When my husband, Deane and I went for a walk in our woods a few years back, I needed to look down so that I could step over stones and the underbrush without getting tangled up and losing my balance. Deane on the other hand, had his head tilted up and back. As usual he found his footing easily while he studied the trees above us. We had been commissioned to design a barn that had the genuine feel of an old English tithe barn.
We talked to our client about using trees in their natural form as the supportive structure and using traditional square mortise and tenon joinery. (Imagine fitting a square joint into a round form!) They liked the idea and the hunt was on. We were looking for trees that might have a curved trunk or that had a cruck and branch at just the right height to use in the structure. Deane would stop to point out an ash tree that had a branch he thought had the strength and right angle for our purpose. As we walked through the woods, we talked about how we would use the natural form of trees and unfinished materials to give this barn an earnest, rugged and historic expression.
I drew images of the overall plan and form and worked out a good number of details. Deane built a timber frame model out of twigs. We talked to Jerry Palms, our structural engineer about what we wanted to do. He joined us in our enthusiasm. There were many walks in the woods. When winter came, Deane cut the trees that he had flagged and dragged them out using some repurposed tracts retrofitted on to an old tractor to navigate through the deep snow. In early spring when the sap began to run, he pried the bark off of each tree using a spud (not a drawknife) so that the wood would be silky and smooth and would show the distinctive wrinkles at branching.
Then he power washed each to clean any remaining sap or cambium. With a lot of head scratching and several test mock-ups, Deane was able to invent a means to support and scribe the big timbers together. We carried the organic theme into the curved, natural edge of the railing boards on the bridge and lofts and replicated a turned stair that Deane had seen while in Europe. Unlike the old tithe barns, however, we added a ridge skylight that brings natural light into the two central bays. The light softly illuminates the space and highlights the unique structure within.
