4 Linden: A website for a place that has been growing for forty years.
A creative experience farm near Aachen needed a public presence worthy of its atmosphere: calm, high-quality, inviting. In one month, we built a website that is not only beautiful, but works. With a self-developed event system and a privacy-compliant newsletter, entirely without external services. It went live right on time for the open day.
Starting point
A special place, an outdated website
4 Linden near Aachen is a creative experience farm: grown over forty years, with a farm café, animals, workshops, guided tours and celebrations. A place with an atmosphere all its own. The old website did not do it justice. It was confusing, outdated and conveyed nothing of what makes this farm special.
Before the website could even take shape, something else was needed behind the scenes: order in the farm’s scattered files and access credentials. We created that foundation first. How that unfolded is told in a story of its own. With an organised foundation in place, we turned to the public presence: a website that shows the place as it is, and that takes work off the farm’s hands in everyday life rather than creating it.
What we did
A platform that fits the place and pulls its weight
Concept, design, content and technology came from a single source, closely coordinated with the farm. The result:
- A calm, high-quality brand presence. Generous typography, plenty of space, warm colours. From the very first moment, the website conveys the atmosphere of the farm instead of hiding it behind technology. Themed worlds for café, animals, celebrations, getting involved and supporting guide visitors through everything 4 Linden has to offer.
- A self-developed event system. The farm manages its own dates, without third-party software. The system handles multi-day events such as the open day, dates with their own times of day, and recurring dates with a seasonal window: the summer café, for instance, runs automatically every Sunday from April to October, without anyone re-entering it each week. The home page and event calendar update themselves.
- A privacy-compliant newsletter without an external service. No data with Mailchimp or a US provider. The entire system runs on the farm’s own server: sign-up with double opt-in, proof of consent with a timestamp, an unsubscribe link in every email. As soon as a new post appears, a notification automatically goes out to all confirmed subscribers. Ready for the moment the farm writes its first post.
- Gallery, calendar and supporter area. Image galleries show the farm in all its variety, a dedicated event calendar brings all the dates together, and a support area invites people to help preserve this place.
The crux
A fixed date, no excuses
The open day was firmly set in the calendar. On that day, the farm would welcome hundreds of visitors, many of them for the first time, many with phone in hand looking for opening hours and the programme. The website had to be ready by then. Not roughly, but on time.
We promised it and we delivered. In one month, from the final sitemap to go-live, the complete platform took shape with all its content, the event system and the newsletter. It was online in time for the open day.
Result
Online, alive and ready to grow
The website is live at 4lindenaachen.eu. The farm manages its own dates, the newsletter is ready, and the entire presence carries the calm, high-quality signature that suits the place. Visitors see at a glance what is happening when, and get a feel for the farm long before they set foot on it.
What sets this project apart from a finished website: it keeps growing. In preparation is multilingual support, where new posts are translated automatically and published in several languages at the same time. Also in preparation is the direct handling of donations and memberships, together with a progress bar for funding projects that shows how close a donation target is. The website is not a finished product, but a platform that grows along with the farm. And we are there to support it.
The promise behind it
Promised for the open day. Delivered for the open day.
A complete website with its own event system and a privacy-compliant newsletter, built in one month and online right on time for the fixed date. A word that was kept.
Konzeptcode built a new website for 4Linden as a place of hope and inspiration, capturing the atmosphere, the vision and the content we want to convey with the project really well. Konzeptcode immediately understood what this project is about and found an appealing, convincing and practical solution to communicate our message through the right media.
