Ashlawn Barn

Malvern, Pennsylvania

Living Building Challenge Adaptive Re-use of a Pennsylvania Bank Barn

Three big ideas:

Living Building,
Adaptive Re-use,
Biophilic

Nestled between a historic stone estate and a corporate office park, the Ashlawn barn is a modest Pennsylvania bank barn that has undergone numerous lives since its agricultural origin. The design for a new, collaborative office environment begins with removing half-a-century’s worth of modifications to expose the stone and timber structural bones of the building. The street level facade faces a residential neighborhood with a relatively intact historic appearance, while the rear facade has been significantly changed through the years. The design interventions respect the historic character of the street facade while replacing later material substitutions on the rear elevation with a timber curtainwall with electrochromic glazing to manage interior solar gain and glare in the brightly daylit interior.

The project is pursuing Living Building Challenge Petal certification with a focus on material toxicity and embodied carbon.

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