‘I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately…’

In 1854 the American author Henry David Thoreau published his account of two 
years living in a cabin he built in the woods, by Walden Pond, near Concord, Massachusetts. In his book Thoreau describes the benefits of introspection, solitude, self-reliance, immersion in nature, reading and writing. When this new house for Living Architecture opens in 2015,
it will provide a modern, secular retreat in the Welsh countryside, where people can experience some of Walden’s lessons in the deliberate life. The architecture is designed to offer a sense of sanctuary, but not to insulate its inhabitants from all that is different about being away from familiar surroundings: the idea is to feel ‘at home’, but in a more elemental way.

 
 
 
 

Photography
Gilbert McCarragher