The starting point for this project was a substantial brick-built barn to the north of the small village of Gateside. Orientated north south, the west face of the barn flanks a country lane with a galvanized steel-clad shed to the east face, perpendicular to the main barn.

The new house within the volume of the existing barn plus a new extension in place of the steel shed forms a 't-shape' floor plan over a storey-and-a-half. The quality of the archetypal Ayrshire rural barn is a simple long volume having either small openings - for ventilation - or having large openings - 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 new openings in the facades therefore maintain/respect the visual integrity, scale and character of the barn externally while responding to the room planning inside. The new openings are either small or very large and avoid the conventional domestic window that would appear incongruous to a barn. Similarly, roof fenestrations form small skylights, larger areas of roof glazing or a band of windows grouped into a long dormer aligned with the wall head.

A number of eco-friendly and sustainable design strategies were proposed to minimize the impact of the house on the environment, these include solar water heating and a heat pump installation with earth coil.

ataSTUDIO completed the scheme design and gained full planning permission for the project. The clients then proceeded to manage the project on site themselves.