Chicken Shed

USK

A former poultry barn, abandoned for several decades and in a rundown state, provided the unprepossessing starting point for this rural holiday home, run as a letting business catering for design-conscious visitors.

Hall + Bednarczyk secured planning permission for the substantial reconstruction of the building by demonstrating how its utilitarian agricultural identity could be retained in a convincing and contemporary architectural form.

The building’s versatile and space-efficient layout creates optimally sized rooms for holidaying groups of up to 8 people, creating a welcoming environment for relaxation. The design provides four double bedrooms, three bathrooms and a remarkably spacious open plan living environment – all within a compact overall building footprint of 140m². Views towards the Black Mountains are captured in a floor to ceiling glass wall that faces south-west. The roof and flanking walls employ black corrugated sheeting and timber cladding in a refined and affectionate re-working of typical agricultural materials. Internally, the confident expression of the building’s structural framework and adoption of polished concrete floors and boarded timber walls provide a sophisticated nod to the building’s humble origins.