MODERN HOMES
FEATURE
The design eschews the language of the typical barn
conversion, instead making the cluster of historic
agricultural buildings into an atmospheric getaway for
relaxing and gathering.
O
ur clients, a
fashion designer
& a digital
designer, are
avid collectors
of reclaimed architectural
artefacts. Together with the
existing fabric of the barn, their
discoveries form the material
palette. The result – part
curation, part restoration – is
a unique interpretation of the
18th Century threshing barn,
a building type that often
engenders a uniformity of
approach when converted.
Rather than demand specific
spaces or programmes, their
brief focused on materiality and
atmosphere, and on creative reuse of the existing volumes.
Our task was to combine the
quality of the surviving barn
fragments with the texture and
tone of their found materials.
Set in an Area of Outstanding
Natural Beauty, the 18th
Century threshing barn, dairy
and stables are a prominent
feature from the North Downs
Way. To maintain the barn’s
brooding presence - and to
provide security and a sense of
protection from rolling Channel
mists - the barn is usually kept
in a closed state. However,
industrial-scale kinetic
mechanisms create openings
that address key views into the
countryside.
doors, and protect a vast
rotating window operated
by an adapted chain-lift. To
the East front, an American
aircraft-hangar door allows the
Massive, insulated shutters
recall the original barn
ARCHITECTS
LIDDICOAT &
GOLDHILL
LOCATION
FOLKESTONE, KENT,
UK
ARCHITECTS IN
CHARGE
DAVID LIDDICOAT,
LIDDICOAT &
GOLDHILL
AREA
213.0 SQM
5