The Loddon School is part of the Loddon Foundation and are an integrated team working to meet the needs of children and young people with autism, severe learning disabilities and associated complex restrictive behaviours.  Field House Barn currently provides off-site training accommodation that is in the process of being replaced by a new purpose-built facility. With the site’s future surplus to the school’s requirement, we were asked to look at potential alternative uses that could generate additional capital value to the buildings, which in turn would assist the client’s charitable activity.

The timber-framed former threshing barn is in an area that has been consumed by surrounding residential development in recent years and therefore the obvious alternative use was to explore a residential conversion. Despite the barn having been previously converted to offices (rudimentary in places) the listed status required careful consideration and negotiations with the conservation officer. The early design process focused on making use of the courtyard between the barn, rather than preserving it as car parking, together with retaining the open volume of the main barn and keeping interventions to a minimum.

The proposals establish a strong sense of place, using the material and character of the existing buildings to create an attractive and comfortable place within which to live. All dwellings include large windows within existing openings and crisp surrounding detailing. Traditional clay tiled roofs and black stained shiplap timber cladding complete the external material palette.

The resulting design is one of minimum interference, but through selective modifications and enhancements the existing buildings optimise the potential of a redundant site to include a sustainable mix of accommodation, with each dwelling having its own private landscaped garden space within the courtyard, whilst dedicated car parking is coordinated outside of this.