Our clients initially approached us with this scheme without a very clear vision for the little derelict barn on a piece of land adjacent to their main listed residence. The building was in a very bad condition and following an initial structural appraisal we came to the conclusion to demolish and rebuild it on the same footprint.
Location: Leatherhead, Surrey
Status: In Planning
Type: Private residential
After detailed discussions on the potential uses of the little house, we agreed on the brief of a room with the bare minimum that could be either used for remote working, reading or meditating.
The archetypical form of the barn is reconstructed with the same bricks but with contemporary detailing of cavity walls, hidden gutters and large cuts on the brickwork. The building’s fabric is exposed brick inside and out and the openings are formed on the southern facade as a square cut on the wall and the northern facade as a fully glazed wall for maximising the trees views. The metal used is weathered steel as per the original steel metal detailing of the barn and the timber elements of the roof and the flooring are reclaimed wooden plans. The only private room, the cloakroom is enclosed behind weathered steel cladded wall panels.
The barn is an unapologetically bare room without any distraction of excess possessions. It is a shell assisting its users to concentrate on the things they mostly value.