Hunts Green Barn by McLaren.Excell Architects 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 them justification for planning to provide a new massing to the rear of the site which might hold further accommodation and allow the set of Barns to breathe, no longer tied down by a smaller program over two stories. They felt it was important for the aesthetic approach of the barns to reflect the industrial heritage of the building. This aesthetic was achieved primarily through raw black steel finishes in various environments such as joinery cladding, 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 greater than the previously limited performance of the existing barn.
A ground source heat pump and other sustainable technologies were adopted to take advantage of the local landscape and provide practically year-round heating for the house. Low-embodied Carbon materials were also chosen, including the cladding, in sustainably sourced Spruce.