Modern ‘barn-style’ homes are hugely popular right now but this Goodwood Barn isn’t a house, it is actually a rural barn that houses a three-horse stable. However, it is no ordinary barn – it was designed to draw a family together through their personal loves: horses, dancing and cars.
The 400m² Barn sits on a plot of rural land within the crater of an old eroded volcano in the Bombay Hills, about 40km southeast of Auckland. It is one of New Zealand’s most famous areas for market gardening and is protected as an ‘outstanding natural landscape’, so it was essential that the barn’s design was sensitive to its rural environment.
The family who own the 10-acre property already live in a beautiful house on the site, but they needed extra space to cater for individual family member’s talents and interests. The stable was designed for one of the daughters who is a horse rider, a dance studio was created for the other daughter who is a dancer, an entertaining space allow the family to hang out with friends and the dad’s passion for high-performance cars is satiated by a 60 m² four-car garage and ‘man-cave’.
The property has 230-degree views of the surrounding landscape, which is mostly farmland for cropping, so we included lots of windows to bring in the light and views.
As we are often building stables, we are used to designing very strong, oversized, chunky buildings that are given a hard time by the horses, but it is also important to create good proportions to the spaces we create. At Goodwood Barn, we chose a pitched gable roof with corbel detailing around the soffit, which fits well into this particular rural environment.
The material palette is simple and refined to work in harmoniously with the owners’ elegant country style seen elsewhere on the property. On the exterior, the steel roof is Resene Flaxpod and the plywood-and-batten cladding is painted in Resene DNA, a dark greenish charcoal tone that is sympathetic to the natural landscape – a stipulation of the resource consent. However, the corbels, veranda and joinery provide a contrast in a fresh off-white, which is carried through into the interior, including all the shaker-style cabinetry.
Upstairs, a lounge area, bar and bathroom have timber laminate flooring, white walls and ceilings, sliding barn doors and French doors open out onto a north-facing deck, which is surrounded by a glass balustrade to provide uninterrupted views of the beautiful rural landscape.
On the ground floor, the generous stable has space for three horses, a hot and cold wash down and grooming area, an adjoining tack room with custom-made joinery to house specialist equestrian gear. The feed room has six built-in feed bins for rodent proof storage of horse feed, along with shelving and horse rug racks. A rubber equine safety flooring has been used throughout the stable as it allows the horses’ hoofs to naturally sink into the surface, provides grip and a warm, quiet and comfortable environment.
Next door, the 60 m² garage has a double-height stud, polished concrete flooring, plywood linings and a recycled brick veneer feature wall that showcases the owner’s art.
Next door, the light and spacious dance studio has a sprung oak dance floor, a whole wall of mirrors and three large French doors that open up to the landscaped garden.
We worked with our clients to design and project manage the complete construction of Goodwood Barn and the adjacent arena, a renovation of an older barn on the property to match the new one as well as the reshaping and re-seeding of paddocks, and classical landscaping around the barn and riding arena to complete this unique project
This Goodwood Barn isn't a home - but it could be!
This Goodwood barn was designed for our lovely clients, who wanted their barn to accommodate family activities and offer additional space to entertain.
The Goodwood plan is easily adapted into a four+ bedroom home, and as with all of our projects we custom design to suit the needs of our clients - whether that's making it bigger, making it smaller or incorporating other elements to the design.
So if you've got a project in mind or would like to know more about the Goodwood barn, we'd love to talk to you.
