This project involved creating a family home in the style of an existing barn located on a beautiful big farm. This involved replacing the existing derelict and unsafe barn structure with a replacement in the form of a lovely family home. Through use of materials, form and careful design, Method Studio Architects aimed to preserve the barn aesthetic for our enthusiastic clients.

Brief

The brief from our clients was to create a home for their growing family. One that utilises the vast views over the fields, feels rustic, modern and comfortable. Working within the footprint and massing of the existing barn Method Studio had a sizeable shell to work within. Our clients wanted several bedrooms with leisure spaces for the kids, two working from home offices, a large open-plan kitchen, living and dining space, with a snug and a fireplace for those chillier days. It was important to build something that is sympathetic to the local vernacular, has all the modern comforts inside, but also comes within budget! As always, Method Studio was up for the task.

Concept

The reconstructed barn adopts a complementary styling to the contextual farm elements with limited fenestration. For creating a sympathetic barn look we designed hit and miss cladding screens to selected glazing areas to preserve the barn aesthetic and mitigate light pollution. These also provide privacy to bedroom and bathrooms inside. This, along with hidden gutters, a textured cladding material in the same darkened colour as the existing barn and clever positioning of windows we were able to design a modern barn for our clients.

The interior layout utilises a vaulted ceiling upstairs for that open barn aesthetic. This draws your eye towards the large balcony off the living and dining space and out to the open fields of the farm. A comfy snug with fireplace and large vertical window is located off this space. Our clients also required a gym and utility room which we located off the front entrance space, anchoring the design at ground level. This suits those times you enter with muddy boots or want to turn the music up for your workout as it’s away from the bedrooms! Via an industrial staircase, only half a landing down, are the bedrooms (all complete with ensuite bathrooms), an office, kids lounge and library, and the master suite. Method included big glazed crittal style doors to the centre of the lower ground floor in order to drag loads of natural light through the middle of the house.

Ground Floor Plan

First Floor Plan

We are onsite!

Challenges

It is important to produce little light pollution, consider car parking, materials used and enhance the existing through the re-build. After feedback from planners our design to pull the balcony space upstairs was proposed and received positively from the Local Authority.

In conjunction with the architectural design, the landscape strategy proposed was to incorporate the connection with the outdoors and aid in screening the front of the barn, maintaining the country side feel while improving the biodiversity of the site. In our experience we have found it is not only the building design alone that creates a home and positively received design, but all the elements surrounding it as well - landscape, access, fenestration, hard and soft surfaces. All of these elements make a place a home.