Daily Dose 1866

Piertzovanis Toews

1866 | Piertzovanis Toews - Erika and Willis Barn "Almost four years ago, we started an experiment. Erika and Willi had bought a barn, willing to carry out a major alteration by themselves. The financial means for the conversion were limited, as were the owner‘s craft skills. A sensitivity for architectural issues could not be assumed. For both, the owner and the architects, this project has been an intense yet rewarding journey. The L-shaped room under the huge roof was originally used to store hay. This central space retains its height differences and the warped roof trusses. It is now characterized by four differently colored houses in the house - the yellow loggia, which appears like a glass house on the inside, but whose interior belongs to the outside space; the green kitchen, which occupies a separate area; the pale red stairhouse and the lilac glass walkway to the courtyard. Other than the heating and the windows, every single step was carried out by the owners themselves, based on carefully prepared illustrated step-by-step manuals. Confusions, sometimes almost reminding of Buster Keatons chaotic self-building slapstick »One Week« were part of the game. But even if they seem to be inherent in such a build-after-instruction process, it turned out that with time and patience a luckier outcome than the destructive ending of the movie has been possible. From laying the first quarry stones centuries ago to photographing and manually printing the images, the process has been a celebration of handcraft, highlighting its irregularities and cracks shaped by time and hand."