How They Pulled It Off: An 18th-Century-Inspired Farm Fence That Keeps Sheep and Their People Happy

Welcome to How They Pulled It Off, where we take a close look at one particularly challenging aspect of a home design and get the nitty-gritty details about how it became a reality.

British Columbia’s Fraser River Valley is a landscape that’s both beautiful and intense, with regular flooding and some of the fastest ground-level wind speeds in Canada. While this may have deterred some buyers, a 14-acre plot near a major rail line became the ideal spot for one family’s sheep farm. "Their growing reputation for raising high-quality organic lamb created a need for this additional space," says Vancouver-based architect D’Arcy Jones, who collaborated with the homeowners to design a multigenerational compound featuring cantilevered sections, a double-insulated roof, and an inventive wall system designed to "keep the sheep in sight but separated."

Inspired by the work of 18th-century landscape architect Capability Brown, the wall is a reinterpretation of the historic ha-ha, a type of sunken fence with French origins first used to keep animals out of gardens. This sculptural boundary eliminates the need for traditional fencing and preserves the tranquility of the open landscape.

The clients, a family of three generations with international roots—he is Colombian, and she is Swiss—had their eyes set on this land for some time. "When I met them, the main challenge was addressing its susceptibility to flooding," Jones says. The ha-ha wall provided a solution to both building in a flood zone and the need for seamless integration between their home and daily farm operations.

Over a five-year period, Jones and team worked with the family to merge agricultural inspiration with sustainable, innovative design. "It’s about living with the seasons and the land while creating a space that works for everyone," he says.

How they pulled it off: An elegant homestead and sheep farm

• Due to the valley’s high water table and subsequent requirement that all homes be built six feet off the ground, a ha-ha wall offered a clever and practical solution to allow sheep to graze without fencing.

• Jones utilized the lot’s grassy plinths with precast concrete lock-block walls clad in weathered Cor-Ten steel to create a six-foot level change in elevation.

• The sheep are regularly rotated throughout the property’s acreage, but "are so friendly, they’d walk inside without that separation," Jones notes. The family can keep a close eye on the herd from the office, which the sheep take shelter under to avoid extreme weather.

• The homeowner, a civil engineer, built the project himself, which, along with lengthy permitting, contributed to the project’s atypical timetable.

• Recycled materials, including soil, steel, and insulation, were introduced and made the compound cost-effective. The barn, inspired by those of medieval times, rests on the northern end and includes privacy from the rattling railway and nearby road, while extensive earthwork berms surround both the homes and barn.