Thing Studio’s architect Thomas Randall-Page renovated an agricultural barn in the Devon countryside, turning it into a kinetic architecture masterpiece. The Art Barn’s kinetic architecture redefined the traditional rural sheds with an innovative disappearing balcony and corner pivot window in the Winter Studio, a small room-within-a-room inside the barn studio.
The Art Barn sits on the boundary between Devon’s rolling fieldscape and the steep and wooded Teign Valley in Dartmoor National Park. The 2,691-square-foot building functions as a drawing studio, solar-powered off-grid building, an art gallery, and a sculpture archive that stores the client’s stunning creations and paperwork.
The sealed box-like cedarwood building flaunts two main manually operated moving elements in its kinetic architecture. Instead of relying on motors or electricity, Thomas used the counterweight balance system to enable manual operation with minimal effort. The folding disappearing balcony, inspired by castle drawbridges, features a vertical bi-folding design that turns the upper leaf of exterior wood cladding into the balcony floor.
The hinged lower leaf forms triangular support to hold the balcony and removes the need for suspended cables. As the balcony opens, the steel rods, hidden behind the cladding, act like sash weights for the upper leaf, while the stone weights attached to the lower leaf balance the weight completely. When unfolded, it seamlessly disappears into the wooden façade.
The second kinetic element is the glazed corner pivot window in the Winter Studio. It visually connects the art studio with the main gallery space and disappears into the wall when swung 90 degrees flat. The architect attached a heavy cast-iron powerlifting weight to the arm on a slotted connection to counterbalance the weight of the glass window and steel frame.
The modern barn also features the folding industrial-scale shutters and large sliding barn doors. A series of slide-and-fold industrial-scale shutters provide camouflage between the timber and metal façade. These playful metal shutters reveal a generous glazed entrance upon unfolding. When you shut them completely, the shutters provide privacy and seal the front façade like a hermetically sealed box, along with the large sliding barn doors.
The large sliding barn doors open up the rear part of the concealed building to the outdoors. These doors seamlessly blur the boundary with nature and fill the interior with a fresh breeze throughout the day. The sliding doors open into the main gallery space where the client keeps his stunning stone sculptures.
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Since the building sits on a sloping site, the architect designed two terraces using a retaining wall. “Starting in the landscape, this element enters the building from the west and once inside turns back on itself to enclose the lower level and form part of the stairway. The three split-levels provide novel perspectives on the work, altering perceptions of scale and revealing the subtlety with which they touch the ground,” says Thomas Randall-Page.
The Art Barn offers a distraction-free workspace where one could work comfortably. The kinetic moving elements transform the hermetically sealed box-like barn studio into a naturally ventilated workplace that blurs the boundary with nature.
Via: The Modern House