When I was two, my parents bought a log frame cottage that was slated for destruction because the neighbouring sand pit had extended almost to its foundation. It was taken down log by log and the logs were taken to a newly developed site, dragged by ropes through the woods and reerected. It was a no-budget project, even straightening and reusing old nails. My father passed coming up on six years ago, but somehow he lives on in the beauty he created over forty years at that place.
Thank you, Stewart for this video. I am a farmer in Minnesota and I see these structures slowly degrading all around where we live. We built a new milking parlor in 2002 and converted our old barn into young calf housing. It's actually been redesigned twice on the inside and now houses an automatic calf feeder (technology!). I always have hopes that these old, iconic structures will gain new life and preserve their space in our landscape.
Shifting from an educational viewpoint on material salvage to a great artistic narrative with Secret Sky was very captivating. I’m glad you’ve touched on the importance of salvage. Fantastic video!
Wow wow wow. At first I saw the slice in the barn as two dimensional and found it cool. Then realising the additional effects coming from it being three dimensional and by that adding depth to the effect it creates. The experience is multiplied and I'm intrigued by the cleverness in that seemingly simple design. Wow.
I'll have to seek out Secret Sky. I love when there is something that breaks your thought pattern from its expectations. Driving in rural Michigan past these barns is kind of a foundational building block of my perception of rural areas, much of the time just background scenery, sometimes of interest, but rarely are those expectations of a barn subverted.
The salvage and repurpose of artifacts is intriguing, but risks feeling more like antique picking meets sculpture and could get kitschy if not properly stewarded. To me, the rise of overall adaptive building re-use has a higher value proposition by repurposing the entire structure. Instead of salvaging an individual curiosity, occupants get to feel an immersive experience inside history and an ever-decreasing population of precious historic buildings endures. For example, in the southeast US WWII warehouses have become dynamic office space and centuries-old textile mills have become destination food halls all with unique character. Either way the confluence of old vs. new is increasing in demand, and no matter where a design falls on the spectrum, it's very encouraging to see this sort of modern renaissance!
Secret sky brings architectural salvage to the next level. Great work, Studio Alibi! It’s amazing to see how they’ve managed to salvage the simple structure, material, and space and elevate it to an architectural experience. It’s different to what is usually done with architectural salvage where these discarded/rescued items are used merely for decoration and does not form part of the whole design language of the building.
Here in Japan, there are companies that recover the hardwood skeletons of decaying old houses and rebuild them into modern houses with a distinctly Japanese architecture
Barns are a pure slice of nostalgia, rustic yet elegant, grand but not formal, the elegant gambrel roof and so on, and seeing this lone barn so beautifully taken care of is magic!!! Thank you for sharing!
There's gold in these places. Our house was built in 1904 and we found so many beautiful objects, oh man is like treasure hunting. Thanks Stewart! As a side, many of these old pieces will have lead in their paint so be careful wear a mask, sand outdoors if you intend to do that kind of work. Or just leave it as it is.
Last year I built our house using salvaged materials my dad has accumulated through the years! Most of them are from demolished houses. Almost all our walls, doors, windows, finishes are reused. I take pride on this approach, and being an architect I feel like this house is my design laboratory.
I travel far and wide to experience architecture. My favorite is always architectural statements in unexpected or seemingly incongruous places. This was lovely. Thank you for sharing!
Hello from South Africa, Stewart. Wonderful video as usual, especially this one because I built a 2.4m x 4.5m garden work space entirely from reclaimed building elements, lumber, and pallet wood.
Oh, wow. Secret Sky is just lovely - hadn't seen that before. So often - especially as midwesterners - we're faced with either losing old buildings, or erasing their decay in the quest of repurposing them. It's a very binary choice, and of course it makes sense; there usually isn't an interest (or a good method) to preserve that state of decay while keeping a building safe and accessible. But the alternative is to demolish a historically interesting or significant structure, which can be - quite literally - painful to watch. This barn, on the other hand, takes that delicate feeling of something slipping away, and preserves that beauty. It lets visitors feel that sense of discovery and age, celebrating it rather than attempting to simply scrub it clean and impose a new purpose upon it. Another great video, Stewart.
A big thank you for this video! I live in the Midwest where we have a large inventory of structures that when pen comes to paper do not make financial sense for modern code compliant rehabilitation. I'm hopeful that with some creativity these structures can be repurposed, salvaged, or even just stabilized for appreciation and hopefully someday the right owner with some perseverance and a plan!
I think the function of incorporating any SPOLIA in new buildings it's not just a smart recovery of materials nor just a romantic exercise ! I also see this practice been used as a way of transferring a certain degree of legitimacy ...or better, a way of anchoring any New project to its surroundings ! Definitely a topic worth exploring 👌
I suffer from the dilemma of loving old things and enjoying building things. I think reusing materials or pieces is the best go between to satisfy those interests.
Hey Stewart, very interesting stuff! The section through the barn reminded me a lot to the actions, removals and cuts Gordon Matta Clark used to perform in/to buildings.
We have a place in New Orleans called The Green Project that's a lot of pieces from 100+ year old homes. I love it! They have paint remixed and lumber and light fixtures and windows..... So much treasure!
Beautiful project, and so important to prioritise the reuse and recycling of existing buildings as opposed to demolition and new-build - for sustainability reasons. In just about every instance the saving of the embodied carbon has a massive environmental benefit, and the richness the layers of history offer, with well considered contemporary interventions, is another bonus.
Great content! Your presentation style is very engaging, and the production quality is excellent. I didn't know I was interested in architecture until I stumbled onto your channel! Great job taking a niche subject and making it accessible and interesting for a lay-person like me!
Very cool! And although unintentional, this video is a great birthday present, reminding me of lots of important things for the next decade. Thank you!
This reminds me of a ''stonemason workshop'' I came across once which was actually a roadside merchant of old stone spoils from demolished buildings in the area - everything from simple ashlars and pillars to beutifully carved 18th century staircase pieces and portal frames. I pretty sure some of these were illegaly obtained but I guess business is boomin'.
I love your channel so much! Thank you for your work. It's so interesting. I am currently finishing my master thesis and in my project (in a Balkan city) I'm also trying to use old bricks from demolished buildings from the balkan war for a mosaic brick facade to give those materials a "second life". This topic is very interesting. I'm excited for future videos! Greetings from Germany. :)
This is my dream. Unfortunately housing prices are so crazy right now that even an uninhabitable shack is still getting 200k asked for. Restoration projects in small rural towns barely exist and its so hard to see them rot away.
Thanks for the video! I'd love to see an investigation of contemporary religious architecture, especially as designers of houses of worship respond to/remix/reinterpret/break from traditions. Chicago and its surrounding area could be a great place to explore this!
I live and work in an area of the country where adaptive reuse is frowned upon. Being a Midwestern, I LOVE seeing older and under appreciated structures brought back to life! And if that isn't possible, elements of those structures reused to pay homage to once was!!! Stewart, I can't say enough of how much I love your channel and look forward to seeing the weekly videos!!! Thank you for bringing a spark of humor, honest wonder and humbleness of appreciation to the Built environment! I am truly envious of your students to have you as a prof! (No disrespect to any of my own past professors of course!) Donations on the way!!
I don't know why but I felt a bit disappointed that the inside of the barn is not accesable. Feels like the barn stopped being useful. And I think that it's what is inside of the barn is usually what's important. It's like its past was lost.
I wonder if the switch from salvaging to demolition is due to the increase use of concrete which has less direct means of being reused unlike bricks or was it a philosophical shift that decided that old thing could not add value to new construction.
More philosophical I'd imagine, given how pervasive throw away culture is these days, as I'm sure you know it's a much bigger problem than construction alone.
This was an amazing video. I feel like it was made for me. The barn story choked me up, man. Lol i really fancy the idea of this sort of thing. Mainly because my architectural expertise comes from fallout 4. Either way, its such a beautiful thing to see the use of repurposed objects becoming architecture. Its a truly fascinating idea and a focal point for some of my conceptual sketches. Its a very lovely video, Stewart.
I love reused materials. I wish it was a more common practice. Frankly all buildings that used expensive materials should be dismantled rather than torn down, so that those materials can have a second life. I not that intricate stone carving, like in the arch, would be easier and cheaper today with all the tools available, yet it is extremely uncommon today, but older buildings, when this was all done by hand, commonly have carved stone features.
Thank you for reintroducing me to spolia! I found a short paper on the Chicago Tribune's spolia that I found to be very insightful. It's titled "The Tribune Tower: Spolia as Despoliation" by Annabel J. Wharton. I'd be curious to hear what you think about buildings as agents, and the idea of granting legal status to buildings?
Building with eventual reconstruction in mind is almost antithetical to modern engineering and architecture. The idea that you are building for demolition is never considered. It would be beautiful if more of our fixtures were hex wrench bolts instead of screws and welds. TC Bolts and pre engineered buildings are great examples of ways around this. I hope that commercial pre engineered designs can make their materials available in residential applications and vice-versa.
In Cairo Egypt buildings contain materials taken from the pyramids. Many of the old barns around me in PA have had the wood beams sold around the country.
I worked on a farm where the yuppie idiot owner hired a carpenter to "salvage" some old barn boards that had already been "recycled" a few times... they were so full of rusty nails they were genuinely more useful as Ore than Lumber. It took forever, none of the wood was useful for anything either cosmetic or structural and several vehicle tires were shredded by all the jagged metal debris. Sometimes it really is best to just knock down an old barn and torch it.
Loved the video! Material salvage and reuse is also really important as a climate solution. As we run out of carbon budget, new and retrofitted buildings must use as much existing material as possible while keeping their energy efficiency high. Hope to hear your thoughts on this in a future video!
My buildings eats other buildings, one started getting indigestion recently, so it spit me up some bricks for a fire place. Moved some stairs away from it and gave them a room made of the crain im disasembling
I did a paper on how 'in my opinion' using recycled materials to produce affordable homes, not housing projects, is the best solution to the current impermissible cost of most houses. At first I was just going with the topic because it's hard to argue against the use of recycled materials, but as I was finding sources and doing research I was actually being convinced that it would be both economically worth while, and help give new cheap houses a sense of personality and uniqueness before even having a life of their own. Great video as usual Stewart
hey if you dont mind it would be awesome to see you create a video with none other than David Macaulay, i love this guy, and i think it would make a great video, he may be a bit busy at the moment though he was just working on a book , but if possible some time this would make my whole year , :D
I thought at first the barn was just one remaining wall, but I'm pretty amazed that they carved the triangle all the way through. Very impressive!
I am 61 years old, and like that old barn, I am finding new ways, to shine from within, in the twilight of my life.
When I was two, my parents bought a log frame cottage that was slated for destruction because the neighbouring sand pit had extended almost to its foundation. It was taken down log by log and the logs were taken to a newly developed site, dragged by ropes through the woods and reerected. It was a no-budget project, even straightening and reusing old nails. My father passed coming up on six years ago, but somehow he lives on in the beauty he created over forty years at that place.
Thank you, Stewart for this video. I am a farmer in Minnesota and I see these structures slowly degrading all around where we live. We built a new milking parlor in 2002 and converted our old barn into young calf housing. It's actually been redesigned twice on the inside and now houses an automatic calf feeder (technology!). I always have hopes that these old, iconic structures will gain new life and preserve their space in our landscape.
Shifting from an educational viewpoint on material salvage to a great artistic narrative with Secret Sky was very captivating. I’m glad you’ve touched on the importance of salvage. Fantastic video!
Couldn't have described it better!
Wow wow wow. At first I saw the slice in the barn as two dimensional and found it cool. Then realising the additional effects coming from it being three dimensional and by that adding depth to the effect it creates. The experience is multiplied and I'm intrigued by the cleverness in that seemingly simple design. Wow.
I'll have to seek out Secret Sky. I love when there is something that breaks your thought pattern from its expectations. Driving in rural Michigan past these barns is kind of a foundational building block of my perception of rural areas, much of the time just background scenery, sometimes of interest, but rarely are those expectations of a barn subverted.
The salvage and repurpose of artifacts is intriguing, but risks feeling more like antique picking meets sculpture and could get kitschy if not properly stewarded. To me, the rise of overall adaptive building re-use has a higher value proposition by repurposing the entire structure. Instead of salvaging an individual curiosity, occupants get to feel an immersive experience inside history and an ever-decreasing population of precious historic buildings endures. For example, in the southeast US WWII warehouses have become dynamic office space and centuries-old textile mills have become destination food halls all with unique character. Either way the confluence of old vs. new is increasing in demand, and no matter where a design falls on the spectrum, it's very encouraging to see this sort of modern renaissance!
Secret sky brings architectural salvage to the next level. Great work, Studio Alibi! It’s amazing to see how they’ve managed to salvage the simple structure, material, and space and elevate it to an architectural experience. It’s different to what is usually done with architectural salvage where these discarded/rescued items are used merely for decoration and does not form part of the whole design language of the building.
Well-put!
Here in Japan, there are companies that recover the hardwood skeletons of decaying old houses and rebuild them into modern houses with a distinctly Japanese architecture
That barn project is top. Props to Alibi
Barns are a pure slice of nostalgia, rustic yet elegant, grand but not formal, the elegant gambrel roof and so on, and seeing this lone barn so beautifully taken care of is magic!!! Thank you for sharing!
I love this. My stair railing was taken from an old house that my husband owned before we were married. I hope that we do more reusing of materials.
The surprise in an iconic repeated structure is always a very satisfying feeling. Pure joy. A reminder of why we like the structure at first place.
the barn brought a tear to my eye
There's gold in these places. Our house was built in 1904 and we found so many beautiful objects, oh man is like treasure hunting. Thanks Stewart!
As a side, many of these old pieces will have lead in their paint so be careful wear a mask, sand outdoors if you intend to do that kind of work. Or just leave it as it is.
Last year I built our house using salvaged materials my dad has accumulated through the years! Most of them are from demolished houses. Almost all our walls, doors, windows, finishes are reused. I take pride on this approach, and being an architect I feel like this house is my design laboratory.
I travel far and wide to experience architecture. My favorite is always architectural statements in unexpected or seemingly incongruous places. This was lovely. Thank you for sharing!
That barn looks so so cool!
Hello from South Africa, Stewart. Wonderful video as usual, especially this one because I built a 2.4m x 4.5m garden work space entirely from reclaimed building elements, lumber, and pallet wood.
Oh, wow. Secret Sky is just lovely - hadn't seen that before. So often - especially as midwesterners - we're faced with either losing old buildings, or erasing their decay in the quest of repurposing them. It's a very binary choice, and of course it makes sense; there usually isn't an interest (or a good method) to preserve that state of decay while keeping a building safe and accessible. But the alternative is to demolish a historically interesting or significant structure, which can be - quite literally - painful to watch. This barn, on the other hand, takes that delicate feeling of something slipping away, and preserves that beauty. It lets visitors feel that sense of discovery and age, celebrating it rather than attempting to simply scrub it clean and impose a new purpose upon it. Another great video, Stewart.
A big thank you for this video! I live in the Midwest where we have a large inventory of structures that when pen comes to paper do not make financial sense for modern code compliant rehabilitation. I'm hopeful that with some creativity these structures can be repurposed, salvaged, or even just stabilized for appreciation and hopefully someday the right owner with some perseverance and a plan!
Wow that was pure magic! What a stunning work they did with that barn. Congrats to all the people involved with that project
I think the function of incorporating any SPOLIA in new buildings it's not just a smart recovery of materials
nor just a romantic exercise !
I also see this practice been used as a way of transferring a certain degree of legitimacy ...or better,
a way of anchoring any New project to its surroundings !
Definitely a topic worth exploring 👌
I absolutely love this project! Thank you for sharing. Keep up the great work stewart!
Another great episode! That barn is amazing.
I suffer from the dilemma of loving old things and enjoying building things. I think reusing materials or pieces is the best go between to satisfy those interests.
Hey Stewart, very interesting stuff! The section through the barn reminded me a lot to the actions, removals and cuts Gordon Matta Clark used to perform in/to buildings.
Ive been there! The Chicago Salvage that is. They have these massive bars from prohibition, 30 feet long. It Barn is awesome too!
We have a place in New Orleans called The Green Project that's a lot of pieces from 100+ year old homes. I love it! They have paint remixed and lumber and light fixtures and windows..... So much treasure!
Beautiful project, and so important to prioritise the reuse and recycling of existing buildings as opposed to demolition and new-build - for sustainability reasons. In just about every instance the saving of the embodied carbon has a massive environmental benefit, and the richness the layers of history offer, with well considered contemporary interventions, is another bonus.
extremely marginal in a global economy that is constantly growing
solve energy and materials and its a non issue
just focus on the cultural value
Greetings from the Great Basin! Wonderful video - thank you very much.
I have never seen a better slice!
I love the barn, what a magnificent space/object.
Great content! Your presentation style is very engaging, and the production quality is excellent. I didn't know I was interested in architecture until I stumbled onto your channel! Great job taking a niche subject and making it accessible and interesting for a lay-person like me!
Love to see this! Recently watched a video about Unbuilders, a similar company in Vancouver. So cool!! Reuse makes me happy.
What a great piece of storytelling! So glad I subscribed.
Very cool! And although unintentional, this video is a great birthday present, reminding me of lots of important things for the next decade. Thank you!
Thanks for sharing the barn!! That is everything!!
Love your videos! Stories are told so well.
This reminds me of a ''stonemason workshop'' I came across once which was actually a roadside merchant of old stone spoils from demolished buildings in the area - everything from simple ashlars and pillars to beutifully carved 18th century staircase pieces and portal frames. I pretty sure some of these were illegaly obtained but I guess business is boomin'.
Thank you so much for sharing this episode.
This was an amazing video! Thank you! So inspiring! Uplifting! Bravo!
Great video Stewart. Love the barn with the slit in it (tip of the hat to Matta-Clark).
Beautiful video, remainds me of alot of the art hidden throughout the berkshires
That barn is EXQUISITE😆🙌🙌🙌
That was really interesting to learn about, thanks for sharing ☺️
I still love this story.
This is the future. Thank you for a great video.
This is cool.
I love art, and the artists who make it.
Thanks for doing what you do.
You add value to our lives, in so many ways.
uhg
I love your channel so much! Thank you for your work. It's so interesting.
I am currently finishing my master thesis and in my project (in a Balkan city) I'm also trying to use old bricks from demolished buildings from the balkan war for a mosaic brick facade to give those materials a "second life". This topic is very interesting.
I'm excited for future videos! Greetings from Germany. :)
the barn is amazing
This is my dream. Unfortunately housing prices are so crazy right now that even an uninhabitable shack is still getting 200k asked for. Restoration projects in small rural towns barely exist and its so hard to see them rot away.
This is my new favorite video
Fascinating content. Thank you, Stewart!
So beautiful. Thank you for your video.
I love your videos. Keep them up!
WOW!!! This is beautiful.
Love to see Catie Newell and Alibi in this, I wrote a paper on their Biennial submissions during my undergrad!
Amazing barn
I LOVE THIS KIND OF THING
Awesome, keep the good work!
this is absolutely fantastic
Awesome barn !!!
The memories of the dead always speaks for the living. This is how we must bury our past.
I wonder if there are a movement to conserve, reuse, re-apropriate "espigueiros" in Portugal
Stunning
Awesome video!
Thanks for the video! I'd love to see an investigation of contemporary religious architecture, especially as designers of houses of worship respond to/remix/reinterpret/break from traditions. Chicago and its surrounding area could be a great place to explore this!
This is an awesome idea, and a great way to shrink our carbon footprint!
I live and work in an area of the country where adaptive reuse is frowned upon. Being a Midwestern, I LOVE seeing older and under appreciated structures brought back to life! And if that isn't possible, elements of those structures reused to pay homage to once was!!! Stewart, I can't say enough of how much I love your channel and look forward to seeing the weekly videos!!!
Thank you for bringing a spark of humor, honest wonder and humbleness of appreciation to the Built environment! I am truly envious of your students to have you as a prof! (No disrespect to any of my own past professors of course!)
Donations on the way!!
Spolia! That sounds much more elegant than dumpster-dive find.
I don't know why but I felt a bit disappointed that the inside of the barn is not accesable.
Feels like the barn stopped being useful. And I think that it's what is inside of the barn is usually what's important. It's like its past was lost.
I wonder if the switch from salvaging to demolition is due to the increase use of concrete which has less direct means of being reused unlike bricks or was it a philosophical shift that decided that old thing could not add value to new construction.
More philosophical I'd imagine, given how pervasive throw away culture is these days, as I'm sure you know it's a much bigger problem than construction alone.
the GOAT returns!
I was waiting for that since early morning :)
"Secret Sky Barn" sounds amazing--like it should be a level in a videogame
That see-through wedge in the barn reminds me a bit of Gordon Matta- Clark's work. Interesting projet.
This was an amazing video. I feel like it was made for me. The barn story choked me up, man. Lol i really fancy the idea of this sort of thing. Mainly because my architectural expertise comes from fallout 4. Either way, its such a beautiful thing to see the use of repurposed objects becoming architecture. Its a truly fascinating idea and a focal point for some of my conceptual sketches. Its a very lovely video, Stewart.
go build a barn
I love reused materials. I wish it was a more common practice. Frankly all buildings that used expensive materials should be dismantled rather than torn down, so that those materials can have a second life. I not that intricate stone carving, like in the arch, would be easier and cheaper today with all the tools available, yet it is extremely uncommon today, but older buildings, when this was all done by hand, commonly have carved stone features.
Thank you for reintroducing me to spolia! I found a short paper on the Chicago Tribune's spolia that I found to be very insightful. It's titled "The Tribune Tower: Spolia as Despoliation" by Annabel J. Wharton. I'd be curious to hear what you think about buildings as agents, and the idea of granting legal status to buildings?
Amazing!
Building with eventual reconstruction in mind is almost antithetical to modern engineering and architecture. The idea that you are building for demolition is never considered. It would be beautiful if more of our fixtures were hex wrench bolts instead of screws and welds. TC Bolts and pre engineered buildings are great examples of ways around this. I hope that commercial pre engineered designs can make their materials available in residential applications and vice-versa.
thank you for a comment that actually makes sense!
good video 👍
In Cairo Egypt buildings contain materials taken from the pyramids. Many of the old barns around me in PA have had the wood beams sold around the country.
"Old barns don′t tear down
Let 'em stand proud until they fall to the ground." -- Greensky Bluegrass
Appreciate the work on the barn. Is it utilsed for anything or is it merely a "sculpture"?
love this.
Wow! I wish I had done that.
Really cool!
I love that barn. Where is it, exactly?
hats such beautiful work
I worked on a farm where the yuppie idiot owner hired a carpenter to "salvage" some old barn boards that had already been "recycled" a few times... they were so full of rusty nails they were genuinely more useful as Ore than Lumber. It took forever, none of the wood was useful for anything either cosmetic or structural and several vehicle tires were shredded by all the jagged metal debris.
Sometimes it really is best to just knock down an old barn and torch it.
Loved the video! Material salvage and reuse is also really important as a climate solution. As we run out of carbon budget, new and retrofitted buildings must use as much existing material as possible while keeping their energy efficiency high. Hope to hear your thoughts on this in a future video!
My buildings eats other buildings, one started getting indigestion recently, so it spit me up some bricks for a fire place. Moved some stairs away from it and gave them a room made of the crain im disasembling
I did a paper on how 'in my opinion' using recycled materials to produce affordable homes, not housing projects, is the best solution to the current impermissible cost of most houses. At first I was just going with the topic because it's hard to argue against the use of recycled materials, but as I was finding sources and doing research I was actually being convinced that it would be both economically worth while, and help give new cheap houses a sense of personality and uniqueness before even having a life of their own. Great video as usual Stewart
Hi! Have u been to Architectural Artifacts? Near the corner of Ravenwood and Montrose?
such a great voice
Do you know of any reuse group/company’s out in the Bay Area or Sacramento area?
Great video man. Love the idea
hey if you dont mind it would be awesome to see you create a video with none other than
David Macaulay, i love this guy, and i think it would make a great video,
he may be a bit busy at the moment though he was just working on a book ,
but if possible some time this would make my whole year , :D