On one level, architect Aya Maceda’s mission was simple. A couple with four children and a weekend house in Sharon, Connecticut, wanted a modern barn to replace the crumbling garage on their property. In addition to sheltering cars, it would store a variety of sports equipment.

But what a collection of gear! There were bicycles, tennis racquets, and snowmobiles, bundles of skis and piles of ski boots, all of which needed to be organized and kept handy for a family that redefines the word “active.”

The clients, Rakesh Wilson, who works in finance, and Amanda Wilson, a psychiatrist, also wanted the new building to offer what their century-old white clapboard farmhouse across the wide lawn could not: private quarters for guests and a retreat for their children. As closet modernists in a traditional setting, they yearned for a streamlined, uncluttered environment that fit unobtrusively into the same footprint as the structure it replaced.

Maceda, who is a principal of ALAO, an architecture studio with offices in Brooklyn and New Orleans, created two portions sitting side by side and totaling about 2,500 square feet, with an additional 400-square-foot loft within the vaulted garage. On the ground floor, a connecting breezeway functions as an open-air playroom. The forms echo the austere silhouettes of New England farm buildings, updated with a charred Accoya wood exterior. “Rakesh and Amanda wanted a low-maintenance house,” says Maceda. “They don’t have to treat it or paint it.”

She designed both sections for acrobatic flexibility even before the pandemic went into high gear. But the lockdown, which occurred just a week after the project was completed in March 2020, created demands that put her versatile plan to the test.

“I was trained by modernists, but it’s also really important to me that all the material and everything you touch in a house makes you feel human.”
—Aya Maceda, architect

Maceda had clad the interior of the large main garage, which also functions as a playroom when empty, in warm and friendly Baltic birch plywood and fitted it out with custom cabinets for storing bicycles, tennis rackets, and ski equipment.

A second, separate bay holds a pair of classic sports cars with the help of a pneumatic lift, and a smaller bay around back houses ATVs and snowmobiles. The loft above them was to contain additional storage for retired winter items and a ski simulator. But now that Rakesh is spending more time in the country, he is using it as his office.

Similarly, the living spaces, which are finished in granite, marble, terrazzo, and oak, were designed to fulfill multiple missions before the pandemic added a few more. A ground-level studio for guests who are unable to manage stairs has its own entrance and patio, with a double- height corner of glass windows. This room also has a kitchenette for staging refreshments for entertaining, and it has become useful to Amanda as an office. Behind it is a room that was meant to be a gym—until the Peloton was joined by a standing school desk for the oldest child.

The main living quarters upstairs include a serene gray-blue bedroom for adults and a bunk room with custom beds for kids. Although originally intended for guests, these rooms have proved convenient on the nights before Rakesh takes the older children to their ski competitions, leaving Amanda and the toddler to sleep in the big house past dawn.

Finally, there is an upstairs room for lounging and dining, with a large kitchenette. A bifold glass door opens to a balcony looking out to hillsides. But another arresting view is offered by a small window cut into a side wall like the entrance of a speakeasy. Through it you can see the interior of the main event: a garage as cheering and tempting as a toy chest.

Project Credits:

Architect of Record: ALAO

Construction: Amber Construction and Design

Structural Engineering: Büro Ehring Engineering PC

Landscape Design: Greenacres Landscaping of Canaan CT

Interior Design: ALAO

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A Charred Cedar Barn Replaces a Tumbledown Garage in Connecticut