Grand Designs (1999–…): Season 1, Episode 4 - The Water Tower, Coleshill, Amersham - full transcript

To build a house in
an area of outstanding

natural beauty like
this outside Amersham

is an impossible dream
for most self builders

because of strict
planning regulations.

But this week's grand designers have
managed to get permission for a new

home in the Green Belt.

I'm coming to meet
Andrew Tate and Deborah

Mills who are going
to build a family home

which is part conversion
and part new build.

Andrew and Deborah's new build is
designed to be invisible and to blend into

the countryside.



But the other half of their
project sticks out very, very visibly.

Hello. Hi.

Can we just come down?

Good lord.

What an extraordinary place.
How on earth did you find it?

We found it in a Sunday magazine article.
There was another water tower that

somebody refurbished.

And right at the end of the article
there were other water towers for sale.

And there were two of them there.

You're joking.

And one of them was this.

That's exactly a
premeditated decision then.

Not at all.

How high is it inside?



Inside it's 84 feet
to the tank and the

total building is
exactly 100 feet high.

Of course it looks higher than
that because it's narrow isn't it?

The perspective is sort of shoots up.

Yes.

But even so I wouldn't
like to be 84 feet

up on one of those
wire ladders would you?

To give you an idea you can get
seven stories of building in the main brick

shaft before you get to the tank.

No.

Deborah to what extent do you think
is this project mad? It's not the most

practical of buildings.

No. In fact I came to see it first.

And I went home
and I said it's too

tall, too narrow and
too close to the road.

And Andrew came to see it
and he said no we're living there.

And I suppose I just got sort of
sucked along with his enthusiasm.

You sucked along.

What?

You converted.

I've never been very conventional
so the idea of living somewhere really

strange appeals to me.

What on earth makes you think
you can live in a place like this?

Well what we're doing is building
a new building as well next to it.

So we really couldn't live in this
building by itself because there's only a

single floor per story.

But with the new building that
we've designed we can really create a

fantastic family home here.

And you're the architect of the project.

Yes.

Well we both are really but I am.

I'm the client. You're the architect.

Andrew would spend three
million on this if he could.

The water tower was built in
1916 by German prisoners of war.

Water was pumped from the reservoirs
that lie beneath the grassy banks next

to it up to the metal tank on top

which gave it enough pressure to feed
the Amersham area with mains water.

The water tower fell into disuse in
1990 when modern pumps were installed.

The tower will be converted
into a bedroom wing.

The new building will have
a grass roof and grassy

banks on the side mimicking
the reservoirs next door.

and making it invisible from the road.

The entrance to the tower will
lead into a radically different space.

Uncompromisingly modern open plan
with glass walls either end and three

small rooms off the side.

And there will be a sheltered
Mediterranean style courtyard outside.

The site cost £55,000 and Andrew
and Deborah are planning to spend a

further £350,000 which
they've raised from a mortgage.

Buildings like the tower
pose a bit of a problem.

They often stand in
beautiful countryside

but they've also often
become landmarks.

Local people don't want them knocked down.

Andrew and Deborah's solution was
to propose an extension that looks like

the reservoir banks on the outside
but they had to convince the planners.

Obviously being in Greenbelt to
start with they said absolutely no

extensions to the tower

and we said well this really isn't going
to be acceptable because living one

room above another all the time

what happens if your kitchen is
the third floor up? Do you lug all the

groceries up to that level?

And what happens if the doorbell
goes when you're on the fifth floor?

So we started to
form a story together

of why we needed
to have a new building

and we presented to
the local parish council.

It was on a cold February night and
Andrew started presenting and there was

a power cut.

All the lights went out, street
lights, village hall lights, everything

totally black as it gets in the country.

I went out, fortunately I'd parked
right in front of the window so I put my

headlights on

but everybody else got little torches
out of their pockets because we were

in the country and they walked
across the fields and stuff.

And Andrew did the rest of his presentation
and there was a wonderful torch

light which was spectacular.

We were wondering whether they
liked what we did or we just got a vote of

sympathy for presenting
in a very difficult time.

So they all liked that?

They unanimously supported
our application and I think

without that we didn't have
very much chance at all.

of getting our planning through.

The local villagers may have lent
their support but the local planning

officers were opposed.

They let the application go through
to the final committee stage but they

recommended that it should be refused.

Andrew and Deborah set about lobbying
as many councillors on the planning

committee as they could.

Now this is something that
you're perfectly entitled to do,

sending in as much visual material
like drawings and photographs as you

think appropriate.

Andrew even went as far as
ringing some of the councillors up.

Now in this case the key factor
was the fact that there was already a

building on the
site and a building

that had become a
local landmark at that.

So the councillors were faced with
a dilemma, whether to allow a new

building to go up in the green belt
or whether to allow an old one to rot.

The permission went
through by nine votes to eight.

It's taken three
and a half years in

planning and
preparation to get started.

It shows that if
you want something

badly enough you
have to fight to get it.

But the build itself is going
to take a mere five months.

It's a wintry day in November
when the foundations start to go in.

and despite the weather the
groundworks will be ready by January.

At last the family
can look forward to

leaving their present
home in Watford.

Deborah bought this
house when she was single

and after his previous
relationship ended

Andrew moved in with
her eight years ago.

They've now got three children
aged four, three and one and a half.

This really was never
designed to be our family house.

This was just for me and
my mates to live in and party.

And it sort of evolved into a family
house when we had our three children.

And Andrew's never really
felt it was home I don't think.

Deborah used to work as
a thermodynamic engineer.

She's running the finances for the
build and chasing up suppliers as well as

being a full-time mother.

Thanks very much. Bye bye.

What's up, my love?

That was the man for the
sewage treatment plant.

Andrew is a partner in an architectural
design practice with offices in

central London.

Andrew's heading the design team
on a £37 million refurbishment for the

British Museum, which includes
making a 260-room hotel.

The commercial view that I have has
had a big effect upon the design for the

new building part of the tower.

We're using commercial techniques,
certainly the structure and the glass

walling, the curtain
walling, is something

that we would use for
commercial building.

The first principle of Andrew's
commercial approach is speed.

They call it fast track building.

He's chosen a floor made of
concrete beams six metres long.

The concrete beams
sit on cast plinth walls.

They fit exactly.

The beams are precast with ridges
for breeze blocks to complete the floor.

The whole process takes one
day, including minor adjustments.

It's still Wednesday.

Down the road, the steel that will
provide the framework is being finished.

Steel and concrete
may not be all that

environmentally friendly
in their production,

but they're key materials
for fast track building.

Thursday, we're ready
for the walls to go up.

Most of Britain's new houses are
built out of these bricks and blocks.

To make a wall, you
take a skin of bricks,

maybe a skin of
block or other brick,

and you leave a gap
in between to make

a cavity into which
you put insulation.

Now, of course, Andrew and Deborah
aren't being as conventional as that.

This is Grand Designs.

What they're doing is they're
building their house out of this stuff,

which may look like, well,
leftover polystyrene packaging,

but in fact, this is a big brick.

It goes together rather
like Lego, and you

build your entire
wall out of this stuff,

and then you pump concrete
into the bits in between.

And what you make by doing
that is basically a concrete wall

that has an insulating
layer on either side.

Now, that makes the wall twice
as insulative as a conventional wall.

But there's another
saving, and that is in time.

To build a conventional
wall out of brick, well,

you'd probably need ten
days to put this house together,

the two big walls we've
got running parallel.

But we think by
using this system, we

can put up those
walls in just two days.

The polystyrene shells
are slotted together first.

They're all in place by the end of the day.

Friday, the steel frame arrives.

This is the structural
frame to support the roof.

Vertical columns are
set into the ground,

and a hole is drilled
into the tower wall.

It's three feet thick at
the base, and very hard.

Then one side of the
structure is bolted together.

We're used to seeing these
frameworks on big commercial projects,

but not domestic buildings.

It's Saturday.
The concrete arrives for the Biko walls.

This technology was introduced
on Tomorrow's World in 1979,

but it didn't catch
on in the building

industry, which is
naturally conservative.

In those days, people weren't as
concerned with conserving energy and

heating as they are today.

This material was Deborah's choice.

To date, there are
only around 200

houses in Britain
built using this system.

We'd normally see an
experienced building

team could go on
to site in the morning,

and start at ground
floor level, and have

the walls up to each
level for a bungalow,

block built and concreted by the
time they go home in the evening.

In terms of the actual build cost, we
normally would say probably about 29

pounds a square metre

for the wall form
components, and five or

six pounds a square
metre for the concrete.

That's a lot more than bricks and
blocks would cost, but the labour is a

fraction of that.

So at the end of the day, we
get a balance on the overall cost.

So, in four days, there's a
floor, a steel frame, and walls.

A whole week later, an age in
this build, and the roof's arriving.

One of the interesting things about
building a house is how the size of it

apparently changes as the build develops.

You Mark it out on the ground, it
seems vast, and then you put the floor in,

suddenly the whole thing seems to shrink.

Put the walls up, and it seems large
again, rather like an open-air garden

with this big sky above it.

And yet when you put the roof on
again, suddenly, well, it shrinks a bit.

But it's at that point that
you can see whether you've

made a mistake or not,
whether the interior space works.

And that's something we're going
to be able to tell in about two hours.

The last steel beams are put into place.

They're connected to the frame at
one end, but the other end just sits on

the wall that's less than a foot thick.

It all seems so, so simple.

Everything's under control, so I
therefore assume that you're on budget and

on target for your schedule, yes?

Yes.

Yes, we are.

You're going to put that in writing?

Yes, we are.

You're happy? Wonderful to hear.

I think instead of being
completely stressed out by

the total experience,
we're actually very excited.

And we love coming here. I mean, I
dropped my eldest daughter off at the

school, and I always stop.

Every time I go past, I stop, put my
wellies on, come and have a look, see

what's going on.

It's so interesting, so exciting.
It's brilliant.

I mean, day to day,
how many people

have you got? Who's
organising the thing?

We have our site
manager on site all the

time, provided by the
construction company.

And that is just fabulous. In fact,
when we were looking through the costs

and trying to cut costs,

we looked at the cost of the site
manager and thought, oh, perhaps that's

something we could cut out.

Andrew specifically said, no, we can't.

The roof comes in the
form of 11 metre long

concrete slabs, each
weighing six tonnes.

They're breathtakingly large.
It's the sort of thing you associate with

motorway bridge construction.

It's brilliant.

It really is.
It's real big stuff, isn't it?

Yeah, I know. And look, they've
taken them right off over the trees.

You'll be able to just see it
from miles around. It's wonderful.

It's remarkable how it kind of
gives you an instant dwelling, isn't it?

An instant space.
And also, the foot is so tight.

It's just, you know,
everything's been manufactured

within such great
tolerances. It's excellent.

You sort of think, you know, are they
going to fit? How do they know they're

going to fit?

And of course they do. It's wonderful.

A bit like building a car park.

A bit like building
a car park, but it's

my house. It's going
to be my house.

It's going to be wonderful.

So they're all in position.

Yeah.

My goodness.
It's very, very different, isn't it?

It gives a completely different
feeling of space, doesn't it?

Yeah.

As huge.

As you imagined it to be.

I think it pretty much is now the
roof's on. It really is the sort of scale

that I'd imagine it.

As tall.

In my mind, it feels bigger
than when the roof was off.

Yes, it does.

Did you get a sense of it being
a larger, sort of wider volume?

So walking here, we've got, this
is, that was utility. This is bathroom.

Yes.

With the skylight.

With the skylight above.

Yeah.

And this is playroom.

That's right.

Yeah? Right.

And they all open
onto... They all have

a door that opens
onto the main space.

Right. Okay.

These are all individual doors.

And this is all glass and
outside is the garden.

This is the special winter
garden for the children.

This is our room outside.

And then this is the link corridor.

Through there?

Up into the tower and we go up to
where the yellow Mark is, the lowest

yellow Mark on the wall.

Yes.

Which is the floor of the tower.

So there will be four or
five gentle steps up there.

Okay.

From the main space.

So as people arrive, they walk into
the tower. I mean, all they see when

they arrive is the tower.

Yes.

Which is actually quite a protected space.

You've got these really
thick walls, quite a dark space.

Yeah.

A cosy sort of space.

Yeah.

So it would be nice to come out of
the tower and walk down into this space.

For all this to go up in two weeks,
it needs meticulous planning.

Andrew's detailed everything on
this build in a 300-page document.

But it's the project manager
who has to put it into action.

This must be a very different
kind of build for you, isn't it?

I mean, beaker walls and
concrete lintels and that kind of stuff.

Yeah, it's totally different
from the traditional.

So how do you cope
with that? I mean, has

that presented its
own problems for you?

Not at all, no.
It's been very easy to build.

Quite.

Very straightforward, yeah.

Yeah. I mean, what do you put that down to?
Is that luck or is that...

I think it's just basically
different trades know

what they're doing and
we're getting on with it.

We've got a vast
amount of literature off

of Andrew that we
can revert back to, so...

Doug's modesty
belies his talents, but

project management
doesn't come cheap.

15% of your budget may be spent
on architects, surveyors, engineers,

but another 15% of your budget
may be spent on having the project

professionally managed.

Now, that may sound like a lot,
but in Andrew and Deborah's case,

it means that they're going to get a
house delivered in, what, half the time

that it otherwise might take.

Now, professional
management is all

very well when it
comes to a new building.

But Andrew and Deborah
are going to be really

challenged when it
comes to this brute.

It's time to face the beast.

It takes an age to climb these
ladders and it's freezing in here.

There's mud stuck to every
rung and your fingers go numb.

They've told me the trick is not to
look down, but it doesn't seem to make

any difference.

Oh, my...

It has taken forever to come up this tower.

Oh, my... Oh, God.

It was a mistake to come up onto this
bit here because I can see terra firma

below my feet through this grill,
which isn't a very comforting view.

And I'm just wondering how I negotiate
getting back down onto that platform

without falling off.

I'm certainly not going up
this ladder, I can tell you.

Oh, God.

Crawling is the best way.

Oh, that's a little better.

But the views are wonderful.

And I would like to say it was worth
coming up here for that, but I'm not

very good with heights.

Not heights like this.

Not heights where there
are big holes that beckon you.

That building looks great, though.

I'm glad I'm not living
here, though, I can tell you.

So how often have you been out here?

This is the third time
I've been to the top.

And outside?

Outside once.

All the way round?

No.

On the ring?

No.

Looking through your feet?

I can't manage that yet.

I get better and better
each time I come up.

The first time I came was on my
own and I got halfway up the tower.

And I scared myself, something
stupid, and went down again.

But then coming up with other
people, you sort of bite your tongue, I

suppose, and go for it.

But the views are worth it
if you can keep your nerve.

Why did you buy it if you
can't cope with the heights?

I think it's not so much
the heights as the ladders.

I managed to convince myself that
once the stairs are in there and it's a

nice comfortable walk
up, then I'll be okay.

You'll be okay, like being in a
block of flats, I guess, and that kind of

thing, except as long as you're
not having to come out here.

That's right.

What about the kids? I
mean, it's not exactly going

to be the most
child-friendly structure, is it?

They will not be allowed
anywhere near here.

But supposing they just
decide they're going to?

They won't be steps up here.

At the age they are now, they're not.

You're actually just not going to
make it physically possible to do that?

It won't because we've got to go up there.
It has to be that way. It's just

too dangerous.

Good, good. Well, that means I
won't have to come up again either.

You don't have a problem, do you, Andrew?

No, I've been up here so many times now.

How many times?

Oh, I probably come up here twice
every time I'm here, so I should think it

must be in the hundreds
of times I've been here.

Oh my goodness, you're
swinging around like a monkey.

If you look down between the gap in
the trees, on a clear day you can see

all the towers of central London.

And I can see Canary Wharf
Tower, which is about 28 miles away.

Oh, incredible.

Then further, I can see Crystal
Palace Aerial as well, and then the North

Downs in Hampshire.

So I've actually on a map joined
all the furthest dots that I can see

together, and I make an area
of about 1,000 square miles.

What about these cracks in the wall,
though? I mean, are they a problem?

No, I think the fact
that the building

has been here for
so long, they're OK.

The brick shaft is actually
broken into three complete pieces.

Which I held together,
by my reckoning,

by this walkway that
you're standing on.

It has taken 50,000 gallons of water
before, and now there's no water in

there at all, so there's nothing
like the load it used to have.

It's stood all this time, and I think it
will stand without much repair from

us, other than decorative,
for many years to come.

I'll take Andrew's word for it that
the tower isn't going to fall down.

So far, everything he's told me would
happen has happened, on schedule and

on budget.

And some of the design elements aren't
simple. Two walls in the new building

are solid, but the other two will be
made of glass panels in timber frames.

It's called curtain walling, because
the entire wall of glass is hung.

It's a look I associate with modern
hotel lobbies and shopping centres.

Andrew's background in commercial
design is showing, and elsewhere,

commercial techniques are being
used even for the smallest details.

This is instead of ordinary timber
stud work, isn't it? This is metal stud

work.
The kind of stuff they use in offices.

That's correct, yeah.

But does it go up much quicker than timber?

Oh, you'd fly it up in no time, yeah.

Really?
But you're using conventional plasterboard?

Yeah, just ordinary board.

Just screw it straight up?

Just screw it straight onto the metal.

Where are the holes then?

Just self-tapping screws straight
through the board and into the metal.

Is that magnetic?

Yep.

That just clips on there
and it goes straight

into the metal. Show
me, I don't believe you.

That must make it really quick.

That's it.

Oh, goodness me. Yeah, you get
the old bit falling down, don't you?

Incredible.

It's all very impressive, but I'm
becoming a little apprehensive about the

new building.

The roof slabs are just sitting
on one of those thin walls, and my

understanding is that tonnes of
earth are going to be put up against it to

form the grassy bank that'll make
the house invisible from the road.

Deborah, an engineer herself, has
brought the structural engineer for the

project along to answer
some of my questions.

Ever since I saw this house go up,
I've looked at that Biko wall, which is

basically polystyrene blocks filled with
concrete, and wondered how on earth

it supports what it does.

This end is great. You've got at
this end, you've got this great steel

structure and that's quite
a strong wall there, isn't it?

At this wall, you have the Biko, which
is represented here by an ice cream

wafer, which I think is a fairly
representative model. And then you've got.

these great, great heavy
concrete lintels, haven't you,

which are the roof lintels.
What do you call them? Beams?

They're actual slabs over there.

Slabs, yes.

Now the problem I
think comes is when

you're building this
huge bund next to it.

Yeah.

Yeah? This is the earth, right?

Yeah.

This is the earth up here. And what
I'm suggesting is that the weight of all

that earth, the lateral
pressure, surely, isn't it?

So that's not quite the right example.
This is a self-supporting structure,

the actual bund itself. So it wouldn't
have any lateral pressure imposed

onto the wall, right?

And also, it's not having the
earth banked up against it. It's

having polystyrene cubes.
There's no force in this direction.

There's no lateral force.

But when I looked at those great big
concrete beams going down onto that

little thin wall, there's no
steel work in there, is there?

You were scared, weren't you?

I was scared. I really, I was, I love
the building. Don't get me wrong. I

think the building
is a fantastic design.

It's a beautiful, beautiful
spacious design.

But the idea of sitting underneath 90
tonnes of concrete supported on that

very thin polystyrene wall,
filled with concrete, that's it.

It's wrong to call it just a polystyrene
wall. Let's get things correct,

really. It's not that dramatic, is it?
It's a concrete wall.

Yeah, but the concrete's this thick.

It's about six inches thick, and the
actual polystyrene is used as a mould.

You wouldn't put steel work in there.

The forces are all in compression there.
They're all axial loads down.

It doesn't actually need steel.

Can we prove that?

Well, let's try with something
a bit more weighty, shall we?

What, what?

That's rather weighty.

Well, nobody would think the wafer
would hold, would they? But the wafer is

in compression.

But we're talking about
concrete, not the wafer.

Engineering class.
So we're talking, yes,

exactly. So that's a
concrete-filled wafer.

That's right.

Really, really, really rather strong.

Yeah.

Thank you. You've answered that question.

Pleasure.

This is the underfloor heating that's
going in, and it is such an elegant

system. This is just a huge piece
of eight-by-four polystyrene that just

gets laid flat on the top.

It's got this foil over it. It's got these
grooves into which they're laying

all this piping to carry the hot
water that's going to heat the floor.

And on top of this, there's going
to be a floating timber floor, as I

understand it. So that whole thing
is going to go down really quickly.

And it's going to heat the house
exactly the way you want it, you know,

underfloor, beneath your feet, so
you can walk around in it barefoot.

It'll be wonderfully comfortable.
It sort of epitomises the whole bill.

And the whole thing has gone very
quickly, very elegantly, minimum fast,

minimum problem.

It makes you wonder why all
buildings aren't constructed like that.

Outside, there's another elegant solution.
The courtyard garden will be

protected from the noise of the road
by a stone wall with grassy embankment

facing out onto the road.

The wall will be made from
gabions, wire cages filled with rubble.

And to make them look good, the side
facing into the courtyard has a surface

of Welsh pebbles. The backs facing
the road will be banked with earth.

These gabion walls are yet another
unconventional material. They're normally

seen forming the walls
of motorway cuttings.

This time, Andrew's building
them himself with a little help.

I'm enjoying helping out at the moment.
Normally I do spend all of the time

in the office.

I must admit the
fresh air is getting

the better of me,
certainly did last night.

But what I want to do is
set a standard of quality

here for the front
gabions into the courtyard.

And it's a little bit
suck it and see at

the moment how
we're developing them.

So they need to be clamped and crimped
and wired back because the gabions

actually bulge and we need to make
sure that they're set out correctly and

they all go together properly.

I have to confess that
I have a real liking for

this building. A real
liking. It's not excessive.

It simply provides them with all the
room they'll ever need as a family,

what with the water tower as well.

But it's not a huge overblown statement.

But with an architect for whom design
is all and a client thinking of family

comforts, choosing the
furniture might not be so easy.

At this stage in a build, most people
are still struggling with decisions

such as where are
all the sockets going

or which tiles to
put in the bathroom.

But true to form, Andrew and
Deborah are way ahead of the game.

They're choosing new furniture to go
with their new design. Not that I think

this is a luxury, mind you.

I think that if you're going to all
the trouble of building a new space,

then it's rather a
shame to fill it with

all the old stuff
from your old house.

So why not leave a little
in the budget for shopping?

I think it would
go really well with

the timber on the
floor. It's very nice.

No, it's bigger than that size.

Yes, no? No.

I'd go for the black leather as well.
Would you?

Yes, to make the whole frame stand out. No.

So Andrew, is this
executive enough for you?

I think they're nice
actually. They're

grand and they're
really quite comfortable.

They're really
territorial. They're sort

of, this is my space.
Very masculine.

Yeah, I think these are great. I love them.

They're great if you're in the dentist.

I suppose they're so architectural.
They're pieces of sculpture in a way in

their own right. I'd love a gift for that.

I don't like them.

Do you think that's because of the
black leather you don't like though? I

mean I think the frames are wonderful.

They're beautifully designed chairs,
but I don't want them in my house.

I want a sofa that
looks like you can

just sink into it and
take the shoes off.

A recognisable sofa.

Yeah, just sort of relax. One that
looks like it's comfortable and that you

can just sit in and forget about
what you've done for a day.

This is really comfortable.
I'm not sure about the colour though.

No, I don't like the colour,
but I do like the fabric.

Being chunky.

It's quite soft.

And it's loose covers,
so it's easy to keep clean.

You can put a big tick by that then.

Big tick.

Right.

Put a sticker on this one.

This build is running on a tight schedule.
So tight that I think Andrew and

Deborah are actually
gambling on their efficiency.

Their schedule allows them absolutely
no room for error. For example, they

have a fixed day to move in at the
end of April and that's the very day the

contractors are due to leave site.

That's just over a
month away. And they

haven't even started
work on the tower yet.

I'm beginning to wonder if this isn't
asking things just to go a little too

fast, even for this build.

If I were to take an uncharitable
view, I would say new build, commercial

architect, piece of cake.
Historic building, great unknown.

I mean, you haven't done anything
to the tower yet, have you? Is this

because you've just
sort of shied clear of it?

What we've been wanting to do is
finish off the new building before we move

on to the tower contract and just
see how much money we've got left.

I think the new building is going
to cost what it is within reason.

And we don't want to skimp on the
areas of finish, which is the areas that

we're at now.

I'd rather do a room less in the tower
and then do that at some point in the

future and get the new building right.

Personally, I'm sorry they're
not going to convert the

tower right away. It's
such an intriguing building.

But they've got to move out of their
old house by the 30th of April because

it's been sold.

All energies need to go into getting
the new build ready by then. Even

without touching the tower,
it's a race against time.

We're less than two weeks from Andrew
and Deborah's deadline for moving in,

and trouble has struck from one
of their technological innovations.

The roof's leaking.

It's imperative that we find the leaks.
We're not quite sure whether it's

just in one location or in two or three.

So it has slowed things up.

Are you still going to
move in on the same day?

Yes, absolutely.

It's not going to be
affected by all of this?

No.

Because you're on such a tight schedule.

Yes, we are. I'm getting to the stage
where I am crossing my fingers and

waking up early in the morning thinking
I must do this and I must remember

to tell somebody that.

Since Andrew's ordered a roof that
doesn't leak, he can hand this problem

over to the roofing contractors.

They'll have to absorb the cost
of making it watertight, not him.

But Andrew's not a hands-off man
on his build, and it doesn't look like I'll

be much longer.

They've asked me to bring my overalls
today. Andrew's going to show me how

to make this house invisible.

Earth has been banked up against
the back of the courtyard walls to form a

slope facing the road
that'll be covered in grass.

What we're going to do is put
some terram down to start with.

What's terram?

Well, it's really to stop any of the
topsoil going through into the Clay.

Oh, right, yeah.

Well, that seems sensible.

If you put some of that down to start
with, as a sample, what we've done is

smoothed out the bank as much as we can.

Yeah, flattened it down.

Bit Clay, unfortunately.

And then we're going to
stick some topsoil on that?

And then, to start with, we'll put
some of this soil erosion matting down

and then we put the topsoil into that.

Well, what are those?
That looks like slats.

Yeah, what?

How does that work?

You can have hold of
that end, I'll show you.

What we do is, if you touch it a
bit at the bottom... It's like one thing.

Yeah.

It's one... We just hold it.

It's a huge concertina.

Tremendous, isn't it?

It's fantastic.

Oh, dear, there's only one shovel.

An example, so I can show you
really before we really get going on it.

And, of course, what's below
this bank are the Gabians.

Bit more, please.

Stop it.

It's very effective, though, isn't it,
because you can put the topsoil on in

a very dry, crumbly form,
which is good for levelling.

And if we didn't have that, the first
time it rained, it would just run off

the bank completely.

Absolutely, and I understand that.

And then... And you just
roll the turf out over that.

There we are.

It's great, isn't it?

It's going to be
really super. It's going

to be a very enticing,
meaty bank, isn't it?

Yeah.

Something for the children to roll down.

Yeah, yes, it will be.

And that one, six
days to go at that finish.

Andrew and Deborah are
shelling out for an expensive finish.

And thanks to Castleton Excise,
they're saving 17.5% VAT, which isn't

charged on new builds.

But as soon as they touch the tower,
the whole project becomes a conversion

and VAT is payable.

And the moment they start, the
tower hits them with its first surprise.

They planned to cut out
the doorway in two days.

It took two weeks.

Andrew and Deborah's house has taken
four years in the planning, ten months.

of intensive design and research,
and just four months to build.

And I can't wait to see it.

But I do have a couple of questions.

I still wonder whether Andrew hasn't
designed an architect's indulgence for

other architects to admire, or
whether it's a liveable space.

And I still have this niggling
doubt about open plan design.

I mean, I know that it's a fashionable
and desirable way to plan your space

these days, and that it's synonymous
with modernist architecture.

But does it make for a
good and practical home?

Let's see.

Hi.

Hello.

Hi, Kevin.

Hi, how are you?

Very good, thanks.

How are you?

Very well.

Have a good trip up?

Yeah, you've done a lot for this
space though, since I saw you last.

Yeah, my mum said we've
got the tallest porch in the world.

Exactly. Anyway, look, show me your house.

Right. I'm desperate to see it.

It's extraordinary.

Welcome to modern living, isn't it?

A wonderful space.
It's so, so different.

It's so kind of sleek
and sharp and fresh.

I love the quality of
light as well in here.

Yeah, it is incredibly light.

That's what really makes it, doesn't it?

Incredibly light. It's all very
beautiful, isn't it? I mean, beautiful is

the word to describe this.

Thank you, yes.

It's also all very hard and crisp and
very much Andrew's kind of, you know,

that kind of design business,

you know, like a commercial aesthetic,
you know, which is very slick and

very fashionable at the moment.

Now, these, I just cannot believe,
after that confrontational shopping trip,

that these chairs, they're anything
like what you want, are they?

They're like leather and the chrome.
No, but Andrew likes them.

And I've got my
squishy sofas. I mean, at

the end of the evening,
we'll sit down here,

and I know Andrew
was sitting in one of

these sofas and he'll
sprawl along them.

He won't be sitting in his chairs.
He'll be looking at his chairs.

He'll be looking at the chairs.

Fine.

Sitting in the sofa.

They're a defining space.

Yeah.

Yeah, they are.

Controlling the volume.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, they are.

And also with the sofas, what we need
in such a big space is you need things

to absorb the sound.

Yes, that's true.

So it's really important to
have the rug and the big.

And that piece of furniture over
there, stuck in its own, I mean, yes, that

must be one that you've
chosen, isn't it, Andrew?

Yes, isn't it? Fabulous.

I actually like it too.

Do you?

I do, yeah.

This is so, so much better than
when I saw it last, you know?

Yes, it's come on really, really quickly.

That great curving wall.

Yeah, this is the arm, the hugging arm.

Yeah.

It's a dry, arid space in the middle.

It is, yeah.

All this shingle and concrete.

You sort of wanted
a semi-Mediterranean

feel here, and it's
nice to have that.

One of the reasons for building the
bunk was to give you privacy and also to

isolate you from the road
outside, which is a busy A road.

And I can still hear the traffic.

Yes.

I think the wall has cut out quite a
bit, but you can clearly hear the cars.

Until the tower's
finished, the family

are making do with
temporary bedrooms.

The small room
facing the courtyard

will eventually be the
children's playroom.

All three of them are
sleeping here in the meantime.

Next door, there's a small
bathroom with Philip Stark fittings.

And Andrew and Deborah are bedding
down in the room behind the kitchen with

views out to the back garden.

This is our bedroom.

Oh, no, this is style. This is what I
call the greatest living in the early

20th century.

This is really beautiful.

This is very temporary.

I think it is beautiful, actually.
All the work on that wall, it's a real

work of art, all the services there.

I have never seen such complicated
pipe work in a house. I suppose that's

all the underfloor heating, is it?

Yes, the manifold system
for the underfloor heating.

But, you know, who can? It doesn't matter.

We're here now, which is great.

We only sleep in here, you know.

Yeah, you don't show
guests this room, do you?

No.

You just let me see it.

The new build has cost £230,000.
The site was £55,000 and they've set a

budget for the tower of £120,000.

Andrew's fees would be £35,000,
so that gives a total cost of £440,000.

The whole project has
been valued at £450,000.

The main open plan space
is designed to be flexible.

To move the dining room,
you just move the table.

This explains Andrew's
love of furniture

with hard, clean
lines that define areas.

But good design is not just about
how furniture and space look, it's about

the way they work for people.

I do wonder how Deborah and
the children will use this space.

There's one thing I've been meaning
to ask you. I've seen the inside of your

house, your old house.

And I know the way you've lived.
And neither have you professed to be the

tidiest of people.

We build offices for people. We see
them in dreadful, messy surroundings.

And we design new offices around them.

And they are much cleaner people.
It does change the way that they work.

I'm beginning to think
Andrew's built this

beautiful house just
so that I'll clean it.

The stainless steel we're really
pleased with. A lot of people warned us it

marks its scratches. I don't care.

We don't want a show home. We want
a home that we can live comfortably in.

When the children are in bed and we
have a dinner party, we can clear it up

and make it look lovely.

But it doesn't have to look
like that the whole time.

I mean, is open plan this great 90s ideal?
Is it a good idea? Where do you

find your privacy here?

With young children,
you don't get privacy.

You go to the toilet,
they come with you.

Do you actually know what I mean?
It's pointless trying to design that when

you're not going to achieve it.

But all of us need some privacy
from the noise of children's TV, from

cooking smells, from prying
ramblers, from each other.

Even when the towers
converted, it'll still

be a long climb to
find any sanctuary.

Perhaps having to make do with this
one big living space will give them the

drive to press on with
the tower conversion.

Nothing like reading a
quiet newspaper, is there?

Have you got the energy to go on?

I'd like a rest. I
would like to devote

some time exclusively
to the children.

I think that they've
had a bit of a rough ride.

And it would be quite nice to have
some of the summer on our own, here, no.

builders, to enjoy it.

The fact that the tower is there
and it's so inspiring in its own right,

I think I'll wake up
tomorrow and I'll be

desperately wanting
to carry on with it.

I can't help suspecting
that Deborah's a

little reluctant to
convert the tower at all.

But maybe that's my interpretation,
since I can't imagine any building less

practical for living in.

What happens when one of the kids
leaves their homework in the top bedroom

at ten to nine in the morning?

I suppose if you live with an architect,
you expect comfort and practicality

to come second to pure design.

But for real, although a house that
looks like a slice of airport terminal

may not be to your taste,
it is to theirs and to mine.

And I've been totally bowled over by
the speed and efficiency of this build.

On every other
project in this series I've

had to lend a hand in
some way or another.

But apart from messing around with
some turf and acting as mediator over

Andrew and Deborah's
differing taste in furniture,

there's very little for me to do here
because the build has gone so well.

And I think I've learnt why.

For any house to go up quickly and
smoothly, I think you need three human

cornerstones.

You need an architect
who is 100% on the case.

You need a client, in this case
Deborah, who is 100% on the case.

And you need a project manager,
someone like Doug, who is also 100% on the

case.

Now, take any one of these three
cornerstones away and I think the whole

project lurches in the
direction of disaster.

And even if you've planned for the
unexpected, something as epic as building

your own house is always
going to be a helter-skelter ride.

It's never easy to turn
your dreams into reality.

In two weeks time, I'll be back
with the greenest grand design yet.

Rob Roy, an ex-tax inspector, and his
partner Alida Saunders are building an

eco-house in Suffolk,
complete with an

environmentally
friendly composting toilet.

The new compost toilet will be
slightly larger. It's going to be okay. I

mean, I'm not going to empty it out.

I mean, that's Rob's job.
That was the agreement.

Not that it's going
to be nasty or

anything. It really
will just be dry, dry.

excrement and it'll just
be thrown onto the garden.

It'll be absolutely
fine. It'll be just

powdery. I'm still
not going to do it.