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Grand Designs Season 27 Episode 1
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00:00In the story of the three little pigs, one pig chose to build his house out of bricks,
00:10one out of sticks, and the third one, well, he chose a super sustainable, low-impact, low-input,
00:17carbon sequestering miracle product. Yeah, he chose straw, and not just any old straw,
00:22hemp straw, which in Latin is cannabis sativa. God, I love architecture. Gives me such a high.
00:52Second, it's number 19, the red heifer in the middle here.
01:12Amid this bustling cattle auction in the heart of the Durham Dales,
01:16a striking red overhauled figure stands among the native throng, Sarah, an artist who grew up here in the North East.
01:34We work really, really quickly and capture the relationship, really, between the farmers and the cattle,
01:41and document a really important part of local culture,
01:46which carried on in the same way as it has been for hundreds of years.
01:52After 40 years living largely in the south-east of England, where she raised a family,
01:5718 months ago, Sarah decided to return to her roots after a divorce, her children having grown up.
02:04It's a really difficult time for all mothers after their children have gone away,
02:10because a whole part of your life is kind of, not finished, but it's a complete change.
02:18I didn't want to be left, I didn't have to come back north, but I just had the idea.
02:22My mum thought I was completely mad, you know, 40 years in the south or whatever.
02:29It's with her mum, Joyce, that Sarah's currently living, but not for long,
02:33because having been part of a thriving artistic community in Rye in East Sussex, where she previously lived,
02:40Sarah's now on a mission to establish a creative hub and a home up here.
02:45I heard somebody say once that you can move to a hub of something, or you just create your own.
02:52When I heard that, I just thought, oh yeah, I can just create my own.
02:56To build a space, not just for my own work, but also to facilitate others to make art a hub of the creative rural north.
03:07The location is this exposed upland field she's bought at auction, for £200,000.
03:13I saw this three-acre field with planning permission, five miles from where my parents lived,
03:20and I just thought, I'm definitely going to go for this.
03:28My goodness. It's very exposed here.
03:35Hello. Hello, Kevin.
03:37Hi, Sarah, how are you?
03:38Lovely to meet you.
03:39Yeah.
03:40Yes.
03:41You're camouflaged in your wounds.
03:44Mind you, it's cold today.
03:45It is very cold, yes.
03:46Wow.
03:47And a strong wind is blowing.
03:48Yeah, is it always like this?
03:49It is, a lot of the time.
03:51Yes, that's what our gloves back on.
03:53Wow.
03:54Wow, so you're building a house which is going to respect that, respond to that.
03:57Yes, yes.
03:58Right, and was that a house?
04:00What was here?
04:01There was something.
04:02There was.
04:03There was an old stone farmhouse, which is just over there,
04:06and that remained empty for about 30 years,
04:09and then they had to knock it down because it was then unsafe.
04:12And does it sit, then, close to the road?
04:14Where are you putting the building?
04:16It's sitting here.
04:17Rather than putting it back where it was, which is on the higher ground,
04:21we're moving it to the lower area so that it's not so exposed to the wind.
04:25Really?
04:26Yeah.
04:27Why would you do that?
04:28Well, I can't imagine.
04:31And what's the house going to be?
04:33I'm building a single-storey home studio eco-house made out of hempcrete.
04:38Wow.
04:39The exterior I am cladding in the stone.
04:43What, from here?
04:44Yes, yes.
04:45So hempcrete, this is hemp stems from hemp grown in fields?
04:50Yes.
04:51It's not the psychoactive version, but almost.
04:53No, no, yep.
04:54And it's mixed with lime.
04:56That's right.
04:57Lime binder.
04:58And water.
04:59And you make a, basically, it's like a sort of concrete,
05:02but made with natural products.
05:03Exactly.
05:04So, why hempcrete?
05:06Well, particularly I love it because it's natural and it's a healthy thing to live with,
05:14unlike modern building materials which contain so many plastics.
05:19Cast in situ hempcrete is economical.
05:22It's the only natural material that I've been able to find that I can actually afford to use.
05:28And it's affordable because I'll also be doing a lot of the casting myself.
05:32But the driving force for the whole natural space was to facilitate, like, a healthy and creative environment to make art in.
05:43Elliot Architects have evolved Sarah's vision for a sustainable home-come art hub into a design that's as bold as you might imagine.
05:53The first step will be to level the site, dig foundations, and, as hempcrete can't be used below ground level, fill them with conventional steel-reinforced concrete.
06:04Next, a lightweight timber frame will go up to form three barn-like structures, with a few steel I-beams for reinforcement.
06:13A simple entrance hallway will link the barn shapes into one.
06:19Unusually, the roof, a striking rusty red steel number, will get fitted before the walls are fully built, to keep the rain off the hempcrete process.
06:27Next, a skin of sterling board will wrap around the outside of the timber frame and inside, but only up to a height of 60 centimetres.
06:35Into this shuttering section, buckets of wet hempcrete, hemp mixed with lime binder and water, will be tipped and tamped down.
06:42Once this first section, or lift, has set, the process repeats in stages up the walls.
06:48Once dry, a breather membrane then goes on and the building gets clad in stone from the former home on this site.
06:55Large aluminium and timber windows will add architectural refinement.
07:00A bright, ply-clad hallway-come gallery, for displaying and selling art, will lead to a world of raw hempcrete,
07:08an open-plan kitchen diner and living space, off which are a bathroom and Sarah's digs.
07:15On the other side of the gallery will sit Sarah's art studio, where she'll also run courses,
07:20and another two bedrooms for her grown-up sons, Noah and Hector.
07:25Sarah's going to install the hempcrete herself with some help, having recently got the bug on a course she took.
07:31And rather boldly, despite the innovative and tricky nature of hempcrete,
07:35and despite her complete lack of experience, she wants to project manage the whole thing, rather her than me.
07:41This is not a kit build. It's not even a system build. No.
07:46You're not even using blocks. You're using stuff mixed in a bucket, piled into a hole. Yes.
07:53With wobbly stone on the outside and mortar. So there's a lot of risks.
07:57Yeah. I think as risks go, I think this is low risk.
08:00Tell me, how much is all this going to cost?
08:03The total budget is £330,000.
08:07Does that all come from previous homes that you've owned?
08:12Yes. So I used to live on the south-east coast.
08:15I had a little house that the boys and I used to live in.
08:18So that's where the money's come from, to buy the field and pay for the build.
08:23And there's no mortgage attached? There's no borrowing going into the project?
08:27No. I don't owe anybody any money. And I'm not going to. I don't want to.
08:30You're not going to?
08:31No. I'm not going to borrow any money, no. I won't go down that route.
08:34OK. Any asset?
08:36Yes. A holiday cottage. OK.
08:38Yeah. But if I sell the holiday cottage, I'm getting rid of my income.
08:43Because I don't have any kind of pension plan.
08:46Yeah. Yeah. So when do you finish? When do you move in?
08:49As soon as the windows can go in after the hempcrete's cast.
08:54So that is October, November. OK. Eight months.
08:59Oh, God. I'll be in earlier than that then.
09:01Yes.
09:04Sarah's cheerful disposition suggests that the complexity,
09:07the risk of what she's about to undertake may not have sunk in yet.
09:13The thing is, this project is also so fraught with difficulty,
09:18with risk, if you like, design risk, experimental materials,
09:23a lack of money.
09:25Then you think, how on earth will it actually happen?
09:29But then you see, buildings don't just occur because somebody's got money.
09:35They also require organisation and administration and craftsmanship and care and love
09:41and vast amounts of human energy.
09:46And that matters almost more than any other component, that human input.
09:53And goodness me, the one thing that Sarah has in spades is energy.
10:00She has an abundance of it.
10:02Within weeks, the foundations of Sarah's new home are being dug by an experienced local builder, David, and his team.
10:16My role is doing the foundations, the drains and the stone clad at the end.
10:25Out of this wild upland earth, the full footprint of Sarah's new home is emerging,
10:31along with its fair share of unexpected costs.
10:36We've had to take out 25 to 30 tractor loads of earth.
10:42So that was unexpected cost.
10:45At the moment, I spent £1,860 getting rid of soil.
10:51A new field drain is another surprise, costing around £5,000.
10:56The idea of it is that it will take all of the water away from the house
11:01and let it naturally run away into the rest of the field.
11:05So it has to be done. You have to pay it.
11:08And when there isn't any money left, then there's no money left.
11:12Even I can understand that arithmetic.
11:15Nevertheless, just a month in, the foundations are ready to be filled with concrete.
11:20Swingers over there.
11:22And with David on hand to oversee progress, our project manager, Sarah,
11:26even has time for a spotted drawing.
11:29Drop us a bit far back up there.
11:32David's been in the building game in these parts since 1981.
11:36Like standard building, you sort of know what you're going to do.
11:39So there's no unforeseen problems with it, really.
11:43That's it, isn't it?
11:45But as for the hemp, I think she's a little bit far out with that.
11:49You know, that's something just new.
11:51And it'll be the first in this area and it'll probably last.
11:54So I don't think anybody else will do it.
11:57Building homes with hemp isn't conventional at the moment.
12:01So I'm curious to know what Sarah's mum, Joyce, thinks about it.
12:05What's your view about the building?
12:07I'm utterly amazed.
12:08I mean, I just think what she's tackling is phenomenal.
12:12I couldn't have done it.
12:13I'm full of admiration for her.
12:15Should she be doing it, do you see?
12:17Knowing Sarah, yes.
12:19Because this is what she needs to do.
12:21She wants somewhere of her own that she's designed and she's done and in a field.
12:27Yes.
12:28It's Sarah.
12:29Yeah, so it suits her.
12:30It suits her, yeah.
12:31Would you live there?
12:32No, I like being in a village.
12:34I think the money side of it is the worry to me.
12:37Because prices have just escalated for materials and everything.
12:42So I do hope she can achieve it.
12:44And it's using materials which are not commonly found.
12:47I mean, and very ecological, of course.
12:49But so expensive.
12:51Yeah.
12:52That's the problem.
12:53Is there a bit of you that thinks actually, you know, what she's doing is overreaching?
12:56Is it mad?
12:57Yes.
12:58I would think it was mad.
13:01I wouldn't do it.
13:02Do you think she's bonkers?
13:06Sarah is tenacious and she wants to be moved into her home in November,
13:11now a mere six months away.
13:14So this is the schedule to see whether you think we're on target for me moving in.
13:20We're at the moment timber frame, which we haven't got sorted yet,
13:24like the steel that's supposed to come today, hasn't landed yet.
13:28No.
13:29That's going to have a knock-on effect.
13:31Just three months in doing the stone, building it.
13:34But I can...
13:35Can't build stone in lime any time after November.
13:39But I could still be living in the house,
13:41because the house has got its membrane in and it's watertight.
13:44How are you going to get your windows in?
13:46Windows can't go in without the stonework,
13:48because the windows sit on the stonework.
13:51No, the windows can sit on the...
13:53on the metal...
13:54propped metal sills, can't they?
13:56Not really, no.
13:57Oh, my God, I hadn't realised that.
13:59Your window is at the back of the timber frame.
14:04So, no, you won't have your windows and doors in.
14:07It's just extraordinary that I hadn't thought of this,
14:13and nobody had made me aware of it.
14:18Bags of innocent enthusiasm and hope can drive a project,
14:22but they can't get your windows to fit.
14:24The prospect of Sarah moving in come November now seems beyond possible.
14:30Sarah is three-and-a-half months into an eight-month project here in the Durham Dales,
14:49and the timber frame should be going up.
14:51My neighbour, Mark, is moving his sheep,
14:55so we don't want them coming in the, er...
14:58..in the site.
15:00Oh, great. OK, thanks.
15:03It is fun, isn't it?
15:06Rural life.
15:08It's a very, very busy Monday morning.
15:10Sheep movement and frame erecting.
15:14After a brief hiatus, the road's clear.
15:21Well, they're hoping to get the most of the frame all up today.
15:25It's pretty incredible, I think.
15:26I mean, I hadn't realised that it was only going to take a day.
15:28No, I'm really, really, you know, absolutely on schedule.
15:32Keep on the pen. Come on!
15:36In between project management, there's still time for sketching.
15:40In order to keep the drawing going, I just draw whatever's happening on site.
15:46They're interesting.
15:47I mean, the scaffolders the other day were all like monkeys, really.
15:51They're, like, hanging onto all of the poles as they're moving around them.
15:55Erm, and these guys have enormous tool belts.
16:00By the end of the day, the basic timber structure of Sarah's new home
16:04has already taken shape, ready for the steel beams and timber rafters to go in.
16:10This is the studio. It's a brilliant space, isn't it?
16:13I like this high, this high window here, because that was...
16:22Actually, that is actually scrubbed out.
16:23That is very high that they've put that in.
16:27But anyway, it's too late now.
16:29Sarah might have forgotten that the finished insulated floor
16:32will sit a fair bit higher than the current slab.
16:35For now, the project remains impressively on schedule.
16:39Three weeks later, the timber frame is complete
16:43and the installation of the roof starts.
16:46It'll be vital to keep the rain off the hemp walls yet to come.
16:50Hey.
16:51Kevin.
16:52This is amazing.
16:53It is amazing.
16:54Steel work in there.
16:55Yes.
16:56You've got all your perimeter block work done.
16:58Yes.
16:59And slabs poured.
17:00And drainage in.
17:01Yes, thank goodness.
17:02Can't believe it.
17:03So this is the living room and kitchen.
17:04I think it's absolutely amazing.
17:06And I love the fact that I can see the steel ridge beam.
17:08It's really lovely.
17:09Yeah, it's going to be exposed.
17:10But a lot of hempcrete to cast.
17:12Yeah.
17:13But what about the elephant in the caravan on this project?
17:17The money.
17:19Are you on budget?
17:20No.
17:21OK.
17:22So?
17:23So I had a price in for the stone cladding.
17:26Yeah.
17:27£59,000.
17:28Ooh.
17:29Thing is, is what do I know about stone masonry and stone cladding?
17:33I didn't have a clue how much it was going to cost.
17:36So I kind of think I put in 20.
17:39So when I saw 59, I just thought, oh my God.
17:46Any other overruns, overspends?
17:48Finishing landscaping.
17:49Yeah.
17:50There's nothing in for that.
17:53And the roof.
17:54How much is that then?
17:56£18,000.
17:57You were going to spend how much, you thought?
17:59£330,000.
18:00£330,000.
18:01Yeah.
18:02And now you think it's going to be?
18:03More like £430,000.
18:04Just like that?
18:05Yes.
18:06Wow.
18:07And so quickly.
18:08Yeah.
18:09And I just can't believe how fast these amounts ramp up.
18:15Yeah.
18:16Yeah.
18:17As to how Sarah funds this £100,000 overspend,
18:22she's going to have to surrender the only financial security she has,
18:27her small one-bedroom holiday cottage nearby.
18:30At the time that I bought it, the intention was that this would provide a steady stream of income.
18:38It's potentially worrying where my income's going to come from in the future.
18:43It's not an ideal scenario, but by taking away the income that this cottage gives me,
18:50it'll sort of force me into really making the future plans for the gallery really work.
18:57So the new house will have to work for its keep.
19:01Sarah's prepared to sacrifice every asset and security she has to build this project.
19:08One she wanted to move into in November in just four months.
19:12But there's an entire roof yet to build before the hempcrete walls start in two weeks.
19:16Sarah's feeling the pressure.
19:20There's not another membrane going on top of the ply.
19:23There is.
19:24What?
19:25We don't want that getting wet.
19:26The membrane goes down on top of the insulation.
19:29There's no other membrane to go on.
19:31Right.
19:32But that drawing's completely wrong, Sarah.
19:34That's an old drawing that's not right.
19:36I mean, this ply's been getting soaking wet.
19:40Yep.
19:41I'm always working with different people running projects.
19:44And people do take on running their own jobs.
19:46And I don't think they realise what a tough job it is, you know.
19:50It's a difficult job and it's a skilled job.
19:53And people who are not used to doing it do struggle running their own projects.
19:56I'm beginning to feel sorry for Sarah.
19:59And yet, two weeks on, the striking red steel roof installation is advanced enough for hempcreteing to start.
20:07Bang on schedule.
20:08Today is the day that I've been really looking forward to.
20:14Yeah, here we go.
20:15We're ready now.
20:16Sarah's assembled a crack team.
20:19Pro hempcreteers Jasper and Ronan from Wales and Martin from Brighton.
20:25A local friend, Piers, and her sons, Noah and Hector.
20:29The hempcrete decision was an interesting, interesting one.
20:32I was like, I don't, I've never heard of that one.
20:35I think she wouldn't be offended by being called the Little Eccentric.
20:38From what I understand about it and its incinating properties and the breathability,
20:42that all sounds good to me.
20:43It'll work out.
20:44Hopefully.
20:45First, a vertical axis mixer combines the hemp stalk or shiv with a lime-based binder and water.
20:55The hempcrete is then tipped from buckets into the shuttering and then tamped down.
20:59I just sort of think of like patting a dog's head.
21:02It's like a firm pat, but you're not trying to knock its teeth off.
21:06That's what I think of it.
21:08Once this first layer has partially set, the timber formwork is removed to reveal that section of finished wall.
21:15Almost perfect.
21:16The process then repeats up the wall until the hempcrete reaches the ceiling.
21:22Two weeks has been allowed to complete the hempcreteing.
21:29So the team from Wales, that's the amount of time that I've booked them for and it's their mixer.
21:35I'm confident we'll get it done in the two weeks, even though it does look as though it is a big space to fill.
21:42Where does all this hemp come from, you may wonder?
21:47Well, 600 miles away, in the Champagne region of France.
21:51Where the cultivation of this miracle crop stretches back hundreds of years.
21:56It's drought tolerant, requires zero pesticides, sequesters carbon and is ready to harvest in just three months.
22:07This futuristic hemp processing facility nearby extracts dust from the chopped stalks and that's vital for good quality hempcrete.
22:15Why would I buy it without dust? What's the advantage?
22:18For the construction, it's really important for the good setup of the product because the binder and the dust are not so friends.
22:26The regularity of the product will be not so good.
22:30OK, so it becomes weaker, yeah, more brittle perhaps.
22:33Yeah.
22:34By removing the dust, you get a better product, a better guarantee of performance.
22:41Sarah was recommended to use French hemp because of the scale, the history and the advanced factories in this region.
22:50If somebody had given you an electric car ten years ago, you would have said, oh my goodness, this is from the future.
22:56And it was then, and it sort of still is now.
22:59And the thing about this factory, right, is that I couldn't have dreamt of this ten or twenty years ago, and yet here it is.
23:06The only difficulty with this high-tech processing plant, at the very end of that process, we still rely on enthusiasts.
23:15And that's where the weak spot lies.
23:17We don't have, within construction, the skill sets at scale to really exploit what this factory can produce.
23:26And who bears the risk of that?
23:31Sarah.
23:33And sure enough, back in the Durham Dales, Sarah faces a sucker punch.
23:38There isn't enough hemp and lime binder on site to finish the job.
23:42Even though she paid a sustainable building consultancy in the UK several hundred pounds to advise on the quantity of materials she'd need.
23:50We think some of the volume calculations that have been done might be wildly off.
23:55And we might need roughly doubled material if we could go on.
23:58And the lead time can be quite long, three to four weeks, and we've got to leave before then.
24:05Sarah faces shelling out thousands more on hemp and lime binder.
24:09If the installation exceeds the two allotted weeks, she'll pay still more on labour to install it.
24:16Why did somebody not pick up before? That it was more? And now it buys so much.
24:25This, I have to say, this is getting too much, OK?
24:30High in the Durham Dales. After days of frantic phone calls, the shortfall in hemp and lime binder is still arriving from suppliers all over the UK.
24:58Three days before the hemp treaters are due to leave.
25:02It's multiple deliveries, which has been very stressful.
25:05And every time that happens, work stops, which is something I really don't want to happen.
25:09So all the more work, all the more work, all the more stress, all the more materials, all the more cost, how much extra?
25:14Over £9,000 more. Just like that? Yes. And that's not something that you can think, um, well, I can't afford it.
25:21You just have to spend it, get the materials in, and then work out how...
25:27Where you're going to find £9,000. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
25:31This is like a juggernaut now. It's on the move.
25:34Yes. Oh, it is. There's no stopping it.
25:37The question now is whether the team can install all this extra hemp treat with time running out.
25:44Today's Wednesday afternoons, right? So you've got Thursday, Friday left this week.
25:49Monday afternoon, you're on another site. Cornwall. Cornwall. Yeah. Yeah.
25:54Generally, we would say, no, it's not sustainable.
25:57But I don't want to leave Sarah in this position where there's lots of hemp treat still to do,
26:02because, yeah, the mixer will be gone.
26:04We wouldn't be saying ten working days for this size of project.
26:09They're desperate for all hands on deck. Even mine. Fairly loose, isn't it, when it goes in?
26:16And then the idea is that you spread it out... Yeah.
26:19...evenly. To an even level. About 100mm. And then at the edge, tamp down your fingers.
26:24You know, the association with hemp is that any hemp product is conducive to a slow, relaxing lifestyle.
26:30You know, this is the opposite. Remarkably, despite my contribution,
26:36all of the hempcrete walls get finished on schedule.
26:42And this is the finished result. And, boy, is this monumental.
26:47I mean, look, you see these great lines, these horizontal bands, courses,
26:52where the hemp was put in, and it was slowly built up.
26:56The thing is like a sort of extraordinary giant slab of dark green-gray stone.
27:02And I think it's really, really beautiful.
27:06You might disagree, of course. You might hate it. You might think this is absurd.
27:10When are they going to plaster?
27:13In a few weeks, the hempcrete has dried sufficiently to be wrapped on the outside in breather membrane,
27:20and then clad in stone.
27:22Sarah ought now to be gearing up to move into her new home.
27:26Instead, her finances are so dire that progress has slowed in an alarming way.
27:32Unfortunately, due to funds being very low now, and having not sold the holiday cottage,
27:41I've had to take the decision to only membrane the north part,
27:46and only stone-clad the north part,
27:49and probably only put half a window order in,
27:54and try to make that habitable and all-functioning,
28:00so that I can carry on working as an artist,
28:04and also start making some money by having the gallery open,
28:10you know, having the studio open.
28:12It's not a fun situation to find myself in.
28:17Bugger.
28:19I wouldn't be able to do this again.
28:23I don't think, just, I don't think my body could do it.
28:32A few weeks later, the stone masonry on the north section has begun.
28:41I am really happy with it. It's just perfect.
28:44What I really, really wanted originally is an old stone field barn,
28:48and what's lovely is that all of this stone here was on the original house.
28:55However, it's not wrong before Sarah faces another sucker punch.
29:00She hasn't got enough stone.
29:02So, Sarah's intention of using the stone was to use all the stone on the site,
29:07but there's not enough, because the house that was on the site probably only had 150 square metres in,
29:14where this property here has 286 square metres.
29:18So we're chopping it, trying to double it up, but she hasn't got enough.
29:22So, really, I've said to her now to go and source some more, which we have,
29:27which is the right colour, so we can mix it now, so at the end of the job it doesn't stand out.
29:33So, Sarah has to find more stone as soon as possible.
29:37Having to find stone at the last minute, I mean, it's like...
29:44That's another one of David's, we need more stone, Sarah.
29:47We need to start mixing it in.
29:49It's like, what, now?
29:52I think I've found some local reclaimed stone only a couple of miles away.
29:58It'll be £7,200.
30:01It's money I haven't got, but I can't leave part of the house unclad with stone,
30:06so I have to buy it.
30:15It's perfect.
30:16I mean, you can't tell the difference.
30:19Even though it is another £7,200,
30:22I think this stone is a really good match.
30:25I have to get a heavy stone two miles up the road.
30:29Stuck between a rock and a hard place.
30:32Yeah, how the fuck are you going to get it back to site?
30:35Money set aside for glazing the north section
30:38ends up having to be used to pay for the extra stone instead.
30:41Over the winter, progress slows to a halt,
30:45and Sarah spends another winter living with her mum.
30:48And yet, five painful months on, with spring, mercifully arrive some good news.
30:56Even great news.
30:58I sold the holiday cottage.
31:01So that means, hopefully now, that there's enough money
31:06to certainly finish the essential things for me to live in the house.
31:11I am incredibly keen to get the house finished,
31:17and to move back into my own home after two and a half years of not being in my own home.
31:23David and his team are already back on site to finish all the stonemasonry on the house.
31:31Just a few weeks later, all the windows are ready to go in,
31:34starting with the 250-kilo picture window for the gallery,
31:38which, thanks to some careful manoeuvring...
31:41Watch that bottom sill, please.
31:43...is ready to secure in just half an hour.
31:46Hooray!
31:47Watch your sides. Yep, Your Honour.
31:49Let's go up.
31:50Only, Sarah's not happy.
31:52It's a bizarre thing, but it looks as though the left is down compared to the right.
31:56I'm all concerned about the level at the bottom.
31:59Yes, I understand, but at the moment,
32:02it looks as though it's dropping down on the left-hand side.
32:05Can it, like, go up?
32:06Would that withdraw the bottom out?
32:08Maybe it might have to, because it doesn't look level at the top.
32:11After a battle of wills, a compromise decision is negotiated.
32:17That side needs to come up two mil.
32:19Yeah, can we do that?
32:20Yes, we're going to do that.
32:21Oh, amazing.
32:23Inevitably, by the time the second picture window goes in,
32:26it's the afternoon.
32:29Wow!
32:30That one is a much tighter fit.
32:32Makes you wonder, kind of, why they all weren't more like that.
32:35Yeah, the wind's definitely picked up.
32:38Oh, yeah, that's moving around a lot, isn't it?
32:41I'm kind of glad I don't understand Polish.
32:45Three of the largest panes are installed by the end of the day.
32:49That's perfect.
32:50All 19 panes get ridded come the following week.
32:54Good.
32:57Now the place is watertight,
32:59they can screed over the insulation and underfloor heating pipes.
33:02Though unusually, Sarah also wants the cement screed exposed like the hemp.
33:07She wants the raw look of what it is.
33:10I mean, it suits the walls, doesn't it?
33:11When you look at that, when you look at the walls.
33:13Well, it is unusual, but it's like the old natural look, isn't it?
33:16Well, I think it's really beautiful.
33:19I love the relationship with the hempcrete.
33:21Exactly the same tonal range.
33:23Much more perfect than I thought it was going to be.
33:31A few weeks later, when the screed has cured...
33:34Is this your finished floor?
33:36It is.
33:37I really like it.
33:38Sarah's all set for the interior fit-out,
33:40assuming she's got any money for that.
33:43Yeah, how much have you got left?
33:45£23,000.
33:48But that £23,000, what does that cover?
33:50That has to cover the air source heat pump,
33:54the electrics, the second fixed electrics,
33:57and lighting.
33:59The rest of the insulation I have labour to put it in.
34:01The plywood, I'm going to have to buy another pallet of plywood.
34:05OK, you've got through £23,000 already.
34:07Yeah.
34:08I've more than passed that, and that's the thing.
34:10That £23,000 certainly doesn't cover the kitchen.
34:12There's never been any budget for the kitchen.
34:14I've never had any budget for a kitchen.
34:16It transpires that Sarah's going to kit out her home
34:19in the traditional artist's way
34:22by blagging as much free and cheapo stuff she can get.
34:26Oh, look, it's the Aladdin's cave.
34:29Yes.
34:30Of leftovers.
34:31Yes, it is. There's the fridge.
34:33Do you know what? This is good.
34:34This is the bath, which I got from the builders' merchants.
34:37Oh, yes.
34:38It's £50.
34:39What's down there?
34:40This is the sink.
34:41That was in a farmer's cattle yard.
34:44What's this, Sarah, under here?
34:45This is a wash-hand basin.
34:47This was dug up, yeah, and it's saltstone.
34:49It's got a hole.
34:50Yeah, yeah.
34:51I can't believe this was in the ground.
34:53And Sarah's resourcefulness extends to second-hand purchases,
34:58from trips to her local tip shop.
35:01I like that.
35:04Is it a cat scratcher?
35:05Oh.
35:06Two of them.
35:07That's a posh one.
35:08That's incredible.
35:09But how much is this?
35:10Nineteen altogether.
35:11Which is great.
35:12Thank you so much.
35:13We've got to try and fit it in.
35:14Can I get everything in?
35:15Yes, you can.
35:17Got it.
35:19There's room for more crap.
35:20There is more crap.
35:21On top.
35:22Yeah.
35:24That's good.
35:26Well done.
35:28I get that Sarah's a creative,
35:30that she has imagination and vision,
35:32but can she really take all that flotsam and jetsam
35:36and recycled rubbish and make sense and beauty from it here?
35:41I mean, I don't know whether the floor's going to work out
35:44just polished and sealed as screed.
35:47I don't know whether the homecrete walls are going to be beautiful
35:50once art is hung on them.
35:52I don't know if the kitchen's going to look like a dog's dinner
35:57or an expression of something else,
35:59a feast of the imagination.
36:03What do you think?
36:04What do you think?
36:20It is three years since Sarah returned to her roots in the high country of the Northeast.
36:25With ambitions to build a sustainable hybrid home come creative hub in the Durham Dales.
36:32So, after 18 months of self-inflicted stress, has she met her own towering goals?
36:38Oh, will you look at that?
36:41Even from here, across the fields.
36:45Those barns of Sarah's, they really sink.
36:49You know, this is a landscape of long, low, ground-hugging barns.
36:56Hers, on the other hand, the roofs are a bit more pointed, they're a bit taller,
37:00they're a bit more assertive and they are very, very rusty red.
37:03I think everybody here knows they've arrived.
37:08The language of this building seems to be very much of this place.
37:12Close up.
37:14Oh, that is so good!
37:16Beautifully, beautifully built.
37:22The stonework is perfectly coarse.
37:25It's medieval standards of stonework.
37:28It's really, really great.
37:30However, the windows, they are big and they do shout that they've arrived.
37:35Like the roofs, you know?
37:37The whole arrangement says,
37:39I look like barns for a distance, but very clearly I'm not.
37:42I'm a proper piece of architecture.
37:46Hello, Kevin!
37:47Hello!
37:49What a beautiful building you have!
37:51Oh, great to see you!
37:53Look at you! My goodness me!
37:55You look amazing!
37:57It's the first time I've seen you without overalls.
37:59How long have you been in?
38:00About two weeks.
38:01So that must be a kind of fresh lease.
38:03Brings me deep joy to have my own home back again.
38:06It's powerful, it's good.
38:08I think it's got a very good energy about it.
38:11One thing it also says to me, as I get closer to it,
38:15is it says, there's the front door,
38:18this is a welcoming place to invite people in,
38:21to come and buy art.
38:23Yes!
38:24It's not just a home.
38:26It actually does speak the language of a gallery
38:28or of a more public building.
38:30That's good, because that is what it's supposed to be.
38:33And that's what it will be.
38:34And in fact, there is a first exhibition up there.
38:37In the space!
38:38In the space!
38:39You've even gone that far!
38:40Yes!
38:41Yeah, exhibition of my bill drawings that I've been doing.
38:43Oh, well, what did you do all the way through the process?
38:45Yes!
38:46Oh, how exciting!
38:47I'd love to see those!
38:48Well, come on in!
38:49Yeah!
38:50I'd love a bit of shelter from this wind as well.
38:51It's beautiful.
38:52I wasn't expecting the plywood interior.
38:53It's a big wooden box.
38:54Yeah.
38:55It's a beautiful pale and pink.
38:56I've always loved plywood as an interior finish.
38:57Very, very precise.
38:58It's like cabinetry.
38:59It's like living inside a piece of furniture.
39:00Yeah.
39:01Do you know what's such a pleasure?
39:02It's visiting you in your home and your studio and seeing your art on the wall.
39:21They're great!
39:22That's the guys pouring the concrete.
39:23It is, yes.
39:24It is, yes, with their amazing tube that the concrete comes through.
39:29And roofers, of course, are very acrobatic and very dexterous.
39:34The glass wall of the gallery places you right into the grasslands outside.
39:38That is a painting waiting to happen, isn't it?
39:40While a door to the left leads you right into another grassy environment,
39:45Sarah's hempcrete living space.
39:47Oh, Sarah.
39:49Beautiful.
39:51And here, the plywood mixes with the hemp.
39:54Glorious.
39:55Yeah, they work really well together.
39:57Don't they just?
39:58Very rich and beautiful, Sarah.
40:00It's very warm.
40:02It's very...
40:03It's full of you, it's full of stuff, it's full of personality.
40:06There's a texture and a life in the material
40:08which you need to do nothing more to, to enjoy.
40:12So there's a rawness,
40:14which is sort of a bit like looking at the stone on the outside.
40:18This is great.
40:19In the end, you saved up and bought something decent, yeah?
40:24No, the total cost of this kitchen was £924.
40:29What?
40:30And most of that is labour costs.
40:32There's five different places that all the units came from.
40:36Kitchen carcasses that people were throwing out.
40:38Five different kitchens?
40:39Yes, and I think I was a bit worried, actually.
40:43The drawers are all different, the widths are all different,
40:45but it has come together just brilliantly.
40:49You've even made the worktop out of plywood.
40:51Yes, all the offcuts.
40:52That's fabulous.
40:53It's the best kitchen I've ever had.
40:56Back on the other side of the entrance come gallery
40:59is the creative heart of Sarah's home, her studio.
41:03Very, very lovely.
41:04Quite ecclesiastical, you know?
41:05Yes.
41:06Big, long, naive altar at the end, that beauty of the landscape.
41:10It is a totally special space.
41:12It's energising, but it's calm.
41:14My hope and aim for this is to create a space
41:20for musical performance, drama performance, art classes, anything.
41:25This space might be able to develop creativity.
41:28Sharing it with others is the obvious next step, isn't it?
41:32Yes, absolutely is, yeah.
41:33Also on this side of the house are bedrooms for Sarah's grown-up sons,
41:41one of which she's camping in
41:42while she finishes her own bedroom off the living space.
41:45Why do the guest bedrooms first before you do your own?
41:48So I can potentially let one, perhaps to somebody who's on a course,
41:54or maybe let both of them.
41:56Sarah may not have completely finished,
41:58but the important thing is she can live and work here now.
42:01That'll be a relief for her.
42:03And her mum.
42:05I think being together for nearly three years, it's, yes.
42:11She's exhausting to live with.
42:13I think our relationship will be even closer now
42:17if we each have our own separate spaces.
42:21I suppose I'm quite fascinated by the hemp cream.
42:25The look of it is growing on me,
42:28and it looks nice with her artwork on.
42:31So just how much did Sarah end up spending on her hempcrete house in the end?
42:36I thought your original budget was crazily low, but it was what?
42:40330.
42:41Which is a fair chunk of money, right?
42:44330,000.
42:44But it's also a big building.
42:45Therefore, 330, that would have been phenomenal value.
42:49It would have been.
42:50How much did you spend in the end, you're written?
42:52520.
42:53And now what you've ended up spending seems to me to be about fair for a building this size,
42:58albeit you've still yet to finish.
43:00So there's a bit more to go, I guess.
43:02So you now officially have spent everything that I have in the world.
43:10Yeah.
43:10I don't know why I'm laughing,
43:12but actually there was a time when I thought I would not be able to get as far as I have been able to.
43:19To get to this point and be able to get the studio up and running so I can see an income coming in,
43:25that has to happen pretty quickly.
43:27And the building is what you wanted?
43:29Oh, it's more than that.
43:32It's kind of taken a life of its own, really.
43:35That is definitely to do with the hempcrete being such a lovely material to live with.
43:42And the fact that I built my own walls, part of a team that built the walls.
43:48I think if I can infuse people to creativity
43:53and also unlock this thing where people think that they can't draw or they can't paint,
44:02and that's just because somebody's told them somewhere down the line that they're no good.
44:06And in fact, we can all make a mark, all of us.
44:10It's a really good point, isn't it?
44:11Because you made something of a mark with the building, you know, on the planet.
44:14Yes, this is a mark.
44:16It's a mark, yeah.
44:17Yeah.
44:17And it's very, very lovely.
44:26This is life-affirming, coherent architecture,
44:30clad in stone and lime from the ground,
44:32built from natural, sustainable, carbon-sequestering stuff like hemp and timber.
44:37If you want to be innovative and exciting in your choice of building materials,
44:46then don't be surprised when the building turns out to be innovative and exciting.
44:51And if you want to experiment with the building,
44:53then don't be surprised when the building turns around and says to you,
44:56hey, let's go on this next big part of the adventure together and let's experiment again.
45:01And Sarah's story, which is one of tenacity and belligerence and fraught with pain,
45:10that tells me, reminds me,
45:13that within all of us there's a desire to make a mark, to create,
45:18to leave a daub on a piece of paper or on a canvas
45:21or to build a building in the landscape.
45:24And it reminds me of something else too,
45:26that it is to the artists
45:29that we should always be looking to show us the way forwards.
45:43There'll be five modules built in a factory in Wales.
45:46How are you going to get the thing here?
45:48It's crisscrossed with overhead cables.
45:51That's quick.
45:52Wow.
45:54It's an idea.
45:55We've never actually done anything this big before.
45:58What about the trees, Ian?
46:00It'll be a new challenge for us.
46:02I'm now just coming tomorrow.
46:03Are we all good?
46:04Okay, let's lift up.
46:05Oh!
46:06It's an interesting noise.
46:07It's an interesting noise.
46:21It's an interesting noise.
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