London studio David Kohn Architects has converted an agricultural building on a former dairy farm in Newton Abbot, UK, to create a house and studio named Cowshed.
Cowshed is the last building to be completed in a 15-year-long transformation of Middle Rocombe Farm, which has been owned and inhabited by artist Suzanne Blank Redstone and her husband Peter Redstone since the early 1970s.
The couple has transformed the site into a housing community to achieve their goal of working "in an isolated rural location surrounded by a mix of families", said David Kohn Architects.
David Kohn Architects has converted an old cattle shed in Newton Abbot
David Kohn Architect's brief centred on transforming the existing building, which was once a cattle shed, into a future-proof home that honours the building's site and history. "They sought a home that would enable them to 'live in the light and the landscape', but that would still respect the original humble shed, whilst creating a future-proof accessible home," project architect Jennifer Dyne told Dezeen.
To achieve this, one of the studio's main aims for the project was to retain as much of the existing building ? which was built by the couple in 1979 ? as possible.
Existing details of the cattle shed have been retained
With the help of the engineering studio Structure Workshop, the studio retained the shed's original timber trusses, concrete floor and columns and some blockwork walls to define new rooms.
Alongside the...