Charbrook Farm.

Charbrook Farm studio and grange hall is a design collaboration with Stimson, the award-winning landscape architecture firm based in Massachusetts. Serving as both office and gathering space, the two connected buildings support Stimson’s work and are periodically open to the public for events. Set within a larger working farm that functions as an outdoor laboratory for landscape experimentation and plant nursery that support the firm’s work, adjacent structures include a greenhouse, farm store, and tractor barn.

The collaborative design process explored a series of simple forms and roof lines that draw inspiration from traditional New England farm structures. The building unfolds as the user moves through a series of varied landscape elements including a linear water feature, an elevated plank walkway and a series of planting beds. The primary approach and entry leads to the gap between the two buildings. This arrival point also functions as a partially sheltered gathering space.

Utilitarian corrugated roof eaves are kept minimal to highlight the crisp vernacular volumes and to reference the earliest examples of New England architecture. The placement of windows is both respectful of inherent formal symmetry of the main gable combined with a playful modernist asymmetry that is more responsive to the function of interior spaces. A variety of window sizes modulates the experience of the landscape from within.

Clad in local soft wood harvested in the area the buildings are left to weather to a palette of grays. The natural material texture allows the buildings to blend with the landscape. In addition to design support, OPAL provided energy modelling high-performance envelope detailing to ensure the project’s long-term energy efficiency and resilience.

Client: Stimson
Typology: Commercial
Location: Princeton, Massachusetts
Size: 3,900 SF
Design Team: Riley Pratt, Gabe Tomasulo
Consultants: Albert Putnam Associates, ZeroEnergy Design
EUI: 20 kBTU/SF/yr
Photography: Greta Rybus