Some properties come with a sense of place that’s impossible to replicate. The Old Bakery was one of them. Tucked into a quiet corner of the Cotswolds, the former stone bakery had stood empty for years. Its walls were weathered, its roof long gone, and its potential waiting.

We didn’t want to erase its past. In fact, we leaned into it. The character of the old stonework informed everything that followed. We preserved what was solid, celebrated its texture, and used it as a grounding point from which to build something new.

The rest of the structure is formed in SIPs, providing efficiency and precision where the old masonry could not. There’s a quiet dialogue now between the two halves. Solid stone and crisp timber panels each bring their strengths, creating a home with contrast and continuity. From the lane, the building still looks modest. From within, it opens out into a generous space focused on how the clients wanted to live.

This was a home shaped around connection. A large open-plan kitchen, dining and living area now forms the heart of the house, designed for gathering, cooking, and spending time together. Tall windows bring in natural light and open onto a newly landscaped garden, where outdoor cooking and lounging spaces extend the social rhythm of the house into the warmer months.

It’s a modest footprint, but one with intent in every move. A two-bedroom retreat that feels calm, capable, and quietly contemporary, while always anchored to the site’s original story.

We often talk about the balance between restraint and ambition. This project was a reminder that the most memorable homes don’t always come from scale, but from clarity. And sometimes what seems like a limitation, an old shell, a narrow site, becomes the very thing that gives a home its soul.

You can explore more about the Old Bakery, and other recent work, on our website:

www.tracearchitects.co.uk

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The Old Bakery: A Fresh Chapter for a Cotswolds Original