KettingHuls has realized a residential building in a new farmyard in Oosterwold near Almere. Oosterwold is responding to a global trend towards locally, responsibly and sustainably produced food. Unlike before, urban farming will contribute to the restoration of the relationship between city and country and between people and food. The gatehouse consists of a residential building with 21 apartments, an entrance gate, a farmhouse and a shop for the sale of agricultural produce. Further down the yard, the farmer has issued plots for a number of ground-level dwellings. The silhouette of the gatehouse refers to the barns that pioneers once erected in the United States. It has a wooden façade and the balconies on the south side and the galleries on the street side are supported by a construction of Azobé solid wood beams and joists. The building is raised 30 cm off the ground and its lower balconies and gallery are also made of wood. The façade is covered by Ayous wooden panelling and fitted with wooden window frames. A very pronounced red corrugated sheet roof covers the entire gatehouse, matching the cladding of the hay barn and cowshed. The inhabitants of the residential building will take part in yard life. Among the tractors, the cows and the hay bales they will live together around the apple orchard, surrounded by the urban farmer’s fields in which work is in progress.