When updating century-old residences, some homeowners seek to seamlessly blend the old and new. Dirk Wynants, owner of the Belgian outdoor furniture company Extremis, took the exact opposite approach with his circa-1850s farmhouse.
"If you want to respect the old, the contrast with the interventions should be brutal," Wynants tells Dwell. After purchasing the 70,600-cubic-foot farmhouse, located in the Flanders region of Belgium, in 2006, Wynants has spent the last seven years renovating the place. Delivering on his belief of "brutal" interventions, you'll immediately notice that the red-roofed barn has two boxy modern volumes cantilevering off it, one of which is a glassy kitchen and dining area featuring Wynants' own circular seating design.
To Wynants, this drastic design, which uses the glassy addition to collect light rather than enlarged windows, preserves the character of the original structure, namely the "massiveness" of the roof. Get the full story and more photos at Dwell.