Nestled into a grove of mature trees in the Tennessee countryside, this timber-framed farmhouse features a sheltered swimming pool and a large porch where residents can look out in excess of gently rolling fields .

Old Briar University of Tennessee by Applied Research

The house was designed by four University of Tennessee architecture professors – Brian Ambroziak, Tricia Stuth, Ted Shelton and Katherine Ambroziak – and is located on a 32-hectare farm near the Mississippi River in Lauderdale County.

Old Briar by Curb at the University of Tennessee

The clients had returned to the area they grew up in after 25 years living in Chicago, and asked the architects for a family members home that would permit them to re-set up their agricultural roots.

Old Briar by Curb at the University of Tennessee

“They envision this house as getting an anchor for their household, existing, and for generations yet to come,” explained the team.

“The residence they sought needed to talk their ethics of sustainable agrarian practices, respect for the landscape as a resource supporting the area, and humility, deeply rooted in their upbringing.”

Old Briar by Curb at the University of Tennessee

The property is named Old Briar, after a pickup trunk belonging to one particular of the clients’ grandfathers.


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The gabled profile and timber cladding lend the construction the physical appearance of a barn, although an interior with dark wood walls and exposed structural beams is more reminiscent of a traditional farmhouse.

Old Briar by Curb at the University of Tennessee

An asymmetric pitched roof extends above a large porch on the southern end of the home and a long terrace on the eastern side that shields the bedroom windows from the morning sun.

Old Briar by Curb at the University of Tennessee

“The clientele wished that the home be not ostentatious,” mentioned the architect. “In response, the kind of the house is reserved, dominated by the asymmetrical gable roof that slopes down to present a humble face to the street.”

Old Briar by Curb at the University of Tennessee

“The dominance of an asymmetrical gabled roof, light wooden screens, and grounded site walls current an image of a contemporary utilitarian farm residence,” they extra.

Old Briar by Brian Ambroziak, Tricia Stuth, Ted Shelton and Katherine Ambroziak

Bedrooms, bathrooms and dressing rooms are organized in an L-form that brackets one corner of a huge open-program residing space exactly where the roof’s timber framework and supporting columns are left exposed.

Old Briar by Curb at the University of Tennessee

Wooden floorboards, furnishings and doors match the colour of the framework, whilst a corridor with darker floors skirts close to the edge of the space to offer entry to the bedrooms. Soft furnishings and kitchen fittings are coloured a contrasting steel grey.

Old Briar by Curb at the University of Tennessee

Glazed doors open from the lounge and dining areas onto a massive covered porch overlooking fields of wheat, soybean and cotton crops. A cluster of wooden benches produced from split tree trunks are organized at the edge of the porch, while a pool is submerged into the dark timber decking.

Old Briar by Curb at the University of Tennessee

Rainwater collected in cisterns on the roof is used to provide the pool and a koi pond, as properly as to irrigate the orchard.

Wooden outbuildings and timber-imprinted concrete walls are dotted around the home to offer a separation in between farmland and home, and also to provide space to store tools.

Old Briar by Curb at the University of Tennessee

The project was lately named as 1 of the prime ten American housing tasks of 2015.

Photography is by Jeffrey Jacobs.


Undertaking credits:

Architects: Brian Ambroziak, Tricia Stuth, Ted Shelton and Katherine Ambroziak
Structural engineer: Mallia Engineering
Landscape architect: Gregg Bleam Landscape Architect
Structural engineer: Mallia Engineering
General contractor: Meadowlark Building

Old Briar by Curb at the University of TennesseeSite strategy Old Briar by Curb at the University of TennesseeFloor plan Dezeen

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