Big Barn

Faulkner Architects

The clients, drawn to the pastoral charm of Glen Ellen, purchased the 5.5 acre homestead which included a 1950s tack barn and house. They originally hired Faulkner Architects to renovate the tack barn but after experiencing the retreat the property offered, decided to move forward with the Big Barn allowing the entire family and their friends to enjoy. The request from the client was to build a 375 square meter house in a consistent way within the surrounding rolling hills dappled with agricultural buildings. A simple, rectangular, two-story form emerged with an asymmetrical gabled roof. The shorter side of the roof faces the southwest sun and reduces heat gain to the structure. Fenestration is limited to this exposure as well and is organized like thin full height ventilation shutters that reference traditional barn building. The entry, a larger version of the vertical slit elements, is recessed for shading. The fireplace and chimney, foreign to the barn typology, are displaced from the structure with glazed joints. The east side is more open to the view and morning sun. A continuous, building-sized assembly of steel sash glazing includes large sliding doors that pocket into the adjacent wall and open the kitchen to the rear terrace. In order to leave the hillside intact and avoid grading, the form is excavated into the site uphill and cantilevered over it downhill. A steel grated bridge connects the upper sleeping level with the hillside and tack barn above. The house was completed in 2019.