Our strategic approach to the remodel of a 1920s home was to carve out a new space at the centre- relinking areas of the house that for reasons of class had originally been divided into servant and served.
Into this void would go a contemporary stair, a strong element in its own right but designed to direct space- creating important spatial links and sightlines.
The existing stained-glass steel framed window to the south elevation remains in place, pouring light into the new heart of the house.
First experiments with physical computing for our collaborative performance Ooo-Ya-Tsu with art collective QuoboGas and musicien Olivier Durteste (aka DDDXIE). We will be using the Processing programming platform to generate the visual and sound effects of our live drawing and musical performance and we are doing the first test of live motion tracking on stage using a WiiMote prototype.
Still in its early days, but it's nice to see the system starting to interact with the physical environment!
The project will be developed over the new year as part of an art residency with music venue L'Aéronef, in Lille (France).
We've given you a clear idea about your destination, and working with the builder, engineer and others we've mapped out a route to get you there. But when embarking on a remodelling project there's often no way round the forest of 'acrow props' that will temporarily invade your space.
This cottage remodel will open up three poky little rooms into a decent living space and connected kitchen. Opening up space like this can transform a house but the joys of open plan living can quickly die if it's not right for your lifestyle- we always try to balance the breathing space and light created by larger spaces with the functionality and feeling of security offered by cellular rooms. This approach brings out the best in existing buildings and delivers spaces that meet our client's needs.
Invented in 1935 by a Swiss engineer, the Acrow Prop provides adjustable temporary support for the existing structure while new elements such as beams and coloumns are inserted. Their appearance signals a major advance in the project, but the Forest of Acrow can seem a gloomy and threatening place too. Things get more complex by the day, the route can be hard to see and final destination feels further away than ever. Time to look at those visualisations again and keep moving forward- end results like this will be worth it!
Our art performance project collaboration Ooo-Ya-Tsu has been awarded a grant by the French Société civile des auteurs multimedia (SCAM), as part of their program "Brouillon d'un Rêve Numérique". This grant supports the development of emerging authors in the fields of audiovisuals, multimedia, litterature and photography.
The award-winning self-building clients for our barn conversion in south-western France have started to build the second phase of the internal timber structure in the historic stone building.
This structure will support the upper level of the barn where the bedrooms will be located, as well as a balcony over the full-height interior space. Underneath, the large open kitchen will face the living space, hiding the utility rooms and the garage/workshop behind it.
The construction is following our original detailed design (above), using a post-and-beam framework and lightweight timber I-beams, to create an internal timber structure that could be easily assembled by self-builders without lifing equipment. The large timber structure was also designed to stand independently of the stone walls and existing roof structure, so that minimum intervention would be required on the historic structure.
Prior to construction, our design was checked by a French specialist in timber structure (Equation Bois, based in neighbouring town Périgueux), who worked with the clients and us to prepare the detailed specification of the structural elements.
The first phase of this internal timber structure, completed recently, created a temporary accommodation space inside the barn for our clients, where they will live until the rest of the barn is converted. Later on, it will be used as a comfortable bedroom for their future Bed & Breakfast, with the main living-room for the house above it.
You can follow the progress of the project on our clients' blog.
We were delighted when Mélanie and Béranger approached us to help them convert an old stone barn in south-west France into their new family home. This was the perfect project to combine our interests in sustainability, self-build construction and conservation.
Sketch perspective of the converted barn, looking across the main living space
We worked closely with our clients to design a beautiful but affordable house, with a flexible layout and minimal environmental footprint. We brought together the different requirements of their family project, unveiling the stunning character of the 200 year-old stone building, while responding to the practical requirements of its new use.
The 200 year-old barn, before the conversion
Our initial task was to carry out a detailed measured survey of the existing stone barn and a careful condition survey to establish the need for repair and conservation work, so that our new intervention could fit around and preserve the old wood and stone structure. This also helped us understand the key views, approaches and landscape requirements for this conversion project, to enhance its integration in the surrounding nature.
We wanted to preserve what we experienced on our first visit to the original barn: an impressive feeling of spaciousness with a peaceful daylight filtering softly through the fallen roof tiles... This meant establishing a clear hierarchy of indoor spaces, so that the whole range of specific functions of the barn's new domestic use could be accommodated without overcrowding the attractive indoor volumes.
The barn under construction: new insulated roof and repointed stone walls.
The other challenge was to introduce natural daylight deep into a previously dark agricultural building. To respect the traditional architectural topology of the stone barn, we concentrated the new openings into few, larger light wells: they reflected off the light surface finishes and created contrasts between social spaces — opening up to the hight roof structure — and the more intimate private rooms. This also promoted effective natural ventilation across the barn in summer.
We chose to keep as much as possible of the meter-thick stone walls in the interior, and insulated the new roof cover and floor slabs. Hovering within the stone volume is a secondary timber structure that weaves itself around the oak roof trusses, clearly identifying the new from the old and contrasting the textured historical materials with the contemporary new ones.
Carefully balancing the client’s lifestyle choices, budget and aspirations, we designed and implemented design sustainability measures that we knew would work and could gracefully integrate with the historical building. This meant low-tech solutions with proven track record, that used resources readily available around the site.
Making the most of the barn's extraordinary thermal mass, we incorporating radiant underfloor heating in the newly insulated floor slabs and connecting it to a central wood boiler, running on locally harvested wood logs.
The vast roof was also ideal for rainwater collection, and the system we designed made the barn virtually independent for all water needs (including drinking water!). And while re-landscaping the surrounding agricultural land, we designed a complete waste treatment system based on reed-beds, a completely natural process that would purify all waste water from the family — and even transforming it into clean water for their new natural swimming pond!
A key feature of this project was that the clients would manage the building process themselves. We carefully phased the construction to make sure that the house would be comfortable and accommodating during the whole process, which may take years to complete. We also attentively considered the family’s cashflow over timeand their future aspirations and projects (the house will eventually double as a guesthouse).
So the new home is designed from the start into a series of stages that will evolve with the family, all the way from a space to park a caravan on the site! At each building stage, the plan and structural system work together to create comfortable habitable spaces, building in flexibility as the work progresses, so that later disruption can be avoided.
The different stages of the construction, each inhabitable and addressing the specific needs of the growing family (click to enlarge).
One of our "assembly manuals", explaining to the clients how to build the self-standing internal timber structure (click to enlarge)
We extensively used SketchUp to communicate with our self-building clients, providing them with updated detailed 3D model of the design. Since they had no former experience in carpentry, we also created a series of clear and user-friendly visualisations to explain how the different parts of the structure fitted together with simple assembling techniques and components that could be lifted and handled with limited equipment and muscle-power!
Rewarding their amazing building skills and painstaking attention to details, our clients were even elected in 2012 Self-Builders of the Year by the French magazine Autoconstruction!
The construction of the barn is completed and our clients are sharing in details the day-by-day progress of this project, and their self-building experience, on their project blog.
“Thanks to 2hD for their outstanding work!
With the 3D model, we can browse, move and observe every corner of the building: a true manual that allows us to reproduce on site what has been imagined by the architects.”
I spend a great couple of days helping put the roof on the shelter Alina designed for Iona School in Nottingham. The shelter structure consists of 8 larch tree trunks supporting a circular deck and a plywood reciprocal frame roof. Now topped with turf it blends in with its woodland setting from some angles and takes on an almost temple-like appearance from others. The shelter will be used as an outdoor classroom for pupils at the school, which offers Steiner education with activities often based on the land.
You can find out more about the shelter, the build process and the people involved at the project blog.
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I've started to play with the Processing framework for the visualisation of our Ooo-Ya-Tsu project with art collective Qubo Gas and drummer Olivier Durteste.
Part of the visualisation design is to create a flexible particle system that will handle the interactions between the graphical elements of the projection. Here's a screenshot of my first stab at this particle system in action, for the moment driven by some simple gravitation rules.
Finishes, glass balustrades, landscaping and installations are going in as the low energy house nears completion.
Update: The building is finished and occupied. See our portfolio piece for the latest.
Qubo Gas prepared this preview of Ooo-ya-tsu, our future musical performance at l'Aéronef, next September, with drummer Olivier Durteste. Quite apt!
Mélanie and Béranger, our self-builder clients for the Gabillou barn conversion in South-West France, have been elected self-builders of the year by the popular French site Autoconstruction.net.
Congratulations to you two for your amazing work and your enthusiasm!
We are starting the remodelling and extension of a cabin on Sjusjøen, in the mountains just north of Lillehammer, Norway. Lovely little building in a stunning natural setting, rich with all the childhood memories of our client!
The Aalto University has published a preview of entries for the international competition we entered last August in collaboration with Various Architects. Shortlisted entries for the second phase of the competition will be announced later in November.
See a preview of the entries on the Aalto University website...
Replacing a 1980s bungalow on an infill site in a Nottinghamshire village, the design of this house had to complement the Conservation Area setting whilst achieving extremely high performance as a “zero carbon in use” eco-home. Designed using the PassivHaus Planning Package and executed in a palette of brick, oak, slate and zinc, the house includes a central frameless glazing porch and open stair, an integrated balcony and an extensive built-in photovoltaic array.
The south facade, designed to maximise winter solar gains while providing shading in summer, . Photovoltaic panels and rooflights are integrated into the slate roof.
Our client required a contemporary home that could be built to achieve extremely high energy performance in use. Their site was carefully selected within a characterful village setting, approached from the main village street to the North and having a good southerly aspect for solar collection. Alongside the development of our client’s brief and requirements, we carried out a careful analysis of the village layout and the materials and massing of surrounding buildings.
“The house has performed well and we are very happy with its aesthetics, comfort and technical performance. It blends in well with the village despite being obviously modern. Many passers by stop to enquire and pass comment on the house, usually very favourably. We often see cars slowing down in the road outside, almost stopping to catch a second glance.
All the energy bills for the first year of occupation, plus the running of an electric car and water rates, were covered by the return from the solar panels, leaving us only Council Tax to pay!”
In a sensitive planning context the design was developed in close consultation with the local planners and community, documented through an in-depth Design and Access Statement. The delicate balance between achieving PassivHaus design targets and satisfying Conservation Area planning requirements meant that the design was evolved and presented in various contexts. A consultation on site in the existing bungalow saw a 20% turnout of the village giving unanimous support for the scheme.
The design uses the north facade to address the village setting and large windows and solar roof to the south to maximise useful solar gain and collection. The requirement to reduce north facing glazing to meet PassivHaus design targets is offset by the provision of a frameless-glazed porch, which prevents the escape of warm air whilst providing an open welcome to visitors.
The North facade and street front, a contemporary response to the surrounding buildings of the Conservation Area.
The smaller windows and variegated massing on this side of the house respond to the scale of the village, whilst the private rear of the house presents a single expanse of roof for solar collection, free of any self-shading projections. An integrated system of flush-fitting photovoltaic panels and rooflights was selected to create a smoothly integrated roofscape. Excess heat gain is controlled by the use of integrated external louvre blinds to the large sliding glass doors on the south elevation.
The integrity of the design is maintained by the simple palette of materials: red brick, oak cladding and beams, slate roofs. A small area of zinc roofing over the glazed porch expresses the articulation of the house plan around the double-height circulation zone.
This project was shortlisted in the 2014 RIBA East Midlands Awards.
Design overview (click to enlarge).
Contractor: Nick Martin with Branch Construction
Executive architect: Parsons + Whittley
