These traditional timber framed agricultural barns have recently been rebuilt in an innovative but sensitive way. The principle is to keep the barn as a unified whole with timber cladding over all the elevation and then to use the glass in large areas behind this intermittent cladding as a sun screen. Unlike many barn conversions this has very high levels of thermal performance requiring minimal energy input from a bio-mass boiler via a large energy store. Solar gain during critical periods is maximised with high levels of south and east glazing, but tempered by an overlaying brise soliel cladding system. A sophisticated heat recovery system gathers and redistributes energy when required. An underground garage minimises the impact of the vehicles in a rural setting and leaves the views unencumbered. As part of the development, an outhouse building was built to provide a roof void for nesting long eared bats, which pass through the site.