When the six judges of the Wood Awards decided to give Pinions Barn the coveted Gold Award it was, without a doubt, a unanimous decision.
And what they agreed was that, although architect Simon Conder had introduced a distinctive, sleek interior to the old Northamptonshire farm building, he did it with a light hand.
“It was the sort of design that one might call iconic,” said chairman Giles Downes, of Sidell Gibson, “but it wasn’t an ego trip for the architect; it was a response to the building.”
Apart for some dramatically shaped new openings, from the exterior there is little evidence of what lies inside this private home. “It was done at a low key that worked with the building itself from the outside,” said Downes.
And what does lie inside is a large, airy space where, on the two long outer walls, the full-height lining of smooth, light birch plywood contrasts with the gnarled wood of the original roof. This juxtaposition of the old and the new, the sleek and the crude was at the heart of Simon Conder’s plan. “The whole strategy was to leave it as it was. Not to change the quality of the spaces and just to get it warm and weathertight,” he said.
The site comprises three buildings: the main two-storey stone barn, which houses two bedrooms, kitchen and main living space; a single-storey brick and stone barn which provides a separate area for the client’s teenage children; while the third has been set aside for a swimming pool. The barn had planning permission for a five-bed, three-bathroom conversion but Conder persuaded the client to keep the original four rooms.
The main barn was in poor condition and needed a lot of rebuilding and repointing. “This isn’t a great historic building,” said Conder. “It’s a basic 19th century agricultural structure and of course there were a few problems – not only with the amount of restoration but obviously we were putting a lot of new, very crisp joinery into a very irregular space. A lot of work went into working out the relationship of those two things.
“The roof beams were a bit of a quilt of pine. It’s not a great timber structure in that sense, but we quite liked the roughness and crudeness against what we’d done below.”
The plywood lining – painstakingly scribed into the contours of the stone at each end of the barn – was chosen on the grounds of aesthetics and cost. “We were covering really large areas and cost was an issue so hardwoods were out from the beginning. There’s also not that much natural light in the building so in the main spaces we tried to use light floors and walls to reflect the light that was coming in. If the walls had been oak it would have been unnecessarily dark,” said Conder.
The cross walls at either end and in the middle were left exposed to retain a sense of the original stonework; in contrast, the plywood panels offer visual as well physical warmth. They also provide insulation and neatly house storage, services and lighting, and extend up into the first floor where they form a shelf in each of the two bedrooms.
While the judges may have described the building as iconic, surely what has become the building’s icon is the free-standing solid oak spiral staircase encased in a glass cylinder. It is a piece of sculpture that catches the eye – and the breath – of anyone entering through the front door.
Conder had not designed anything like this before but it arose out of there being little room to manoeuvre and a desire not to have a heavily structured staircase. “We wanted to keep everything light, particularly so we could see through to the view beyond,” he said. “We always try to reduce things to the simplest way possible.” á
Ü Ironically, while the stairs are beautiful in their simple lines and in the principle of “just step upon step upon step”, the engineering and calculations were quite complicated. Although a small-scale model was built it really came down to an act of faith.
“The engineer couldn’t prove it, the joinery company couldn’t guarantee that it would work so we built it and then tested it. We loaded it up with sandbags to make sure the joints were stiff enough,” said Conder. The finished product was delivered in two halves and joined together on site.
Manufactured by Meer End Woodturners, the staircase is made entirely from European oak, the 55mm-thick treads dovetailed together. Each tread had to be cut carefully to ensure the grain followed the line of the staircase. At the top it meets the landing with a stainless steel fixing.
Meer End specialises in curved staircases, including self-
supporting designs, but these have included handrails, and strings to support the treads. Owner Warwick Aldersley had never seen anything like Conder’s creation. “I’ve seen thousands of staircases over the years but I don’t think anyone has ever produced one like this. It’s very, very unusual,” he said.
While the concept may initially have raised some eyebrows, Aldersley is now justifiably proud of the result. “It’s caused a bit of a stir. We’ve had enquiries from as far away as Japan,” he said.
The Wood Awards judges were impressed by the use of timber and the quality of the workmanship throughout the conversion, and the staircase came in for particular praise. “The quality of the actual joinery and the staircase itself and the use of timber, were very carefully and beautifully done,” said Giles Downes.
The judges were also taken by the way the timber, and the design, worked with the stainless steel fixing which features recessed bolts with allan key centres. “Everything worked together in a very carefully thought through and smooth way which really showed up the materials and the contrast of materials,” said Downes.
While the staircase is European oak, the floors on the first floor and the internal doors are American white oak, which Conder specified because of its neutral appearance. “It isn’t heavily grained; it isn’t too dark or too light,” he said. “It’s amazingly consistent so there’s very little wastage and we’ve always found it very easy to work with.”
The external doors and ventilation panels are made from iroko, chosen for its durability.
Conder often chooses timber – his Black Rubber beach house with its plywood interior was highly commended in the 2004 Wood Awards – and it’s a material he likes to work with for several reasons.
“I’m not terribly good on colour and the great thing about natural material, whether it’s brick or timber or stone, is that you get the colour,” said Conder. “And you get this other thing – which is rather indefinable – about naturalness. We’ve done steel and glass buildings and they have no tolerances at all, whereas with timber, particularly when you’re working with an old building, you can work with the eccentricities of a building much more easily.”
Pinions Barn won the Private category in the Wood Awards but when Conder’s name came up as winner of the overall Gold Award, he was stopped in his tracks. “Winning the award was a bit of a surprise, given the nature of the opposition – things like the Scottish parliament; huge great public buildings by international architects,” he said.
However, for the judges it met the exacting standards for the award – and proved quality of design and workmanship is not the preserve of grand projects.
“It showed you didn’t have to be a big grandiose building to win the Gold Award,” said Giles Downes. “It was about how much care and thought and love you put into the scheme – and Pinions Barn had a lot of heart and a lot of love in it.”
