Autobarn
Architect: Bindloss Dawes
Location: Somerset, England
Type: Garage
Year: 2022
Photographs: Building Narratives
The following description is courtesy of the architects. Architecture practice Bindloss Dawes has completed a five-bay garage and accompanying workshop to house a client’s collection of classic cars. The elegant timber addition sits within the grounds of a Grade-II listed 18th century home located on the outskirts of a leafy Somerset village. Bindloss Dawes developed a flexible, ‘long-life, loose-fit’ concept that could be used for a range of different uses at different stages of the building’s life.
The Autobarn comprises a long, slender garage which intersects with a hardy workshop space appearing as two pitched volumes in an L-shaped plan. The spaces are top-lit by overhead glazing that runs along the apex of their angular roofs, illuminating the five-bay garage and the taller mechanic workshop below. Bindloss Dawes integrated a sleek timber tool store and washbasin at the perimeter of the workshop, which overlooks the leafy gardens beyond through a large double glazed window. A toilet and further storage is concealed by timber joinery under stairs which lead to a mezzanine study, diversifying the spaces on offer for future use.
Bindloss Dawes contended with the challenge of coordinating an intricate arrangement of sliding doors to provide security, access, and climate control. The largest opening, a 7m entrance to the garage, features a three-bay wide, floor-to-ceiling timber screen that smoothly slides beyond the footprint of the foundations to provide easy access into the garage. An equally-vast, two-leaf, sliding glass door provides a further layer of security, and stacks itself behind a two-bay wide steel security door, which mechanically peels back to sit flush along the south western wall.
The three layers act in deft unison, with the precision detailing of the foundations that they sit in allowing each to operate independently. Meticulously designed components and junctions, with exacting tolerances, create a seemingly simple elevation capable of creating varied facade options with ease.
Bindloss Dawes’ design draws on neighbouring agricultural barns, utilising their contextual appropriateness and learning from their lessons in low-cost, materially-efficient design. A natural, pragmatic palette of timber, steel, concrete and recycled wood strand board combine to create a feeling of serenity and cleanliness. Their quiet tones allow the fleet of classic cars to become the focus.
As a project proposed to adapt over time, significant consideration has been given to how it weathers; the zinc roof and its concealed gutters will dull, complementing the silver patination of the sweet chestnut cladding, and the tones of the concrete plinth. As well as creating more depth, and texture, the open-lattice design of the cladding was chosen to help improve affordability, through reducing the quantity of timber required by 30%. Internally this device creates dappled daylight during the day, which is reversed at night as the light from the inside spills out into the surrounding landscape.
The components of construction are enjoyed and celebrated, rather than hidden, most clearly evidenced by the exposed steel structure that sets out each car bay. The insitu concrete base, articulated both externally and internally, provides an adaptable, tough floor surface for the projects present and future use.
Internally, the steel structure is expressed in an array of simple portal frames, with acoustic boards made of wood strands and cement lining the walls and ceilings between them. The garage is calm, almost gallery-like; while the taller workshop is tougher, complete with hard-wearing concrete wainscotting to add extra utility and robustness.
Although thermostats are currently turned down for its current use, the building includes underfloor heating powered by an Air Source Heat Pump, as well as additional first fix services hidden behind the internal wall panelling for potential future conversion. Autobarn exemplifies Bindloss Dawes’ approach to architecture that enhances and adds value to clients and context at any scale of project.
Oliver Bindloss, Director, Bindloss Dawes says: “Our aim was to create a building that appeared elegant and familiar at first glance, but then opened up to reveal something surprising and unexpected. Using the barn typology helped us to achieve this, creating simple timber forms that you might expect to find throughout the countryside, but then introducing some theatre with the big sliding doors, opening up the building to reveal the car collection inside”.
Tim Swift, client, says: “It’s been my long-term dream to bring my car collection together under one roof, and to start all the restoration projects I’ve been planning.When I approached Bindloss Dawes I had some strong ideas about how I wanted the project to look and feel, so the design has been a close collaboration between myself and the architects. I’m really pleased with what we have produced together.”
Drawings
Project Details
- Location: Somerset, United Kingdom
- Project size: 165 square metres
- Construction began: November 2020
- Completion: April 2022
- Client: Tim Swift
- Architect: Bindloss Dawes
- Design team: Oliver Bindloss, George Dawes
- Structural Engineer: Constant Structural Design
- Contractor: GDW Building & Renovations
- Photographer: © Building Narratives
