Harmony Field: Nurturing Wellness in Farming Lands
The thesis approach was to study the context of Cumbria through an inclusive lens to acknowledge the complexity of the countryside and understand the existing challenges in rural areas, such as depopulation, high rates of migration, demographic shifts, and the mental health crisis, to shape the thesis question.
Cumbria has one of the most rural areas in the UK. While the farming industry is one of the main businesses in these rural areas, existing legislation, contextual barriers, and the correlation of other factors in the industry—such as land segregation, farmer isolation, unpredictable income, financial obstacles, and the hardship of the work—result in a high rate of suicide in this occupation compared to others in Cumbria.
Adding to these challenges, the decreasing desire of the new generation to continue this occupation has resulted in abandoned historical farmsteads in Cumbria. While this industry has shaped the landscape's characteristics over the years through historical farming assets (such as drystone walls and barns) and hill sheep farming and becoming one of the attractions for tourists, the recent policy regarding derelict farmsteads encourages repurposing these buildings into affordable housing. This approach not only fails to support the farming industry, putting it at risk, but is also unsustainable for the environment and it creates more isolated properties, exacerbating the mental health crisis in rural areas.
The Harmony Field is a response to the existing challenges in the farming industry and critiques the policy regarding historical farmsteads by considering the needs of farmers and the rural community as well as farmland potentials. Harmony Field is a future business model for diversifying farmland and sustaining farming businesses by utilizing the therapeutic aspects of farming. The spatial program articulates the existing challenges and addresses them through design manifestations by reusing Burneside Hall, a 14th-century derelict defensive dwelling and farmstead, as a therapeutic farmland. This initiative offers a space on the farmland to escape the stresses and busyness of daily life through healing architecture.
