Balancing Barn by MVRDV and Mole Architects

The Balancing Barn has been announced as one of the winners of a red dot design award, one of the world's most prestigious design competitions.
The Balancing Barn received an ‘honourable mention' in the ‘Architecture and Urban Design' category, selected from 4,433 entries from 60 countries. The jury recognises work that shows highly refined detail solutions. The official awards ceremony will take place at the Aalto Theater in Essen, Germany on 4 July 2011.

Balancing Barn is situated on a beautiful site by a small lake in the English countryside near Thorington in Suffolk. The Barn responds through its architecture and engineering to the site condition and natural setting. The traditional barn shape and reflective metal sheeting take their references from the local building vernacular. In this sense the Balancing Barn aims to live up to its educational goal in re-evaluating the countryside and making modern architecture accessible. Additionally, it is both a restful and exciting holiday home. Furnished to a high standard of comfort and elegance, set in a quintessentially English landscape, it engages its temporary inhabitants in an experience.

Approaching along the 300 meter driveway, Balancing Barn looks like a small, two-person house. It is only when visitors reach the end of the track that they suddenly experience the full length of the volume and the cantilever. The Barn is 30 meters long, with a 15 meters cantilever over a slope, plunging the house headlong into nature. The reason for this spectacular setting is the linear experience of nature. As the site slopes, and the landscape with it, the visitor experiences nature first at ground level and ultimately at tree height. The linear structure provides the stage for a changing outdoor experience.

Architect: MVRDV
Location: Suffolk, England
Design Team: Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs, Nathalie de Vries, Frans de Witte, Gijs Rikken
Co-Architect: Mole Architects
Landscape Architects: The Landscape Partnership
Client: Living Architecture
Project Area: 210 sqm
Project Year: 2010
Photography: Edmund Sumner

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