Barn Conversion, The Fruit Farm, Chittering
Offices for MIPS Ltd
Local Context
Our client bought a farmyard adjacent to the A10 at Chittering. This included redundant agricultural buildings and a farmhouse. The Fruit farm barn is a traditional timber framed barn , built off a brick plinth with 2 elegant braced collar trusses supporting purlins and the slated roof. The barn has two single storey additions . Attached to the barn are single storey stables, the conversion of which comprised phase 2 which was not built.
The Scheme
The south extension is planned to be the reception area with the stair up to the first floor of the main barn. The east extension houses the plant, equipment room and backup generator. The ground floor contains office space, a meeting room, and a commissioning area for hardware. The first floor is retained as open planned offices.
Design
The existing barn was in poor condition, and all the masonry plinth walls were renewed under the existing timber frame. The main frame members and roof have been retained , but external stud walls have needed replacing. The new first floor is built off a loadbearing inner skin of blockwork construction which was needed to provide security for the building. We retained the main structure of the barn and new opening fit between studs where possible. The former barn doors have been glazed with a full height glazed screen, and these have been provided with slide aside barn doors which are lockable for security.
Ridge ventilators and Velux windows provide natural ventilation to the first floor.
