Floating in

Farmland Meadows
-
arba-: Maison Barache,
Auvilliers, Normandy, France

Left The timber framework is expressed internally

in spaces such as this attic bedroom, which has
a simple cabin aesthetic.

Opposite Cedar shingles clad the exterior walls

and the roof, lending the cabin sculptural purity
and simplicity.
Countryside and Forest
Below A large wood-burning stove provides heat
for the house; the brick surround and chimney store
warmth and distribute it through the building.
Right and opposite The simple kitchen, also made
from plywood and timber, flows out on to a deck, an
outdoor dining space that looks across the meadow.
T
he architect Jean-Baptiste Barache describes his off-grid
country home as an experiment rather than a statement.
Sometimes called ‘the house in a field’, Maison Barache
is a low-tech solution to the challenge of self-building a
rural escape with simple materials and a modest budget.
The result is a timber-framed home, coated in shingles, which echoes
the barns and agricultural buildings of the region. The pinewood
frame, which appears to float upon concrete piers embedded in the
field, is the only element that wasn’t built by Barache himself, who
completed the project over a period of two years.
Barache, whose architectural practice, arba-, is based in
Paris, found a bucolic and tempting site in open pasture bordered
by woodland near a small commune between Rouen and Amiens.
The exterior, including the sharply pitched roof, is clad in a skin of
red cedar shingles, lending the house an organic quality. At one end,
a large wall of glass has been inserted into the A-frame, allowing
natural sunlight to flood in and dissolve the boundary between
the main living space and the wooden deck alongside, complete
with outdoor dining table and seating. This glass façade is pierced
by louvres, which help to cool the house during the summer.
The interior is arranged over three levels. The ground floor is
partially open-plan, with fluid connections between the main living
16
room to the front and the kitchen/dining area behind; a triple-
height space facing the deck gives a striking impression of height
and scale. The staircase and the single bathroom are in the centre.
Three simple, cabin-style bedrooms are at mid-level, and the
master bedroom is held on a slim upper storey within the tip
of the pitchedroof. The joinery and partitioning throughout are
of simple veneered timber, plywood and chipboard.
The main source of heat in this off-grid home is a wood-
burning stove, which distributes warmth throughout via a brick
surround and chimney. The simple kitchen stove is powered by
a gas canister, and the water is from a private source. Without any
electricity, Barache and his Japanese wife, Mie, rely on oil lamps,
although they are considering installing solar panels and battery
storage. ‘I love the light of a flame and the way it creates shadows,’
says Barache. ‘It’s a very Japanese notion – beauty that does not
reveal itself.’
The house also respects its rural setting, and little or no
landscaping has been done around it. During the summer, Maison
Barache appears to float in the green meadow, a natural presence
in the landscape.