Grand Designs (1999–…): Season 18, Episode 5 - South Hertfordshire - full transcript

There are places in Britain where
no-one wants to see a house built -

in our green belt perhaps,
in our National Parks,

in the centres of our historic towns

which are replete
with heritage sites

and Roman archaeology.

And then, there are those people
who are determined to build,

who will fight even a 34-year
history of planning refusal.

Who consider it their right,
their duty,

to fight the system
and to break the deadlock.

Surrounding one of Britain's most
historic cathedrals in Hertfordshire

is some of the country's
most highly protected land.



There's been no chance of building
on it for the past 30 years.

But no-one reckoned
on golf-coach Chris.

After a playing career,

he went into business, running
and owning golf centres.

He is a true sportsman,
trained to win.

Winning I guess is always important.
It's pleasurable to win,

you don't want to lose, I guess,
more than anything else.

Chris met his future wife, Kayo,

when she booked golf lessons
with him 20 years ago.

She's also a sports champion,

figure skating
for her home country, Japan.

I am quite strong, I like to compete
and I like to win, I don't give in.

They have three school-age children.

Theirs an active, driven family



who don't easily take "no"
for an answer.

And their lives are about to be
uprooted.

They live in this house,
in the shadow of the Abbey.

The new building plot
they've bought is bang next door,

on a strip of wasteland.

This is your house there, is it?

It is indeed. What a lovely
building.

It's gorgeous and semi-rural -
what's wrong with this?

Well, absolutely nothing really,
nothing wrong with the house,

nothing at all wrong
with the positioning of it
other than unfortunately

this particular site
was a huge problem for us
because there was massive

antisocial behaviour going on
when we arrived -
lots of youths drinking,

taking drugs, doing whatever.

Was that because you're surrounded
by woodland and open space?

Yes, because we're very close
to a main city centre

and this was a hidden piece of
woodland and it was very easy
for kids to come in there,

hide away from everybody.

How many times did we call
the police?

I don't know, 50 or 60 times?

Seriously? Yep.

The family home, in the dream
location, turned out
to be a nightmare.

Chris and Kayo's solution was to
build a house on the plot next door.

But that's easier said than done.

It's on a scheduled
ancient monument site,

so it needs the say-so
from Historic England

and scrutiny from the planners.

It is a very difficult site -
archaeology,

location in relation to the abbey.

If you were actually going to,
in planning policy terms,

look at this site on a piece of
paper you would say
there's no chance of us

actually putting something
positive.

It didn't take Chris and Kayo long
to find out they'd bitten off much,

much more than they could chew.

It can't have been that easy,
the past few years.

No, it was difficult for a long
time, you know, Chris' moods
up and down.

Sometimes sending an application in,

you never get the response for
months and months,
Chris gets frustrated.

I think, you know,

she probably knows my ambition -

when I decide I want to do
something,

then I don't like to stop
and back down,

so I was determined to try
and sort out this problem.

Chris put on his best sporting
armour and went into battle,

and after six long years
of struggle,

making endless alterations
and concessions to get it
through the planning process,

a design was agreed.

The shallow foundations give a clue
to the unusual zigzag shape of this

house, following the slope's
contours and the lines
of previous archaeology trenches

so as to respect the medieval
and Roman remains buried below.

Meanwhile, the planners wanted to
see a single-storey building
here so as to

preserve the sight lines
to and from the abbey
and construction would

be in light, highly-insulated
timber cassettes

to reduce the weight of the building
on the archaeology below.

The glazed link between the two
wings will suggest a light
transparent

centre to the house
that's almost not there.

Cladding will be narrow
cinder-coloured bricks,

with decorative coursing echoing
a 2,000-year-old Roman
wall-building style

appropriate for this city.

The brickwork flourishes will be
triangular-pierced screens almost

redolent of ruined walls.

The roof will be flat and punctured
by three large roof lights and a

series of light tubes to brightly
illuminate the rooms.

And it'll be covered in sedum,
another planning condition.

The west wing will contain a series
of bedrooms - the master suite,

a row of three almost monastic rooms
for the children,

a spare room and at the end,
a family cinema room.

Through the front door,

you'll cross a tiny moat of water

then turn left
along the glazed link to

reach the living wing. You'll have
noticed there's no white emulsion
here.

The house is built of wood
and lined with wood - maple,

partly to suggest a traditional
house in Japan.

Almost every fitting and piece of
furniture will be crafted
from yet more

maple in the pursuit of
a single, ordered aesthetic.

There are rooms too -
this house isn't open-plan -

but highly organised into
compartments - sitting and dining
rooms and a kitchen.

This design is rich in influences -
it's part Japanese transparency

and lightness, part mediaeval
cloister and part Roman villa
in layout.

And nowhere are you far from a
relationship with the natural,

organic world, which of course
for Chris,

means there has to be a putting
green in his garden.

The layout of this highly unusual
house is already carved
into the ground.

You have to remember that although
this building is not vast
in volume,

its footprint is large on the ground

because it's a bungalow - it's a
single-storey building.

So the
living wing here, for example,

the foundations are in for that.

Then there's the extra foundations
here for the link
between that wing and

the bedroom wing over here.

And although these don't look very
precise, these foundations,

because they're so big and so long,

if they are only a few degrees out,

that means the building itself
then won't fit on to the footings.

What's really bizarre is the
foundations for this, look,

this is where the bedrooms
kind of crank out,

and look what the concrete does.

It's bizarre. It's like following a
crazy golf course.

Where's the windmill?

I'm really not sure what I make
of this highly-detailed,

very crafted design - it's not
fashionable, thank goodness.

But it's not my house,
it's Chris and Kayo's.

Do you like it much? Do you like the
design? It's unusual, isn't it?

You know, I think I could probably
tell you that in a few months' time.

So you're not sure? I got a kind of
Eureka moment when we got the
planning

permission, and then I kind of asked
myself - do I definitely want
to live

in this house, and my architect had
to sit me down and kind of start
all over again.

His passion, his enthusiasm,

his vision I think convinced me that
this was really worth building and

maybe even worth living in.
Now hang on, he's the architect,

you're the client, it's
not the other way round,

I mean, surely you feel some passion
for this, some kind of excitement,

some kind of vision?

I think, you know,

when you win a battle,

sometimes there needs to be a kind
of period of time

when you gather your thoughts

and I'm still probably in that mode.

Gathering? Yeah.

I wasn't expecting that.

Chris is just gathering his thoughts
about a house he's commissioned.

And we're not talking
small change here,

this is an expensive part of the
country so the plot wouldn't have

been a cheap investment.

Certainly five, five zeros and more.

I can't remember you know,
I'm not very good with zeros.

I suggest it's six -
it's got to be well into six?

It may be, I can't remember.

And how much is it going to cost you
to put the building on it?

Well, we started off with a budget
of 600 but it seems to be going up.

And when do you hope to finish?

Oh, soon.

A year. A year and a half.

18 months, sounds good.

So, all in all they'll take 18
months or longer
to build a house for

between one and a half and two
million pounds, I reckon,

a house which I'm not sure
they even like.

This highly unusual project has been
designed by Rogan Gale-Brown.

He's worked with Chris
for over 20 years,

designing his golf centres
and house extensions.

This house is something
of a passion project.

I'm actually doing this as part
of a long-term vision of mine,

and hopefully it will have something
to say to young architects about

thinking about architecture
rather than just drawing
white square lines on

paper and just plugging glass in
which, you know, I
just don't believe in.

This is a designer who knows his own
mind, that's clear.

I've got a few questions for Rogan.

Chris has been very happy
to be led on this project by you.

Well, yes he has.

He really didn't know in the
beginning what he was going to get,

he took a leap of faith,

and I hope that by now he's
appreciated what we are
trying to do for him -

that it's unlocked his vision
of what he'd like to see.

I'm absolutely admiring of your
clients here in handing
you this gorgeous

and beautiful responsibility of,
you know, kind of leading them,

taking them on this journey but of
course there is always the risk

that in the end they will turn round
to you and say,

"Hang on, we've seen the models.
We don't like it!

"This is not our house,
it's yours, Rogan."

It sounds a bit egotistical to say
it, but I think that I've been

deeply into their psyche,
I know what they feel,

I know that Kayo doesn't
like things lying around,

that she likes everything in
cupboards and I know
that they don't like

endless open space.

This is trust of the highest order.

There are a lot of opinions
going on here.

But very little from the
clients, Chris and Kayo.

Now then, there's a question
of ownership here
because it's almost as

though the architect is half
expecting to move into this house
when it's finished.

Oh, and then there's English
Heritage, of course, who have wanted

to design the thing from scratch
from the word go,

the local authority who have taken
an interest, oh,

and there's of course Chris and
Kayo, the people who are paying
for it,

you know, for whom the project is
almost a by-product,
really, of a separate

process of trying to figure out what
to do with this site -

I mean, whose house is it?

It takes nearly seven months
to complete

the crazy golf concrete footings
that step up and down the site,

which is now ready for
the next phase -

the highly-insulated timber frame
which is being manufactured off-site

as ready-made wall, floor
and ceiling panels, or cassettes,

every one of which is
a different size and shape.

And today is project manager Steve's
personal moment of truth.

Will the 786 cassettes fit
his complicated foundations?

I'm confident
what I've done's right.

I wasn't confident it fit
cos I didn't have any control over

making these cassettes, but I don't
think a computer can be wrong -

it's what you put into it.

At last, Steve is no longer alone.

There's a new team on site,
and work's accelerating.

The main issue of today
was getting the vehicles in.

It's quite a tight site,
so bit of a hoo-hah there,

but we got in, got out.

No damage, all the trees
are still there, so...good.

This single-storey house has
a very large footprint

of 557 square metres -

nearly six times
your average family home -

sprawling over this sloping site.

Size isn't the only problem, though.

Normally, a timber frame like this
would drop neatly onto a flat slab,

everything in line and square.

There you go, that's how
an ordinary house is laid out -

one, two, three, four little rooms.
Very straightforward, isn't it?

That's not what they've done here,
though,

cos the watchword for this project
is "complicated".

So in order to follow
the slope of the hill,

what Rogan's done in each of
these two wings is not only angle

the rooms, but also step them so
that across the site

you step up from one room to
the next, one room to the next

through the building, and as a
result of that, at the far end

at the top there, it's a metre above
ground level at this end.

So what does that mean?

It means that from the setting out
of the groundworks, and the slab,

and to the walls, to the roof,
to the glazing -

every part of the building
is different to every other part.

Enormously complicated.

No, you haven't got a plinth there.
You've got a plinth going across

the back there, and you've got
a plinth going across here.

Once they get their heads
round the plans,

the team bolt the walls
to the floor plates.

Each of these floor decks
have got solid timbers,

so we can screw through the base of
the panel into the solid timber,

which holds it down.

One of the benefits of this type
of construction should be speed.

Timber frame wise, if we were
to get a clear run at it,

we'd be looking at sort of
a five-week programme,

a five-, six-week programme.

Five weeks would be a long schedule

for a normal timber,
cassette-frame house.

Everything about this project
is lengthy.

But while Steve and the timber
company get on with their job,

Chris has time to get back
onto the golf course - with me.

Boy, oh, boy.
This is not my natural habitat.

I feel a bit like
a fish out of water.

Chris is a proper sportsman -

he keeps his cards
very close to his chest.

Maybe he'll open up here
in his comfort zone.

That's a super shot!
Where did it go?

GLASS SMASHES
Straight in the greenkeeper's shed.

Oh, man! Very well struck, though.
Sorry!

This is going rather well.

Time to ask the hard questions.

What does he really think
about Rogan's design?

It's very different to anything
you've lived in before, isn't it?

When we started the project,

it was Rogan's baby in terms
of the style of the house,

something that fitted the site
and pleased the planners

and English Heritage
and everybody else.

I think it is going to be different
from where we've ever lived before,

and I'm kind of embracing that.

I think it's a rare opportunity
to live in a house

that is really extremely unusual.

Back at Chris and Kayo's
current home,

I have a chance to see for myself
just exactly what their usual is.

Hello. Hello. Can I come in?
Please come in.

I'll take my shoes off here.
Yes, please, it's Japanese style.

That's good. No, I approve of it,
cos it keeps the house clean.

We always ask people
to take their shoes off.

How oriental, then, is your house?

Cos you grew up in Tokyo,
didn't you?

Yes, because I grew up in Tokyo,

my parents' house never had tatami
mats, and more and more...

So it was more western?
More western.

So you're quite westernised,
then, in your tastes

and in the way that you like
to furnish... Yes. ..the home.

This is classic family living -

comfortable, likeable
and unsurprising.

Definitely sociable.

There's a table and chairs... Yes.
..there's a table and chairs... Yes!

..there's a table and chairs
and in your kitchen,

you've got seating
for eating as well.

So, quite clearly,
that's important to you.

Yes, we like to sit down and eat.

If it's nice weather,
we sit outside.

Oh, my goodness me,
what a tidy kitchen!

You don't like clutter, do you?

No, I like plenty of cupboards
so I can put everything away. Yeah.

Can I have a look inside
your cupboards? No. Top Secret.

Really? How tidy...?
You are quite tidy.

Seriously, I mean, look,
there's nothing on that worktop.

I mean, there should be a toaster
or a kettle or something.

They're all in the utility room.

Can we go and look at that? No. Oh.

Because British people,
they probably only have a kettle

and a toaster, but I have to
have bread maker, rice cooker,

toaster and fish roaster... Yes.
..so I have all different gadgets.

In the utility room?
Yes, for different cooking.

So when you cook a specific meal,
you'll bring...

One comes out, and goes back in.

To the utility room? Yes.

So importantly, in
the new kitchen... Yes?

..will there be somewhere
to put the rice cooker?

Yes, I have an extremely large
utility room.

KEVIN CHUCKLES

I'm now convinced that,
were it not for Rogan,

Chris and Kayo would be building a
house that might look quite similar

to the one they live in
at the moment.

And I wouldn't blame them,

because their new house would, I
think, challenge anyone's judgment.

Here's the thing - this design
really isn't to my taste.

But that doesn't matter,
because taste changes,

taste is unreliable.

Whereas quality -

the quality of design, the quality
of execution of something,

how well it is thought about
and put together -

that...that's a sort of a constant,

that is something that we can all
instinctively recognise.

So I'm looking forward to
the quality of this project,

and all I can do is exalt you to put
your taste to one side

and prepare yourself to admire
this house.

After two weeks of painstaking
cassette assembly,

the house is starting to take shape.

And then the inevitable happens.

But this wall is like
top-to-bottom glass.

How are you going to close this
glass in the evening,

if you're having a bath
in the evening?

After months of standing
on the sidelines,

Chris and Kayo make a sudden move.

They want changes,
starting with their bedroom.

We noticed that, as we entered
the room, the wall which actually

formed the bathroom was directly in
the way of the whole of the room,

so you saw nothing other
than the hallway and this wall.

I mean, right here, the wall came
all the way across to here,

so literally the wall was just here
in fact, and you can see how close

that is to the chimney itself.

And we felt that compromised
such a beautiful feature,

as well as blocking the view
as you walked into the room.

A second alteration they want
to Rogan's design is

to change the cinema room into a
large bedroom overlooking the abbey.

I think we've kind of put
our thoughts into it now

rather than just follow
the drawings.

It's our own little mark on
what is Rogan's masterplan.

The site has to wait for
new engineering drawings

to make the Chris and Kayo changes,
so everything stops for a month,

adding several thousand pounds
to the budget.

When the construction team get back,

they find the project manager,
Steve, is missing.

We've turned up on site today,
and Steve's not here.

I'm not sure if he's coming back,
or if he's gone to another project,

but sort of bit in the dark
ourselves at the moment, so...

It was a bit unexpected,

but we know what we're doing, timber
frame wise,

so it shouldn't affect us massively,
so we shall proceed.

Onwards and upwards.

Chris has made a big decision
about Steve.

There was a time when I almost felt
like there really wasn't enough for

him to be doing, so I guess I felt
that the time had come when maybe

I needed to probably play
a closer role.

It is my house,
at the end of the day.

Chris has decided to project manage
this build himself.

This is dangerous territory.

Chris has never managed anything
on this scale before.

They're now one year into the
18-month schedule, and it's already

costing more and taking longer
than Chris had planned for.

As a businessman, that's what
I always have to ask myself -

is this value for money,

does it represent a good investment,

and am I going to be happy
living here?

But this isn't just an investment -

it's their new family home,
isn't it?

And to make matters worse, he has
Rogan's complex design to handle.

Yeah, this is his canvas,

and I'm the kind of protector
of that, I guess.

And I've got to ensure that I try
and really kind of do him justice,

and I hope I do at the end,

and I hope that we enjoy this
as a family home.

But I'm sure I will.

Chris is treating this project
as a business proposition,

where the profit and loss and
balance sheet value will somehow

eventually be measured
in family happiness.

And like all business propositions,
it is a gamble.

Towards the end of 2014,

the timber frame of Chris and Kayo's
house

is finally completed and the
brick cladding is underway.

Like everything else in this house,
it's beautiful and complicated.

I've never built one of these
feature walls.

I've done sort of,
other brickwork,

but never anything like this.

I mean, hats off to the architect
for designing it.

19,700 and something,
probably 80-something bricks.

There'll be a light behind them and
plants growing up them.

Unusual, very unusual.

Organic architecture.

That's what I've been told, anyway.

Now there's two people who
understand this house -

Rogan, and the master bricklayer.

Lots of complicated shapes
and troughs and planters.

Levels and steps and brickwork
and triangles.

My goodness me, Rogan is not a man
who is afraid of triangles.

This is a very, very strongly shaped
building and really powerful.

And it does bear the stamp of its
designer.

What I can't see, yet,

is the mark of Chris.

This house has its own fabulous
character,

and I'm starting to understand it,

and EVEN like it.

It's a building that wants a place
in architectural history,

that might even, as Rogan hopes,
move it on.

Settle down, class, because we're
going to look at some slides.

Look at those shapes, look at those
strong triangular forms,

that perforated brickwork, you know?

I think that, actually, the
tradition that this house fits into

is primarily 20th century,

in the works of people
like Stromberg.

This is one of his houses which has
deep overhangs,

a big projecting roof, casting deep
shadows over the building.

And here's another house which could
almost be by Rogan,

it's actually by Frank Lloyd Wright,
dating from the 1930s.

Again, lots of glass, overhangs and
planters,

loads of places within the
architecture to put foliage.

And like Chris and Kayo's house,
this building by Frank Lloyd Wright,

the Kentuck Knob house, uses
triangles, big projecting angles,

overhangs and hexagons -
perforations in the roof structure,

just like at Chris and Kayo's house.

You know, I think this is
Frank Lloyd Wright

at his most sophisticated, at his
most beautifully crafted.

It's the point in his career where
he is most inspired by Rogan.

Rogan is clearly trying to build
a fine distinctive

piece of architecture here.

But is that the same
thing as a family house

Chris and Kayo will love and enjoy?

There's a particular brand of
mid-century kind of brick house

that this building speaks of,

and it's pretty uncompromising,

and it's not going to be to
everybody's liking, but...

..it is to mine.

There are some days when I walk
through it,

and I think actually I do,

this is really beginning to be
something I do like,

but I am somebody probably quite
tight with my emotions

and I don't let myself kind
of get too far ahead.

I think...

..in golf we always say, you know,
take one hole at a time.

You'd have to ask me at the end
whether I love it or hate it,

but I hope I love it.

So Chris still isn't sure he likes
the house.

Blimey.

However, he is resolutely faithful
to Rogan.

And there's a lot to either love or
hate,

because Rogan isn't just designing
the house,

he's designed the entire interior as
well,

right down to the very last detail.

He's even designing the lampshades.

Any other designer would select
something that was ready-made.

You've designed and made here a
prototype

and this is going to be completely
bespoke throughout the building.

And this is because...

It ties in with what we're doing
with the furniture

and it performs its function
specifically,

it's not something which you can
say,

"Well, I'm going to choose some
general fitting,

"it doesn't really matter. It
more or less fits into the scheme."

So for you, the landscape, right
down to the smallest component,

if you can design it, you will.

I will.

It's much, much, more effort to
design,

build and install than to buy
fixtures,

fittings and furniture off the peg.

I have no idea how long it will take
to achieve the level of detail

Rogan wants and I don't think Chris
knows either.

Yeah, obviously, you know, more man
hours,

no more materials, but more man
hours for sure.

Yeah, I think there is an increase
in cost,

there's no question of that,

but, again, you know, hopefully,
it's justified in the end product.

One thing has remained constant,
though,

Rogan's remarkable and
rare relationship

with his client, Chris.

As the architectural experience has
been open to him,

you know, he's suddenly beginning to
click,

and, frankly, he's doing things
that I didn't expect him to do.

I didn't think he would build the
furniture in

and all the fittings and so on.

I think, if I'm really honest,

I'm probably allowing him to do what
he wants to do.

Yeah, he's come so far with this,

and he's lived and breathed it,

and I'm indebted to him, you know,
if I'm honest.

He feels everything about this
building,

if he comes in and we've done
something slightly different

to what he suggested, you know, I
can see it breaks his heart.

And you know, how many people are
there in this world,

that really care that much?

Chris gets his house watertight

courtesy of a joinery firm from
Slovakia

who make, deliver and fit the
floor-to-ceiling windows

around the whole horseshoe-shaped
courtyard.

There seem to be no lengths Chris
and Kayo won't go to

in order to satisfy the Rogan brief,
at a price they can afford,

so they journey to the high
Tatra Mountains in Slovakia

to oversee all the bespoke furniture
and fittings.

There is four of them.

See all these shadow lines,

they match the ones on the ceiling.

We won't see them. That's a shame.

That one, as well, will be white so
it can reflect the light.

Oh, my God. I think maybe leave them
natural, you know.

Nice, gliding drawers.

This is the part which will come
out.

I see. That will be your dressing
part

and then you can open any door,
open any holder.

So that's my dressing table, is it?

Have we started
the utility room yet?

Originally, when we saw on the
drawings,

and now, actually, if you see in the
3D, the actual pieces,

and very precise and handcrafted,
it's very impressive.

All those hundreds of Rogan drawings
are becoming the furniture

they will live with.

There have been times
when you think, "Oh, my God.

"Are we heading in the right
direction, here?"

But he's always said to me,

"Chris, just go with me on this."

Back in the UK,

the third Christmas comes and goes,

and the house is still not ready to
move into.

You know, I was just thinking that I
was last here nearly a year ago.

Blimey. Talk about
The Lost Weekend...

..this was The Lost Year.

Lost to detail.

All those maple walls and ceilings,

not to mention all the handmade
maple furniture,

are a slow labour of love.

It's taking longer than we were
expecting,

we have to keep attention to the
details.

But details make it perfect.

When do you expect to move in?

Definitely some time in 2016.

Well, that would be a relief.

I mean, most people, me included,

standing here looking at
the building in the current state

might say...

Eight weeks.
Six to eight weeks.

It's a possibility.

But I think it might
be longer than that.

Well, we haven't even ordered the
kitchen, yet.

We haven't ordered a
lot of things, actually,

which we simply can't afford.

I have a particular style that I
want for the kitchen.

I don't want a cheap kitchen
to be fitted

just because we want to move in
here,

I'd rather wait than rush into it.

The most exciting thing from our
point of view, as well,

is maybe bringing some things over
from Japan.

You know, again, we've been talking
to Rogan about that,

as to what may or may not fit in
with the house.

I mean, it does sound
like a kind of, you know,

three's company kind of
thing in this situation,

but it's, I mean, maybe Rogan is
going to move into one of the rooms,

I'm not sure.

You know, with you guys, he's going
to be hanging the last picture,

the last plant in its
pot, making sure that it's growing,

and only then will he pull back.
He's part of the family.

Delivering the finish to Rogan's
precise instructions

takes the whole of the rest of 2016.

The family hasn't moved in, but the
furniture arrives.

Yes! There she goes.

Ah! Ah!

Happy ever after!

But all this time and all these
details

have taken their toll on
Chris's bank balance.

Yeah, we just had to slow it down

because we didn't have any money to
pay anybody.

We didn't have any choice. It was as
simple as that, really.

We had to be practical, we had to
wait until we could afford things,

so we decided that time was our
friend rather than our enemy.

All this time, all this money,

yet Chris and Kayo don't seem
downhearted,

if anything, they're more upbeat
than I've seen them before.

So, after four years in the
making,

seven years in the planning and
designing,

and, let's face it, 20 years of
building up the relationship

between designer and client...

Am I right in thinking

that Chris and Kayo are just
beginning to enjoy this place,

that they actually do like it?

This really is a special place.

But have we got the exceptional
piece of architecture this location

deserves? After a very
tricky four-year project,

I think Chris and Kayo
have at last moved in.

But is it the home they want?

Wow.

What a house!

Outside, at least, the house
appears rooted and bedded,

almost anchored to its site,

with vegetation and
all that robust brickwork.

Hello! Hi, Kevin, how are you?
Hello.

Very well, how are you?

I'm very well.
I'm not claiming anything.

I'm not claiming any
territory with this flag!

I see you've come well-equipped.
KEVIN LAUGHS

Welcome. How are you, Kayo?
Nice to see you.

And you, and you. But it looks very
beautifully finished, I mean,

highly detailed,
plants and everything.

Thank you. So is it all really done?

Almost. Almost.

KEVIN LAUGHS

Yeah, this house will never be done.

Obviously the planting really is the
thing that... Yeah. ..is taking time

and we always anticipated that.

It's taken over ten long years to
get this house up and finished

but it's well worth the wait.

Surrounded by these
majestic, giant trees,

this extraordinary-shaped house
is almost lost in the green.

But that's what the guardians
of this precious plot insisted on.

It could've been
a bureaucratic mess.

It isn't.

I'm genuinely looking forward to
seeing the inside of this house.

Uh-huh. ..experiencing it.
Come inside. Come in.

Shall I take the flag?
Well, I thought you could leave it

at the front door, and then
it tells people that you're in.

Oh, my word.

Oh, this is...already remarkable.

Thank you.

Inside, it's breathtaking.

The light is so soft you can
almost touch it, taste it.

Every surface glows and is pristine.

I'm quite overwhelmed
by all of this.

The reflections of mirror and light

and transparency and timber,
I mean, this is veneered.

It is veneered. It's like walking
into a Japanese timber-post house.

Yes. And so exquisitely finished.

The long promenade - it's too wide
to be a corridor - theatrically

sets up your arrival at
the main event.

Pulls you all the way down
into this room.

And the main event is,
no doubt about it,

the vision of organically inspired
geometric craftsmanship that Rogan

promised. It hits you
between the eyes.

And all this maple - the floor, the
furniture, the lights, the windows,

the ceiling, the shelving -
this is all - table, sofa -

is maple. Is that right? All maple.

So that's Rogan's choice
yeah, maple? Yes.

A maple building.

So do you like it?

Do you, I mean, so much of the one
thing, do you enjoy that?

Yes. Yes.

I think, like a Frank Lloyd Wright
house, it is an homogenous thing.

Everything kind of works together,

so I think it would be a great
tragedy if you kind of ripped this

maple out and put a white ceiling
in, I think that would really

be horrible and
be very sad actually.

These lights, right, I thought...

I thought these were going
to be just too much,

I drew the line at that,
I thought just for heaven's sakes

go out and buy something,
cos this is

expensive to make and do,

and I don't want to...
Oh, it does, it does, it does move.

Yeah. Fantastic.

They're actually brilliant.

You know, once upon a time I think
you said that I was a patron of

Rogan and I think
you were basically right,

I think because I love the guy
and I believe in him.

And you've worked with him
for 20-odd years.

And I've worked with him for
20-odd years, you know,

this was a project I was
prepared to share with him

and I'm not disappointed I did.

We automatically follow
Rogan's pre-determined route

around the house.

Next stop, the dining room.

Also in maple, of course.

The last room to be
completed was the kitchen.

So how are your cupboards?

No. No.

As always, you cannot
look inside the cupboards. Oh!

I'm sure they're beautifully tidy.

Please look from the outside. OK.

OK.

What I can see over there,

on the shelves because there are
no cupboard doors,

are books. Are they cookery books?

Yes, they are cookery books.

I covered them up with the washi,

which is a Japanese old rice papers,
which you see on these white doors.

How beautiful. The wooden doors.

How very beautiful.

Problem is I've got no idea
which is which. Which one is which!

Exactly, exactly. That's OK,
Chris never used them anyway.

HE LAUGHS

This house may seem paradoxical,
both futuristic and historical,

but it's successful because it's the
hard-won fruition of a 20-year

relationship between designer
and client.

So, across the...
what do you call this room?

This is the atrium. The atrium.

This is the connection between
the living and bedroom.

Yeah, it's a good long
distance, isn't it? It is.

To walk. Yeah.

On down through here, very pretty
shafts of light - and these kimonos.

Yes, this is my kimono I wore
when I was seven years old. Never!

And in Japan on the third birthday
and the seventh birthday you have

the girls celebrate their health in
front of the shrine and they always

wear a kimono and this is the kimono
I wore when I was seven years old

and this should be passed on
to the next generation.

The Japanese ideas of composure and
formality permeate this house,

not least in the bedroom wing,

where each room enjoys a private
terrace, angled to catch the sun.

Space for contemplation.

And in to...

Master bedroom.

Isn't it just?

So it was at this point, I felt

that you really asserted
yourselves and you said,

"Right, no, this is where
we step in," almost.

Yeah, I think we combined
our thoughts,

I think that's the way, it's always
been a collaborative process,

and it's always been the three of
us really working together.

Oh, very nice.

Beautiful.

And the bath is magnificent.

That's a Japanese bath. Yes.

With a television? Yes. Stonking.

And there's another stonking bedroom
at the abbey end of the house.

Plus, those three private
bedrooms for the children,

yet again in maple.

Rogan's pursuit of his organic
ideal for a healthy,

whole house is at once a complex
and a personal agenda

and, at the same time,
a great gift to Chris and Kayo.

Are they grateful for it?

You said to me,
ooh, a long while ago,

that you would sort of approach
this like a businessman.

You were looking for
value for money,

you were looking for
a return on your investment

and you also expressed a hope
to be happy living in it.

Does it deliver against those?

I think as a house to live in, it's
all that we could ever hope for,

maybe much more so.

I think, you know, every single day
that goes by and you see the house

kind of organically taking shape,

to me that's value for
money in itself.

And how much did it cost in the end,
in terms of value for money?

Well, I mean, it cost four
years of our lives,

so that's the biggest cost,

and probably another, you know,
six years of planning as well,

so maybe around ten
years altogether.

So that's a big investment.

But you wanted to spend 600k,

you thought it might go north.

It might go north, it might go
south, it might go east,

it might go west,
I'm never too sure,

but, you know, I suppose in
the end we went east with

the design

and I'm very happy that we did.

OK, you're not going to tell me how
much you spent.

I'm sorry, is that what
you asked me? Yeah!

I'm really sorry, I missed that.

Chris was always going to be coy
about how much this crafted house

cost to put together.

But I guess he's right.

It's not about the money,
if you can afford it.

It's about wanting
to connect to this place.

You said very clearly about your old
house just next door that there was

nothing wrong with it, so what
does this home bring you,

bring your family,
that that didn't give you?

Yes, I always felt like
the kids, the children,

were upstairs in their bedrooms,
I'm downstairs in the kitchen.

I feel like we're all together
because the fact is it's on a single

storey. Even though you're
separated by the atrium?

I can open the window
and they're on the other side.

Yeah, that's nice, that
sense of connection there

across the open space.
Yes, there is a connection.

And for you, Chris?

Yeah, I think if I could please
the principle stakeholders,

if I could resolve the issues on
this site and create a nice piece of

architecture for this time.

You know, the Romans were
here 2,000 years ago,

the monastery 500 years ago,
here we are today.

Erm.

It's just a little statement,

our little statement on the planet
in this time, and that's it.

And I hope we've done something
that... All of which makes it sound

as though, you know,
you feel that the years,

decades of work to get here
have all been worth it.

I think so, I hope so.

If this unusual house
speaks of anything,

it's not of Roman villas
or monasteries

or of Frank Lloyd Wright.

It speaks of collaboration,
friendship and trust -

and golf.

Well...

I hope you've had the discipline
to be able to park your taste

and instead...

Yes!

Admire the craftsmanship, admire the
quality of the design of this place,

cos it is there and it's brilliant

because of the relationship between
Rogan, Chris and Kayo,

because of the absolute faith

that they placed in
each other throughout.

And I know that that faith is
underpinned by a refusal to give up,

by an absolute belief

that things will triumph,
that you'd expect,

from a pair of sporting diehards.

We sold a very nice house.
Yeah, and you bought a pile of...

We want that rough,
industrial finish.

We don't want it to look perfect.

I'd put the loo here.
That's our wardrobe.

We'd be going to the toilet
in a cupboard. Plenty of people do.

Some of it is out of our control.

We're making our lives
more difficult, basically.

The road that a ruin will take you
down is the road to ruin.