What started as a green building project, an off-the-grid, LEED certified, farm-to-table restaurant located on a working farm, a project that "does less harm", evolved into a systemic transformation of regional food production and consumption. Through the persistence of the owners Duke and Monica, a co-discovery process with key stakeholders aligning around the project’s Purpose and its effects in the Community, and years of regenerative thinking and design effort, the RE Farm Café at Windswept Farm was cultivated - a café nested in a farm, a farm nested in a community and regional food production and consumption system.

When the owners came to 7group with the initial project concept, an integrative and regenerative design approach was implemented. Created from the vision and aspirations of the owners, the project’s purpose expanded and evolved in a way that inspires people to create a stronger connection to the place so they can contribute to its health in a meaningful way through immersive educational experiences. The team shifted from building a café to seeing the project as an instrument for understanding and experiencing how we produce and consume food on diversified, small farms in this place can serve to regenerate life in the community and the lifeshed it serves and beyond. A 10-minute video Remarkable Reinvention produced by 7group partner Tom Keiter with funding provided by West Penn Power Sustainable Energy Fund follows this project’s journey.

Strategies implemented include deconstructing the original farm house allowing for materials reuse and recycling, repurposing stage wood from a local high school being demolished as the café’s flooring, incorporating a robust building envelope that allowed for smaller, high-efficient HVAC systems, and utilizing daylighting strategies to minimize artificial lighting. The team’s approach conserved as much as possible first, then only offset what was left. The use of solar panels is expected to provide 105% of the remaining energy needs. Achieving the LBC imperatives was no easy feat when designing the state-of-the-art commercial kitchen, but by utilizing unique approaches such as induction cooking, not having an ice machine, and a reservation system that eliminates food waste, this project is well on its way to achieving LBC petal certification.