For the latest instalment of Classic Men’s Looks, we visited architect Will Gowland, co-founder of Built Works and Architects Holiday to discuss craft, place and building for the long view.
Built Works is a RIBA chartered architecture and design practice with studios in London and the Lake District, working across private homes, education, commercial spaces, hospitality projects and cultural places. From that practice came Architects Holiday, a collection of design-led cabins at Great Park Farm in Catsfield, East Sussex, where Will grew up.
Alongside his business partner Harry Kay, Will has created a retreat that gives their architectural ideas a life beyond the page. What began as a commission to design cabins for the family farm became something more personal: a chance to test materials, build by hand, and create spaces that people could properly live in.
A Place to Test Ideas
“Architects Holiday grew out of a project we did through Built Works,” Will explains. “We run both companies side by side. For us, it’s a really nice way of testing our ideas as architects in real-world situations.”
For Will, this is one of the most valuable parts of the project. In a traditional architecture practice, once a building is finished, the architect often steps away. Architects Holiday gives him the chance to stay close to the work and understand how it changes over time.
“When you’re doing client-led projects, you design and build something, and then once it’s finished you hardly ever have any contact with the client or see the building again,” he says. “You can never really learn from that. With Architects Holiday, we can design, build and test lots of our own ideas, and get real-time feedback.”
Building with Natural Materials
Each cabin is treated as a different case study. Rather than repeat the same structure, Will and Harry have designed each one around a distinct experience, using different materials and construction methods. Yogi’s Cabin uses wood fibre insulation and a timber frame, while Bather’s Cabin uses UK-grown and processed hemp insulation. Future cabins will explore straw bale construction, hemp fabric, hemp insulation and cork.
“We’re interested in biogenic materials,” says Will. “Materials that are naturally derived, things that can be grown and harvested, like hemp and wood, or natural materials like stone. Each cabin lets us explore how easy they are to work with, how they perform, what they cost, and what the supply chain looks like.”
It is a practical way of putting belief into action. In client projects, natural materials are often specified, but do not always make it to site. Architects Holiday gives Will and Harry the freedom to use them properly, understand how they behave, and build from a longer-term perspective.
“We’re not looking at them in a short-term way,” he says. “We want these to stand the test of time, and we want all of these materials to last a long time into the future.”
The Beauty in Wear & Tear
That long-term view became particularly clear once the first cabins began to show signs of life. For anyone who has spent years designing and building something by hand, the first scratch or dent can feel hard to accept. But, for Will, those marks soon became part of the character of the space.
“When you build something yourself, it feels so precious,” he says. “But as soon as people start to come in and use it, you inevitably get wear and tear. The first couple of knocks are a bit disappointing, but after a couple of weeks it’s amazing how quickly things wear in, and they start to look more beautiful.”
The stainless steel in the kitchen begins to gather marks from cups, plates and knives. Timber panelling and cladding starts to soften with use. What begins as a new building slowly becomes a lived-in space.
“There is a beauty in the wear and tear you get from spaces being lived in.”
It is a sentiment that naturally echoes Tricker’s own approach to footwear. The best-made things are not kept pristine. They are used, cared for, repaired and allowed to take on character over time.
The Hand of the Maker
For Will, the cabins also carry the trace of the people who made them. Many of their details already show the hand behind the work.
“We’ve handbuilt absolutely everything,” he says. “From the windows, the doors and the timber panelling to the furniture, kitchens, tiles and curtains. Pretty much anything and everything we could make, we have made.”
Because they are handmade, the cabins are not anonymous or flawless in a factory-made sense. They carry small signs of the process.
“There are lots of little knocks and dents from the natural process of making things by hand,” says Will. “There is the maker to be seen all over the cabins, which is really nice. You feel that when you walk into the spaces. It already feels like a place with a lot of love in it.”
Even the tiles tell a story. Harry made them with his family, and the process left tiny fingerprints and marks in the surface.
“You don’t normally see that, because most things are made in a factory these days,” says Will. “They come out of perfect moulds. But when tiles are literally hand-rolled and hand-cut, you get these little marks. They’re really lovely. They tell a beautiful story about the people that made them.”
Rooted in Place
This same sense of care extends to the way materials are sourced. At Yogi’s Cabin, the thatch came from a fallen silver birch tree that had stood beside the cabin before construction began. Rather than letting the material go unused, Will and Harry used the trunk for benches and the branch tips for a rudimentary thatch around the eaves.
“Those branches were literally hanging behind the tree, and now we’ve hung them from the façade of the building,” he explains. “Within weeks, birds had started to inhabit the thatch. It felt like giving something back to the woodland.”
Wherever possible, Will looks to source materials locally, or at least from within the UK. The timber framing and cladding for the cabins came from adjacent woodland and was processed either on the site next door with a mobile sawmill, or at a nearby sawmill.
“It’s nice to know where these materials have come from,” says Will. “And nice to know they haven’t travelled far.”
That connection to place is also reflected in the design of the cabins themselves. Each one responds to its surroundings, rather than following a standardised formula.
“Every site is different, and every cabin needs to respond to that site specifically. It would feel odd if you picked up Yogi’s Cabin and put it somewhere else.”
Wearing the Robert
On the day of the Classic Men’s Looks shoot, Will wore the Tricker’s Robert, a derby shoe with a clean, versatile profile. As someone more used to wearing trainers day to day, he found them easier to settle into than expected.
“They were a lovely pair of shoes,” he says. “For a leather pair of shoes, they were surprisingly comfortable. By the end of the day, I wasn’t even thinking about them.”
The Robert also suited the setting. Worn with denim and knitwear, it felt relaxed but considered, smart without feeling too formal.
“They worked really well in a casual setting,” says Will. “They worked really well with jeans.”
For Will, that kind of versatility matters. His clothes and shoes are not separated into neat categories. They need to move between different parts of his life.
“Most of my shoes tend to do everything with me,” he says. “They don’t have exclusive uses. Most of my clothes and shoes get worn on the building site, as well as in the office and to the pub.”
That feels like an important part of the Tricker’s story too. These are finely made shoes, but they are not fragile objects. Their roots are in country footwear, made for real use and built with purpose. The best pairs are not saved for one occasion. They become part of everyday life.
What stood out to Will most, though, was the sense of continuity behind Tricker’s: nearly two centuries of shoemaking in Northampton, and a product shaped by accumulated knowledge.
“It’s great to know there is a real history and refinement of that skill in a product,” he says. “You can tell in a pair of shoes that has been handmade.”
Buying Less, Choosing Better
Will is not drawn to things that are bought cheaply, used briefly and replaced quickly. He prefers objects that remain with you, and that are useful enough to become part of everyday life.
“I really appreciate high-quality products, whatever it is, from clothing to tools,” he says. “I’m not the sort of person that buys cheap stuff to end up constantly replacing it. I much prefer buying things that are going to last for years, decades or a lifetime.”
For Will, the best things are not static. They change with you. They gather stories through use. They move between different settings and become familiar over time.
“It’s much nicer having something that stays with you, evolves with you, and has lots of stories along the way.”
When asked what the best-made things have in common, whether a building, a piece of furniture or a pair of shoes, Will returns to the same point: materials, knowledge and the skill of the person putting them together.
“You can tell when something has been built out of genuinely high-quality materials, and when they’ve been put together by somebody who really knows how to work with them,” he says. “The same is true with a pair of shoes. High-quality materials really make a shoe.”
In Will’s world, good design is not about novelty, perfection or surface alone. It is about care, use, place and time. Much like a pair of Tricker’s, the best things are not made simply to be admired. They are made to be lived with.
You can read more about Will and Harry’s architecture practice at Built Works, including their work across sustainable materials, retrofit and low-energy design. To explore the cabins, sauna and stays at Great Park Farm in East Sussex, visit Architects Holiday.
