The brief

The family bought a farmhouse with no roof and a row of collapsed arches along its south wall. They wanted somewhere to gather in summer and somewhere warm in winter, and they did not want to lose the arches.

We measured every stone before anything came down. Each arch was numbered, taken apart and rebuilt in place on a new footing, so the wall you see is the original wall, only now it stands up straight.

Nine ways in

The arcade is a deep, shaded room with no door of its own. Kitchen, living room, studio and three bedrooms each open onto it through a timber door set inside an arch. You choose which arch you walk through, and the light changes with the choice.

Inside, walls are lime plaster and floors are the same limestone as the courtyard, so the threshold never feels like a border. The fig tree in the courtyard was fenced off for the whole build and now shades the ninth arch.