Consisting of two interconnected structures — a fully renovated barn and one-storey addition — Grange House is a poetic and pragmatic architectural composition that celebrates wood construction and the agricultural vernacular of Southern Ontario’s bucolic countryside. Designed for a family of five, the project disperses the domestic program across buildings to maximize communal and contemplative experiences.
The former barn is a story of adaptive reuse and aesthetic juxtapositions. A previous renovation saw it encased in a concrete shell and wrapped in corrugated steel. Upon stripping away the cladding, we redeployed the insulated concrete formwork by integrating it within a high-performance envelope. We treated the new cedar siding with a mineral stain that encourages organic calcification, gradually altering the wood’s pigmentation over time to achieve a weathered appearance that confers long-lasting protection.
For the central gathering space — a luminous kitchen, living, and dining area — we retained the barn’s original structural components to achieve a graceful contrast between historic wood details and contemporary finishes: polished concrete floors (with in-floor heating), Italian marble, and matte white cabinetry. Extensive glazing enables restorative connections to nature while the second floor houses three bedrooms.
A re-envisioned entrance procession gives way to a mudroom and glazed foyer that connects the two buildings, glowing at night like a quiet beacon across the site’s soft, rolling fields. This new corridor axis was the result of an ecological intervention that saw us shift the footprint of the former farmhouse from an erosion hazard zone to create a continuous edge between the two forms, forging an uninterrupted sightline from the north end of the addition, including a den, principal bedroom, and bathroom (plus exterior shower), through to the south side of the home. These contiguous zones across the ground floor support celebratory gathering, quiet retreat, and aging in place.
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