Stables
We, Martin Hansen and Marieken Verheyen, are an artist couple from Amsterdam. In 2012 we turned our life upside down and moved to the Uckermark, where we bought the old vicarage farm. It is a three-sided yard, consisting of a home, a barn and two stable buildings. Over the last three years, this turned into the Re:hof Rutenberg. We made a dream come true and without much money, but with a lot of passion and using our creative potential and aesthetic experience, we have created an exceptional holiday resort.
It was no walk in the park, as you can imagine. The buildings had been neglected for a long time. The roof of the barn threatened to collapse, the garden was totally overgrown, and water and electricity connections were either cut off or had to be totally renewed. Most of our friends thought we were mad, but we were in love and couldn’t help but see a beautiful holiday resort behind the ruined buildings and wild weeds. Since our garden lies at the edge of the property and borders a national park, we were obliged to seek planning permission to construct holiday homes there. After one and a half years and with the support of the municipality of Lychen, we slayed this bureaucratic monster.
In the long-term we hope to become as self-sufficient and energy-independent as possible. Firstly, we have constructed a plant-based filtration system that makes our wastewater fresh again. We water our plants with this. Solar panels warm up the shower water and are connected to a photovoltaic system[1] . During the construction phase we paid attention to being as environmentally friendly and biologically practical as possible to create a healthy indoor climate in our holiday homes. The Re: in “Rehof” stands, amongst other things, for Recycling. We’ve turned it into a sport: we try to throw next to nothing away and make something new from so-called waste.
Our plan and initial designs led to a fruitful collaboration with the architect Peter Grundmann. With his unconventional understanding of architecture and building, he sharpened up our ideas and made some crucial suggestions, such as the large window in the stable staircase. He also designed one of the holiday homes (Salix); the other two and the sauna we designed ourselves.
The Re:hof was transformed over three years. Many people have left their mark. The major tasks were taken on by different construction companies, but the majority we carried out ourselves. We received fantastic support from many helping hands and from volunteers from around the world who stayed with us for a few days or months and offered their labour, knowledge and commitment. We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone again.
