OHA were appointed to re-design a scheme which already had planning consent, to suit our client’s bespoke family needs, including a much larger open plan social space and a better connection between building and landscape setting. One of the main challenges was to work sensitively with the historic building and challenging topography to create a modern, energy efficient family home. The timber frame was stripped of is claddings and carefully repaired to specialist consultant advice, splicing in the minimum amount of new timber before sheathing in a continuous envelope of high-performing insulation concealed under the new timber claddings. A biomass boiler was installed to heat the barn and the neighbouring farmhouse entirely by renewable means, and double glazed sliding screens were detailed to sit inside the open post and beam timber frames to the single storey element, capturing the best of the incredible views over an unspoilt wooded valley.