The Cowshed

By Design Storey

Client Private

Award RIBA South West and Wessex Award 2025 and RIBA South West and Wessex Conservation Award (sponsored by Velux)

The award winner tells us, "The Cowshed is a sensitive conversion of a historic listed barn comprising a single storey cowshed and two storey bull pen located in the Cotswolds National Landscape into a two bedroomed dwelling.

The clients purchased the barn with an extant planning consent. However, that scheme did not make the best use of space or celebrate the unique qualities of the building. They approached Design Storey to explore a new design blending contemporary and historical features.

The design approach was conservation led and collaborative. Both sides of the barn were united by inserting a timber pod into the building housing a new staircase, mitigating a level change, and acting as a divider between the bedrooms and bathrooms. An innovative approach was taken to reuse of the building’s timber structure, which was ‘lifted’ into its original position, providing an interesting construction challenge and enabling complete reuse with minimum intervention. Even the original padstones, discovered during construction, were reused."

Extract from the RIBA Awards Jury citation, "Internally, the design creates an intimate dwelling, intended as the clients’ weekend home, that has been expertly planned to unlock the restrictions of the existing building. This has created a surprising sense of generosity, despite the small size and spatial constraints. The repairs notably included the reinstatement of the formerly derelict oak-framed barn’s structure.

In this conversion of a Grade II listed Gloucestershire barn that dates back to the 18th century, the architects have worked inventively within the constraints of the existing stone and timber structures, to create a compact but beautifully planned and executed dwelling."

Read the full citation from the RIBA Awards Jury on RIBA Journal

Contractor Matford Construction

Structural engineer Mann Williams

Gross internal area 90m²