Autobarn

Autobarn | United Kingdom | 2022
[Bindloss Dawes]

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 that 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 are 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 southwestern 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 neighboring agricultural barns, utilizing 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, by 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 the construction are enjoyed and celebrated, rather than hidden, most clearly evidenced by the exposed steel structure that sets out each car bay. The in-situ concrete base articulated both externally and internally, provides an adaptable, tough floor surface for the project’s 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 their 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 paneling for potential future conversion. Autobarn exemplifies Bindloss Dawes’ approach to architecture that enhances and adds value to clients and context at any scale of the project. Text description by the architects.