Welcome to our Summer School 2024 Scrapbook

Students and staff of Building Beauty met in August for the second summer school session at Jan’s Farm in rural Slovenia — a breathtakingly beautiful place. Formerly an abandoned farm, it is now in a long process of loving repair. Our plans are to establish a Building Beauty gathering place for students and visitors to stay in when they work on the farm.

This account of the 2024 Summer School was written by Aby Law who worked at Jan’s Farm for her Spring Term Studio Independent Project and made preparations for the Summer School entourage to arrive. Aby completed the Building Beauty course in May 2024, and now serves as a tutor for our Studio course.

The 2023 Scrapbook of the first summer session at the farm appears below.

In the middle of a heady summer, rich with the smell of beech and the cautious twittering of the Eurasian Blackbird, we return to Jan’s Farm for another ten day workshop to continue the work of unfolding and loving repair. This is our scrapbook for the year and we’re excited to share with you some of our experiences.

An Unexpected but Welcome Discovery

Fourteen of us stand gathered around the set of planks that make up the desk in our makeshift classroom. In front of us are two topographical models of the farm, marked with a few colourful pins and plants. We’re considering a startling discovery - a new spot for the fountain, just off to the side of the terrace in the berm of another slope.

Minutes later, we’re standing before a clunky yet undeniably appealing “fountain” that had been materialized out of some creates, planks and a metal hoop. We can see clearly now that this is where we’ll build it. We’ll begin construction tomorrow.

Working with Stone

I wipe the sweat off my brow as I sit cross-legged with the rock between my legs (pretending I’m Saman, our guide who *actually* knows how to shape stone), before bringing the hammer high above my head and back down onto the waiting chisel below. I hear a ping as the metal connects and a flake of rock leaps off with a satisfying crack.

The First and Final Step

One of my favourite moments: Dan, Kevin, John Matthew and I are standing with shovels over a log that will become the first step of a staircase leading up to the terrace. We’ve been debating it for a while now, removing and adding dirt, pushing the log up and down, moving it left and right, twisting it, turning…

We finally align it with the slope. It works. Suddenly all the other steps are snapping into place, as if the staircase is building itself.

Child Magnet

After six days of hard work, the wall is complete. I look up from my work spreading mortar on the fountain to see that John Matthew’s children are building an aircraft out of crates and planks up next to it in the dappled shade. I like to think that it means we’ve done something right.

Chicken I’ll never forget

Tomaž, Ana’s father, sweeps the crackling embers off the cast iron Peka before removing the lid, unleashing a cloud of herb-laden steam and a medallion of tender chicken thighs steeped in gurgling broth. Everyone’s sitting a little straighter and I spy a greedy gleam in a few eyes…

Checking back in the autumn to see how our additions have settled in

Congratulations to all who participated in this joyous work together.

We’ll be back.

Our Summer School 2023 Scrapbook

Students and staff of the Building Beauty community met in a breathtakingly beautiful place and worked together to make it a little more beautiful. They spent 10 days on Jan’s magical farm in rural Slovenia, on a hillside among rolling hills, with a distant view to the Alps. This place is a formerly abandoned farm in a long process of loving repair. The assignment was to make an access footpath leading from its entrance downhill upwards to the house and barn. The students laid out, mocked up, and then built the path with rest stops and benches along the way. In between work sessions, the farm itself sustained them with its nutritious food produce and exceptional beauty.

Congratulations to all who contributed to the restoration of this beautiful place and were restored by it.

We’ll be back.

Jan’s farm in rural Slovenia.

Accommodation in nearby Prežganje.

Discussing with Jan and his dad their vision for the farm. Exploring the land and potential trajectories for the path. Identifying centers and latent centers along and around it. Each student had ten tall green flags for marking their choice of path, and five short blue flags for marking centers. They walked through the land together and discussed all their proposals and considerations. Finally, they identified three areas for three smaller groups to develop in further detail.

A day off to explore the mountain lakes. As the rain caught the group in the afternoon, they drove to the town of Kranj, which has a couple of Plečnik's urban interventions, and had a local sausage dinner.

Each of the three teams started the next day by studying their chosen area more closely and exploring ideas for how to help the path go through them while increasing wholeness. This was followed by mocking up various suggestions, including placing trees to create strong centers.

The next day the whole group reviewed each team's mockup, and provided feedback to reach decisions. It was a very hot day, so they took a long lunch break, and turned the bottom of the barn into a makeshift lecture room where the group heard a discussion about Ljubljana in advance of the next day's excursion to visit there. The rest of the afternoon was spent digging and building stairs from logs, until it was too dark to continue.