Dutchland Farm House

The conversion of two large 18th century oak barns, plus several other, traditional, 19th century masonry barns / outhouses, into five prestigious and modern two storey residential units.

It was necessary to re-use the existing structures, although generally the buildings were in a semi derelict state. Therefore in addition to the structural work required for the proposed conversions a considerable amount of strengthening and repair work was needed, especially to the timber barns to remedy the effects of dry rot/woodworm etc. Also, the storey height masonry supporting the oak frames had subsided over the centuries and was considerably out of plumb. As the planners required that the barn exteriors were unchanged this masonry had to be retained in its existing condition and so had to be underpinned and shored internally, adopting new reinforced concrete sprayed onto the inside of the masonry and new reinforced concrete piers.

As the original oak frames and trusses are internal features and entirely exposed, the repair, strengthening work and alterations to the timber had to be designed and detailed sympathetically so as not to be noticeable. The success of this is evident from the fact that a layman would be unable to identify the various 21st century modifications to the original 18th century timber structures.

New garages were constructed in the same architectural idiom as the barns. For these we justified and used the recycled components of some smaller demolished sheds, such as timber king post trusses, purlins and rafters, roof slates and locally made bricks.