Photos of the converted barn in Gabillou

Thibaut Devulder

I got a chance over the summer to visit the fully converted stone barn that we designed in Gabillou, in south-west France.

This 19th century agricultural building was transformed into a stunning home between 2007 and 2018, by our self-builder clients themselves, who lived in the building over the course of the conversion process, thanks to our phased construction design approach.

With an amazing attention to detail and a lot of enthusiasm, the couple has now become expert self-builders and joiners, already looking forward to a new conversion project to use their skills!

Below is a collection of pictures I took of the finished barn this August. Click on the pictures for a full-screen slideshow!

 
(Click on the photo to enlarge the slideshow...)
Looking down at the half-floor lounge from the upper floor
Looking up the lightwell from the living-room
The new wall opening to the garden, from the living-room
Stairs up to the half-floor lounge, and down to the guest suite, from the living-room
Glass railing detail from the lounge
Looking toward the kitchen and upper floor, from the lounge
The lounge
The kitchen and upper floor, from the lounge
Roof over the lounge
Detail of the lime mortar pointing of the stone wall
Looking up the south gable, from the lounge
The historical timber structure, supporting the new roof, insulated with wood fiber
Custom staircase, built by our clients
Looking up the staircase to the upper floor
Home office on the sunken landing of the upper floor
View from the master bedroom, past the light well over the children's bedrooms
Looking up from one of the children's bedroom
South gable, with the new opening to the lounge
South east corner of the barn
Lavender along the south gable
Outside details of the workshop door
South east corner, with the separate entrance to the guest suite
New workshop door
The entrance door
Detail of the guest suite entrance
The main terrace to the east, with the new openings

Dreaming of converting a historical building into your new home?

Construction started in Hagalykkja

Thibaut Devulder

Building work has started on our family house remodel in Eidsvoll. with the timber framing of the new extension now completed.

The timber frame of the new extension under construction


In this first phase of the construction process, this extension will be fully built and fitted with a new kitchen connected to a winter garden, before being integrated into the house. The second building phase will then start, whereby the old kitchen will be converted into an accessible master bedroom and a new modern bathroom.

This careful phasing informed the design process and was developed in collaboration with the clients to minimise disruption to the family life, allowing them to continue using the house throughout the construction period.


Thinking of remodelling your home while still living in it?

New approach

Thibaut Devulder
Rendering of our proposed new approach, with a new entrance to the house linking it to the new garage

Our proposed new approach for the house, as seen from the street

As part of a larger remodelling and refurbishment of a family house in Vinterbro, we have put a particular focus on redesigning the house approach from the street, linking a new accessible and welcoming entrance to the home with a new woodworking workshop and garage.

The existing approach, as seen from the street

Portfolio project
The kitchen is the heart

Thibaut Devulder

For this project, we helped our clients remodel their home to create a vibrant and flexible social space at its heart, where the whole family could share meals, be creative, work and entertain friends around a large communal table.

The remodelled kitchen, with its large communal table and views to the garden

Getting to know the existing house

The couple with their twin daughters had lived in this house, located in Bærum — not far from another remodelling projects of ours, for six years before they decided to remodel. Originally built in 1921 as a log house, it had been extended and altered several times over the course of a century.

The most recent of these extensions had caused the sole window of the existing small kitchen to be closed off, so that the only daylight was coming through an adjacent playroom. The neighbouring living-room, with its large windows towards the garden, was mostly used as a TV and music room. Despite its comfortable size, this room was surprisingly difficult to furnish, in part due to an awkwardly placed door to the outdoor terrace, and the large dining table at its centre was only used for occasional festive occasions.

Our analysis of the existing ground floor of the house

Developing a design brief

We sat down with the family to explore their needs and aspirations for their home, bringing in fond memories of former homes they inhabited and loved, and created together a concise brief for this project. Concentrating on three rooms on the ground floor, we were to create an attractive social space at the centre of the house, well connected to the beautiful garden and filled with daylight, to be shared by all members of the family for their daily activities: making food, sharing meals together and with guests, handicraft, playing the piano, doing homework (or home work!), etc. Occasionally, the family should also have the possibility to close off part of the ground floor when multiple activities should be kept separate.

Transforming the house

… and our design strategy to transform the spaces, explained step-by-step

With a clear brief defined, and the house carefully analysed, a solution to unlock the potential of a home can be sought. A seemingly simple change can thoroughly transform the way the home is being inhabited.

With minimal structural changes to the house, we reorganised the internal partitions and windows to create a spacious room with a large communal table as its centrepiece, wrapping the kitchen area around an existing chimney. This creates a unified space while maintaining a gradation of privacy between the more discrete food preparation workbenches of the kitchen, the central table and the desk area close to the new wood stove.

A large French door, aligned with the kitchen benches, opens views and easy access to the garden, seamlessly extending the dining area onto the large terrace outside.

The fully shelved partition, which accommodates on the kitchen side the bookshelves and communal desk space, and on the living-room side the television, creates a soft boundary between the social kitchen and more private living-room, which can be fully shut off by a hidden sliding door when required.

Our proposed new ground floor layout

With the large TV screen discretely tucked out of the way into the new partition, the space in front of the large living-room windows becomes a sort of winter garden overlooking the green areas outside, with a breakout sitting space filled with daylight and plants.

Between this interior “garden room” and the open terrace outside is the covered porch, now free of circulation and transformed into a sheltered sitting corner. Whatever the weather, there is always a comfortable place to sit and enjoy the garden!

And as with most of our projects, the remodelling work was also the opportunity to upgrade the comfort and energy efficiency of the building in a cost-effective manner, allowing for further external insulation of the walls when the external cladding needs changing in the future.

“2hD approached our ideas with a completely fresh eye. They came up with a solution which, in retrospect, feels simple and natural, and yet completely changed the way we use our home to be together!”
— Benedicte Kaltenborn
More articles about this project:
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The kitchen is the heart
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Building work starting in Rudsveien
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Planning permission for Rudsveien remodel

Planning application granted for Bølerveien 31

Thibaut Devulder

A rendered view of our proposed remodelled upper floor, overlooking the forest

We are delighted to announce that our remodelling and extension of a house in Bøler has been granted planning permission by Oslo Kommune.

The post-and-beam timber house, designed by architects Karlsen & Westbø
 in 1979, sits on a beautiful plot sloping into Bølerskogen, a wilderness reserve on the brink of lake of Østensjøvannet, in Oslo.

We are looking forward to finalising the detailed design and the interior design with our clients!

 

The sketch interior of the “skogsrom”, a new family room extending the ground floor, which we transformed into a parents’ wing

Portfolio project
Care Leavers' Accommodation

Tom Hughes

In August 2022, 2hD was involved in the early stages of a project for new care leavers’ accommodation, collaborating with Simon Middlecote Architecture. Our contribution was focussed on the research process and feasibility stage; with the ultimate aim of developing the design brief.

One of the several diagrams we produced for the study, here illustrating alternative accommodation types

Care leaves are young people aged 16 - 18 who have previously been in foster care, but have now chosen to live more independently. Care leavers’ accommodation acts as a bridging space where these young people can be self-sufficient and live alone, whilst being supported.

We researched case studies of many accommodation types, both past and present and found that most existing models have been found wanting.

One important issue in particular was that many are excessively institutional because of the way they foreground security, whilst others sacrifice safety measures to provide a more adult, independent environment. It was essential that we move on from these established patterns, in order to pinpoint the design challenges in the context of today’s social care.

Timeline for care leavers

Diagram illustrating the layering of security in accommodation

Their housing needs to have a careful balance between public, shared and private areas to provide security without seeming institutional.

Furthermore there is a wide range of support needed within this group that adds further complications. For example, some care leavers need provision that is similar to that of a childrens’ home, and on the other end of the spectrum some need near-total independence.

We arranged visits to existing care leaves’ accomodation to have meetings with staff and care leavers themselves to understand their needs and their views on how the accommodation could be improved. All the stakeholders of this project (such as the care leavers, social workers, staff and the local community) were consulted on their opinions and lived experiences.

The outcome of our work was a briefing document for Simon and his client that clearly identified the needs of the project stakeholders and the current context in which the project design will develop.

 

Building work starting in Rudsveien

Thibaut Devulder

Panoramic view of the existing ground floor, all walls stripped to the log structure of the original house.

Building work on our remodelling of a family house in Gjettum has now started. The walls have been stripped, revealing the log walls of the original house, before the key change to the structure is reorganise the kitchen and living-room.

We have also done an updated survey, so that the furniture and benches of the new fitted kitchen can be produced.

Credits to our clients for tackling the demolition work themselves!

Roof garden under construction

Thibaut Devulder

After getting planning permission more than a year ago , the roof terrace we designed on top of a residential building in central Oslo is finally under construction. The work on site is taking place under a “roof over the roof”, so that the construction of the new staircase and roof garden can take place with minimum disruption to the inhabitants.

Construction in progress: the demolished existing roof, under the temporary scaffolding cover…

Portfolio project
Vertical living in a former boiler house

Tom Hughes
A pod-like extension provides services, daylight and ventilation.

A pod-like extension provides services, daylight and ventilation.

This intriguing little project is now under construction in Nottingham. Our client’s town house occupies part of a former builder’s joinery workshop in a Conservation Area. Entry to the main house is through the ground floor of a free-standing former boiler house, complete with an 11m high brick chimney. Our challenge was to re-purpose this special, tiny building to contain a home working office and guest accommodation.

We stripped out and redesigned the boiler house interior to fit a mezzanine level under the opened-up roof structure, and used ‘space saver’ stairs to maximise the floor area. The tiny floor plan is offset by an impressive vertical connection between the levels- with everything needed for occupation accessed off a vertical circulation route culminating in the bed platform.

Careful organisation of the section creates space for a mezzanine level

Careful organisation of the section creates space for a mezzanine level

The temptation is to cut lots of holes in an existing building to let in light, provide ventilation and create new service routes, but in this case we decided to preserve the integrity of the boiler house by adding a highly-serviced pod to the exterior. This provides the necessary service connections, and brings light and ventilation to the interior. The addition is anonymous, in keeping with the industrial heritage of the building whilst creating intrigue and mystery of its own.

Design Team:

Need some creative input to transform an old historical building into a living space?

A roof top terrace in central Oslo

Thibaut Devulder

Our visualisation of our proposed roof terrace in central Oslo

Having secured planning permission for our roof terrace project in central Oslo, we are now finalising the detailed design, with construction of the staircase extension and roof landscape due to start on site this spring. Above is a quick visualisation we prepared for our clients’ presentation to the residents of the housing cooperative — based on the 3D model that will also be used to communicate all the technical documentations for the construction phase.

Would you like to create new places for your community to meet and thrive?