The Barn – Croxley

Set in 75 acres of parkland, Croxley Park is a vibrant community of businesses and amenities on the outskirts of Watford. The Barn is a flexible space, designed to cater for a variety of events throughout the year, which sits alongside the café and gym at the heart of the park.

The original plan was for a full conference centre, but we questioned the necessity for this, as all the tenants had their own meeting spaces within their buildings. We settled on a new concept for a much smaller building that could be used for multiple purposes. The barn, café and gym are all clad in Thermowood timber battens. Typically derived from sustainably grown softwood, Thermowood’s longevity, robustness and stability are all improved by a natural process of heat-treatment, which elevates its characteristics to the level of a more expensive hardwood.

The building sits next to the lake and can be closed or opened right up. Bespoke sliding doors were made in a temporary joinery workshop in a vacant building on-site. Millimetre perfection was required to ensure they worked with the sliding door and guide rail ironmongery linked to the steel frame of the building. Frames and door carcasses were made from Accoya, an incredibly stable and hardwearing timber. There are different styles of sliding doors on opposing sides of the barn. To the front, they slide and stack internally and there is also a door for opening up and locking down the venue without having to move the larger panels. To the back of the building, the doors slide outside the face of the building, projecting on traditional barn-like rails.

The courtyard overlooking the lake is a communal and versatile area, equipped with power supplies for street food, catering and music. The space is framed by walls of Thermowood battens, here running horizontally as opposed to the vertical cladding on the building, to gently differentiate.