Barn House

The Barn House design is driven by site condition (steep slope overlooking a deep lake), climate (lake-effect), client lifestyle (empty nesters with extended family that visit occasionally) and budget. The scheme is based on a typical local agrarian barn, that uses the slope to access two levels separately, allowing for maximum separation of functions (in case of a barn: animals and storage – in this case: owners and guests), making the house simultaneously very small and very spacious.

Constructed in two phases, and from off-the shelf components, like all agrarian structures in the area, the house learned from other vernacular as well. The corner detail is borrowed from Iceland, where corrugated siding is omnipresent (as local legend has, it came from mainland Europe in the form of ship ballast and was adopted in leu of wood which is rare in Iceland). The sheet is simply bent around the corner stud, eliminating fussy, costly and often ungraceful detailing.