Caring for the animals
Goats, chickens, rabbits and other animals suited to a small farm. Children help to feed them. Older people guide, tell and keep watch.
A living community · Bosnia and Herzegovina
A place where
generations grow
together.
A new place in Bosnia where older people, children, nature and craft come together every day.
The big idea
What if care became part of daily life again?
In most modern care settings, generations live apart. Children grow up in childcare. Older people live in care homes. We believe another way is possible. A place where children and older people meet every day. Where knowledge and a story can be passed on. Where a child brings curiosity and energy. Where care is not only about what someone needs, but about what someone can still give.
Together.
Making.
Growing.
A garden can grow vegetables.
It can also grow relationships.
A small plot, a workshop, a kitchen or a garden shed naturally gives reason to meet. No schedule required, simply working side by side.
Every generation brings something.
What children bring
- curiosity
- spontaneity
- energy
- imagination
- questioning
- play
- movement
- wonder
What older people bring
- stories
- patience
- craftsmanship
- memories
- knowledge
- traditions
- life experience
- quiet
And in the middle, something new is born.
An ordinary day is never quite ordinary here.
Arrival and breakfast
Garden and animals
Shared workshop
Lunch
Rest and quiet time
Stories, music and play
Being outside
Farewell
Not everyone does everything together. There are shared activities and individual ones, quiet zones, children’s zones, care zones, low stimulus rooms, enclosed spaces and things to do out of doors. Warm, and professional.
The care farm
The farm as a place to meet
On the farm, meeting almost happens by itself. There is always an animal to feed, a bed to weed or a crate to carry, and the work asks for two pairs of hands of different ages.
The vegetable garden
Sowing. Planting. Watering. Harvesting. Tasting. Preserving. Children learn where food comes from. Older adults bring the growing knowledge of a lifetime.
The orchard
Apples, plums, pears and other fruit that grows well here. The harvest turns into a small shared celebration.
The herb garden
Fragrant herbs and flowers, a garden made for the senses: for a child who wants to smell everything and for an older hand that recognises every leaf.
The outdoor workshop
Wood, natural materials, simple building projects and bird houses, always with someone nearby who knows how the tool wants to be held.
Choose your day
Everyone picks something to do today.
Nobody is placed in a programme. Every morning there is a board with what is happening, and everyone, four years old or eighty four, chooses where to be.
In the garden
Sowing, planting, harvesting and caring.
With the animals
Feeding and caring for the animals.
In the ceramics studio
Shaping, glazing and painting.
In the wood workshop
Sanding, building and carpentry.
In the atelier
Painting, drawing and textile.
In the kitchen
Bread, cooking, chutney and recipes.
Music and stories
Singing, instruments and stories.
Reading and telling
Reading aloud, sharing old stories.
Walking
Quiet walks around the grounds.
The ceramics studio
From clay to memory.
clay → hands → shape → glaze → kiln → object
A child and an older adult can make something together: a bowl, a mug, a tile, a small figure, a memory. Afterwards the object holds the story, and it stays in the house long after the afternoon is over.
The wood workshop
Hands sometimes know more than words.
Older adults pass a trade on to children: bird houses, small stools, wooden toys, planters, simple furniture, repairs and decorations. Close and warm, and always with guidance.
A carpenter who has not held a plane for ten years takes one up again because a seven year old wants to know how it works. That is the whole idea, in one movement.
Outside
The garden is our classroom.
Children learn
- patience
- responsibility
- nature
- food
- animals
- the seasons
Older adults experience
- movement
- rhythm
- meaning
- memories
- contact
- being outside
The kitchen
What we grow, we share.
grown → harvested → cooked → shared
Washing vegetables, shaping dough, breaking bread, making soup, putting up fruit, laying the table and eating together. Not gastronomy: one large family sharing a meal.
Bosnian culture
Every generation carries a story.
Older adults hand on the stories of their childhood, of villages and towns, crafts, music, family, food, the seasons and daily life in Bosnia. Children catch them: drawing, photographing, telling them back, turning them into something you can hold.
- Stories become memories.
- Memories become heritage.
- Heritage becomes the future.
The people of the concept
Meet the community.
Four people who do not exist yet, so that the concept can be read as a human reality rather than a plan. They are the reason for every choice on this page.
Mira, 78
Loves flowers, breaking bread and telling stories.
Amar, 5
Wants to know everything about animals and is always making something out of wood.
Hasan, 82
Was a carpenter and loves passing his knowledge on.
Lejla, 4
Goes to the chickens first thing every morning.
The space
A living map of the place.
Wander through the concept. Pick a place to see who meets there and what happens.
Choose a place on the plan.
One day
One day. Two generations. A hundred little moments.
A child arrives with his father.
An older resident hands a child the first tomato seedling of the season.
In the ceramics studio a small bowl begins to take shape.
The goats have visitors.
Everyone shares soup.
Rest.
An older man tells about his first wooden toy.
The children build a bird house themselves.
The garden grows quiet.
Tomorrow it continues.
Why this matters
Reconnecting the generations.
Modern societies have lost much of the meeting between generations that used to happen by itself. This project tries to make that connection part of daily life again: not by putting old and young in the same room, but by creating the conditions in which they make something, care for something, share and laugh together. Designed around dignity, safety and professional care.
What we hope to create
Belonging
Everyone belongs.
Purpose
Everyone can contribute.
Learning
Everyone can learn.
Connection
Generations meet.
Joy
Daily life may be joyful.
For whom?
For families
A safe, warm place for their children and for their older relatives, in one visit.
For older adults
A place to live, to meet, to stay active and to feel that a day still means something.
For children
A place to play, learn and make things, and to know people of every generation.
For the community
A place that brings people, knowledge, nature and culture back together.
More than a care home. More than a kindergarten.
A community.
In time the grounds can also welcome local families, volunteers, schools, craftspeople, farmers, musicians and the neighbourhood: markets, workshops and small cultural events. An open place, not a closed institution.
Maybe the future of care looks a little more like this.
We are developing a place where care, childhood, nature, craftsmanship and community can grow together. It is early, and that is exactly why the people who join now shape what it becomes.
Contact
Let’s stay in touch.
Three ways to reach us. Three reasons.