Roofing project
The client had started to rescue this collection of house and agricultural buildings before we became involved – temporary roofs on the buildings to prevent water ingress from bringing the walls down.
As in all projects the drainage design came first after internal space layouts had been roughed out. Doing the measured survey on these buildings was one of the coldest operations we have experienced, as you can see from the snow lying around.
However, in order to satisfy the client’s and planner’s requirements we incorporated a combination of Lucarnes and velux windows to light the interior spaces and utilised mostly existing door and window openings so that the character of the buildings was respected whilst providing as much natural light as possible.
With many old existing Breton/Norman buildings which were built to house animals with possibly one or two rooms for the human occupants, providing natural light is a challenge to the architect today when considering a renovation which respects the vernacular architecture of the area.
When completed this project will have a wealth of extraordinary timber features – from flooring to staircases, created and installed by the owner using his skills as a timber boat builder.