Grand Designs…..

One more time:

http://www.ct-architects.co.uk/projects/slip-house/

CountZero – to an extent on the boiler ash concrete, do you think they used it though?

Am still trying to figure out how he could say it was one of the most energy efficient houses in the country. Would have liked to see the reasons why.

Liked that movable office thingy.

Am still trying to figure out how he could say it was one of the most energy efficient houses in the country. Would have liked to see the reasons why.

Did they say energy efficient (Passivhaus) of carbon neutral (Code for Sustainable…)?

Looks like 2 shipping containers!.

& his neighbours galv garage door looks lurvally,I bet he’s got his house number brush painted 2 foot high on his coal house too.

As a architectual statement, I like it – could I live there, NO!

We watched it and enjoyed it – but its very, very individual to them.

As for planning, about 3 (garage) to the left is another ‘modern’ house – and what should have been a allowed – a mock Victorian house?

“Did they say energy efficient (Passivhaus) of carbon neutral (Code for Sustainable…)?”

Can’t remember exactly but thought it was energy efficient. It had a heat pump, some pvp and loads insulation apprently. Does that put the house there with the best?

So the PV panels. He had 8 panels I think so that’s going to be about 2KW theoretically and 1.3KW in reality – I very very much doubt that’s going to be enough to “supply all our electricity”, plus the sums of money he would get from the feed in tarrif wouldn’t be anything like what he said (more like £18k over 25 years.
The PV panels also seemed to do combined hot water and electricity (sure I saw a water pipe on the end) – so I doubt they’d produce as much electricity as a standard PV panel.
A lot of facts made up for telly on that build I think.

aP – you must have had a hand in this to be getting so defensive?

If you feel that we don’t understand it, then please explain some of the basics.

Uncle Kev obviously agrees as he hasn’t made her pregnant like most other ladies on the show.

–
And there’s me thinking that Kev played for the other team?

I like it as an architectural piece and could live there …. if I didn’t have two wonderful kids and all their glorious mess.

I spotted the PVs. Picture on their website seems to indicate 6 but it could be 8. I have 26 panels on my house.

I don’t dislike it. The main problem is it just doesn’t fit in.

Tools being stolen made me laugh. Know the area, know what I mean.

Kev not fancy the women? You’ve not watched the prog from the start – some of the ladies he may as well be “doing it” there and then! Roving eye that man 8)

The program did seem to be light on facts, and I turned off from supporting the two when they claimed to have “only £300k” to spend…. oh, bit over budget, let’s sell a spare house we have lying around in the Shires. At least when they moved out they only needed that one small van. And would you employ him as an architect? Merits of the building aside, or the possibility of meeting his wife with the slightly annoying laugh, would you trust him with your £200k build when his own went twice over budget?

He had 8 panels I think so that’s going to be about 2KW theoretically and 1.3KW in reality – I very very much doubt that’s going to be enough to “supply all our electricity”,

I know it isn’t. He could have 100 panels and it still wouldn’t supply all of his electricity. Not without a large ESS.

I didn’t mind the exterior, but the interior had no soul. It wasn’t a home was it? you couldn’t curl up on a cold January evening

I didn’t dislike the building be good greif talk about LOOK AT MEEEEEEE! from the owners. That gaff they had in the country looked like a prison, i’m all for individual approaches to design but i couldn’t help thinking a lot of what they were doing was purely for effect and not for use. Good luck to them but i don’t think i could live there (I’m far too messy!).

I quite liked the barn they sold…

How do people that mentally ill get so much money to make such a shit house?

lol.

I know this building, and also who their new neighbours are going to be

What street is it on aP?

Well to be fair it would’n take much to have strip out that barn…..

I don’t dislike it. The main problem is it just doesn’t fit in.

This. It is too top heavy for the street scene; not necessarily too modern, the house to it’s left (which, for some reason, the cameras/producer didn’t seem to like in shot…) also deviates from the vernacular and I think modern designs can fit in beautifully alongside older properties. Probably because of the roof terrace enclosure but it’s just that bit too tall and top heavy for the location. IMO 8)

What street is it on aP?

Carl Turner Architects
16 Clapham Park Terrace,
Lyham Road,
London SW2 5EA

http://goo.gl/maps/bGfAA

Thanks for the link. Great location.

Firstly the design was only concerned with the aesthetics and there seemed to be very little concern for how the thing was actually built, the issue with the fixing down bolts could have been avoided if the frame was designed to be free-standing and the frame could have been designed so that it was easier (and therefore cheaper) for the metal workers to fabricate.

**Edit- these changes to the frame don’t have to affect the aesthetics, but can save a lot of time and therefore money by speeding up the build and making it easier for non-specialist -Edit**

Secondly it’s quite a large building, but is only a 2bed house, considering how expensive space is in London it seems to be wasting a lot of it (but I’m probably missing the point there!).

Come on guys, show us what you’re made of so that some of us can call you mentally ill.

I’ve got plenty of ideas for houses. If you want I’ll draw you a couple and send them over. You can sell them to clients if you like 🙂

“Who on earth passed its planning permission, it just looks so out of place on that street” “The main problem is it just doesn’t fit in.”

This is a couple of streets from us in London. Within 500m there are still some early Victorian houses (some time pre-1870), opposite are late Victorian terraces (1870-1895). Immediately to the North there is an Edwardian terrace (some years later), to the south a 1920’s terrace (later again). They’re all different. A bit further south there’s a 60’s estate where the densest of the Victorian terraces were demolished. A bit of 90’s scattered around as well. What exactly would ‘fit in’?

In this country we seem fine with indoor toilets, electricity, central heating, motor cars, computers and mobile phones but we’re like the **** Amish when it comes to exterior architecture. The rest of the world doesn’t seem to have the same problem with architectural styles moving forward. In my view it’s this sort of thing that should never be passed by planning.

Slip House will eventually form part of a terrace of five 21C houses. I’d say that’s a far better solution than something which badly replicates the architecture of over a century ago. I do have an interest – Katie and I own the plot to the right.

Did they say energy efficient (Passivhaus) or carbon neutral (Code for Sustainable…)?

Aimed at CSH5, achieved 4 but supposedly mainly down to lost points from using some ‘un-assessed’ tech. I think CSH6 is zero carbon. Slip House is highly insulated and triple glazed. The solar panels are combined PV/thermal (which supposedly increases the efficiency of the PV). Strongly suspect you’re still right on the generating capacity vs consumption.

The Treehouse, a zero carbon house built eight years ago,
http://www.treehouseclapham.org.uk/ could be seen in some shots last night has a *lot* more PV panels. The former owners of that, who we know well, are about to build Passivhaus next door to it.

“only £300k” to spend

Put that down to GD wanting a ‘story’ – that was never a realistic build budget but was the funding they had when they started.

Kev not fancy the women? You’ve not watched the prog from the start – some of the ladies he may as well be “doing it” there and then! Roving eye that man

I take it back – whilst wikipedia is not all that reliable, this is referenced to his autobiography…

He lives in a 15th-century farmhouse in Frome, Somerset,[1] with his wife Zani.[2]

So, yeah very roving………

In my view it’s this sort of thing that should never be passed by planning.

Here here.

What you gonna build on the plot to the right them??

Tree house very nice indeed.

Planning are fun people. We wanted zinc cladding on our extension, woman just said “No. Slate.” and walked away.

There’s another house that was featured on GD not too far away from this one, so there is precedent for creativity in the area. This country is a bit boring – go abroad and design is king. Bit sad us lot sometimes. I didn’t like the house, but you can’t live in the past and keep on designing stock Victoriana now can you? Bring it on.

In my view it’s this sort of thing that should never be passed by planning.

LOL – Hayter Road.

Hayters gonna hate (and quite rightly to; that place is awful!)

Lyhman Road should have a pretty amazing stretch of buildings once everyone is through with their projects.

I thought some aspects were very interesting, moving furniture is nothing new but the application was considered and effective. I still wouldn’t want to live in what was effectively a trendy design consultancy. And moving from rural Norfolk to live next door to a Prison? Mmmm.

It may be difficult to fully appreciate anyone on GD properly but that couple annoyed me from the start. And their house was less than the sum of it’s minimal parts.

Slip House will eventually form part of a terrace of five 21C houses

That’s an important bit of context that was missing from the programme. That may have been deliberate – the programme was pitched as an annoying couple building something that looked out of scale with the surrounding buildings and that no-one could live with except themselves. If they pitched it as one of a series of individual designs it would have made more sense but perhaps the programme would have been less of a talking point.

It did feel weird that they completely ignored the existing Zero Carbon house 12m to the north but Treehouse chose not to be on GD. Maybe they bear a grudge….

If they pitched it as one of a series of individual designs

This isn’t uncommon outside the UK but we seem to have this obsession with uniformity. Check out Borneo Sporenburg[/url] as large new development that revelled in difference instead. Riding in Flanders early this year you’d pass through villages with terraces where ultramodern sat in the middle of older terraces. I love this place in Ghent[/url] but elsewhere it would be a row of 4 or 5, all different and looking like they’d been built (or rebuilt) some years apart.

What you gonna build on the plot to the right them??

Carl is our architect. It’ll be very modern but completely different materials and construction method. Much warmer and less uniform inside but still likely a lot of exposed materials.

I like how on the architect’s website you can view construction drawings where they’re using a crane:

[/url]
Glass Installation[/url] by Carl Turner Architects[/url], on Flickr

The programme went to great lengths to say that they didn’t… tbh for the weight of material they were moving with the windows i think a crane would have been quicker and likely cheaper…

tbh for the weight of material they were moving with the windows i think a crane would have been quicker and likely cheaper…

But they’d have needed a permit (and associated costs) for that – so hard to say.

@simons_nicolai-uk – sounds very exciting!
Would love it if you would share your designs when they are ready, if you want to.
So, will you be inviting Kevin round before you get started too? 🙂

tbh for the weight of material they were moving with the windows i think a crane would have been quicker and likely cheaper…

I think it was a question of green credentials. How could they look themselves in the face if they had used a crane over a hand operated Genie lift?

Actually I think the problem was –
– they couldn’t crane in the ground or first floor at the front because of the cantilever and they’d have struggled to crane in the rear because of the width of the road (or the cost of a full closure)

Passivhaus, you say? Try building 8 of them for affordable private rent in a rural location…like my dad did 🙂

http://www.passivhaustrust.org.uk/projects/detail/?cId=10#.UGR4Vk3A_h4

In the interests of feeding the hive mind, I went and had a look at this. Found it a bit boring, cold and inward looking. To quote D Byrne: I wouldn’t live there if you paid me to!

The Tree House looked more interesting in an Hobbit kind of way. I’d live there.