Gateside House, North Ayrshiremore informationThe existing building to the north of the small village of Gateside is a substantial brick-built barn. Orientated north-south, the west face of the barn flanks a country lane and the east faces a galvanized steel-clad barn perpendicular to the main barn. The proposed plans are to provide a one-and-a-half storey house within the volume of the existing barn plus a new extension to form a 't-shape' overall plan. The quality of the archetypal North Ayrshire rural barn is a simple long volume having either small openings - for ventilation - or having large openings for doorways for vehicles or animals. Generally there is a dominance of solid massing over voids and the asymmetry of 'undesigned' openings often achieves a pleasant balance in the elevation. The proposed new openings to be formed in the facades are therefore intended to both respond to the room planning within the house as well as being located to maintain the visual integrity of the barn externally. In particular, the scale and character of the existing building would be respected and the new openings are either small or very large and avoids the conventional domestic window that would appear incongruous to a barn. The same approach is adopted for the proposed openings in the roof which are either areas of roof glazing, small skylights or a range of windows grouped into a long dormer aligned with the wallhead. A number of eco-friendly and sustainable design strategies are proposed to minimize the impact of the house on the environment, these include solar water heating and a heat pump installation with earth coil. |
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