Dutch designer Piet Hein Eek and architect Iggie Dekkers have transformed a century-old barn in the Friesian village of Woudsend into a guesthouse designed to showcase an aged timber roof.

Hein Eek and Dekkers, who run the studio Eek en Dekkers, began the renovation of the Omke Jan barn in 2014 ? 110 years after its initial completion in 1904.
The client wanted to transform the building, which is located beside one of the village's two windmills, into a bed and breakfast where guests could enjoy the locality's produce.

Guests are served milk and meat from the region's famous Friesian cows, as well as local flour and wood, and are encouraged to catch and smoke their own eels in the village smokehouse.
Ample cooking and dining spaces are spread across the ground floor of the reconfigured property to cater to this emphasis on enjoying local foods.
"In keeping with this wish for authenticity we wanted to emphasise the original qualities of the farm as much as possible. Showing off the majestic roof construction in its full glory formed the starting point for the design," said the studio.
"We were faced with the choice of searching for contrast between old and new (modern) or to match the existing building."

The studio cut a large atrium through an "ugly" mezzanine floor added in an earlier renovation, revealing the underside of the wooden roof from the ground floor.
This gallery-like floor is covered in white plaster that puts the ...