Thorn farmhouse

2021 – 2023
Location: Thorn, Dartmoor National Park
Type: Private residential
Status: Complete
Budget: Not disclosed

The re-ordering and upgrading of Thorn Farmhouse, a grade 2 listed longhouse derivative building located within the hamlet of Thorn, in Dartmoor National Park. The building is built of granite rubble and ashlar, with lath and plaster internally and retaining its original plank and muntin screen dividing the two principal rooms at ground floor.⁠ The project involved the removal of various 20th century additions and the careful and sensitive renovation of the historic building fabric using natural, breathable materials and systems as well as incorporating new low carbon services.⁠ The re-ordering of an existing 19th century out-shot provides a bedroom and bathroom on the ground floor with a new courtyard and loggia in place of a modern flat roofed extension linking the ground floor and workshop to the rear.⁠

The material strategy involved the use of low carbon and breathable materials including Geocell Foam Glass aggregate, limecrete slab and polished lime screed, cork board insulation, and insulative lime plasters. ⁠A sophisticated system of below-slab drainage combined with external drainage was developed to divert groundwater underneath and away from the house where it had previously run through.⁠