The ability to update a historic structure – such as this barn in Kent – should be in every architect’s toolset, but the reality is different. In heritage-obsessed countries like the UK, with its rich seam of listed buildings and copious accompanying legislation, even the simplest of changes can be a daunting prospect.
That’s often for the best, given the cavalier attitude some have to history, but when necessity, sensitivity and innovation finally come together, the process is no less protracted.
Tour this refreshed barn and its new extension
This re-jigged barn conversion is a case in point. The original building dates back to the 16th century and is now Grade 2 listed. Built in the 16th century, the oak framed barn has a clay tiled roof and horizontal weatherboarding and also lies within the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The owners, a curator and joinery designer, wanted to update and enhance the layout of the original conversion into a dwelling.
That work, carried out back in 2003, left the barn divorced from its context by closing off the connection from the original farmhouse and entrance yard. As a result, the orientation left it disconnected from the tranche of garden allocated to the new dwelling.
Sandy Rendel Architects, the South London-based practice best known for Bury Gate Farm, an award-winning house on the South Downs and an elegant village residence, were commissioned to update and improve the outlook.
‘The main aim of the project was to help reorientate the house and offer a much clearer connection with the external spaces and views across the fields to the southwest,’ says Rendel, citing ‘extensive negotiations’ with the planners that resulted in a breakthrough for the design of the new kitchen extension that transforms the interior arrangement of the former barn.
‘It was actually the heritage officer who suggested a Corten steel roof to provide a clear distinction and contemporary twist on the clay tiles,’ the architect recalls, noting that the practice has become all too familiar with the material in recent works. ‘We ran with the idea and developed the concept of expressing the roof very directly and abstractly as these simple sheets of metal with fine crisp edge that stands out against the wavy softness of the sagging original roof and its original handmade tiles,’ Rendel continues.
It’s here that the practice’s obsession with detail stands out, with a recessed gutter tucked beneath the eaves, with water collecting in laser-cut slots running around the perimeter of the Corten steel. Beneath the roof, the gutter and downpipes are formed from dark zinc so as to blend with the black stained larch cladding on the extension.
The new addition is a timber framed structure, in keeping with the construction method of the original barn. To showcase the carpentry skills of Scott Partnership, who constructed the framework, everything is revealed, from the roof rafters to the ridge, hips and collar ties.
Large sliding glass doors provide the all-important connection to the garden, with the span supported by single slender square column, rotated at 45 degrees to the other timbers, supporting the ring beam.
Although the new extension is spiritually connected to the barn through the construction method and the material juxtaposition, there’s still a sense of separation between old and new thanks to the glazed structural link between the new buildings. Inside, the meticulous joinery of the kitchen cabinets – executed by the client – follows the grain and texture of the roof structure.
‘The project is one of the smallest things we have done but it was great to really get into the fine details of the timber connections,’ says Rendel, ‘it was a truly collaborative process with engineers Foster Structures and St Pierre Contractors, along with the frame makers and the clients themselves.’