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Around an ongoing barn conversion project, this website draws together advice, information and references to aid all would-be and current barn and non-residential building converters and renovators.

Our approach takes on board 'healthy house', sustainable, ecological & environmental concepts to as great a degree as timescales and budgets allow.

my barn conversion

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The large window on the yard side of the barn

Insulation ~ Hemp

Lime Pointing ~ Summer 2008 … part 3

Rainwater Harvesting ~ 'If Only...'

ruralZED™ ~ Zero Carbon Home

Clean lines

No Batteries Required...

Got Wood!

Latest Comments

On Air Source Heat Pump by mbc on August 31st, 2008
Thanks Alan - I try to help.

On Air Source Heat Pump by Alan Brook on August 30th, 2008
At last a web site with useful info on this! We...

On Code for Sustainable Homes by ruralZED™ ~ Zero Carbon Home | my barn conversion on August 27th, 2008
[...] Heat PumpBiomass HeatingBREEAM ~ Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment...

On Project Management ~ Google Documents by Amit Patekar on August 20th, 2008
I use Google document from the day it was launched...

On Let it rain, let it rain, let it rain.... by British Summer Time | my barn conversion on August 12th, 2008
[...] Looking back through previous posts on mbc I discovered...

On Air Source Heat Pump by paul Hustwitt on August 8th, 2008
We are thinking of replacing an old oil fired boiler...

On Lime Pointing ~ Summer 2008 by Lime Pointing ~ Summer 2008 … part 2 | my barn conversion on August 8th, 2008
[...] With a set of plans and my ruler I...

On Building Progress ~ May 2008 by mbc on August 7th, 2008
Thanks Steve, I can't take any of the credit personally -...

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Lijit Search

Design Patterns @ architypes

Category: Website Reviews June 29th, 2008 by mbc

As should be pretty obvious to any regular reader of this site, I’m pretty keen on the use of design patterns to ensure the goodness-of-fit between building plans and specifications and the requirements of the eventual end-users of a building. Patterns help inspire, guide and polish building design at all levels.


A Pattern Language ~ the ‘bible’ of building patterns

So, when I stumbled across the architypes site my interest was piqued.

architypes.net is a library of architectural design issues, solutions and ideas.

At the heart of architypes.net are two simple but powerful ideas:

Patterns: The principles and ideas are organized into “patterns”. Each pattern describes a solution for a specific problem or design goal. […]
Open Collaboration: architypes.net is a continuously evolving peer-reviewed project that you are invited to participate in.

In use I find the site and its patterns to be informative & inspirational, but perhaps a little light-weight. For example, the intriguing ‘Places of Quiet Refuge‘ pattern consists merely of the text:

The Japanese are often admired for their techniques used in creating private and quiet spaces. They are masters of separating the public spaces from the private spaces, and their techniques are rather simple.

…and a photo of an interesting mezzanine. Thanks, I’d like more… but it does start you thinking.

Worth a visit if you’re seeking inspiration. I’m off to develop some of my own meaty patterns…

If you enjoyed that post, then read these...

Step 4 – design on February 26th, 2007
We have some strong opinions about how we wanted the conversion to...

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Passive Solar Design on August 1st, 2007
Whilst a little late in the day for our barn (it was...

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Design Patterns ~ my choices on November 29th, 2007
I’ve already written about one of my favourite building design books –...

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Ecohouse 2 - A design Guide on January 29th, 2008
Sue Roaf, Manuel Fuentes, Stephanie Thomas ~ 2003, Architectural Press.

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Passive Solar Design as a Word Cloud on June 25th, 2008
One of the (admittedly very dull) things that I spend quite a...

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Posted in Website Reviews | No Comments »

Passive Solar Design as a Word Cloud

Category: Misc. June 25th, 2008 by mbc

One of the (admittedly very dull) things that I spend quite a lot of time thinking about and experimenting with is the presentation of information. One of the newish developments that is overused on the web, but can be very effective is the word cloud. A word cloud is made up of the key words found with the domain of a certain topic or article with the size of each word in relation to the others determined by the frequency of use of that word.

The site wordle provides a great on-line word cloud generator. I used it to generate a word cloud from my article on Passive Solar Design:



(Click on the image to get a larger version)

Please take a look at the image then read the article on Passive Solar Design

Although some of the colouring of words could be better and certain words such as direct & indirect loose their relationship, I think that the word cloud conveys much of the content of the article - what do you think?

If you enjoyed that post, then read these...

Passive Solar Design on August 1st, 2007
Whilst a little late in the day for our barn (it was...

title

Design Patterns ~ my choices on November 29th, 2007
I’ve already written about one of my favourite building design books –...

title

Lack of Government support for solar power on January 17th, 2008
As this project progresses certain features become core to the overall design...

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Ecohouse 2 - A design Guide on January 29th, 2008
Sue Roaf, Manuel Fuentes, Stephanie Thomas ~ 2003, Architectural Press.

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Solar Water Heating on March 13th, 2008
Solar water heating systems use energy from the sun to heat water...

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Posted in Misc. | No Comments »

Forum Competition

Category: Site Announcements June 22nd, 2008 by mbc

I’d love the forum to become a useful resource for asking questions and getting answers related to ‘healthy house’, sustainable, ecological & environmentally aware building. There are other places out there to ask questions but they can at times be daunting, unwelcoming sorts of places. I want to keep things friendly and inclusive here.

To encourage questions and answers I’ll be running a competition over the Summer. There are a number of categories:

  • Most interesting topic. Awarded to the most interesting or thought provoking new topic posted on the forum.
  • Most interesting reply. Awarded to the most informative, thought provoking or well researched reply made within a topic on the forum.
  • Editors choice. Awarded to forum member that whose over contribution (in the editors opinion) has been the most interesting, thought provoking, funny, well researched or informative.

Prizes are a £20 Amazon E-mail Gift Certificate for each of the three categories.


(Affiliate link)

Please register and get posting…

The small-print:

The editors decision is final.
All prize winners will need to provide a valid email address to which their prize will be sent.
Competition ends midnight 30th September 2008. Prizes awarded within one week of 30th September 2008.
We reserve the right not to award prizes should response rates to the competition be low.

If you enjoyed that post, then read these...

mybarnconversion.com goes YouTube on December 26th, 2007
I'm always looking for new ways to get the message of this...

category: 'Site Announcements'

100th post marks Spring on mbc on March 19th, 2008
Well this is my 100th post on My Barn Conversion and as...

category: 'Site Announcements'

mybarnconversion.com Discussion Forum now open! on June 11th, 2008
I've long considered adding a forum to this site mainly to allow...

title category: 'Site Announcements'

Posted in Site Announcements | No Comments »

Pipes

Category: Journal of my barn conversion June 17th, 2008 by mbc

Now we have pipes (and lots of them as well). In addition to lots of electricity cables, we now have complex pipe-work that will form the basis of the even more complex heating and hot-water system that we’ll be installing. This also means that first-fix electrics and plumbing is now complete… (worthy of a small […]

Posted in Journal of my barn conversion | No Comments »

mybarnconversion.com Discussion Forum now open!

Category: Site Announcements June 11th, 2008 by mbc

I’ve long considered adding a forum to this site mainly to allow questions to be asked in a general manner rather than tied to a specific post. So, after fiddling about with it for a while, here is the new…
mybarnconversion.com Discussion Forum
My Barn Conversion Forum is the place for discussion of sustainable, ecological & […]

Posted in Site Announcements | No Comments »

Building Progress ~ May 2008

Category: Journal of my barn conversion June 3rd, 2008 by mbc

May has been a month of windows.

The roof lights in the western elevation

We now have a six ‘velux’ type windows in the roof, a new window opening in the south facing gable-end of the barn and the ventilation (arrow) slits have been glazed.
The amount of light that the new roof lights let into the building […]

Posted in Journal of my barn conversion | 3 Comments »

Tax Freedom Day

Category: News June 2nd, 2008 by mbc

Tax Freedom Day 2008 falls is TODAY! 2 June 2008

There’s good news and bad news…
The good news is that from now on every penny you earn, you can keep…
The bad news is that since the start of the year every penny you’ve earnt has gone to the government to pay for their expenditure.
Read more about […]

Posted in News | No Comments »