Barn House

  •  A thoughtfully crafted family home inspired by its setting

  • My family love living here! This project is the culmination of people, place, values, architecture and teamwork, whilst being a modest, economic, practical and understated home.

    This house was the culmination of our client’s 20 year quest to live on the site of her grandparents’ farm in Herefordshire, a place she had loved since childhood. The brief was simple – a 200 sqm three-bedroom house, that was economic and easy to maintain and maximised it’s beautiful setting. Taking inspiration from the rural vernacular, our concept was for a modern ‘barn’, built with modular techniques to help minimise waste within a tight overall budget. 
    The house was designed as a pre-insulated, pre-fabricated timber-frames ‘barn’ entirely clad in black profiled-steel, with matching black-windows, rooflights and fixtures.  The surrounding landscape has been cut away to create a terraced ‘amphitheatre’ setting.  Native planting includes hawthorn, hazel and dogwood, and wildflower meadow mix to maximise biodiversity.
    • Barn House, Barn House Exterior 01, 2018

      Barn House

      Barn House Exterior 01, 2018
    • Barn House, Barn House Exterior 02, 2018

      Barn House

      Barn House Exterior 02, 2018
    • Barn House, Barn House Exterior 05, 2018

      Barn House

      Barn House Exterior 05, 2018
    • Barn House, Barn House Exterior 03, 2018

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      Barn House Exterior 03, 2018
  • A simple palette of materials and careful detailing creates a calm, serene interior. The entrance hall is set within a...

    A simple palette of materials and careful detailing creates a calm, serene interior. The entrance hall is set within a double-height space, open to the roof.  An elegant blackened-timber screen conceals a door through to the open-plan ground floor. The children’s bedroom features a 4m climbing wall to the ridge. The master bedroom offers panoramic views, with a sheltered veranda perfectly angled to provide optimum shade from the midday sun.  A large glazed façade is counterbalanced by numerous small windows, negating the need for an extensive steel structure. From inside, every window is like a painting - carefully designed to frame views. From outside the house is transformed at night into a magical composition of lights and glimpses into the interior.

  • Cost effective in both construction and maintenance, the building has been well insulated, orientated to maximise the benefit of solar...

    Cost effective in both construction and maintenance, the building has been well insulated, orientated to maximise the benefit of solar gain and supplemented by renewable power. An adjacent barn on the site was used to locate 4kW of solar panels.  An 8kW wood burning stove was installed in the living area but also centrally within the house to allow the client to provide supplementary heating to a lower level of central heating to reduce bills.

     

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