Meier Road Barn is part of an ongoing master plan designed by Mork Ulnes Architects, for an ambitious couple living on a vineyard in Sonoma, California. The project took place just 100 meters from the couple’s 1930s bungalow. The project brief was straight forward: provide large flexible spaces that could be used to store farm equipment, workspaces, collectables and an art studio. Eager to maintain the existing 2,475 square foot (230 square meters) footprint, the architects found new ways to use the older typology.

The main challenge became to create an ideal art studio within the barn vernacular. Inverting the traditional gable barn roof solved this by gaining the needed height, and provided the studio with the indirect northern light conditions.

An expansion of the project is currently under construction and includes an amoeba-like structure to house a dining area with an interior jungle, an aviary, bathroom pods, a swimming pool, and an amphitheatre. There’s also been talk of a hockey rink.

Transparent openings of different sizes reveal interior functions to people approaching the building. The light-filled artist’s studio, in particular, is in full view.

Photos: Bruce Damonte