When the owners of The Parchment Works, a Grade II-listed Victorian house in Northamptonshire, decided to extend their property into the garden, they faced a significant problem. The area was already occupied by a ramshackle former cattle shed and the crumbling, roofless remains of a 17th-century parchment factory. Even had they wanted to, obtaining permission to demolish the ivy-clad walls was unlikely.
London-based Will Gamble Architects had the solution. The firm designed a contemporary extension within the derelict space, ensuring “the ruined walls remained the most dominant feature”. Two contemporary lightweight, transparent “boxes” gave the owners a sleek internal edifice while safeguarding the heritage of the site. “The overarching ambition was to celebrate and enhance what was already there, with every intervention done in the most sympathetic way possible. It’s a celebration of materiality and history,” says director Will Gamble. “That continued through to the interiors where we exposed the stonework and the roof structure.” He describes the practice’s approach as a light touch: “That was the driving force – to create a contemporary 21st-century space that met the original historic fabric.”
Completed in 2018, The Parchment Works is a multiple RIBA award-winner. According to Gamble, this blending of the historic and contemporary is increasingly popular. “I think people place much more value on the juxtaposition between old and new today, and how they can complement each other,” he says. “There has been a corresponding change in mindset from local authorities too. Where once they preferred pastiche, making any new addition look as if it has always been there, they’ve become much more willing to do something contemporary.”
Renovating a ruin is a huge commitment. The clients at The Parchment Works initially needed some persuasion, aided by 3D modelling, to understand and approve the concept. The poor state of the ruins made the idea of keeping them difficult to imagine, as did the relative uncertainty of final costs. While each project is unique, a renovation of an historic building can cost an average of 30 per cent more than a new build of similar size, according to Luke McLaren from McLaren Excell, an architecture and interiors practice known for its contemporary renovation work. “Every project on a derelict heritage building comes with financial, construction and legislative uncertainty,” he says. “They require a client who is comfortable with uncertainty, which is one reason these builds are often perceived as passion projects.” The main issue is what can be salvaged structurally. “It’s asking how much of this building that you have fallen in love with can actually be preserved. You don’t want to eradicate all evidence and character of the original, so there are constant questions: does a stair tread or a handrail sit against a historic piece of fabric or can this element be touched? It’s a case of refereeing back and forth.”
In Gloucestershire, Lydia Robinson, co-founder and creative director of Design Storey, faced a particularly challenging brief on the contemporary renovation of The Cowshed, a near-derelict, listed, 18th-century open-fronted Cotswolds barn. The original padstones supporting the timber posts had been removed, causing the front to tilt and drop dramatically. The conservation officer wanted the roof to be jacked up rather than dismantled, something that their structural engineer had done only once before. “The existing building was wonky, and creating a home from a building designed for farm animals was difficult. One way we did that was to use one material,” says Robinson. “We placed a timber pod inside the barn with a timber staircase, retained and lifted the existing trusses and used the pod to hide all the services.” The missing padstones were found buried nearby and replaced, and the roof was lifted intact, as a single structure, to its original position – a remarkable achievement. The house was completed in 2023 and is now a handsome weekend home. The Cowshed was shortlisted in this year’s Wood Awards, also scooping home transformation of the year in the 2024 British Homes Awards, as well as two 2025 RIBA awards.
Is it the history or simply the romance of lost beauty that spurs people to reimagine a ruin? Henry Ryde, director and national head of heritage and townscape at Savills, concedes there is an element of romanticism attached to what can be “the opportunity to live in an iconic historic building that is a window to another time”. Mina Hasman, RIBA Awards Group’s sustainability adviser, says such properties also chime with a growing respect for provenance. Since 1998, Historic England’s Heritage At Risk register has compiled a list of nationally protected buildings and sites in danger of being lost to neglect, decay or inappropriate development, currently with close to 5,000 entries. “The retention and reinvention of derelict buildings is being recognised not only as a gesture of cultural respect but also as a pragmatic and impactful sustainability strategy,” says Hasman. “Reducing embodied carbon is also essential to meeting global climate targets.”
Reviving ancient structures has been the life-work of architect Count Benedikt Bolza and his wife Donna Nencia on their 1,500-hectare Reschio Estate on the Umbrian-Tuscan border. Thirty years after his parents bought the Italian property, Bolza has continued their work, steadily working through the 50 abandoned farmhouses on the land to restore and eventually sell them to homeowners. The houses command prices of €12mn-plus on the international market, and required highly specialised restoration. “Many of the ruins are romantic, with evidence of the families and animals that lived there for centuries,” says Bolza. “I therefore look to see if there are any strong architectural elements that we can use – a Roman arch or an outside staircase – but for the most part it is a case of salvaging the stone, the brick, and recreating something stunning in the appropriate vernacular of the area.”
Another property on sale is a derelict former hardware store with animal stalls in the Mallorcan village of Llubí, in the mostly tourist-free agricultural centre of the island, which has been transformed into an airy four-bedroom townhouse with swimming pool. The property is listed with Engel & Völkers for €1.72mn, overlooks the tree-filled town square and features a modern metal and wood staircase adjacent to a traditional wall of huge slabs of local stone.
Those looking for inspiration on how to create a striking sustainable residence from ruins should look to the South Tyrol holiday home conceived from a ruined farmhouse by architectural practice Bergmeisterwolf in 2011. After a lengthy search for skilled artisans, the original stone wall was rebuilt in traditional fashion, without mortar, and now wraps around and shields a new house clad in wooden shingles. The architects declared the finished result an “homage to the sedimentation of ideas”, while acknowledging the role of the owner, who brought “great sensitivity and little time pressure”.
While these houses might be passion projects requiring commitment and perseverance from all involved, they embody a modern desire for sustainability and preserving the past. Says Hasman: “The best projects future-proof the buildings. They breathe new life into structures, making them relevant and functional for decades to come.”