BARD YERSIN architectes

Description

The project involves the transformation of an apartment occupying the barn section of an 18th-century farmhouse. Fribourg farmhouses of that era housed both living quarters and farm functions under one roof. The barn section consisted of two stables flanking a central passageway – the fourragère – a through-space used for feeding livestock that benefited from additional height, allowing hay to be stored above the stables. The apartment, fitted out in 2011 by previous owners, resulted from a renovation that significantly altered the barn’s building fabric and nature. The original timber floors were replaced with a concrete slab, the wooden structure was substituted with masonry walls, and the roof framework was removed in favour of glulam beams. The current project takes the form of a «re»-transformation of the barn based on subtraction, revealing the original qualities of the space. The main intervention restored the previous spatial character of the fourragère: partitions were removed to recover its through-configuration, and the slab was cut through its full depth to bring back its verticality. The resulting layout follows a tripartite scheme: the central living space occupies the former fourragère, while kitchen, bathroom and bedrooms are housed in structural bays on either side. Material choices reflect the same logic: pseudo-Tuscan finishes in the bathroom were replaced with white tiles reminiscent of milking rooms, and the plaster covering the ceiling and brick walls was stripped to reveal the original textures underneath.