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?

Møllenberg: Urban gardening in Trondheim

Thibaut Devulder
Visualisation of urban farming over a historical picture of Møllenberg, in Trondheim, Norway

Our photomontage for the cover of the competition entry

We have just collaborated with Ur Arkitekter on a prequalification entry for the masterplanning competition of the Møllenberg neighbourhood in Trondheim, Norway..

Rethinking the identity and social dynamics of this historical neighbourhood in the centre of Trondheim — today mostly populated by students — our concept proposal explores how communal urban farming can be used as a catalyst to foster social diversity and renew community engagement in the city.

Riddle: a sculpture from waste plastic

Thibaut Devulder

Future Makers is a Nottingham-based creative studio who has been spending the last five years researching the potential of waste plastic, bringing together the local community, design creatives and artists to create innovative artwork and products.

Having recently acquired a whole set of waste plastic recycling and manufacturing equipment (which we have already started experimenting with), they announced an open call for a lead artist to craft an outdoor public artwork in front of their building, using one tonne of locally-sourced plastic waste.

The street facade of the existing Waste Plastic Studio (photo © Future Makers)


Our proposal

Continuing our exploration of community-built urban interventions in Nottingham, we responded to this open call with a diaphanous facade sculpture, to transform the Future Makers' building itself into a large art piece, and create a visually striking and intriguing street presence that hovers over the public space.

Questioning the ubiquitous nature of plastics in today's built environment and consumer society, the sculpture takes the form of a diaphanous mesh appearing to deform in and out of the building facades, to exude from the fabric of the building itself: the manifestation of the presence of plastics in a new, recycled form — and its metamorphosis from undesirable waste to creative potential. This large undulating sculptural mesh creates a unified identity across the site, linking the public space, the building entrance and the large industrial shed at the back.

 

How we use recycled plastic

Despite its visual complexity, the mesh of the sculpture is created entirely out of identical recycled plastic modules, assembled in a repeating reciprocal pattern. The mesh derives its three-dimensional shape from the pattern of assembly of these modular components, linked together with a simple zip-tie-like "cilium" component.

Building the sculpture

The form of the sculpture emerges not from the complexity of its components, but from the assembly process itself: simply varying the pattern of assembly along the mesh allows shear, deformation and stiffening of the surface into a complex shape that symbolically intersects with the building's facades.

Assembling the sculpture is deceptively simple and can happen almost entirely on the ground, before being attached to the facades. The assembly and erection of the different sections of the sculpture will be carried out during community workshops involving neighbours, local schools and fellow artists, creating a sense of ownership while introducing a large audience to the potential of recycled plastics as a creative material, through practical, hands-on workshops.

Examples of alternative assembly patterns for the modules that can be combined to create different levels of curvature and stiffness, and achieve the desired three-dimensional mesh form

 

Continuing our journey

Since its inception, 2hD has explored the relationship between architecture, visual arts and community engagement, through a series of successful international art projects ranging from architectural pavilions to collective sculptural work, interactive installations, scenography and audio-visual performances.

The common thread through all these different projects is our personal research into architectural elements as a receptacle for our own stories, emotions and daydreams, introducing a fractional dimension to surfaces to invite this projection — and exploring how, in turn, it affects how we perceive and inhabit the spaces they define.

This proposal also keys in with our love for reusing ubiquitous and repurposed materials: transformed cardboard boxes for collective community sculptures in The Lost Cuckoo, recycled plastic tubing to introduce school children and architecture students to complex geometries during hands-on teaching sessions, and natural fiber broom heads to clad an entire building for our Mission Control micro-office.

 

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
Yellow Brick Road #6 installation

Thibaut Devulder

Continuing our collaboration with artist Morgan Dimnet, of French art collective QuboGas, we developed an interactive installation that explored the relationship between of visual artwork and electronic sound composition.

The Yellow Brick Road #6 installation/workshop at the Frigo (Albi, France)

The project was inspired by the Mélisson, an educational modular sound synthesizer developed in the 1980s at the GMEA — Centre National de Création Musicale Albi-Tarn (France).

Initially created to introduce children to the fascinating world of sound synthesis through experimentation and collaboration, these playful instruments were also used by experienced electronic musicians to create complex soundscapes and compositions.

Morgan Dimnet wanted to place the Mélisson at the centre of his new installation/workshop, inviting pupils of local primary schools to use its intuitive physical interface as a composition tools for not only sound, but also for visual art.

Exploring infinite variations of sounds and visual compositions, the visitors are then invited to create a physical vinyl disc cover for their own musical creation.

Collaborative sound creation with the Mélisson modules (© GMEA)

As the knobs of the Mélisson modules are tweaked to create unique sounds and effects, this soundscape is translated into similarly unique composition of shapes and colours, projected onto the workshop’s wall — ready to be reproduced by the visitors on mini stamping workshops designed by the artist for the exhibition.

We developed for this installation a hardware interface that could “listen” to the Mélisson synthesizers, and a custom computer program that translated the sound creations into unique visual artwork, following the artist’s visual language and aesthetics.

The project took place in 2022 with several primary schools in Albi, and concluded by a public exhibition at the collaborative cultural centre Le Frigo.

Project credits:

  • Visuals and furniture design: Morgan Dimnet

  • Hardware interface and electronics: 2hD Architecture Workshop, with Jean-Jacques Devulder

  • Programming (Processing): 2hD Architecture Workshop

  • Music composition (vinyl edition): Roland Ossart

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

Prototyping with the CNC router

Thibaut Devulder

We have now access to an amazing CNC router at our new office space at Kroloftet. I tested it today for the first time, initially to fabricate some simple wooden gears for a homemade “analog music sequencer” I am developing for our next Ooo-Ya-Tsu art project (more in this later…)

The wooden gears, cut on the CNC router, with MIDI music “encoded” into grooves on the right

These gears were modelled in SketchUp and imported into AutoDesk Fusion, before being sent to the CNC router for fabrication. The geometry for the round grooves on one of the large gears was generated by a computer program I coded in Processing that reads musical MIDI files and convert them into 3D shapes, which can then can be grooved into the gears, effectively “encoding” the music into the wood. Fairly simple to start with, but it worked, so on with the prototyping!

Many thanks to Peter Magnus, expert digital fabricator at Kroloftet, for the heads up on using this amazing machine!

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!

New office and wood workshop at Kroloftet

Thibaut Devulder

We are delighted to have joined the dynamic and eclectic work collective at Kroloftet, in Oslo.

In addition to a shared workspace, we now also have access to a fully equipped wood workshop, including a large-scale CNC router, to fabricate custom-made furniture and fittings for your next project!

We are looking forward to exciting collaborations with the many skilled crafts(wo)men at Kroloftet, whose disciplines include (among many others) metalwork, wood joinery, upholstery, boat building, illustration, film direction, ceramics and puppet making!

The collective wood workshop at Kroloftet

Hands-on with traditional arch masonry

Thibaut Devulder

A dry stone arch built during the course, under testing!

While working on the restoration of century-old stables in central Oslo, I was invited to take part in a practical workshop on traditional arch masonry. The course was organised by the Norwegian Heritage Association (Fortidsminneforeningen) for mastermasons, handworkers and architects who are involved in the restoration of old masonry buildings in Norway.

We explored the complete process of building traditional stone arches, using both dry stone techniques and traditional brick and lime mortar masonry, Over five intensive days, we built from scratch five different types of arches, starting with the design and fabrication of the formworks, the preparation and mixing of traditional lime mortar, the shaping of natural stones and, finally, the erection of the arches themselves.

This was a fantastic opportunity to learn new practical skills to develop our continued interest in historical buildings, as well as to network with talented craftsmen from all over Norway, for future collaborations.

You can admire the completed arches in Oslo’s Medieval park (Middelalderparken), next to the ruins of St Mary’s Church.

Ever dreamt of giving a new life to an old building?