Artists leave Pöytyä farmhouse to decay for 1,000 years
Thursday 22nd October 2026 on 10:01 in
Finland
A farmhouse in Pöytyä has spent a decade weathering the elements as part of an art project designed to document the passage of time, Yle reports. The work, Khronos House, is intended to continue for at least 1,000 years.
The artists’ group IC-98 acquired the abandoned house in 2016, documented it in detail and fenced off the property to keep people out. Pöytyä municipality, which received the building as a donation, agreed to leave it untouched. The typical 1920s farmstead did not receive official protection because it did not meet the requirements.
Ten years on, roof tiles have fallen away, an attic window is smashed and the front door hangs open. The roof of an outbuilding is also beginning to sag. Artist Visa Suonpää, one of the two members behind IC-98, says natural processes have advanced, though photographs show relatively little change to the house itself.
The artists visit once a year to see how the property has changed. The farm became a summer home in the 1980s, when firs and Douglas firs were planted in the yard. Willows have since begun to give way to the planted trees.
Much of what has happened inside the main house remains unknown. Suonpää says the artists have considered flying a drone through it, but decided that would conflict with the project’s idea. “We don’t need to know everything,” he said, adding that it was good to leave room for imagination.
The fields around the house could change more quickly. Ilmatar Oy has planning permission for a solar power park there, although construction has not yet begun. Suonpää said the news came as a surprise and voiced reservations about a green transition that, in his view, does not sufficiently address reducing consumption or tackling climate change.
He said one worst-case scenario would be additional wind or solar power being used by data centres. Suonpää is watching to see how the future will reshape the farmhouse and its surroundings, saying the coming decade will be critical for humanity in responding to climate change.