FAHOUSE by Jean Verville. Quebec, Canada
Park Corner Barn by Mclaren Excell. Oxfordshire, UK
et amongst beech-wooded farmland high in the Chiltern Hills, Park Corner Barn was originally part of the neighbouring farm estate and was used as an agricultural threshing and cattle barn until the mid-1990s. Built in traditional brick and flint in the late eighteenth century, the barn was enlarged to twice its original size thanks to a Victorian addition in 1864- resulting in the building which stands today.
The first conversion of the barn in 1997 appeared to have been an exercise in squeezing as many rooms as possible within the building envelope over two floors, with a lower priority given to the rich material and spatial qualities of the building. The external treatment of the barn also made for a building with a lot of untapped potential.
The success of the project relied on undoing much of this previous work. A limited budget meant careful allocation of expenditure – some parts of the existing layout being left unchanged – but much of the building was taken back to the bare elements of the barn’s agricultural origins.
via mclarenexcell.com
Hawkesbury Manager's House by HMA. Central Otago, New Zealand
Herriot + Melhuish Architecture worked in partnership with USA firm Marmol Radziner and Associates to develop a Californian Modernist style house redefined to sit in a Central Otago context.
The challenge was to adapt the traditional layered horizontal planes of the ‘modernist Californian pavilion’ to local planning rules and extreme weather conditions; and of course, take advantage of the spectacular views to the north of the site. Our client requested clever detailing to deliver cost effective solutions to these parameters.
18th Century Ancient Party Barn by Liddicoat Goldhill. London, UK
London studio Liddicoat & Goldhill has remodelled a derelict barn in Kent, England, to create a home featuring mechanically operated doors and a staircase that wraps around a chimney. Named Ancient Party Barn, the house comprises a cluster of 18th-century buildings that once functioned as a threshing barn, dairy and stables for a farm in rural Folkestone.
Architects David Liddicoat and Sophie Goldhill were tasked with transforming the buildings into a home for a couple who are avid collectors of architectural artefacts, and who were looking for a retreat from the city. “Our task was to combine the quality of the surviving barn fragments with the texture and tone of their found materials,” he said.
The structures were in a fairly dilapidated condition, so their original green oak frames has to be dismantled and repaired offsite.
In one of the smaller blocks it was simply reinstalled, but in the main barn some elements had to be replaced with steel beams – although these are disguised behind structurally insulated panels, all fronted by wood.
One of the biggest interventions was the addition of numerous mechanically operated openings, allowing the building to be either securely closed off, or opened up to take advantage of countryside views. These include large shutters intended to evoke the original barn doors, which front an open space at the centre of the barn. One the other side of this space is another set of doors, concealing a large rotating window operated by an adapted chain lift. Elsewhere, the architects have added an “aircraft-hangar door” that concertinas upwards to create a canopy for a terrace.
via liddicoatgoldhill.com
Restoration in La Cerdenya Spain by Pablo Elorduy
This project takes place in a small village in La Cerdanya, on the north valley side, south oriented the village’s heart consist on 20 houses, surrounded by fields and pastures where farming and agriculture are the main activities. Breathtaking views of the Cadi mountains make of this setting a piece of nature paradise.
Most of the buildings in the village organized enclosing an outside space called the “era”. The village plan shows how the old constructions were built in order to create ensembles of living and working units arranged around exterior enclosed spaces. Overall they form a grid-like pattern of barns and stables as well as houses.
One set of these buildings consisting on a haystack, a barn, a warehouse, a small dwelling and a “badiu” (traditional backyard), pertained to our client who wished this space to be re-designed and re-arranged to become his home and additional guest areas.
