Hard Bargain Farm

Alice Ferguson Foundation
Accokeek, Maryland
15,000 SF
Anticipated Completion: 2012

M2 Architecture, in collaboration with Re:Vision Architecture, is designing two Living Buildings to support the environmental education programs of the Alice Ferguson Foundation at the Hard Bargain Farm in Maryland. The structures will provide both overnight accommodations as well as teaching and gathering spaces for the more than 7,000 students who visit the Farm each year. The design was a winner of the 2007 Living Building Competition, a major national competition sponsored by the USGBC recognizing the next generation of green buildings.

As Living Buildings, these structures will strive to achieve the following ambitious goals, generated through a collaborative process with the client and stakeholders of the Foundation:

net zero energy (carbon neutral)
collect its own water
regenerate natural systems
no waste
non-toxic
be beautiful and inspire visitors

More important, however, than all the living systems technology of Living Buildings, however, will be the potential of these buildings to enable the staff of the Alice Ferguson Foundation to inspire and educate the students and teachers who visit to become better stewards of our environment.