Gently rolling hills, woodland, fields and red-painted barns - this is the green and fertile land of southern Wisconsin, in America's Midwest. Once it was a land of small dairy farms, but many of the farmers have now sold up, abandoning their barns and sheds to the elements. Recognizing the value and possibilities of a vernacular architecture that we now see as romantic rather than severely functional, a trio of friends bought one of these old farms in 1991 and brought it gently into the modern world.