Palms down, the non-public properties of architects and inside designers are amongst our favorites to cowl. They are usually much less polished (in a great way), much less trend-motivated, extra attention-grabbing than initiatives for purchasers. This transformed barn by Danish architects Elisabeth A.P. Eriksen and Mads Bay Møller is an instance of the magic that may occur when design professionals flip their knowledgeable gaze to their very own properties. “We wished to do the issues that we, as architects, aren’t all the time allowed to do [when working with] purchasers,” they share.
For Elisabeth, the transform was an particularly private one. She grew up on the farm surrounding the barn in Svartingehus, an outdated fishing city on the island of Bornholm in Denmark, and as an grownup, she would return with Mads and their children to spend summer season holidays there. Throughout these stays, “we might think about how we might rework the barn [which was being used as a garage and storage space] into a house for our household,” she says. “We had a imaginative and prescient to indicate the probabilities of reworking outdated agricultural buildings as an alternative of tearing them down and constructing new.”
That grew to become the tenet of their transform: “We wished to maintain as a lot of the barn as attainable. That meant, for instance, reinforcing the inside barn wall with metal beams, so it wouldn’t collapse. The contractors have been shaking their heads at us—usually they’d simply tear it down and construct a brand new wall. However for us it was essential to make use of as a lot of the prevailing sources as attainable; plus, the outdated wall confirmed the historical past of the barn and gave it a tactility, which is troublesome to realize in new buildings.”
Elisabeth and Mads additionally prioritized sustainable design, “experimenting with uncooked surfaces and utilizing as many pure supplies as attainable,” all whereas making an attempt to remain inside a good finances (Ikea to the rescue!). Beneath, they offer us a tour of the newly reworked house for his or her household of 4—plus cat and three Indian runner geese.
Pictures by Elisabeth A.P. Eriksen. (Comply with them on Instagram @laden_svartingehus for all the small print.)
