Barn houses: architectural features

Let’s talk about such an interesting architectural style as Barn house. It is quite popular in the Scandinavian countries, the USA and Europe. We rarely have such barn-houses or barns, but architects often propose just such projects. Let’s figure out the features of the Barn house.

Barn translated from English as “barn”. This is what became the defining feature of this style of architecture. According to experts, this direction arose due to historical traditions. In particular, even at the beginning of the twentieth century, rural residents often moved to barns for the summer to make it easier to look after livestock, and fields and vegetable gardens were closer. By the middle of the twentieth century, there was a tendency to remake old barns and granaries into full-fledged residential buildings.

Now Barn house is, rather, a reference to the past, one of the varieties of the popular ecological style, which allows you to live closer to nature and equip your homes with natural materials.

The main differences and characteristics of barn houses:

1. Wide, very visible front door. It is often double-leafed, like a real gate to a barn, with massive hinges and a wrought-iron latch as a decorative element. Sometimes a window is arranged above the entrance in the width of the entire doorway.
2. The roof is gable or pitched, without any frills and protrusions. There are usually no overhangs, but sometimes they still appear, in particular, on the pediments. But this is more the exception than the rule..
3. The windows are in an asymmetric order, they can be of different sizes.
4. Simple, very minimalistic wall decoration. Often they are simply sheathed with boards, sometimes artificially aged, sometimes burnt. The walls can also be covered with sheet metal. There are no platbands and other frills in wall decoration.
5. Outdoor terraces with wooden flooring are often set up around the house, continuing the idea of ​​wall decoration.
6. Most often, the Barn house is built on a frame basis..

Simplicity also prevails inside the barn. At least partitions, only in bedrooms and bathrooms, shared kitchen-dining-living room. Often there are beams, rafters, the floor level can be different – this is one of the zoning techniques.

Since Barn house is, most often, a frame house, construction technology is inexpensive. The basis is a frame made of a metal profile or a wooden bar, and the structure of OSB, DSP, overlapping boards, clapboard is sheathed. Modern options such as ecowool, polyurethane insulation, and other cellulose materials are now increasingly used as insulation..

Despite the wide selection of materials, wood is still the most popular in the construction of barn houses. Moreover, according to the architects, a house with walls and a roof of a dark, gray, graphite color will look authentic. Let it be an imitation of antiquity, but such a choice will emphasize the value of the building. You can also use fired brick, just paint the walls with graphite paint.

Another advantage of the Barn house is that all sorts of outbuildings will look very organic next to it. Actually, a barn house often turns into a real complex, including a residential building, a garage-shed, an open terrace with a seating area, a workshop, a firebox and a shed for garden tools.

The minimalism of barn houses does not mean, of course, the rejection of the benefits of civilization. These are modern houses with everything you need for a comfortable existence. According to the architects, Barn house is a good balance between the past and the future. This is a reference to the traditions of ancestors, respect for the surrounding landscape, an environmentally friendly style, while not implying an increase in the construction estimate. In addition, the interior of the barn house will perfectly complement vintage furnishings. If you are not yet ready to build a full-fledged private house in this style, you can experiment in the country. Why not? It will turn out to be relatively inexpensive, original and at the same time comfortable.