This barn is on a private plot flanked by a woodland forest that faces rolling hills and fields to the south. Previously, it was a derelict agricultural building, formerly used to keep farm animals. Being of masonry, concrete and asbestos construction, it was originally a simple structure \u2013 an outbuilding on the site used purely for shelter. It\u00a0was in terrible condition and needed significant architectural improvements to make it habitable, which involved a full renovation, including part demolition.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The brief involved the construction of a new holiday retreat, The Makers Barn. Designed to blend in with its surroundings, the idea was for guests to feel lost in the rolling hills, grass paths and wildflower beds that cut through the landscape. It’s a secluded escape from the city with a calming, relaxing and welcoming atmosphere.<\/p>\n
The design was to be sympathetic to its surrounding site in\u00a0relation to materials, palette, scale and proportions, but also contemporary in character. Practically, it needed a fully operational kitchen so that guests could live there and be self-sufficient. It also needed to include enough storage so that guests could stay for up to a week, but not too much that it became\u00a0overly dominant in the space given the building\u2019s small footprint.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We designed this as one free-flowing space\u00a0separated by a central fireplace and chimney. Rather than dividing the plan into compartmentalised rooms, or leave it as one open space \u2013 which\u00a0ironically\u00a0would make the space feel\u00a0smaller \u2013\u00a0we\u00a0inserted\u00a0separate joinery\u00a0elements and\u00a0volumes\u00a0within the barn to create glimpses\u00a0and angled views through.\u00a0A sunken bath and concrete shower under a skylight, and the bespoke elm timber joinery elements, segregate and\u00a0distinguish different functions of The Makers Barn.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We\u00a0maximised every possible space, even putting the windows and doors on the outer edge of the walls, creating larger internal cills, shelving areas and more space internally. We designed a single interconnected space so that\u00a0from every position and point in the building, there is a framed view of the stunning hills and landscape, framed by the bespoke timber sliding doors and timber columns.\u00a0It was also important\u00a0in a small space\u00a0to maintain\u00a0a consistent and holistic design approach to materials so\u00a0 the space did not feel too busy or cramped.<\/p>\n
The tones and shades are reflective of the English country. The older the barn gets, the more it belongs with its surroundings (for example, larch timber roof weathers grey). Designed to be timeless\u00a0with organic, earthy raw tones borrowed from the landscape, we placed an emphasis on crafted, sustainable and natural materials including clay-plastered walls and ceilings, end grain parquet flooring and English elm joinery.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Combining hard and soft, rough and minimalist, are signatures of our\u00a0contemporary, brutalist yet contextual approach. This gives a pared-back, atmospheric but still relaxing and comfortable outcome.\u00a0<\/p>\n
We see the interiors, furnishings (including the artwork) and styling as an extension of the architecture and as part of our multi-layered, full-service approach to design. To furnish and style, we sought out makers we felt echoed our design approach, including handmade wood-turned pieces from Ash & Plumb<\/a>, ceramics from Jono Smart<\/a> and forged kitchenware from\u00a0blacksmith Alex Pole<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n We used iconic pieces including Mario Bellini\u2019s Camaleonda sofa; Sergio Calatroni’s Papiro floor lamp, Willy Guhl\u2019s loop chair and planter amongst others. Swedish Cappelen Dimyr\u2019s shaggy rug, By Molle’s\u00a0natural linens and fabric pendants from Pinch bring warmth to the space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This barn is on a private plot flanked by a woodland forest that faces rolling hills and fields…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-365814","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-design","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}