Architecture Wednesday: Quackenbush House

What do you do when you want to escape the hustle and bustle of the big city? Well you hire an architect to turn your simple little ranch house into a country retreat, by buying an antique barn, dismantling it, and then rebuilding it, and reshaping it, to your needs.
And the "new" house is both timeless in style and materials; in one minute its rustic, with hundred year old beams, and then the next it's like modern loft, with minimalist style and detail.
The old barn frame is now the main living area, added onto the existing house via a glass and steel structure. In this sense, the “new” barn structure appears, and in a sense is, much older, while the existing "old" house looks newer, creating a 5,300 square foot home among the trees of an old estate.
The project’s first step was to have the old barn dismantled, then have it cleaned and repaired by the New Jersey Barn Company in preparation to be re-erected at the new site. It was placed on a new foundation and reassembled using only wooden pegs. The original 1980’s house was scaled back down, and several bland additions were removed. The glass and steel enclosure of the kitchen was conceived as the “connective tissue” to join the two structures and orient the inhabitants to the surrounding landscape.


The barn, with its soaring 20-foot high ceiling, is the main living area, while the original house became home to the more private spaces. Laundry, storage, and powder room are articulated in a central “box.” The house opens into the old garden, where there are generous terraces--or, as i like to call them, Margarita Patios.
And while the house seems to easily blend the new and the old, it is also energy efficient; the designer prioritized natural ventilation, was strategic about window placement, and utilized a geothermal water-to-air heat-pump system for heating and cooling. The resulting house contrasts raw and machined elements, with old and new materials, a relaxed home.
Perfect for that weekend retreat.

via Architectural Record