Most homes and buildings within The Farm Community have utilized green construction and building principles, from recycled materials to energy-efficient designs. Residents of The Farm today live in many different styles of housing.
Choose a link below to learn more about specific homes and buildings. Continue reading down the page to read an overview of green building, its history in the community, and our ownership structure.
The Community Center
The Deltec Home
The Earth Shelter
Energy Efficiency and Insulation
ICF – Insulated Concrete Forms
The Recycled Log Cabin
Natural Building
Solar Arrays
Read and Excerpt from The Farm Then and Now by Farm Member Douglas Stevenson, Housing and Construction
Primary construction for many of community buildings and homes took place during the early communal period (1971-1983).
The demand for building materials was overwhelming and money was in short supply. What The Farm did have in abundance was labor, strong and eager young people ready to take on the most challenging projects. The community soon realized that one of the best ways to acquire seemingly no-cost building materials was through salvage.
The Wrecking Crew would leave the farm each morning armed with crowbars and sledgehammers, a step van full of tools, along with a dump truck for waste and debris, and a flatbed truck for hauling back materials. We could demolish a house in a matter of days, and large projects such as a three-story brick factory in the nearby town of Pulaski, Tennessee could go on for months.
Community Buildings
The first real buildings to be constructed were those that served the entire community.
The very first, was The Farm Store,the location for distributing food to the community. It still functions as our store in the center of “downtown.”
Building The Store was definitely a labor of love. To celebrate its importance as a centerpiece of the community, it was designed to be in the shape of an octagon, modeled after the mandala that graces the covers of Stephen’s first two books, Monday Night Class and The Caravan, making it the community’s unofficial logo. The building was unique and beautiful, but simultaneously extremely labor intensive. Hundreds of difficult angle cuts were required for the framing and at every other step of the way. It was far from practical and at the end of the project, the carpenters announced, “No more round buildings!”
Farm Early Housing
Primary construction for many of the homes took place during the early communal period when each structure would house several families and a number of single people.
After the Changeover, individual members or couples assumed ownership of a home and began investing in the buildings as needed for maintenance and improvements.
During the communal period, a structure would provide housing for 20, 30, 40 people or more! when each structure would house several families and a number of single people.
Some of the larger homes have now been divided into duplexes.
A number of homes have rooms available for overnight guests.
There have also been many new homes built after The Changeover.
Banks will not offer financing because they cannot repossess the home and sell it on the open market. The community does not provide financing because it does not wish to use the land as collateral with a bank and does not have the financial resources to construct a large number of homes.
This has made the financing of new home construction a significant challenge for the community and for new members.
Quite often new homes are built by the future owner to keep down labor costs.
Community members sometimes participate in house raising’s during the initial framing phase of new home construction as another way to help keep housing affordable.
Several Farm members are building contractors or have construction skills and are hired by people within the community for new construction and remodeling.
The nearby Amish and Mennonite community also has people in the building trades who have worked in the community on various houses and other buildings.
Home Ownwership
Because all land is held in common, all buildings attached to the land are owned by the Trust.
Individual members do not own a deed to their home, but retain equity based on their personal investment in the construction and maintenance expenses.
Check the links below to learn more about specific homes:
The Community Center
The Deltec Home
The Earth Shelter
Energy Efficiency and Insulation
ICF – Insulated Concrete Forms
The Recycled Log Cabin
Natural Building
Solar Arrays