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OR VIEW ALL PROJECTSOR GO BACK TO SEARCH RESULTSOR VIEW ALLPROJECTS BY ARCHITECT ENGELEN MOORERESIDENTIAL PROJECTS2002 PROJECTSPROJECTS IN BOWRALPROJECTS PHOTOGRAPHED BY ROSS HONEYSETT |
"They call it the Opera House around here," laughs the proud owner of Australia's most glamorous barn. Traditional in form, volume and its galvanised steel cladding it may be, hut Engelen Moore's vernacular contribution to the Southern Highland's landscape is far from utilitarian. From its windy ridge vantage point outside Mittagong, it is 100km north of Utzon's ceramic sails. You can't see them over the intervening mist-cupped gorges of the Nepean headwaters but, on a good day, you can see AMP Centrepoint Tower gleaming above Sydney.
When the client and bet partner sold their architectural textile business just over a year ago, it was this view that sold them the 19ha dairy farm complete with a 1920s manager's cottage, outbuildings and barn, all in a state of genteel decay. With offices in the same Rushcutters Bay building as Engelen Moore, it was a conversation
on the stairs ("Do you do barns?") that led to the commission. Initially, the plan was to refurbish the house and the existing barn (to be used as a design studios/guest room and tractor storage) but a close examination found the barn's poles were rotten and the building was about to fall to its knees.
The first phase of works was the refurbishment of the cottage, now a trim white weatherboard and solar-louvred charmer, and the altering of aspect and turned 180 degrees to face the view. The brand new replacement barn came next - exactly the same volume, footprint and ridge height as its predecessor (an existing Development application for a different 'ugly bugger off' number helped rhe process). But this, is an archetype of a barn, a Platonic-bodied hart) parcel down to a pure form. Internal gutters and projecting eaves at each end, which express its 150min skinny envelope
razors through the vernacular to a contemporary elemental simplicity. Not as easy as it looks as a wad of detail drawings testify.
The seven-bay-long steel portal frame structure, set out at 3.5m centres, has bee,, welded together rather than bolted. As well as being more elegant, this solution provides sturdy resistance to the high winds that conic roiling over the ridge (one 16Skm/h buffeting sent the clients straight to the phone to increase their insurance). Steel beams support the office/bedroom mezzanine as well as providing stiffening.
"The western end is the working end and very matter-of-fact," explains Ian Moore of Engelen Moore.
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