Barney’s Ruins

Barney’s Ruins is a home where the client is also the architect. This has allowed the exploration of a built-alternative to often oversized one-off rural houses; a manifesto encouraging sustainable-thinking and working with the landscape. Powered by an adjacent wind turbine, the house is energy self-sufficient. The modest scale of the new matches the vernacular ruins. Conserved rubble-stone walls are given new purpose as garden enclosure, screening for services and part-rehabilitation as guest accommodation. 

The shipping-container house, as refined as a yacht, is both a nocturnal beacon and gazebo overlooking the site. The tiny guest room is an exemplar of contemporary vernacular construction.

As with all traditional settlements, external space forms part of the accommodation and is integral to surrounding farmland. Outdoor cowboy-baths double as cattle-troughs. The cantilevered container, recalling early byre dwellings, provides shelter for cattle beneath.

Simple, coherent and fun.