How can the historical and spatial qualities of an old farmyard, with all its various outbuildings, be retained when the new function requires only sufficient space for a family residence? The brief required the partial demolition of the original T-shaped farmhouse to be replaced by a small extension. Workspaces and guestrooms would be located in the adjacent detached barn. The disadvantage of this solution is that the wonderful, spacious organization of farmyard buildings would be reduced to that of a house and shed. Instead of a farmyard or garden with various different qualities, the result would have been merely a house standing isolated on a large lawn. Current regulations impose limits to the number of dwellings that can be built on a particular plot and extensions are either restricted to a minimum or simply forbidden. This suggested the large volume of the existing farmhouse be retained intact to accommodate the complete new programme. Furthermore, the barn would remain untouched for future development, possibly to be converted into a swimming-pool. As a result, the interesting organisation of the farmyard as a whole would remain unaltered. The livestock barn which formed the stem of the traditional T-form farmhouse is replaced by a new skewed volume with a distorted ‘pulled and dragged’ perspective. This new extension attaches itself precisely to the opening left by the removal of the original barn, thus retaining the T-form. The existing farmhouse and outbuildings are divided programmatically from the new extension. The living accommodation is situated in the existing building with the adjoining part of the extension housing a large open kitchen area along with the entrance, located between the new and existing. The workspace, guest rooms and garden-shed are situated in the second part of the new extension, separated from each other by a conservatory. The load bearing construction of the extension consists of a series of solid prefabricated wooden plates. They define the building’s internal finishes and the ambience of the interior. By cladding the roof and elevations with a continuous skin of vertical timber laths, the façades have simultaneously the appearance of being open, semi-transparent and closed. The gable wall of the old barn has been retained. Coincidentally, it obscures the view of the new house recently built by the farmer who kept a small plot of the farmyard for himself. Ironically, the large door opening precisely frames the view of a beautiful oak tree.