Ciclo Verde Farm
At the end of a dirt road beyond a small village on the Samana Province peninsula sits the Ciclo Verde Farm, a self-sustaining closed-loop farmhouse designed to provide sustainable food production, enhance environmental stewardship, and promote community resilience and self-sufficiency.
Minimizing impact to the existing site, the farm is composed of a series of structures situated along the perimeter of a circular road that encloses the existing open and level terrain as it weaves in and out of the forest. Within the circle resides the productive zone including the farmhouse, community outreach and educational center, and a 2.5 hectare syntropic farm. Outside of the ring are the living zones with the primary and guest homes perched at the site’s highest vantage point with views towards Playa Rincon and the staff homes nestled in the forest with a cliffside view of the Atlantic.
The approach to materiality balances both the need for resilience against harsh weather and sensitivity to the local vernacular and material resources. Natural stone terraces & rammed earth structural walls are partially buried into the hillside protecting against hurricane winds and mitigating internal thermal swings throughout the day. Sitting atop each rammed earth structure is a light sweeping roof canopy composed of a dense thatch roofing on a timber frame. The roofs bridge multiple programmatic volumes creating shared shaded outdoor spaces between. Using this architecture language, each building finds its unique shape in the expression of the roof, while walls are shaped to maximize views through the mountainous terrain and across the property.
In addition to an on-site solar panel array to support building and irrigation energy requirements, all the structures are served by NEWgenerator composting systems that recycle waste and wastewater into a renewable energy resource. The wastewater from this process also supplements the site-wide water management system for year-round irrigation needs. Alongside the community education programs for solid waste recycling, the Ciclo Verde Farms’s renewable waste and energy systems take a holistic approach in synthesizing innovative solutions to water, energy, soil, waste, and livestock management systems to create a closed loop system for a truly off-grid farm.
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