The beauty of care and the grace of hosting are deeply rooted in the human nature. In the small village of

Rüti, the threads of architecture and agriculture gently weave together.

At the heart of this lies empowerment and the importance of a connected social fabric.. Over time, care has

evolved into a powerful, life-sustaining force, blending domestic, reproductive, and productive labor.

Creating spaces for gathering becomes an act of resistance, spaces where public life and care intertwine.

Over time, these spaces transform into places of communal return.

By reimagining care as collective, we begin to envision new systems, ones built not on isolation, but on

interdependence.

Despite their historic coexistence, architecture and agriculture have drifted apart. In Rüti, this separation is

evident in the lack of infrastructure for communal gatherings, harvesting celebrations, or just the simple life.

At the same time, the built environment remains tailored to narrow age groups, making it increasingly difficult

to foster long-term residency, particularly in the context of an aging society and future generations yet to

come. How do we reconnect across age and time - interweaving the threads of care and the act of hosting?

The dining table becomes a powerful metaphor for this shift - a central site of gathering, nourishment, and

connection. As an instrument of care, the historical concept of the Konsumverein - 19th-century consumer

cooperatives that laid the groundwork for the Genossenschaft model - is reintroduced. These self-managed

collectives enabled workers, farmers, and civil servants to bypass commercial markets and ensuring access

to essential goods. In this, local food production, fairness, and mutual care become acts of resistance and

renewal.

The urban kitchen -no longer just a place to cook- becomes a social tool of care. It challenges the nuclear

family model, addressing issues of care, gender, and age. Shared domestic spaces begin to blur the

boundaries between living and working, private and public. In this shift, care is no longer attached to the

home - it becomes part of the public realm.

Within this landscape of care, figures like the healer and midwife reemerge - symbols of feminine knowledge

and empowerment, deeply tied to natural medicine and traditional herbal practices. This connects care to the

land, to healing, and to the quiet power of nature.

These small gestures of growing, cooking, and eating together- form the blueprint for a new way of living. By

desinging homes that are inclusive and intergenerational, its possible to incite people of all ages to live,

work, and care under one roof at a metaphorical table.

Hosting becomes more than shelter - it is an act of memory and comfort - extending and taking care of both

people and nature. These are spaces of communal return, where the roles of guest and host, caregiver and

receiver, dissolve into mutuality. By gently layering new architectural gestures onto existing built

environment, architecture and agriculture begin to intertwine, giving rise to a new social fabric. Fine threads

of intervention - nearly invisible - accumulate into a resilient fabric of care.