Hunts Green Barn

Client: Private Home-owner

Hunts Green Barn represented a significant opportunity to expose the historic fabric of a Tithe Barn and restore the impressive spaces that had been neglected through recent interventions. The 16th Century Grade II listed barns had been partitioned into individual rooms through the 20th Century, betraying the grandeur and scale of the original spaces. This gave us justification at planning to provide a new massing to the rear of the site which might hold accommodation for a large family and allow the set of Barns to breath, no longer tied down by smaller programme over two storeys.

An aesthetic approach was chosen in the barns to reflect the industrial heritage of the building with raw black steel finishes adapted to function in various environments, from joinery cladding, to storage, fireplaces and window apertures. Oak veneered boards wrap around the interior of the new extension, around walls, doors, and joinery to unify the form and conceal private rooms from the more public side of the site. The environmental performance was at the forefront of the design, with innovative detailing and products used to create a new block that would perform up and above the existing barn which had limited opportunities for improvement. A ground source heat pump and other sustainable technologies were adopted to use the local landscape and provide practically all the heating needed for the house, all year round. Low-embodied Carbon materials were also chosen, including the cladding, in sustainably sourced Spruce.