5movment

This is a familiar change for many of us, however what it represents to a Hutterite colony is the significant change from communal farming to agri-business. With enormous landholdings the Hutterites feel the pressures of a growing population placing increased demands on the world’s resources. Rising energy prices increase the cost of operating farm machinery and heating colony buildings. Combined with the decrease in market prices for agricultural products due to corporate competition on a global scale, these events are forcing the colonies to participate more and more in capitalist markets. This is now reflected in the newer colonies at a scale that affects the form of the colony itself, where changes to the traditional arrangement of the three components can be seen. Located as close to the highway as a service station, the Bieseker Colony has rearranged the traditional palm to finger relationship between the housing complex, the mixed-use building, and the agricultural buildings.The agricultural buildings focus on the highway instead of the housing. In general most agricultural buildings are active along the length of the building; the vehicles begin loading or unloading at the doors at one end of the building with the product being moved down the length of the building. By locating the colony within feet of the highway and by redirecting the focus of the active length of the agricultural buildings toward this same highway the colony allows transportation vehicles to leave the road and park within feet of the active end of a building. for easy loading and unloading. The kitchen, traditionally the central focus of the colony housing complex, is now located between the housing and the highway adding to its role as an internal organizing mechanism that of mediator between the colony and the public realm. Facing many of the same questions every community faces, the Hutterites have responded in similar ways by making small functional changes to previously defined spaces, while at the same time responding with dramatic shifts in colony form as they continue to bridge the gap between their culture and ours. 

from the top: entrance to Cayley entrance to Beiseker Beiseker and its proximity to the highway Beiseker mixed use building

Communication with the Hutterites can run into difficulties.This is not because the colonies avoid sharing their lives and communities with visitors, but instead stems from the differences between the cycles of life in our society and theirs. In most cases visitors are more than welcome as the colonies are very proud of their homes and their lives, however as each day unfolds at the individual colonies. finding a good day for a visit can take weeks or even months. A visit in late May through June is impossible, this is planting season and the colonies are working in 8-hour shifts 24 hours a day for six to eight weeks. During planting season there is no such ‘good day for a visit’.To find a good day one must call the morning of the day of the intended visit and hope it can be arranged.These meetings can be cancelled soon after they are arranged, as events at the colonies can change hourly. It was mentioned by Marie Walter, my tour guide, that CBC Radio had been trying for two weeks to meet with two girls who were to be the first Hutterites to graduate from senior high school.‘It is difficult for their schedules to meet’, she told me with a sigh.

Tom Strickland is an architect working from High River and in the process of setting up a non-profit architectural office.

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