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An Extended Family Guest House in an Old Barn

A gigantic 2,000 square foot barn was reclaimed and re-purposed as a guest house for the client’s large extended family of children and grandchildren in Santa Ynez, California.

Leaving the timber structure intact, California architectural firm Carver+Schicketanz clad the exterior with huge translucent panels.

Suggesting the exterior of a traditional Japanese house, these translucent panels slide to open both floors of the renovated barn.

The combination is endearing: the rustic and rough-hewn timber of the original barn, and the winsome charm of the translucent panels.

A generous family kitchen nestles in the top floor of the barn-turned guest house.

Entry to its top story kitchen is supplied from outside.

Objects of sentimental value, a charming assortment of old shipping crates are neatly accommodated in a new storage chest.

A quirky table has the heft of the barn timbers, supported on recycling industry legs.

A sturdy antique metal bucket is repurposed as washbasin, set into a concrete bench.

On the ground floor, a stables stall is repurposed as a guest bedroom, with a genteel sliding door that evokes the original stables.

To contrast with the aged timbers of the original barn, its wooden insert is set in a metal frame painted a compatico rusty red.

The powerful structure of the original barn was built in the early twentieth century.

Although sealed up tight against the weather on the outside; on the inside, a little of the feeling of 100 years ago lives on.

The quaint early twentieth century seating and daffy flower arrangement evoke something of the period.

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The Haus Neufert in Cologne with its Central Glass Cube

Haus Neufert by Gatermann + Schossig architects is anchored by a surprising glass cube popped through the roof at its center.

The popped out section creates some lovely spaces delineated by glass.

The interior becomes one with nature.

The house is set in the art-strewn grounds of the existing heritage home and features a self contained apartment.

Its cool, metal cladding system is that of an anonymous commercial building.

It is an unusual use of the familiar and anonymous cladding, bringing it to the realm of the artistic.

But the metallic exterior that might seem incongruous in its park like setting, also has an ethereal quality, refracting light and receiving the strange shadows of trees.

This is a garden guest house that enables a witness to art and nature in a peaceful and creative environment.

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Think Architecture: the 4 Courtyard Houses

A curious series of zigs and zags define the elusive shape of the 4 Courtyard Houses by Think Architecture.

Located in Zumikon, Switzerland, the four houses are identical, each wrapped around their own courtyard.

These interior courtyards are modular and private spaces.

The combination of full glass walls and the courtyards creates a series of light-filled spaces.

Each has curiously shaped skylights popped up from their roofs, giving the group a unique identity.

The bold zig zag design anchors the group.

Concrete and limestone is finished in two contrasting textures and colours to give definition to the zigzag shapes.

To get the contrasting textural effect, the grey was admixed with tiny gritty grey stones, while the smooth white stucco is blended with limestone powder for a silky touch.

“The four houses are built up in a modular way,” say the architects. “Identical in the basic conception but mirrored in the common middle and reacting individually to the particular topographic situation.”