Stone Barn Castle Acre -
A grade II listed barn conversion designed and converted by Craven Holmes
Stone Barn was a renovation/conversion project aiming to produce a contemporary residential dwelling whilst keeping as many of the original features as possible. This was never going to be easy to achieve as in the 70s a previous renovation project hidden and damaged many of the original features.
Many of the challenges were apparent from the beginning, but several emerged as the project progressed. Working collaboratively with various agencies and professionals, i.e., conservation officer, planning department and structural engineer, helped us to achieve our aim.
Keeping, restoring and reinvigorating the original features.
During the 1970’s renovation project the main archway opening had been blocked up. Some structural issues presented themselves whilst stripping this back which meant we had to support the existing roof and totally rebuild reveals and arches.
The local planning department’s ‘listed building’ section stipulated that the existing oak ‘A’ roof timbers could not be covered up. We also wanted to retain these timbers as a key feature so research was needed to find a suitable insulation product and system to achieve building regulations compliance whilst retaining the integrity of the roof timbers and trying to keep the raising of the existing roof line to a minimum.
Again, whilst undertaking this work we found that many of the roof timbers were damaged and needed to be replaced. Consent to undertake this work was gained from Listed Buildings and the individual rafters were replaced which was a very time consuming and skilful job. It is now hard to tell between the existing and new.All joinery was purpose made to our specification and detail which included a hand painted finish. Onsite meetings with a local joinery facilitated this as was essential as the joinery had to be oversized to match the proportions of the large openings. This detailing was carried through the whole building both internally and externally to give consistency throughout the project . The photographs show that a high quality, contemporary and individual look was achieved by doing this.
Making a liveable workable space.
Achieving a third floor was an essential part of the design; we needed this extra living space to justify the project. This created a challenge trying to achieve means of escape and protected areas.
Again, an extension was an essential part of the project. This presented several challenges including the need to replace an existing extension which was not in keeping with the original barn, with a design that would increase floor area and be sympathetic to the existing barn. After several sketches and design ideas, and meeting with Planning Officer, we agreed the new design.
