2Twenty First Century Cotswolds, the first book from award-winning interior designer and spatial planner Pippa Paton, showcases the diversity of buildings in England's famously bucolic Cotswolds region, as well as the ways people choose to live in them. An exploration of the breadth of styles that fall under the heading of contemporary design, Twenty First Century Cotswolds provides insight into how these beautiful buildings can be transformed sympathetically for life today. The habitable structures of the Cotswolds may be hundreds of years old, but the way we live has changed dramatically over the centuries. Today the predominant desire is for open-plan, multifunctional family homes, and for inhabiting living spaces in completely new ways. An underlying demand for functionality, communication, ease of living, high- end technology and luxurious amenities has also shaped the way homes are being designed - and redesigned. Twenty First Century Cotswolds demonstrates a less invasive, specialist approach to transforming properties with ancient character for contemporary living. The focus has shifted towards exposing, enhancing and protecting the historical features and materials of these buildings, and celebrating their individual nature.