stadel conversion WET
The house in the house. Living in an old pillar barn.
In the 19th century the pillar barn type developed, which almost completely replaced the ancient building forms of the original barn buildings of Upper and Lower Carinthia. The building type developed from the block construction set on natural stone walls, via the post and beam construction and the many variations to the pillar barn, which still occurs in many places today.
The new living space is inserted into the existing volume as a „house within a house“ without touching the existing building. A great advantage for the new living space is that both the floor, the structurally effective roof and the sun protection are already in place.
The result is interior and exterior spaces that are not separated by a sharp boundary line. The building creates an intermediate space in which security and exposure, closeness and distance can be experienced at the same time. By placing the new wooden building in the shape of the old barn, multidimensional spaces are created all around.
The barn remains almost unchanged on the outside. The revitalization protects the structure from decay and the village retains a historic building.