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Project	Emsall Barn
Location	North Yorkshire
Photographer	Jim Varney
Completion	May 2019
Sector	Contemporary

Timber, brick, zinc: a modern Yorkshire barn conversion

A nineteenth-century barn stands quietly among rolling fields in the North Yorkshire countryside, its weathered brickwork and pantiled roof speaking of generations of agricultural labour. Our design transforms that legacy: restoring the original barn's form, peeling back later additions, then introducing a contemporary extension in zinc that respects, contrasts with, and elevates.

Approaching the barn, one senses the weight of history. The solidity of the masonry, the rough texture of brick, the sweeping roofline—these are cues to heritage. We allowed them to guide our interventions. The extension sits subtly to the north, its simple, crisp geometry recalling the sheds and outbuildings that once served the farm, yet rendered in new material—standing seam zinc, warm timber, expanses of glass. The addition does not compete but converses with the old, the old lending presence, the new offering lightness.

Within, the barn's shell is revered. Beams, timber posts, the old proportions, and solid walls become frameworks for modern life. Daylight enters through carefully considered openings: glazed doors that invite the outside in, windows that catch the changing sky, views across pasture and hedgerow. The extension houses the more service-oriented functions—kitchen, utility, circulation—so that the barn itself can breathe, its volume preserved, its heart left open to living.

Textures inside mirror those outside. Warm timber underfoot, hearthstone or brick in original walls, clean zinc or metal detailing in the extension. Every seam, every junction treated with quiet precision; nothing showy, everything beautifully resolved. The contrast between the rough and the refined, the old and the new, becomes part of the moment-to-moment experience of the house. Ultimately, this is a house rooted in place and history, yet utterly contemporary in spirit. It reveals how a contemporary architect in Yorkshire can draw deeply on agricultural heritage—of form, texture, memory—and combine it with modern materials and light to create a home both rich in character and generous in comfort

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