Hofwerk

Transformative Community Project

2022 — Building Momentum

Paweł arrived from his wanderings through Switzerland, Austria, and South Tyrol. A joyful reunion. Within weeks, everything changed. Panel by panel, new roofs took shape over the workshop and the bathroom addition — sandwich panels with thick insulating layers, sparkling silver gutters. Those were wonderful days, when the value of practical, hands-on work became impressively visible and tangible.

In the evenings, we sat in the courtyard with a Żywiec — that famous Polish beer — to bask in our accomplishments.

The wooden deck was built on the south-facing field. A uniformly level substructure of 2x4s bolted together, surface strips screwed on top with narrow gaps for rainwater drainage, everything coated with red fir oil. The result: a place for listening to music, reading, learning languages, or just watching the clouds.

The wooden deck
The wooden deck fronting the field. In winter, a brazier of flaming firewood is placed beside it.

September 2022 marked a critical decision: the choice of a high-performance heat pump system for the stable building. This moved the project toward an all-electric thermal profile, away from fossil fuel reliance. The energy roadmap was set.

Late 2022 was dominated by federal energy efficiency grant applications. Securing these funds for the roof and heating systems provided the financial backbone — allowing for a higher standard of ecological materials than originally planned.

The first seminars and workshops took place. University classes were streamed digitally during the Covid semesters. Polish language courses, German courses, workshops on emotional and social geographies in Polish literature.

But there should also be ease, not just work and no play. Reading popular fiction is part of it; so is listening to music on your headphones, lounging on the Wooden Deck and just closing our eyes or watching the clouds go by.