Farmhouse

A door leads out from the romantic courtyard, lush with plants. “Although we live in a big city, it doesn’t feel like it,” Kolasiński says. “The neighborhood and the nature are very relaxing and quiet.”

The second-floor office is housed inside a rounded rectangle of concrete that the architect inserted on top of the old farmhouse.

The main entrance is on the house’s south side. It leads to a central hall from which all sections of the home are accessible.

Lower level floor plan.

In the existing house, the wood beams were hidden under sheetrock and wallpaper. "I exposed them all, but I didn't let that dictate where the new walls would go," Givone says. "I let the beams fall where they may."

A glass-lined shower with a Hudson Reed showerhead adds a modern touch to the second-floor bathroom. A pane of privacy glass lets natural light enter the room.

The updated kitchen is outfitted with stainless steel appliances, including a Bosch range, a Fisher & Paykel refrigerator, and a Frigidaire range hood. The faucet is Hudson Reed.

The new custom kitchen is situated in the original structure. The window is a new commercial unit with an operable frameless center pane and was set so that the countertop could tuck right underneath it to create a 1/4-inch shadow line.

The Floating Farmhouse’s semitransparent addition has a roofline that matches the pitch of the original 1820s farmhouse. A porch, tucked under the side eaves, is cantilevered over a stream that runs through the property. Ikea loungers are illuminated from the interior by commercial gymnasium lights repurposed as pendant lamps.

The back bedroom and small bathroom benefit from warmer, more playful flooring, including the geometric black-and-white pattern below the tub.

The kitchen and dining area benefit from the light that pours in from the glass wall. A set of Hay J77 chairs and a YES Crane Light wrap around the table.

Built by a crew of three, the home makes a virtue out of being unfussy and straightforward. The north-facing glass wall under the gable, with a triple-glazed facade, doesn't require shading or insulation. The quick-to-build structure—which consists of just structural insulated panels (SIB) made from OSB panels with a foam core, and a concrete floor that retains heat—doesn't include any complicated systems or require much maintenance.

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"It only cost about $48,000 to build, which was incredibly cheap," says Turner of the Stealth Barn. "We got the Timber Frame Company to supply the shell, then we clad it and fitted out the interior and windows ourselves. The idea was to take the archetypal black tar-painted agricultural building and make an almost childlike icon of that."

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