It is said that architecture is about collaboration between people: clients, architects, engineers, designers and tradespeople. But, when it comes to heritage buildings and adapting them to our 21st-century lives, architecture is a collaboration between eras: despite different materials and styles, they have to work together to create a harmonious environment.
So, in April, 2021 when Angela and Jim Murphy purchased a collection of agricultural buildings near Milton, Ont., ranging in age from 170 years old to about 15 years old – an old stone barn, original farmhouse and tacked-on additions – it wasn’t long before they started to consider how everything connected. Which, by all accounts, was clunky and unharmonious.
“As you arrived, there were a lot of front doors [and] you didn’t know where to actually enter the house,” says architect Ajdin Mehanovic of mcCallumSather. “There were a lot of staircases, so navigating from first floor to second floor was extremely difficult.”
