Artist Wycliffe Stutchbury’s installations of undulating oak shingles normally adorn the walls of galleries, but for a 17th-century stone barn near the Black Mountains of Monmouthshire, Wales, they are less delicate artwork than a vast protective cloak. Oak panels wrap around its exterior, forming rippling fringes. They sensitively repair the structure, which had been crudely patched up with breeze blocks several decades before. “I’m a big believer that if something needs repairing or propping up, you should declare the changes you have made, not try to pretend they are part of the past,” he says.
Architectural kintsugi is filling buildings with beauty
The Japanese art of visible repair is inspiring creative fixes for building facades, floors and walls
Malaika Byng, The Financial Times, November 28, 2025
