“The barn is the first piece of a much bigger master plan, “says architect Mark Finlay. “It was built as a place that the homeowner could have privacy, it was to be a little get-away for her. She loved the idea of doing a sort of modern barn structure, and the whole master plan was designed so that she would get that.”
The client’s main house is located next door to their auxiliary barn build. They demoed an existing structure on the lot just adjacent to their home and then began to personalize the property in a large-scale way. Following the preparations of the lot, construction began in earnest on the client’s contemporary get-away barn.
“She really liked certain barns that I had designed with the structure expressed on the inside,” Finlay recalls. “New Energy Works was great. The hardest thing was getting the right color; the color was critical to the homeowner.”
Our team worked diligently at getting the hue provided by Finlay and his client translated to perfect timber tone for the project. Finlay continued, “There’s a double layer of timber on the roof and the color of the timbers is very specific, sort of a California, she wanted a kind of glazed wood with a softer look.”
This look is accomplished through the buttery timber finish that sits in comfortable contrast with subtle black steel embellishments on both the light fixtures and timber joinery. There is an abundance of natural light diffused throughout the space emanating from the dramatic floor-to-ceiling windows found in the living space and echoed in the centerpiece of the barn – the large glass enclosed porch.
This vibe of the porch area is both biophilic and elegant. The space is nearly inseparable from the nearby forest landscape which feels like it can be touched from any seat in the room. “Basically, the barn ended up being a positive and a negative,” Finlay says. “There’s the barn that’s a solid [positive] building, and then the glass portion in the back which is a kind of negative building. I always like taking advantage of a building when you’re inside looking out. This is an important inside-looking-out of type of building.”
Both portions of the barn are structurally supported by heavy timber that culminates in cathedral ceilings. Alex Goosen, designer at Mark Finlay Architects added, “We’ve done timber a bunch, but we do it differently each time. The homeowner had a very specific aesthetic for the wood itself and the beams.”
The barn also contains a downstairs kitchen, living area with bar, a second-floor bedroom with bath, and an additional upper living space that doubles as a relaxing reading nook. Both floors feature stonework fireplaces with a shared chimney.
Inspired by the personality of the homeowner, the barns inside aesthetic was developed with the things that she loves in mind, “She was the interior designer on this, and we worked closely with her. She has a house in California and wanted to work with that vibe and it became a backdrop for all of her things,” Finlay says. “It was also a chance for her to express her interior design abilities which she loved doing.”
The barn’s interior is specially curated, inspired by the homeowner’s travel experiences, and her collection of bespoke mementos and souvenirs, each having their own special place and purpose. Surrounded by the memories of her travels and accomplishments, the barn acts as a personal museum, though only steps away from home.
The combination of the pastoral site, personalized interior touches, and custom finished Douglas fir timber frame equates to a barn that assimilates itself into its surroundings as well as standing stoically apart from them through its high-class design aesthetic.
“I love how this barn relates to the site because when you’re in the solid part of the barn it’s all about the space, but when you get out into the glass part of it, you’re in the landscape, so it’s an unusual set of circumstances that happens in this building,” Finlay says. “I always like taking advantage of a building when you’re inside looking out. This is a really important inside looking out of type of building.”
“I love the humanness, people live in this building, it’s got a great feel, it’s very roomy, but it’s got a nice tangible scale,” Finlay says. “It’s a big little building, it’s very spacious, we took advantage of all of the cathedral space in both halves of it and it’s really cool to see in person.”
Architect: Mark P. Finlay Architects, AIA
Builder: Auburn Landing, Inc.
Other Credits: Fire Tower Engineered Timber, Eric Piasecki / OTTO
