From Cotswolds Barn to Courtyard House
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Recently, one of our Cotswolds Barn Conversion projects featured in House & Garden. Director Thomas Smith spoke with the House & Garden team about the design process and how experience practising in Sri Lanka informed Woldon’s interest in the interaction between architecture and nature.
Here we note a few aspects of the project’s construction to provide insight into the range of Woldon’s engagement with materials and processes and how they are informed by the inherent characteristics found in existing historic buildings. The barn took careful handling to transform into a contemporary courtyard house that has a lively interaction with its landscape setting, inviting the outside in.
Minimising Waste
As a sustainable approach to this barn conversion project, stone blocks excavated from the ground adjacent to the barn were processed into the stone floor tiling for the house. Blocks were transported a short distance to a local quarry for slicing to 20mm thickness before being cut to size on site. The outcome is a natural stone flooring indigenous to the site which contains a mellow honey colour with veins of iron found more widely a short distance to the north-east of the Cotswolds.
Roof Structure
A significant amount of the original elm roof structure at the barn was saved and used within the converted structure, with replacement oak members introduced only as required. The east wing of the house has a solid oak structure which echoes the barn and ties the old to the new. To similar effect externally, salvaged plain clay tiles cover both the barn and the timber east wing.
Ceramic Stove
In the principal reception room a Swedish ceramic stove provides the focus. The stove is raised on a custom made plinth clad in stone, providing adjacent seating in the manner of a club fender.
Heat is transmitted from the log-burning chamber into the solid blockwork of the stove via a flue that travels up and down the body of the stove before exiting via the conventional top flue, making these stoves a remarkable 87% efficient in their heat emissions. The heat is radiated outwards via the attractive ceramic tiles which have a customised glazed finish.
To read House and Garden's article on our Cotswolds Barn Conversion click here
