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design
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integrated farming software in collaboration
with Tecnozoo, an Italian company with over
25 years of experience in the stock feed
additive industry.
I asked the architect about the rather unusual
professional path he has taken so far.“In fact, I
grew up on a small dairy farm in northern
Spain,”Ahedo told me,“but my interest in
pursuing a design career somehow detached
me from the rural environment for a long time.
I studied architecture in Barcelona and got a
Bachelor of Architecture in 2005. I was very
lucky to be admitted to the Graduate School
of Design [GSD] at Harvard University in 2008
and I received a Master of Architecture from
there in 2010.
“By the time I was about to graduate, my
classmates and I were mostly pursuing jobs in
big firms, mainly in the USA.Then I was offered
a farm to design, which gave me the chance
to return to Barcelona and start my own firm. I
must admit that this did not sound as
attractive then as it may sound today. I did not
have any interest in farming after finishing up
at the GSD, but I felt the client wanted to do
something special, so I accepted the offer.
“When we started to debate what challenges
farming faced in the 21st century, I got
extremely excited about working in a
countryside scenario rather than in an urban
environment.We have done some in-depth
research during the last four years and
discovered that the countryside has somehow
been an architectural blind spot since the
industrial revolution.That is why we continue to
pursue projects involving productive systems
in rural areas.”
Blanca from the Pyrenees has four colour-
coded units: the Black Unit is the farm;
the Red Unit is devoted to research into milk
production, animal husbandry and the
environmental impact of dairy farming; the
Blue Unit is the genetic laboratory; and the
Green Unit is the education centre.