[Closed] Grand Designs

Looked like something off in the night garden or teletubbies.
I is disappoint.

Were the windows from Germany?

I get the comments about the roof but I absolutely loved it overall. One of my favourites.

Now have aspirations to make flower casts for our house.

Nope, still think the niceset one so far was the guy in Ireland..
Didn't like tonight's that much.
Clever, yes, but just, well, not my idea of nice.
YMMV..

Flower casts were pretty cool. The roof? Wow, it ended up bad from great - reminded me of an allotment. Got the impression they ran out of money, so ditched the architect and came up with their own solution, involving unfortunately what looked like reclaimed pallet wood. My daughter, 14, said the interior reminded her of YMCA accommodation.

The roof was ok in the end but a bit scrappy. In the last few shots I was itching to get the circular saw out and cut the sticky-out panels flush with the beams. Maybe they were going to get to that later.

Also the curve wasn't fibonacci enough, looked not far off a half donut from the overhead shots.

When it started I thought it was going to be a good un. When they put the roof on I thought it could lovely on the inside.

However when it was all finished I just wasn't convinced at all. I thought the inside roof line looked very underwhelming for what could have been an amazing roof.

Still at least it felt like more of a home inside than some of the recent ones.

Of all the episodes I've seen I think this one was the biggest disappointment in terms of what I thought it was going to end up looking like. I kind of accept that the concrete/glass modern living style ones have a certain aesthetic, which I personally wouldn't want to live in, but they are what they are. I thought this one failed to live up to what they were trying to achieve: Not very well executed hobbit house.

Didn't like anything about this one.

I felt a little underwhelmed by the final result. A genuinely impressive construction, but not something I'd aspire to live in. I got the impression the fella wasn't quite as delighted with the final result either 😆

All that waffle about being "in" nature was nothing unique to the building either, which grated a little. You could have built a Barratt home in that field and still had deer walking past the window.

Was it this one?
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Surprised by the negativity looking at these 2 pics. Looks interesting at least

I'm liking the way it sets the OCD amongst us twitchy. Calming but quite old fashioned in some ways inside.

I really liked it

he's an ecologist and she's called Saffron

I'm trying desperately not to stereotype but.......

Well it’s ambitious. I suspect it may feel somewhat subterranean...

he's an ecologist and she's called Saffron

I'm trying desperately not to stereotype but.......

Such a lovely building badly let down by a cold, industrial, unfinished interior

They can big it up as much as they like, but it's just not finished.
Shame cos its lovely on the outside.

Such a lovely building badly let down by a cold, industrial, unfinished interior

As in true STW style, I thought it looked mint. 😳

I don't think it turned out as they'd hoped. Looks like they ran out of money and couldn't finish it, then everyone at the end said how they loved it but inside they knew it was awful

I thought it looked mint

Would you like to love in a house with that interior? Not exactly homely and welcoming was it

It wouldn't cost much for a bit of stud work and plasterboard, no skirting etc. You wouldn't even need to cover all the block work, this would enable areas of smooth subtle colour (or strong colour if that's what you like) to stop it looking like a half done shop fit-out.

Yep - like MrSmith says. They spent over £700K. Just plastering and finishing the inside would have been peanuts extra.

It's beautiful from the outside - but the inside, just no.

I’d just paint the block work, to give more variety in the colour, but otherwise I like the textures, and I like the exposed conduits and pipework, I’ve seen similar done elsewhere, but the overall grey is just a bit boring, It just needs colour.
The outside is fantastic, exactly like I’ve fancied doing myself given the money, I even know where I’d build it, if the site became available.
Plenty of stone to clad the outside, it’s on top of the Cotswold scarp, just north of Bath, with a view right across Bristol and the Severn valley over into the Beacons and Black Mountains.
Every room facing that way would have a telescope and a couple of pairs of binoculars.

Fred’s also a mountain biker fwiw 🙂

I loved the sort of devotion to the project of these two last GD (I'm catching up).

The curved house was crazy (it was done almost as an experiment to prove some building techniques as much as to build a house) and the owner obviously very dedicated to his plan. I really liked the overall finished building.

The hillside out in the Peak District was great too. Another dedicated and nutty project. I'm damn sure they could have bought another house in the village and made it eco friendly much more easily. Also the BS about people having to move away due to the high prices and then build a £1M somewhat hypocritical? Great GD man maths self justification to the overal build too. The house itself was a lovely design. I particularly liked the jokey part of the little barn on top for display. I also agree that the house could have been finished even a little bit better - paint the block work a light colour! Also £500k mortgage at 50??

We have a field in the village where MrsG grew up in the Breacon Breakons national park on the edge of the village with a lovely site for a house on a slope - sound familiar! We'd like to build a house there but just couldn't be bothered fighting planning for years.

Not sure how they managed to present that as an eco-home. Masses of concrete, block and steel, plus energy-intensive site work - offset by some shutters.

Can't have done his credentials as a consultant much good. Though I suppose many of his clients will be after a fig leaf approach to cover up their eco-unfriendly activities.

They had enough land next to the road to build a decent home, without having to knock out half the hillside for a bit more privacy and less noise. Can't see it being worth more than 500K after all that, so a very expensive vanity project.

Two points I noted,
one- they wanted build an eco home in a village they love and have lived in for decades in a beautiful area.. which made me question how they got planning in an area so crammed with rules and regulations on planning restrictions and such.. so utterly brilliant they stuck to their guns and took on what was probably a soul crushing excersise dealing with the planners..
two- they built something for them to thier own design and it looked pretty good when finished. Overcoming the issues on building on a slope would put 99% of folks off. Thought the use of the limestone bricks on the outside was inspired, from digging the stuff out of the ground then re using that.. loved the interaction with timber and limestone, didn’t really like the three floors, the inside was fine because they’ll no doubt finish off that over the years as they love and grow in the home.

Not sure about the overall design, the view from the other side of the valley made it look a bit awkward and ungainly but that could have been the camera angles..

I'm undecided about the interior but my partner was all for it claiming it'd make it easier to repair, spot issue arising etc.

She's right, of course, but it had that weird warehouse conversion feel about it that Americans seem to favour. Not a fan, personally.

Is it heck finished - it’s all a contrived narrative, innit?

Is this the one?
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Can't see a single picture of the inside online.
Anyone else?

some pics here - https://www.granddesigns.tv/peak-district/

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Seems a bit of weird episode, spend 800k but cant afford a few grand for finishes (except for his office...), meant to be eco but no eco features (or not shown anyway bar the window shutters), no film of large parts of the 2nd half of the build.

Looks good from the outside, but the layout and interior finish appear to be rubbish for the money.

I really struggle to see how it cost so much money...

I'd have it.

I think the exterior looked great, the I actually really like the kitchen too, but that's as far as it went. The rest of the interior looked bloody awful.

They will have real trouble selling it at a profit I would imagine.

Also I loved the fact they go around advising companies how to reduce their carbon footprint (I assume by growing flowers) and then when they get on TV to publicise they business they use the most un eco friendly construction techniques.

the cost was the contractor getting up and down the slope and pouring TONS (literally) of concrete and block and metal and windows, it's 3 floors and this was the silly bit for me, could have been a lot cheaper less complex if the bedrooms were on the same level as the kitchen etc behind where you don't need picture windows. As Kev pointed out you could have stuck the steel straight into the bedrock behind and had insulated panels at the rear instead of more concrete

plasterboarded within 3yrs, or at least paint the block as countzero says to bounce some natural light around instead of the grey

For the last time a big eff off house in the country is not Eco!

*No I most definitely did not shout that at the tellybox

Not sure how they managed to present that as an eco-home. Masses of concrete, block and steel, plus energy-intensive site work - offset by some shutters.

Can't have done his credentials as a consultant much good. Though I suppose many of his clients will be after a fig leaf approach to cover up their eco-unfriendly activities.

Three levels of "green"

greenwash - which is what this appears to be ie do what you want and then add a veneer of green over the top
Pale green - be as green as you can but refuse to give up anything in order to be green
Dark green - works the other way - stop non green activities and then try to mitigate the effects this has on your life

Its not easy being green

Saffron is a voice double for Victoria Wood.

The main issue was all the concrete, but there was another Grand Designs house built into a hillside in the north Cotswolds that had full Passivhause credentials because they used ecocrete, which uses boiler ash, if my memory is correct.

Aesthetically I didn't like it outside and inside especially.
There's an arguement that a thermally and energy efficient property can reduce the whole life carbon cost of the building compared to a 'standard' building.
My issue with this one is that if you're dropping the better part of a million on house, you don't need to do so on a f***ing difficult site where you need so much material to structurally form it.
Why not find another more manageable site and reduce the materials impact even further?
Pay more for the land but less groundwork and materials costs

That kitchen was made by my friend Phil.

http://phillip-davies.co.uk/home

^ It was a very nice kitchen to be fair
Edit: the craftsmanship on the M&E was very impressive too

Was last weeks the last in the series ?

One tonight