Wood, Steel, & Delicacy

After reading a bit more on Figueras Polo Stable and seeing the overall positive reception that it gets even among traditional horse people, I wanted to keep highlighting stables that are different but also functional. As I said in the last post, horse barns are incredibly mundane in their fundamentals. There's no harm in having fun once you've established the basic layout.

This brings me to this Chilean horse stable by 57STUDIO. As of late, I've been thinking deeply about what I want my future to look like with horses and decided that I wanted to go the route of actually owning a farm. In terms of overall aesthetics, this horse barn is nearly in line with what I would envision my future self building.

In reality, this is an incredibly simple manifestation of the equally simple layout that is essential to horse barns. I think what makes this a hit for me is the material pallet. The wood for the stall fronts and the metal posts are both new, but the roof tiles were re-used from the previous stable. This move had to do with how remote the site is. How they managed to pour concrete there is beyond me.

When you zoom into the specifics, this barn does look rather inexpensive. In terms of finishes, this barn, like, doesn't have any. In a house, finishes usually refers to those small items that make it look, well, finished. This includes baseboards, paint, counters and cabinets, door knobs, etc. This barn has none of that. You could argue that the lights are a finish, but even those fixtures aren't necessarily "designed."

And this isn't a dig at all! Literally, I'm trying to say the exact opposite. The refusal to embellish the stoic horse barn layout truly works here. It's especially refreshing to not see the same either bright yellow or deep stained red wood that tends to be typical in higher end barns. This design is incredibly utiliatarin and accomplishes the job of being a temporary box, feeding station, and shelter for farm animals. Minor changes in how the materials come together would easily shift this into a long term stabling situation.

All of this information and the images are from Arch Daily. I've started a collection of well designed horse barns: Horse Properties. Additionally, my professor's book on horse stables has finally hit the shelves!! Hopefully it gives y'all some inspiration for your own barns!