A proposal to convert an existing modern agricultural barn into three affordable homes in a rural location. The barn roof provides a ready-made umbrella, providing a shelter beneath which the basic spaces needed for a home are constructed. The homes can start life as one or two rooms for living, sleeping, cooking and bathing. As the occupant's spatial needs change, and as time and budget permit, further rooms can be added in a piecemeal way.
The homes are affordable on account of their simple structures, the fact that many of the elevations and roofs are protected from rain by the barn roof and therefore do not need rainscreen cladding, the benefit of the barn roof in providing shelter so that the structures can be built over a number of weeks or months, and because each of the additional spaces can be built at the time that funds are available.
The buildings are timber framed and can be easily adapted. Rooms belonging to the neighbouring dwelling can be borrowed by forming small link structures whereby one dwelling becomes larger and one becomes smaller. These rooms could be loaned on a short to mid-term basis as the occupier's circumstances change, for example where one family needs more space to grow and the neighbour has an excess of space.
