HiAvens is a minimalist country house located in the Cotswolds, United Kingdom, designed by McLaren Excell along with architecture by BPN and landscaping by Rosebank. The project represents an unusual model for contemporary country house development – one where the client operates as creative director rather than passive patron. Stuart Holt, Managing Director of Javelin Block, assembled a collaborative team of specialists to realize a single-story residence in the Cotswolds that reimagines farm building fundamentals in contemporary terms. Holt established a framework where McLaren Excell, BPN, and Rosebank could work toward unified material and spatial ambitions rather than negotiating between competing visions.
The project occupies an ironstone escarpment where farm buildings once stood, embedding the house into existing topography rather than imposing upon it. This geological condition became the conceptual foundation for all subsequent decisions. The ironstone seam’s burnt orange tones directly informed the concrete formulation used throughout the structure – not as decorative reference but as literal incorporation of the site’s sedimentary character.
Holt and McLaren Excell spent time at a quarry outside Rome hand-selecting six massive Noce travertine blocks, each mapped in three dimensions to become specific interior elements. The kitchen island, bath pedestals, and other substantial pieces were carved from single blocks, ensuring the stone’s natural strata and color variations remained legible rather than fragmented across multiple sources. McLaren Excell worked with European red elm and the Rome-sourced travertine cut across the grain to reveal its internal structure, creating surfaces that register light and shadow with the same directness found in the concrete walls.
