Former Haystack Refurbishment

OOIIO Architecture

Project description

Our initial goal was to avoid the collapse of a group of former modest agricultural constructions used in old times as a hayloft and farming rooms. Some areas are hundreds years old and some others “just” from beginning of XXth century, but all of them had in common that they are cheap functional constructions used as countryside work spaces about to collapse doubt to different pathologies, after more than 50 years of disuse and the passage of time with no maintenance. Our first works where purely structural reinforcements of roofs and falling adobe and brick walls. For it we followed the ancient techniques and respected the way those elements where built originally. Once we reach safe work conditions we started to get into details, taking the most important design decisions: -To communicate all the different originally divided spaces creating a large unitary space set. -To complete the facades closing up the envelope of the new large unitary space. -To build a new “spatial connector” that is unify with the only existing stairs going down to the cave. -To recover all the ancient architectonical elements as possible. -Play with color and natural light to enhance this material games and combinations. The result of all this architectonic surgery work has been a patchwork of solutions, rethinking the old and mixing it with the new, turning the result into a mosaic of nuances and details. A refurbishment planned on site to recover these ancient buildings that now shine with a new life.