A Home Reimagined – Giles Lovegrove’s Wildhaven Featured in The Times
At Trace Architects, we believe that the most successful homes are those that evolve with their surroundings, respond to the needs of their inhabitants, and challenge conventional thinking. This philosophy is at the heart of Wildhaven, the five-bedroom Oxfordshire home designed by Trace Architects’ co-founder, Giles Lovegrove, which was recently featured in The Times.
Rethinking What’s Possible in Residential Architecture
Wildhaven is more than a house—it’s an experiment in efficiency, material integrity, and rethinking what’s possible when you approach architecture with intention. Built for £300,000, it demonstrates how smart design and a careful selection of materials can result in a beautiful, functional, and enduring home without unnecessary excess.
The project embraces structural insulated panels (SIPs)—a high-performance construction system that forms both the structure and insulation in a single step. This approach eliminated the need for bricklayers and significantly reduced labour costs. Ground screws replaced traditional concrete foundations, allowing the home to be built with minimal environmental impact, reducing costs, and enabling construction to take place without disturbing the surrounding landscape.
A Focus on Craft and Authenticity
At the core of Wildhaven is a commitment to the honest expression of materials. Rather than concealing surfaces behind layers of finishing, Giles embraced their raw aesthetic, allowing the natural textures of plywood, OSB flooring, and exposed SIPs to define the interior. Reclaimed elements—from salvaged kitchens and baths to furniture sourced from renovations—add depth and individuality to the home.
Externally, the house is wrapped in hand-charred Siberian larch, an alternative to costly shou sugi ban that retains the same textured, blackened aesthetic while keeping the process hands-on and cost-effective.
What This Means for Contemporary Architecture
While Wildhaven was a personal project, its principles extend far beyond a single home. It challenges the assumption that high-quality architecture must come with excessive budgets and instead demonstrates how considered material choices, intelligent construction methods, and thoughtful spatial design can create homes that are both efficient and deeply connected to their environment.
Being featured in The Times highlights the increasing relevance of architecture that embraces efficiency, craftsmanship, and a connection to place—values that shape every project at Trace Architects.
To explore how we apply these principles across our work, visit our portfolio.