BACK TO NATURE

BARN CONVERSION

HOMEOWNERS Richard Clayson and Lucy Dunn

LOCATION East Sussex

BUILD TIME Nine months

SIZE 172m²

CONSTRUCTION SYSTEM Timber frame

BARN COST £480,000 (2015)

BUILD COST £310,000

CURRENT VALUE £850,000

As a youngster living in Cambridge, Richard had walked past a barn and outbuildings and was struck by how the different elements could be joined to make a house. “I can still remember that in my mind’s eye. That was my own ‘grand design’ and now it’s appeared in real life,” he says.

For Richard, a chartered surveyor and, now, Passivhaus consultant, serendipity didn’t so much