligence of traditional rural architecture.
Its environmental value lies in repair-led renovation, the reuse of existing structures, and the use of donated traditional materials such as roof tiles and paving stones. Instead of demolition and resource-intensive rebuilding, the project values what is already there: the building itself, local material culture, and practical knowledge developed over generations. This reduces waste and shows that heritage preservation can also be environmental responsibility.
Its social and cultural sustainability is equally important. The project responds to the disappearance of informal rural knowledge by creating a place where older generations, children, young adults, students, and digital nomads can learn from one another. Sustainability here is not only about materials, but also about preserving ways of growing food, repairing, building, and living in connection with place.
Its economic relevance lies in proposing a realistic rural future. By combining heritage restoration with coworking, coliving, educational activities, and community programmes, Heritage Farmhouse explores how rural areas can become attractive again for younger people and remote workers. The concept is exemplary because it connects environmental, social, cultural, and economic sustainability in one place-based model.
Its environmental value lies in repair-led renovation, the reuse of existing structures, and the use of donated traditional materials such as roof tiles and paving stones. Instead of demolition and resource-intensive rebuilding, the project values what is already there: the building itself, local material culture, and practical knowledge developed over generations. This reduces waste and shows that heritage preservation can also be environmental responsibility.
Its social and cultural sustainability is equally important. The project responds to the disappearance of informal rural knowledge by creating a place where older generations, children, young adults, students, and digital nomads can learn from one another. Sustainability here is not only about materials, but also about preserving ways of growing food, repairing, building, and living in connection with place.
Its economic relevance lies in proposing a realistic rural future. By combining heritage restoration with coworking, coliving, educational activities, and community programmes, Heritage Farmhouse explores how rural areas can become attractive again for younger people and remote workers. The concept is exemplary because it connects environmental, social, cultural, and economic sustainability in one place-based model.
For Heritage Farmhouse, aesthetics is both architectural and lived. The project is rooted in the beauty of vernacular rural architecture: traditional proportions, natural materials, handcrafted details, and the quiet harmony between the farmhouse, its garden, and the surrounding village landscape. In its restored state, the building itself can become deeply beautiful again, not as a stylised object, but as an authentic expression of local heritage, care, and continuity. By preserving its original character and renovating it with respect for traditional forms and materials, the project protects a type of beauty that is often disappearing from rural Europe.
At the same time, the concept makes life more beautiful by turning a vulnerable heritage building into a lived and shared place again. Its beauty lies not only in the restored house itself, but also in the everyday experiences it can host: children gardening, older people sharing knowledge, students learning traditional building practices, and young adults or digital nomads reconnecting with slower rhythms, nature, and local culture.
It also strengthens belonging and care. For me, this house is not an abstract object, but a place connected to memory, roots, and inherited knowledge. By opening it to others through learning, exchange, and shared use, the project transforms personal attachment into collective meaning. Heritage Farmhouse is exemplary in terms of aesthetics because it shows that beauty is not only something to look at, but also something to restore, inhabit, share, and pass on.
At the same time, the concept makes life more beautiful by turning a vulnerable heritage building into a lived and shared place again. Its beauty lies not only in the restored house itself, but also in the everyday experiences it can host: children gardening, older people sharing knowledge, students learning traditional building practices, and young adults or digital nomads reconnecting with slower rhythms, nature, and local culture.
It also strengthens belonging and care. For me, this house is not an abstract object, but a place connected to memory, roots, and inherited knowledge. By opening it to others through learning, exchange, and shared use, the project transforms personal attachment into collective meaning. Heritage Farmhouse is exemplary in terms of aesthetics because it shows that beauty is not only something to look at, but also something to restore, inhabit, share, and pass on.
Heritage Farmhouse addresses inclusion by opening rural heritage as a shared resource for different generations, life situations, and forms of knowledge. In a village affected by limited opportunities, outmigration, and the loss of informal community spaces, the project aims to make a historic building accessible again as a place of learning, participation, and belonging.
Inclusion begins with people. I envision the farmhouse as a meeting point for children, older generations, young adults, students, local residents, and digital nomads. These groups are rarely brought together in meaningful ways, yet each carries knowledge, needs, and perspectives that can enrich the others. Through organised events, shared activities, and everyday encounters, the concept creates an inclusive model based on reciprocity rather than separation.
Affordability is also central. In a time of rising housing pressure and growing inequality, the project explores how rural areas can offer more accessible ways of living and working. By combining heritage restoration with coworking, coliving, garden-based learning, and community use, Heritage Farmhouse aims to create opportunities based on shared value and local connection rather than exclusivity.
The concept also supports inclusive governance through collaboration. It is being shaped through local trust, donated materials, expert input, and emerging university partnerships. Rather than following a top-down model, it grows through shared contribution and involvement.
Heritage Farmhouse is exemplary in terms of inclusion because it proposes a societal model in which heritage becomes a platform for connection, affordability, participation, and mutual learning across generations and communities.
Inclusion begins with people. I envision the farmhouse as a meeting point for children, older generations, young adults, students, local residents, and digital nomads. These groups are rarely brought together in meaningful ways, yet each carries knowledge, needs, and perspectives that can enrich the others. Through organised events, shared activities, and everyday encounters, the concept creates an inclusive model based on reciprocity rather than separation.
Affordability is also central. In a time of rising housing pressure and growing inequality, the project explores how rural areas can offer more accessible ways of living and working. By combining heritage restoration with coworking, coliving, garden-based learning, and community use, Heritage Farmhouse aims to create opportunities based on shared value and local connection rather than exclusivity.
The concept also supports inclusive governance through collaboration. It is being shaped through local trust, donated materials, expert input, and emerging university partnerships. Rather than following a top-down model, it grows through shared contribution and involvement.
Heritage Farmhouse is exemplary in terms of inclusion because it proposes a societal model in which heritage becomes a platform for connection, affordability, participation, and mutual learning across generations and communities.
Heritage Farmhouse has been shaped through participation from the beginning. The concept grew from lived local experience, but it has developed through continuous conversations with people connected to the place and its future: family members, older villagers, local residents, craftspeople, experts in vernacular architecture, and potential academic partners. Their input has helped me move beyond the idea of restoring a single building and towards a broader model of rural learning, community use, and intergenerational exchange.
Participation has had a real impact on the concept. Local trust and encouragement confirmed that the farmhouse should not become a private retreat, but a shared place with value for others. Donations of traditional materials, such as roof tiles and paving stones, also showed that the project resonates with the community and can grow through collective contribution. At the same time, discussions with experts and universities helped refine the idea of using the renovation process itself as a learning opportunity for students and younger generations.
The concept is therefore not designed in isolation. It is being shaped through dialogue, observation, and the gradual involvement of people who carry different forms of knowledge and experience. My next steps include small-scale pilot activities, such as garden-based learning for children, site visits, and knowledge-sharing events that can test how the future space will work in practice.
The impact of participation has been to make the project more open, more relevant, and more grounded. It has transformed Heritage Farmhouse from a personal dream into a shared concept built on reciprocity, trust, and local meaning.
Participation has had a real impact on the concept. Local trust and encouragement confirmed that the farmhouse should not become a private retreat, but a shared place with value for others. Donations of traditional materials, such as roof tiles and paving stones, also showed that the project resonates with the community and can grow through collective contribution. At the same time, discussions with experts and universities helped refine the idea of using the renovation process itself as a learning opportunity for students and younger generations.
The concept is therefore not designed in isolation. It is being shaped through dialogue, observation, and the gradual involvement of people who carry different forms of knowledge and experience. My next steps include small-scale pilot activities, such as garden-based learning for children, site visits, and knowledge-sharing events that can test how the future space will work in practice.
The impact of participation has been to make the project more open, more relevant, and more grounded. It has transformed Heritage Farmhouse from a personal dream into a shared concept built on reciprocity, trust, and local meaning.
Heritage Farmhouse is being developed through engagement at several levels, each bringing a different kind of value. At the local level, the concept is rooted in the knowledge, trust, and participation of the village community, including older residents, local craftspeople, families, and people connected to the site through memory and everyday life. Their involvement ensures that the project remains meaningful, place-based, and socially relevant.
At the regional and national level, I have started reaching out to experts in vernacular architecture and to universities that may contribute through educational collaboration, field-based learning, and student involvement. This level adds professional knowledge, methodological support, and the possibility of linking the project to wider discussions on rural regeneration, heritage preservation, and practice-based education.
At the European level, the concept has already gained recognition through its selection as a finalist in the 2025 New European Bauhaus Prizes. This visibility has strengthened the project’s wider relevance and confirmed that the challenges it addresses, such as rural depopulation, loss of heritage, and intergenerational disconnection, are shared across Europe. It also supports the ambition to develop Heritage Farmhouse as a replicable model for other rural communities.
The added value of multilevel engagement is that it connects local authenticity with broader expertise and European relevance. It allows the project to remain rooted in one village while contributing to larger conversations about how heritage can support inclusive and sustainable rural futures.
At the regional and national level, I have started reaching out to experts in vernacular architecture and to universities that may contribute through educational collaboration, field-based learning, and student involvement. This level adds professional knowledge, methodological support, and the possibility of linking the project to wider discussions on rural regeneration, heritage preservation, and practice-based education.
At the European level, the concept has already gained recognition through its selection as a finalist in the 2025 New European Bauhaus Prizes. This visibility has strengthened the project’s wider relevance and confirmed that the challenges it addresses, such as rural depopulation, loss of heritage, and intergenerational disconnection, are shared across Europe. It also supports the ambition to develop Heritage Farmhouse as a replicable model for other rural communities.
The added value of multilevel engagement is that it connects local authenticity with broader expertise and European relevance. It allows the project to remain rooted in one village while contributing to larger conversations about how heritage can support inclusive and sustainable rural futures.
Heritage Farmhouse is transdisciplinary because it brings together multiple fields of knowledge that are usually treated separately. At its core, the concept connects vernacular architecture and heritage preservation with education, community development, rural studies, environmental awareness, and new ways of living and working. It combines the restoration of a historic farmhouse with coworking, coliving, garden-based learning, and informal knowledge transfer across generations.
Architectural and material knowledge is central to the project through the focus on adaptive reuse, traditional forms, and repair-led renovation. This is complemented by educational thinking, as the farmhouse is envisioned not only as a restored building but as a learning ecosystem where children, students, and young adults can learn from older generations and rural craftspeople through practice.
The concept also draws on social and community-based approaches. It responds to questions of belonging, inclusion, participation, and the future of rural life. In this sense, it is informed not only by architecture, but also by social experience, local memory, and intergenerational relationships. At the same time, the coworking and coliving elements introduce knowledge from contemporary work culture and digital lifestyles, making the project relevant for remote workers and digital nomads as well.
Its transdisciplinary value lies in connecting heritage, everyday life, education, and rural innovation in one coherent model. Heritage Farmhouse shows that restoring a building can also mean restoring relationships, knowledge flows, and future possibilities across different fields and communities.
Architectural and material knowledge is central to the project through the focus on adaptive reuse, traditional forms, and repair-led renovation. This is complemented by educational thinking, as the farmhouse is envisioned not only as a restored building but as a learning ecosystem where children, students, and young adults can learn from older generations and rural craftspeople through practice.
The concept also draws on social and community-based approaches. It responds to questions of belonging, inclusion, participation, and the future of rural life. In this sense, it is informed not only by architecture, but also by social experience, local memory, and intergenerational relationships. At the same time, the coworking and coliving elements introduce knowledge from contemporary work culture and digital lifestyles, making the project relevant for remote workers and digital nomads as well.
Its transdisciplinary value lies in connecting heritage, everyday life, education, and rural innovation in one coherent model. Heritage Farmhouse shows that restoring a building can also mean restoring relationships, knowledge flows, and future possibilities across different fields and communities.
Heritage Farmhouse is designed as a mixed-value rural model that combines modest earned income with grants, donations, and community support. Its long-term sustainability would not depend on a single revenue source, but on several complementary activities linked to the restored farmhouse and its social mission.
The main future income streams would come from coworking and short-stay coliving, small educational programmes, heritage and craft workshops, garden-based learning activities, and community events connected to rural culture, intergenerational learning, and local knowledge. The space could also host university field visits, practice-based learning sessions, and small residency formats for students, researchers, or remote workers interested in rural life and vernacular architecture.
In the development phase, financial feasibility is strengthened by resource-conscious renovation and collective support. The project has already received donations of traditional materials, including roof tiles and paving stones, which reduce initial costs and support an authentic restoration process. Further support could come from public funding, heritage and rural development grants, crowdfunding, educational partnerships, and targeted sponsorship.
The model is sustainable over time because it builds on existing assets rather than expensive new construction, combines social and economic functions, and creates value for several groups at once. Its goal is not large-scale profit, but a resilient local model that can maintain the building, support community life, and remain accessible and meaningful over time.
The main future income streams would come from coworking and short-stay coliving, small educational programmes, heritage and craft workshops, garden-based learning activities, and community events connected to rural culture, intergenerational learning, and local knowledge. The space could also host university field visits, practice-based learning sessions, and small residency formats for students, researchers, or remote workers interested in rural life and vernacular architecture.
In the development phase, financial feasibility is strengthened by resource-conscious renovation and collective support. The project has already received donations of traditional materials, including roof tiles and paving stones, which reduce initial costs and support an authentic restoration process. Further support could come from public funding, heritage and rural development grants, crowdfunding, educational partnerships, and targeted sponsorship.
The model is sustainable over time because it builds on existing assets rather than expensive new construction, combines social and economic functions, and creates value for several groups at once. Its goal is not large-scale profit, but a resilient local model that can maintain the building, support community life, and remain accessible and meaningful over time.
Heritage Farmhouse has strong transferability because its core logic is not limited to one building or one village. Across Europe, many rural areas face similar challenges: underused heritage buildings, loss of traditional knowledge, depopulation, social disconnection, and growing interest in more meaningful and nature-connected ways of living and working.
The most replicable elements are its methodology rather than a fixed physical form. These include adaptive reuse of rural heritage, repair-led renovation with locally available or donated materials, the combination of coworking and coliving with community use, and the idea of the building as an informal learning ecosystem. The model also includes intergenerational knowledge transfer, garden-based learning, and collaboration between local craftspeople, residents, students, and external contributors.
Another transferable element is the implementation strategy: starting with available resources, building trust locally, involving experts step by step, and activating the site through small pilot activities even before full renovation is completed. This makes the concept realistic for other low-resource or disadvantaged contexts.
Its value lies in showing that rural heritage can become more than a preserved object. It can become a platform for learning, belonging, affordability, and local resilience. For this reason, Heritage Farmhouse could inspire similar initiatives in other villages, regions, and sectors linked to heritage, education, rural tourism, youth engagement, and community development.
The most replicable elements are its methodology rather than a fixed physical form. These include adaptive reuse of rural heritage, repair-led renovation with locally available or donated materials, the combination of coworking and coliving with community use, and the idea of the building as an informal learning ecosystem. The model also includes intergenerational knowledge transfer, garden-based learning, and collaboration between local craftspeople, residents, students, and external contributors.
Another transferable element is the implementation strategy: starting with available resources, building trust locally, involving experts step by step, and activating the site through small pilot activities even before full renovation is completed. This makes the concept realistic for other low-resource or disadvantaged contexts.
Its value lies in showing that rural heritage can become more than a preserved object. It can become a platform for learning, belonging, affordability, and local resilience. For this reason, Heritage Farmhouse could inspire similar initiatives in other villages, regions, and sectors linked to heritage, education, rural tourism, youth engagement, and community development.
In the year following the application, I plan to focus on turning Heritage Farmhouse from a developed concept into an active pilot site. The first priority is to secure funding for the essential materials that have not yet been covered through donations, especially timber and electrical materials. While the project has already received important in-kind support, including traditional roof tiles and paving stones, these missing elements remain critical for moving from preparation to implementation. The prize would directly help cover these costs and unlock the next concrete stage of renovation.
A second priority is to continue preparing the building’s restoration by refining the renovation approach with expert input and advancing partnerships with specialists in vernacular architecture and universities. This phase will strengthen the technical, educational, and organisational basis of the project.
At the same time, I plan to activate the site before full renovation is completed through small-scale pilot activities that reflect the future role of the farmhouse, such as garden-based learning sessions for children, local knowledge-sharing events, site visits, and informal intergenerational programmes. These actions will help test the concept in practice and build local involvement.
Most of the implementation can be carried out through community work, local commitment, and collaborative effort. The municipality is highly supportive of the project and recognises its value for the village, but due to current financial pressures it is not in a position to provide direct funding at this stage. This makes external support especially important.
Over the next year, my goal is to prove not only that Heritage Farmhouse is a strong idea, but that it can already begin to operate as a real, place-based model for rural regeneration, heritage-led learning, and community resilience.
A second priority is to continue preparing the building’s restoration by refining the renovation approach with expert input and advancing partnerships with specialists in vernacular architecture and universities. This phase will strengthen the technical, educational, and organisational basis of the project.
At the same time, I plan to activate the site before full renovation is completed through small-scale pilot activities that reflect the future role of the farmhouse, such as garden-based learning sessions for children, local knowledge-sharing events, site visits, and informal intergenerational programmes. These actions will help test the concept in practice and build local involvement.
Most of the implementation can be carried out through community work, local commitment, and collaborative effort. The municipality is highly supportive of the project and recognises its value for the village, but due to current financial pressures it is not in a position to provide direct funding at this stage. This makes external support especially important.
Over the next year, my goal is to prove not only that Heritage Farmhouse is a strong idea, but that it can already begin to operate as a real, place-based model for rural regeneration, heritage-led learning, and community resilience.
