Farnell Farm
Barn-to-guest house conversion
High Weald AONB, Kent
Farnell Farm is an arable estate of 345 acres on the northern edge of the High Weald, one of the best-preserved medieval landscapes in Northern Europe. Nestled between ancient woodland and a Cobnut and Bluebell plantation, a light-industrial agricultural barn in steel construction, used for storing farm equipment, presented an opportunity for quiet transformation.
This project converts the barn into a guesthouse, retaining one third of its footprint in active agricultural use. Keeping the building rooted in the working life of the estate was not only a planning condition but a design principle: the guesthouse and working barn coexist within a single structure, each legible from the other.
Two guest bedrooms were formed at first floor level within the existing steel mezzanine structure, whilst the ground floor accommodates the owners' living quarters alongside a communal open-plan kitchen and living space opening to views across the woodland and open farmland beyond.
Rather than imposing a new architectural language, the design works with the logic of the existing structure. Large window openings follow the rhythm and geometry of the steel frame. The original corrugated steel facade is retained as a carrier for a new breather membrane and black rainscreen cladding, with insulation applied from within — a low-intervention approach that upgrades the thermal performance of the building without altering its agricultural character.
Farnell Farm
Barn-to-guest house conversion
High Weald AONB, Kent
Farnell Farm is an arable estate of 345 acres on the northern edge of the High Weald, one of the best-preserved medieval landscapes in Northern Europe. Nestled between ancient woodland and a Cobnut and Bluebell plantation, a light-industrial agricultural barn in steel construction, used for storing farm equipment, presented an opportunity for quiet transformation.
This project converts the barn into a guesthouse, retaining one third of its footprint in active agricultural use. Keeping the building rooted in the working life of the estate was not only a planning condition but a design principle: the guesthouse and working barn coexist within a single structure, each legible from the other.
Two guest bedrooms were formed at first floor level within the existing steel mezzanine structure, whilst the ground floor accommodates the owners' living quarters alongside a communal open-plan kitchen and living space opening to views across the woodland and open farmland beyond.
Rather than imposing a new architectural language, the design works with the logic of the existing structure. Large window openings follow the rhythm and geometry of the steel frame. The original corrugated steel facade is retained as a carrier for a new breather membrane and black rainscreen cladding, with insulation applied from within — a low-intervention approach that upgrades the thermal performance of the building without altering its agricultural character.
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