1400 HOUSE

A living history laboratory that explores how radically our lives have changed through technology and what we have gained, or lost, as a result. A modern family swaps the luxury of 2022 for a life in the middle ages and lives for four weeks in the fourteenth century.

1400 House shows what we can learn from human history and the supposedly dark middle ages for a future beyond the pursuit of profit, self-interest and the destruction of nature. We learn how monasteries have functioned through sharecropping, about early urban gardening in beguinages and 'rent a cow’ schemes entirely without an app.

Accompanying lectures and behind-the-scenes documentaries show how the family’s home and lives were conceived and built, shedding light on important sustainability ideas.

Inspired by medieval historian Annette Kehnel's book 'Wir konnten auch anders' and adapted from the successful TV series 'The 1900 House' (Channel 4, UK 1999)