Don’t you love barns? There is something about their simplicity, size, and function that help you lean into relaxing – both with your eyes and your soul.
Today, barns are used for much more than livestock and hay but HOW we are using them is when designers get to have a lot of fun and creativity.
We are currently working on designing a barn addition that will hold a workshop on the main (first) floor, a garage underneath with a shed area for the tractor, and an apartment above the workshop. The addition also includes a “transition space” that holds staircases both to the basement garage and the apartment, transitions height changes, and acts as a foyer entry for the workshop.
Who is our client? He is a woodworker/craftsman and he needs to be able to back his vehicle into the workshop with a 16’ piece of lumber and “rip” (or divide it in two length-wise) it on a table saw so the minimum dimension required was 32’. They also have older children with growing families, so an apartment space above the workshop with bedroom, storage, living space, bathroom and kitchenette (with a bonus of an outdoor deck) was an additional requirement. Lastly, because the business is run out of the house, there are subsequent work trucks and vehicles. The basement garage allows for indoor parking and extra storage for the growing company.
What are the existing conditions? The antique cape-style home was built in the 1800’s with an original attached barn. Currently, they use this barn as a garage, small workshop and “mudroom” transition into the house. There is a ramp on the side for second floor tractor access and storage which creates a very large scale barn. The key challenge to the entire project was to make the new barn roofline lower than the existing barn roofline and still fit in all the of client’s needs.
As you look at the perspective drawing you will see that we were able to keep the height lower than the existing barn as well as play with structure enough to accommodate all the interior layout challenges.
This is a really fun and creative project. Stay tuned on social media as we post floor plans and additional exterior perspectives (#barnadditionNH).