Grand Designs House of the Year Season 8 Episode 2
Five Minute Recap brings you quick 5-minute summaries of the latest news, movies, tech, and trends. Stay informed and entertained in minutes with clear, engaging recap perfect for busy people who want to learn fast and keep up with the world.
#FiveMinuteRecap #Recap #QuickNews #DailyUpdate #LearnFast
Five Minute Recap brings you quick 5-minute summaries of the latest news, movies, tech, and trends. Stay informed and entertained in minutes with clear, engaging recap perfect for busy people who want to learn fast and keep up with the world.
#FiveMinuteRecap #Recap #QuickNews #DailyUpdate #LearnFast
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00Hmm. Not bad. It's not bad.
00:03I mean, I like the spatial arrangement,
00:06play of light and all that,
00:08but you don't need the bifold doors, OK?
00:11What I'm really saying is that you're not quite ready
00:14for the Royal Institute of British Architects
00:17House of the Year competition, you know?
00:19Maybe next year.
00:22However, this lot are good to go.
00:27Yes, it's that time again
00:29when Britain's boldest new homes step into the spotlight,
00:33while the rest of us wonder
00:34if we've chosen the wrong shade of greyish.
00:39Dear Santa,
00:40could I please have a house like this yours, Kevin?
00:48The judges have chosen a long list
00:51of Britain's most remarkable new buildings.
00:54Fantastic view.
00:55I mean, that could be the Mediterranean there.
00:57From houses that squeeze into the tightest of corners.
01:01You had to get everything past that drain pipe.
01:04It was like building a ship in a bottle.
01:07To bungalows that feel like basilicas.
01:10Oh, my Lord!
01:11This is the first bungalow I've ever seen
01:13that has a sort of ecclesiastical corridor.
01:15The houses we explore will be whittled down to a short list of just seven.
01:20The range on offer is really, really exciting.
01:23I think it will be really exciting to see the house that wins and shines through.
01:27Before we find out in the final programme,
01:30which one is the House of the Year 2025?
01:35So, come and get some tips as we show you the next set of nominees.
01:40And by the way, those big green ceramic bowls that look like cabbages.
01:44I mean, they're just weird.
02:06So far, two homes have claimed their place on the short list.
02:11Kirk and the Craig, a jewel set deep in the Isle of Harris.
02:17And Hastings House, a triumph of engineering and elegance.
02:24Now, there are six more buildings to explore.
02:30Oh.
02:31Oh, that's good.
02:33You know the feeling.
02:35It's when you arrive and exhale and it might be the smell of the salt air
02:40or it could be a reflection on a polished floor
02:43or just that somebody else is doing the washing up.
02:45But whatever it is, you know you are on holiday.
02:49But what if that feeling wasn't restricted to two weeks in August?
02:53What if your home, the place where you live,
02:56could make you feel like that every day?
03:00This week, we are escaping to houses that do just that.
03:05That pick you up and drop you somewhere utterly magical.
03:09Of course, they offer the delights of great design.
03:13But they also promise escape.
03:20Snooping around these homes with me this time is the architect Damien Burrows.
03:25It's a certain amount of design and a certain amount of just making it work.
03:36Now, I'm off to visit our first long-listed house in North London.
03:41Where, tucked into these tightly packed city streets,
03:45is a piece of remarkably clever design.
03:49This is Catching Sun house.
03:52Hend in on all sides.
03:54It's been shaped to drink in daylight from morning till dusk.
03:58Step inside and you're somewhere else entirely.
04:02The architect and owner is Mark Shaw.
04:07Hello.
04:08Hi.
04:08Hey, Mark.
04:09Hello. How are you?
04:10Yeah, really well. How are you?
04:12I'm very well.
04:12Thanks for coming.
04:13This is a lovely, lovely place to arrive at.
04:16Time to just come off this very British street
04:17into something that is from the other side of the planet.
04:20You know, it's like something from Asia or Australia.
04:23That is the most common response.
04:25And that's what I was trying to do, actually,
04:27to have that escape from life.
04:30And, you know, I'd spent, I don't know, 16 years living
04:32in a Victorian terraced house, which faced north and west.
04:37And there was never any light in the house.
04:39So I wanted to have as much light as possible in here.
04:47Mark designed the house around the movement of the sun over the plot,
04:51so he could bring light into every room.
04:54On the ground floor, there's a kitchen-dining living space,
04:57a bathroom, two bedrooms, and then above, a study.
05:04The RIBA judges praised the ingenuity of the architect in creating an unexpected and serene home.
05:13I love the fair-faced blockwork walls.
05:17The smooth, polished concrete floor.
05:20But this is a new one.
05:23What is that?
05:24So I hate kitchen extractors,
05:26and I had a brainwave where I remembered when I was at college
05:30and I used to do welding.
05:32Yeah.
05:32So this...
05:33You put one in.
05:33This is a welding extractor which you can pull down,
05:36you can have a big piece of meat on here,
05:38and all the fumes just get extracted out.
05:40Amazing.
05:41It's like one of those kind of things at the dentist
05:43where you have, you know, they do an extra.
05:44They all leave the room.
05:45That's what I want to do when you switch that on.
05:47How noisy is it?
05:48Er, I can switch it on.
05:50It's not, it's not that noisy.
05:52No?
05:52Need a bit of paper.
05:54I've got a handkerchief.
05:55Um...
05:55Hang on a minute, it's clean.
05:56OK, so let's just find out.
06:01Yes!
06:02Most of them are bright yellow and really ugly.
06:05Yeah.
06:05Eventually found this one, um, it's from Poland,
06:09and it's dim steel.
06:10So I shit, I FedExed it over from Poland.
06:13No.
06:15Tracking down an industrial welding extractor in Poland?
06:19That was the easy bit.
06:20But getting permission to build the house at all
06:23meant negotiating with the neighbours,
06:25a task as appealing as diffusing a bomb while wearing a blindfold.
06:29And it was Emma Hugh, the project architect,
06:32who got handed the wire cutters.
06:34So with this kind of site,
06:36probably the biggest challenge was the fact
06:38that there's 27 neighbouring properties around it,
06:41and we needed to get agreement with those 27 neighbours
06:45that we could access their gardens
06:48to be able to build the building
06:49and replace the wall that was at the end of their gardens.
06:52So that was a complicated process that took quite a bit of time.
07:0127 neighbours, five months of garden diplomacy,
07:04a legal jigsaw of party walls and permissions.
07:07But back inside, all that hassle evaporates.
07:12The master bedroom is calm and elegant,
07:16with a view that feels almost Mediterranean.
07:20Lovely room with a beautiful, again, lifted ceiling,
07:25so you get that.
07:26View of the sky.
07:27Fantastic view.
07:29Sky, greenery.
07:31But this, this is...
07:32So you've got a shower in the bedroom.
07:34No, you haven't got a shower in the bedroom.
07:35You've got a...
07:35That's the bedroom. This is the shower.
07:37This is in the outside world.
07:38Yeah.
07:39Right, I'm with you.
07:42Where did this idea come from?
07:45I was on holiday in Thailand
07:47and was staying in the sort of typical Thai sort of bungalow,
07:51and the bathroom, it was just out the back,
07:53where there was just a sort of pipe coming out of the wall
07:57and no shower tray
07:58and it was surrounded by, like, really amazing tropical plants.
08:03And I just thought,
08:04how can I transport this magical feeling to...
08:07But you've done it here, haven't you?
08:08To East London.
08:13And in a dense part of the city,
08:16plots like this are tight.
08:18So Mark's made every inch count.
08:20This pigeon-step staircase is allowed just
08:24because it only leads to a single room above.
08:27It's clever, compact,
08:30and just wide enough if you breathe in.
08:34So you might be thinking, as I am in this moment,
08:37two or three questions.
08:38How do I navigate a staircase like that?
08:41Does it meet building breaks?
08:43It does.
08:45And what happens when I'm drunk?
08:49But I'm not.
08:50I'm sober,
08:52lithe as a mountain goat,
08:53and...
08:54I am blown away by this.
08:58It's a study with a view,
09:00like none I've seen in a built-up urban area.
09:06How can your soul not be touched by that?
09:11Which was once a disused MOT garage.
09:16That's the magic.
09:18It's not so much of architecture,
09:19but of the architectural mind.
09:22These are people, like Mark,
09:25who can turn scraps into things of beauty.
09:28Who can see the potential of something
09:32where no one else can see it.
09:34Who can take things which are free,
09:37like the sun and the wind and the rain,
09:40and from them craft experiences,
09:43which are priceless.
09:51We've seen one house so far.
09:53Five more to go before we find out
09:55who will be shortlisted for the House of the Year 2025.
10:10Designing your way to paradise sounds appealing,
10:13but it's a fine line between escapism and theme park.
10:17I mean, one minute you're painting a wall coral pink,
10:19the next minute there's a flamingo in the loo
10:21and a pineapple-shaped lamp,
10:23judging your life choices.
10:25Anyway, this next house
10:27doesn't mess about with props.
10:29It builds its fantasy properly,
10:31with geometry and conviction
10:32and a cocktail of its own.
10:34One part drama, one part delight,
10:36shaken, not stirred.
10:39Mmm.
10:41Oh.
10:42That tastes like regret.
10:47I'm in Surrey to visit our next Long Lister.
10:51This is Triangle House,
10:53a mid-century home which has had
10:55a Caribbean-inspired reworking.
10:58The RIBA judges praise the playful
11:01and inventive use of materials,
11:04colour and form
11:05that propel it into something exceptional.
11:15Inside, there's a double-height hallway
11:17that connects the living room, TV room
11:20and storage space of the original house.
11:23There's a long kitchen diner split by brick partitions
11:27with a larder at the front and doors to the garden.
11:30Upstairs, there are three bedrooms
11:32connected by a bridge and a bathroom.
11:36It was designed by architects
11:39Benedetta Rogers and Daniel Marmot.
11:41Benedetta, how are you?
11:43Hi, nice to meet you.
11:44Daniel, good to meet you.
11:45Where did this overhanging canopy
11:48and V-shaped structure come from?
11:50We added this quite colourful canopy and column
11:53which sort of wanted to show
11:54that something slightly different
11:56was filling the art.
11:57Looking at the house,
11:58it's got a really strong identity.
12:00The client gave us this book called Caribbean Style
12:03which is an amazing reference book
12:05of kind of different colours and atmospheres
12:07in traditional Caribbean houses
12:09and some more modern ones
12:10and they really wanted to bring
12:12some of that flavour through into this house.
12:14So we really wanted this feeling of a house
12:17that's transportative
12:18when you step through the front door.
12:20And when you step into the kitchen,
12:22it doesn't disappoint.
12:26This just makes you happy, doesn't it?
12:29Yeah, I mean the yellow
12:30was like a really important colour for the client.
12:33They really love this idea
12:34of it feeling like a really sunny, optimistic interior.
12:38But it's not just the colour that lifts you.
12:41It's the way the house opens up.
12:43There are no corridors, no rigid plan,
12:46just a gentle sequence of spaces,
12:49each one giving you a glimpse of the next.
12:52The client at the beginning,
12:53they were quite clear
12:55they didn't want it to be open plan.
12:57But we've created something
12:59which feels like overall space
13:01but it's also got very distinct qualities.
13:05And yet the result still feels expansive and open.
13:09In Caribbean homes,
13:11open layouts are often used to keep heat from building up.
13:16Here, they're used for a different reason.
13:19Every time you have a doorway,
13:20you have to buy the door,
13:21you have to pay for the hinges,
13:23you have to install it,
13:23you have to paint it,
13:24you have to line it.
13:25So doing away with doorways
13:27was a way of both taking the cost out of the project
13:29but also creating this spatial experience.
13:31Wow.
13:32And when you take that
13:33and then multiply it by 10, 20,
13:36these are significant savings.
13:38And we call this an envilade of spaces almost.
13:40Like you might get in an art gallery
13:42where you walk from one room into another, into another,
13:44but you always get views from one room to the next.
13:47So for example, if you're in the kitchen cooking,
13:49you get a glimpse of the dining hall
13:50but you don't feel like the kitchen and the dining hall
13:52are all open plan.
13:53So it's kind of somewhere between open plan living
13:56and a series of isolated rooms.
13:59Step out into the garden
14:01and you really couldn't feel further away
14:04from suburban Surrey outside.
14:06This is the space, isn't it?
14:07This is what it's all about.
14:09It's about being out here.
14:10This relationship with the garden, it's just magical.
14:14Yeah, it's funny,
14:14the clients call this space Club Tropicana
14:16because it does feel like it's quite,
14:18it's quite unusual in this setting.
14:20So you've got these kind of big banana palms
14:22and all the really lush planting,
14:24make it feel like you're not in the UK.
14:27The careful use of colour inside continues outdoors,
14:31where the blocks making up the triangular columns
14:33aren't quite the familiar grey.
14:36They're a very subtle shade of blue.
14:39And all of those colours from inside,
14:42those bright, vibrant colours,
14:43they're pulled through into here,
14:45but then just slightly notch down a tone
14:48to this wonderful kind of aqua blue.
14:52Well, it's funny that you say wonderful
14:53because these have actually never been specified
14:55before this house.
14:56They were so unpopular when the company launched them
14:58that we showed them to the client
15:01and they really loved them.
15:02So we asked for some.
15:03They said, actually,
15:03well, we're not really producing them anymore.
15:05They've been discontinued.
15:06They're so unpopular.
15:07But we managed to find a dusty pallet
15:09in the corner of their factory that was left over.
15:12So we took that and brought it to site
15:13and then the builder really skillfully cut them
15:15into these triangular columns.
15:20They didn't throw money at it.
15:22Instead, they found value in the overlooked,
15:25the dusty and forgotten,
15:27allowing them to focus on what's really important.
15:30By stripping out expensive finishes and complex detailing,
15:35they've allowed this house to truly sing,
15:38which means that every single day
15:41it transports you to a tropical paradise.
15:50Architecture can do many things.
15:54It can shelter you.
15:55It can cuddle and exalt you.
15:58It can impress your neighbours.
16:00It can even drain your bank account.
16:01And sometimes it can do all of these things
16:03at the same time.
16:06But the best architecture messes with your sense of place.
16:11It can transport you.
16:13So you walk into your front door in, I don't know, Splott,
16:17which is in Cardiff,
16:19and suddenly you are taken to a completely different place.
16:25Our next house in the running for a place on the shortlist
16:28is in South London
16:29and was commissioned by a young couple, Iroki and Rachel.
16:34A few weeks after Rachel and I got married,
16:37I was cycling through Regent's Park and hit a car.
16:42So it was my fault.
16:44And, yeah, we got rushed to A&E at St Mary's Hospital.
16:51Four or five hours later and I saw you in hospital
16:53and you were laying in the bed
16:55and they told us he was never going to walk again.
17:02Out of this life-changing event emerged an idea for something extraordinary.
17:08We started to think maybe we should think about building.
17:11And then we had a very, like, actionable reason that we needed to do this.
17:20This is Niwa House, formerly a derelict infill site, given new life.
17:28The RIBA judges praised this hidden gem as a secluded oasis
17:33that allows escape from the noise of the city.
17:37In this intricate home, there's a study that looks out onto the garden,
17:42a living room which connects to a dining room, kitchen and utility room.
17:47In the basement is a main bedroom with an accessible wardrobe,
17:52a bathroom, two further bedrooms and a cinema and gym.
17:59Iroki was born in Japan, which has been a powerful driver for some of the design.
18:05We've definitely been influenced through a lot of the principles
18:09that we think represents Japanese culture.
18:11We always knew that that was something that, you know, we connected with.
18:17The architecture is based on a traditional Japanese summer pavilion, or azumaya.
18:23There is an engawa, a covered Japanese porch that runs around the house.
18:29The forest of columns inside is taken from traditional Japanese temple architecture.
18:35There are subtle nods to Japanese design throughout.
18:41It's like when you go to Japan and you go to the temples
18:43and all of the doors, like, slide to one side when you open them.
18:47And then very similarly here, if you slide all the windows open,
18:49you're out onto the garden.
18:54Walls that discreetly melt away and consistent floor levels
18:58aren't just good accessible design, they're good design.
19:05I don't think you come in and go,
19:06oh, this is a wheelchair accessible house.
19:08There are obviously, like, individual smaller things
19:11where, you know, there's grab rails in the bathroom and things like that.
19:15And even there, we've tried to do it in a way that makes it a bit more muted than in
19:20your face.
19:21More through the choice of materials and things like that.
19:24I'd say 90% of the accessibility is not specifically making it accessible,
19:30but factoring it in as you design a house.
19:35Architecturally, it was very important that it doesn't feel like it was designed by guidelines
19:40and, you know, design codes for accessibility.
19:44So we discussed a lot about how the house needed to be uncluttered, open,
19:50very kind of generous.
19:52So there's plenty of open-planned space with generous wide corridors
19:57and an easy transition between ground floor to basement in a lift.
20:02Below, Hiroki and Rachel can train in the gym or watch a film with their kids.
20:07One of their proudest spaces, though, is the garden.
20:12Niwa means garden in Japanese.
20:15Having a home where, from every angle, you can see something of nature,
20:19I think makes a big difference.
20:22The ambition here was not to frame a view of the garden.
20:25It was to live in it.
20:28It almost feels more like a house that's in a walled garden
20:33than a house with, like, a garden attached to it.
20:43This house is connected to nature everywhere,
20:47through large openings and long views, which make all the difference.
20:53We really, really love it here.
20:55Even when you've got this chaos around you with kids
20:58and, you know, you still have these moments of relaxation
21:01and, you know, peace and tranquility.
21:04It enables me to live much more freely as well.
21:07And I think that says a lot for, you know,
21:10what they did designing this house.
21:17So far, we've seen three houses that take you on holiday.
21:22But there are three more to explore
21:24before we find out which will be shortlisted
21:26for the 2025 House of the Year Award.
21:38Oh, to be beside the seaside, eh? Hmm?
21:42Thing is, many of us do harbour some dream
21:47to recreate those childhood holidays.
21:50Up sticks, relocate to the coast,
21:53all in the pursuit of this idea
21:56of creating the perfect permanent vacation, right?
22:00Except it's not like that, because the realities of the everyday,
22:05uh, pressures of work, money worries.
22:07They soon find out where we live.
22:09And yes, before long, they've moved in as well.
22:12However, this next family, I think, may have cracked that problem.
22:18What's that?
22:20Oh, I've gone overdrawn again.
22:27Our next home vying for a place on the House of the Year shortlist
22:31is on the glorious Kent coast.
22:34This is Sea Sky House, a big, beautiful beach hut of a home,
22:39but one mercifully lacking in seaside cliché.
22:43Not an anchor or porthole in sight.
22:45No.
22:46This is an elegant Scandi coastal home,
22:49minimal, clean, full of natural materials,
22:52with an enveloping sense of coziness.
22:55Its architects and owners are David and Sophie.
23:01We were in London, in Hackney.
23:03We were expecting our second child
23:06and decided that we wanted to escape the city.
23:11We came down on a Sunday,
23:13and the sailing fleet was going out,
23:15and we got some fish and chips on the beach,
23:17and we were sold.
23:22The plot was expensive,
23:24and by themselves they couldn't afford it,
23:27so they devised a cunning plan.
23:31It came up at just the right moment
23:33when it was possible for us to buy the site
23:35together with two other families.
23:37It's a really fun thing to do with friends.
23:42One of the families building next to them
23:44were Tim and Katie.
23:47We were invited to kind of come in on the project.
23:50We didn't really hesitate.
23:51We were like, yep, we sell our house.
23:52You were at the pub, weren't you?
23:53And you phoned me and said,
23:54how about this?
23:55Yep.
23:56I literally sent him a link and said,
23:58shall we sell our house and do this?
24:00And Tim said, yes.
24:01And the kids were small,
24:03so that idea of having this community
24:04and this space where they can kind of play
24:07and be together and safe,
24:08because I don't think kids play out the same way anymore.
24:18To make the most of the view,
24:20David and Sophie flipped the layout of their house.
24:23This is an upside-down home,
24:26so the sleeping area is at the bottom
24:28and the living area on the top.
24:32On the ground floor, there are four bedrooms
24:34and a family bathroom.
24:37Then, on the first floor,
24:39there's an open-plan living, dining and kitchen area
24:42and a roof terrace,
24:45looking out to majestic views over the sea.
24:51Organising the floors this way
24:52meant there were some important things to consider.
24:56Building the house upside down
24:57means that you have to have
24:59a slightly different kind of hallway,
25:00because the living rooms are upstairs.
25:02You want to have some way of receiving people
25:04on the ground floor
25:05and having a little bit of space to say hello
25:06and have a chat before you actually head upstairs.
25:10And you head upstairs expecting
25:12a sensible, well-behaved kitchen.
25:15What you get is far more interesting.
25:18There's a light used in Marrakesh Airport
25:21hanging over the table.
25:22An open hearth fireplace
25:25perched on a lumb of church wall.
25:27And doors that belonged to a public building
25:30in the 1930s.
25:34The RIBA judges called it
25:36surprisingly eclectic and entertaining,
25:40which is code for someone
25:42who enjoyed themselves doing this.
25:45We reclaimed a load of science lab tables
25:48and we tried to use every square inch of them.
25:51So sills, thresholds, baths around,
25:56steps are all made from them.
25:57And I love the fact that they've got
25:59old pen drawings from the 60s or something,
26:03some of them slightly inappropriate.
26:06What's really extraordinary
26:07is that they didn't get the objects
26:10to fit the house they designed.
26:12In some places, they designed the house
26:14around the object.
26:16With the doors, for example,
26:18we bought them months
26:19before we finished designing the house.
26:21So we actually designed
26:22all of the corridors
26:23and the bedrooms
26:23and the scale of the spaces downstairs
26:25to suit the doors
26:26rather than the other way around,
26:26which is completely different
26:28to how we normally do that.
26:29Yeah, so everyone's always like,
26:29it's so high on the ground floor.
26:32It's like, well, it's designed around the doors.
26:37So, yes, the ceilings are tall,
26:40but only because the doors said so.
26:42But amid all the whimsy
26:44and architectural mischief,
26:46Sophie and David have carved out
26:49something surprisingly grown up,
26:50a fully soundproofed workspace.
26:53It was important for us to have a space
26:55where we could do video calls.
26:58And obviously, it's amazing during lunchtime.
27:00You can just walk down to the beach
27:02within two minutes,
27:04which is a nice way to break up the day.
27:08It's the lunchtime reset I like.
27:11No doom scrolling, no sad sandwich,
27:15just a walk to the beach
27:16and sand in your socks
27:18before the 2pm Zoom.
27:21Evenings here aren't scheduled.
27:23They just unfold.
27:25A view, a sunset,
27:27someone mixing drinks
27:29and suddenly the day's taking a turn
27:31for the blissful.
27:33It's like a nice sea
27:35with a view, with a sunset, everything.
27:39With my dad making cocktails.
27:41Yes.
27:42And nice suppers and stuff like that.
27:45It's definitely like a holiday.
28:02Houses, which are built in impossibly sunny climates,
28:06like California for example,
28:08obviously they give you the sensation
28:10of being on holiday every single day of the year.
28:13What with their sun-soaked walls of glass
28:16and their flat roofs serving as sun decks
28:19and their inside-outside swimming pools
28:21and their ridiculous cantilevers.
28:22The question really is, of course,
28:24can you reproduce that kind of architecture
28:27and the sensations it produces
28:30under the grey skies of London?
28:33Well, our next house tried to do just that,
28:38failed, and then succeeded.
28:44This is South London.
28:46I used to live very briefly not far from here
28:49and I am so pleased to see nothing much has changed.
28:51Oh!
28:53Except for this.
28:56This is not a garage.
29:01No.
29:02This is Courtyard House.
29:05A California-inspired home with glass walls,
29:09lush outdoor planting,
29:11and space to imagine yourself in sunnier climes.
29:18Hello.
29:19Hello.
29:19Nice to meet you.
29:20I knew.
29:20I came to the right place.
29:22The owner is a brand consultant, Ruth,
29:25who lives here with her two daughters.
29:27She originally came from this part of London
29:30and decided to move back.
29:33I kind of knew this house already
29:35because I knew the area
29:36and I'd always spotted this black fence
29:38with the orange door
29:39and I always wondered what was behind it.
29:42So when it popped up for sale,
29:44it was quite interesting to see what actually was behind it.
29:48This was here from the 70s, this house?
29:50It was.
29:51So an architect bought the plot of land
29:54where a garage was
29:56and some of the garden at the back
29:58and built a single-storey house
30:00for him to live in back in 1979.
30:04The house was built on a sort of Californian aesthetic.
30:08So it was very light.
30:09It had lots of glass.
30:11Yeah.
30:11But the glass was all single glaze.
30:13It was floor to ceiling.
30:15It was a Californian-style house
30:18built as a homage to the American case study houses
30:21built between the 1940s and 60s.
30:24There was a housing boom after World War II
30:27as US soldiers returned
30:29and world-famous architects in California
30:31designed a series of prototypes for affordable homes
30:34that could be replicated and rolled out.
30:40Great. Can we...
30:41Come on in.
30:42Yeah, I'd love to. Thank you.
30:43It's just kind of hinting at an invitation there.
30:50Off the courtyard garden at the front of the house is Ruth's office,
30:54which connects to a long L-shaped kitchen, living and dining space
30:58that opens onto the rear garden,
31:01with a bathroom in the middle
31:02and one of the girls' bedrooms facing the front yard.
31:07Ruth's added a first floor to the home that was here.
31:10Up there is a mezzanine second living room,
31:13with Ruth's room at the back,
31:15a second bathroom in the middle
31:16and her other daughter's room at the front.
31:19As you walk in, the effect is extraordinary.
31:25Wow!
31:26It's very light in here.
31:28That's partly because of that thing.
31:31That's bringing so much of the sun into the building.
31:35How'd you clean it?
31:36I have a very agile window cleaner.
31:40Ha!
31:41The Spider-Man.
31:42He is.
31:43So if we assume that this building
31:45is paying homage to its case study roots,
31:48the idea of somehow amplifying light
31:51in the hope that you could persuade yourself
31:52you're living in California.
31:54Was that part of your brief?
31:55It was, but obviously, you know,
31:57a case study house in California
31:58is great for warmth,
32:01Californian warmth and Californian sun.
32:03You know, we had to make that ethos work
32:05for a rainy, cold London.
32:07You know, it rains, it's cold, it snows sometimes.
32:12Case study houses relied on the warm L.A. climate to heat them.
32:17So they were built with light materials
32:19and were single glazed.
32:21So Ruth's upgraded her home.
32:27You've more than double glazed,
32:28so you've kind of upped the performance.
32:29Yeah.
32:30The windows were the most expensive though.
32:32You know, you can have a Californian aesthetic,
32:34but it's got to function for London.
32:37Hence the thermal insulation,
32:40the triple glazing glass.
32:42You know, you can have the aesthetic,
32:43but the function of it has to be right.
32:46Yeah.
32:47Do you need to go on holiday as much as you used to?
32:49Does this provide?
32:51I can't afford to go on holiday anymore.
32:56Who needs a holiday when you've built the escape already?
33:00The house that gives back more than any around the world trip could.
33:04And her children are the lucky ones here.
33:09Nice staircase, Trixie.
33:11It's really nice.
33:12You don't feel any kind of bounce to it whatsoever.
33:15Her daughter Trixie's room sits right at the top of the house.
33:19You have this amazing, wonderful green view,
33:22kind of contrasted by this bright white.
33:25And then this kind of cozy space in between.
33:28It's offering a great deal of experience, the building,
33:31for a very small amount of building.
33:33Yeah.
33:34I mean, this is a small space,
33:35but it's actually just so lovely to come and sit here
33:38because you have all of that going on
33:39and all of that going on as well.
33:43Trixie was so inspired by this project
33:45that it prompted her to take up a career in design.
33:49I never actually considered going into architecture
33:52until this project came around.
33:55Oh, really?
33:55Yes.
33:56I actually got to do some work experience with the architects
33:59and just seeing how they operated
34:02and being in that office,
34:05I was like, actually, you know what?
34:07Like, I can do this.
34:09So I think, well, of course I feel at home here,
34:14but mainly I just feel really inspired.
34:20A house that can inspire a choice in career
34:23is one extraordinary building.
34:25But I think the secret to its success
34:27isn't just the building itself,
34:29but the way it makes the best of what's around it.
34:33It brings in greenery from everywhere.
34:39You had the extreme luxury here,
34:41the fabulous condition that these gardens preexisted.
34:45That's right.
34:46The views, that tree in that neighbour's garden preexisted.
34:48Everything's established and mature,
34:49so you could place this building and orientate it, organise it.
34:53It's very much a project
34:54where we were organising the rooms around the gardens.
34:57The idea of being able to see nature from virtually any part of this house
35:01is a great luxury to have.
35:03Mm, massively so in dense urban environments, yeah.
35:11Oh, this is so lush.
35:14I could be in Brazil
35:17or looking at some case study house in California.
35:22And, of course, the building that was on this site,
35:26originally it reached for those ideas.
35:29It wanted to be an exciting, glamorous home
35:33that was sunshine-filled,
35:34and yet it never quite got there thanks to its engineering
35:37and the climate of the UK.
35:39It got stranded halfway across the Atlantic.
35:44It took Ruth and Lawrence to finally land it here.
35:55We've seen five homes so far
35:58that take you somewhere completely magical.
36:03There's one more to go before we find out
36:06which will earn a place on the shortlist.
36:17At some point in life, most of us reach a moment
36:21when a colleague takes us aside and says,
36:24Kevin, I think you should think about retiring,
36:27maybe stepping back a little, you know, letting somebody else in,
36:31slowing the pace.
36:33What happens then?
36:34I mean, what are you going to do with all that time?
36:36You know?
36:37Where am I going to live?
36:38How am I going to live?
36:40Yeah?
36:41Because retirement, it should not feel like the end of something.
36:45Yeah?
36:46You get this?
36:47It ought to feel like the beginning of a new career.
36:52And Damien is going to visit our last home on the long list
36:56built for one such retired couple.
36:59And just to be clear,
37:00I have no intention of retiring any time soon, all right?
37:05Oh, hello.
37:07What a strikingly beautiful building.
37:13It's called Ferry House.
37:15The RIBA judges praise the creativity, invention,
37:19and skill involved in creating this extraordinary shape
37:23for a dramatic and unique home.
37:26The architect was Andy Ramis.
37:29How are you doing?
37:30Hi, nice to hear you.
37:32It certainly takes the breath away when you see all of this.
37:36Now, who are you designing this for?
37:38It was designed for a couple, and it was basically their retirement home.
37:42And, you know, who doesn't dream of building a home for their retirement?
37:46If you think about the way that we normally live,
37:48we're at work all the time.
37:49And this is a home where they're going to be spending a lot of time.
37:53All their time.
37:57Ferry House is arranged across two floors with three distinct wings.
38:02One of the main wings hosts an impressive main bedroom
38:05complete with walk-in wardrobe and bathroom.
38:08Opposite is an expansive open-plan living kitchen area.
38:12At the rear of the property is the smallest wing,
38:15which contains the utility room and garage.
38:19Downstairs, on the lower ground floor,
38:21there are additional guest rooms and bathrooms.
38:27You walk into the kitchen and immediately consider retirement.
38:32It's calm.
38:33It's crisp.
38:34It's beautiful.
38:35The kind of space that says,
38:37you've done enough.
38:39Sit down.
38:40Have something lemony.
38:42Oh, Andy, this is absolutely breathtaking.
38:49My overriding ambition was to create a place that made you feel incredibly calm.
38:55That you could feel really, really at ease.
38:57Really, really connected to nature.
38:59The clients used to live in a house next door on the site.
39:03So had a very strong idea about what they wanted.
39:07It was all about views, views, views.
39:09You know, that was what we were told.
39:11We are literally walking around with them and grading the views,
39:15almost like one to ten.
39:17Say, which is your favourite view?
39:18Which is your ten out of ten view?
39:20Then we're thinking, OK, well, that's where we want to put the lounge.
39:24Where's your next favourite view?
39:26That's where we want to put the kitchen.
39:28And so on and so on and so on.
39:29And that's how the plan really starts to come together.
39:33It's not just the views that captivate.
39:36The craftsmanship is extraordinary.
39:39The timber roof runs right through the house,
39:42right through all of the rooms in the bedroom wing.
39:46How do you make that happen?
39:49Not a single one is out of place.
39:53So number one is meticulous planning.
39:55So it all has to be drawn so that everything is worked out beforehand.
39:59And then you need a very, very skilled trade to put it together.
40:02And someone who's very tolerant as well,
40:04because this is the kind of thing that could really drive you crazy
40:07if you weren't careful.
40:08And I'm not sure they were my best friends actually at the end of it.
40:15Andy sketched the big ideas.
40:18Project architect Laura Locke had to make them work.
40:22Three wings, tilting roofs and angles everywhere.
40:26She had to make it all a line.
40:29Think architectural origami with steel and timber.
40:33And no second chances.
40:40The three wings all angle and fall to the centre of this building,
40:45which brings with it a number of complexities.
40:48The lining up of all of the finishes, both internally and externally,
40:53which is not necessarily a parallel situation
40:56when you've got so many angles coming together.
40:59How do you go about making something like this happen?
41:02Everyone kind of thinks, oh, you know, it's 100% design.
41:05But in reality, it's not, is it?
41:07It's a certain amount of design and a certain amount of just making it work.
41:11It's quite difficult.
41:12And I think communication with contractors is really vital in projects like this.
41:17The work here was so complicated that something got lost in translation.
41:23We initially set it up with a line of timber that ran on the underside of the ridge and the
41:31hit boards,
41:32and then ran all the rafter cladding into that ridge board alignment.
41:38The architects weren't happy with that, so we had to take it down.
41:43Rather than connect the cladding to a central ridge board,
41:46every piece of wood had to be cut and angled so that it met its twin from the other side
41:52in a razor-sharp, seamless joint.
41:58This place is beautiful.
42:00It's the sort of house that makes you not care where you left your passport.
42:06Being here really does feel like being on holiday,
42:10with incredible access to the outdoors, amazing views and vistas in every direction,
42:17even a place to sun yourself.
42:19And all of this is contained within a house that has been beautifully designed and detailed by the architect.
42:43We've explored six remarkable homes so far,
42:47but which will earn their place on the coveted shortlist.
42:51In the running are the bold and beautiful Triangle House,
42:56with a whisper of the Caribbean.
42:59The restrained and elegant Niwa House,
43:01a home shaped by Japanese design principles and tranquility.
43:06The Californian Courtyard House,
43:09bright, breezy and designed for soaking up the sun.
43:13Sea Sky House, a coastal retreat where every day feels like a holiday.
43:19Catching Sun House, a house that basked in light from morning till night.
43:25And Ferry House, proving that retirement can be anything but retiring.
43:32Joining me is one of the judges, Livia Wang.
43:37How many houses have you shortlisted from this category?
43:39One.
43:40Just the one?
43:41Just the one.
43:41Which is?
43:42Triangle House.
43:43Triangle.
43:48What is it about that house that caught your imagination?
43:51It's colourful.
43:52It's inventive.
43:54So all the blue block work.
43:56There were two cuts on it.
43:57They all came at an angle,
43:58so they have these really nice blue stone columns.
44:00It's pointing to adventure, isn't it?
44:02Yeah.
44:02It's saying, come with me and I'm going to take you by the hand
44:05and lead you on an exciting journey through this place.
44:08yeah absolutely that's amazing wow that's really good news i mean it's it's great it's because
44:15it's also one of our first projects so it's we only started our practice about four years ago
44:19and building takes a long time so triangle house joins the shortest alongside kirk and
44:26the craic and hastings house there are four more places up for grabs before we find out
44:33which is crowned the 2025 riba house of the year adversity isn't an essential quality in great
44:44buildings but when it happens it actually often deepens the rewards i mean homes which have
44:51difficult births shaped by struggle and perseverance where every decision has been hard won yeah when
44:59that long journey ends in a place of escape or in a building that lifts you from the everyday and
45:05and takes you on holiday for example then the result is all the sweeter
45:11it's that teddy roosevelt quote you know i have never in my life envied a human being who led an
45:17easy life but i have envied many people who led difficult lives but led them well
45:27next time we'll explore houses that celebrate their use of craftsmanship they're on spring-loaded
45:33so yeah spring oh wow that's so elegant six more homes that draw you inside they're stored this is
45:40brass isn't it it makes a very impressive entrance and inspire wonder oh wow look at this the timber frame
45:47is the star of the show
45:50so
46:18so
46:18so
46:18so
46:18so
46:18so
46:18so
46:18so
46:18so
46:18so
46:18so
Comments