- 2 days ago
Grand Designs (2025) S27 E03 Pembrokeshire
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CreativityTranscript
00:00Wouldn't it be just amazing if somebody could invent a machine that you could capture carbon
00:09with and store it in it, you know, like a battery. So there's the battery there. And then it needs
00:14some kind of capturing device, like a sail, something floating in the sky that could kind
00:20of suck the carbon out of the atmosphere. And then they would pass it down carefully into the
00:29battery down below. Suck all that CO2 and store it somewhere, somehow. I mean, you could use
00:36it for, I don't know, building houses or something. Oh, my good Lord. It looked exactly like a tree.
00:59This is just beautiful, untouched woodland, middle of Wales, miles from any planning zone.
01:06Who gets to build a house here? No one, surely.
01:14The UK is one of the most deforested nations in Europe. So our woodlands are precious, and
01:21permission to build a home in them is close to unheard of.
01:27This oak tree, since we've taken a few ash down around it, it's already kind of opening
01:34out. But here, in a far corner of West Wales, Marcus has got permission to build a family
01:40home in a 20-acre woodland that he's known all his life. I don't feel it's like my right
01:47to build in here. It feels amazing to be able to build in a woodland. I think it's so exceptional.
01:53Marcus's father, Paul, was a pioneering environmentalist and bought this woodland over 30 years ago.
01:59So we are at my dad's grave. We buried him in the woods. He was only 54. Yeah, it was a massive, yeah, huge shock.
02:20Now, Marcus has the rare opportunity to build a home here, with his wife, Abby, and their twin daughters.
02:32What are you most excited about the new house?
02:35It's bigger. I'm not having to sleep with her. It keeps me awake all night.
02:41The family own a house in the seaside town of Tembe, but every summer they rent it out and
02:47moved to a small off-grid cabin in a field near the woods.
02:52It's been a childhood dream to build, properly build my own house in the woods.
02:57You may think that Marcus and Abby are knit your own eco-lifestylers on the fringe of society.
03:03But you'd be wrong. Abby works for a renewables trade organisation. She's head of strategic communications.
03:12It is imperative that we do start to look ahead and think, rather than just tell people at the last minute,
03:17what do we need to be doing now? I wouldn't say I was a classic hippie.
03:21It just happens to not scare me, the idea of kind of living in a woods.
03:25While Marcus runs an award-winning design company. Coffee.
03:29With his lifelong friend and business partner, Simon.
03:32This is one of ours. It's modern and contemporary. Some of those techniques might come through in the build, I guess.
03:37This project, to be built from the trees within their woodland, is an exciting opportunity, but also a profound responsibility.
03:48Hello. Hi. You started. We couldn't stop. You couldn't wait.
03:52And what an extraordinary sight to find yourselves in.
03:55It's one thing to manage the woodland, create the clearings and the glaze,
03:59quite another to get permission to build a house in one of them. How did that happen?
04:03A lot of hard work. It's under a policy called One Planet Development.
04:07Which scrutinises every part of our living, from how we're going to buy clothes in the future,
04:13to what food we're growing, what food we're eating.
04:15Hang on a minute. This isn't just about the building.
04:17No, no. It's about the whole land management.
04:19You're monitored for the first five years and you have to show that you have reduced your transport miles.
04:26You have to produce five... Yeah, five years' worth of cans.
04:29..of personal accounts. Yeah.
04:30This is about you changing your lives under scrutiny, and if after five years you fail...
04:35Get chucked off. Yeah. You get chucked off. Yeah.
04:37You have to dismantle the house. Yeah. Wow.
04:40So ordinarily I'd say to people, what are you going to build?
04:42But actually it seems secondary here.
04:44So it's definitely cabin-like. It'll be timber clad with a wriggly tin roof,
04:49which is quite conventional for around here.
04:52Are there any trees in the immediate vicinity that are going to become part of this house?
04:56All these larches here, we'll take those down in the autumn and mill them up.
05:01I've got a sawmill. Of course you have.
05:03That was the first thing I bought.
05:05This is like the dream opportunity to build my own house,
05:07using the timber that stood in this very spot.
05:12Their unique planning permission means Marcus and Abby are able to utilise the Caravan Act.
05:18This will limit the size of the building,
05:20but it also frees them from the rigours of building control
05:23and means Marcus doesn't need detailed plans.
05:26In fact, this building is all in his head.
05:33Twenty-seven small pits have been filled with compacted recycled concrete,
05:38and each topped with a boulder to create some super low-impact foundations.
05:43These support a timber frame, chiselled and worked to fit the shape of the hill and the shapes of the boulders.
05:52Powered by gravity, the foundations and frame will take the load of two unconnected Caravan structures.
05:58They're designed to detach the planning, but the hope is they won't be moving anywhere soon.
06:04This building's deep green and low-cost agenda means recycled second-hand glazing,
06:10which should save them a small fortune.
06:13Insulation will be rigid wood-fibre board backed up by recycled newspaper,
06:18blown into all the wall, floor and roof cavities.
06:21An airtight membrane should bring this home close to passive house standards.
06:27Extra-long roof joists will form a deep eave to protect the building and support a roof skin of metal sheets.
06:33They'll be punctured with large roof lights to bring more dappled forest light in.
06:38This pioneering shack will then be clad in larch.
06:42Inside, however, the rustic materials will be polished to designer specifications,
06:47and for the first time the girls will have their own bedrooms down a corridor from the main living space.
06:55Here, the large windows, waxed larch floorboards and honed Welsh slate worktops will suggest 21st century cabin chic.
07:05All of it wrapped in the protective embrace of a set of decks to promote physical contact with the woodland wonderland.
07:13This is a family determined to make a difference.
07:19You have designed this building.
07:21Yep.
07:22Have you got any professional help here from an architect, an engineer, a quantity surveyor?
07:26Not really, no.
07:28Can you get structural insurance on this building?
07:32I don't know.
07:34Tell me about the cost of all of this.
07:36We've slightly picked a number out of the air.
07:38We've been saving up for the last few years.
07:41We haven't got all the savings.
07:43But what's the number?
07:45We've said 100...
07:46100,000.
07:47Marcus is doing the work.
07:48And I've got the sawmill.
07:49You can't get a mortgage on it.
07:51No.
07:52Yeah?
07:53No.
07:54The planning is with us, so we can never sell this.
07:58So, if I'm right, you are spending £100,000 on something that you hope you can live in for the rest of your days, but you're not sure about that.
08:08You might get kicked out of it, and it's going to be essentially worthless.
08:13Yeah.
08:14It's a good investment, isn't it?
08:18No professionals, hardly any money.
08:21I should be running for the Welsh hills.
08:25But there is something contagious about Marcus and Abby's noble naivety.
08:34They want to be living here in just over a year, and they'll be helped by Marcus's design partner, Simon.
08:44I wouldn't say there's any particular division of labour.
08:47I'm probably a bit more detailed than Marcus.
08:51The foundation timbers are charred to prevent decay.
08:57An ancient Japanese technique, shisui-ban.
09:01I wish I could have said that I've been learning it in Japan for 30 years, but...
09:07The truth is, I saw it on YouTube.
09:13Coffee?
09:16God, it's in the way.
09:17It takes just over a month to erect the platform that'll support this shack.
09:267,000 nails in the joists.
09:28Well, Simon is the details man.
09:31As the walls start to go up...
09:33OK, if I hold it here, you move into the middle.
09:36It would seem there are some teething problems.
09:42That's not right.
09:44Hey, Ope.
09:45Your angle's wrong.
09:46Is it going to work anyway, or...?
09:48No, no.
09:49Somewhere between the angle being measured and being cut, that was a bit wrong.
09:53It's hard to be precise when you haven't got any detailed drawings to work from, but after two hours, there is progress.
10:02First corner done, squared up, which is quite exciting.
10:06To feed construction, once a month, freshly cut larch, I'd taken to the sawmill.
10:15The mill would have paid for itself many times over.
10:19But it is hard work. It's hard work milling.
10:21On a good day, Marcus can carve up almost 100 studs for site.
10:28Day on here feels like you've been at the gym.
10:31Although Simon sometimes finds Marcus's milling less than satisfactory.
10:36You can see there, there's probably a difference in thickness of three or four mil.
10:40It's hard to get them perfect size that Simon doesn't like, because he's the details man.
10:45As Marcus works on the house, the only money coming in is from Abby's job.
10:54I've got a meeting at two o'clock, and I slightly don't know what I'm doing, so that's why we're a bit stressed.
11:01I trust that he will kind of, you know, do a good job, and at the point where I can get involved and be involved, I'd like to.
11:08But, you know, I love my job as much as he loves building this house.
11:11And this house can only be built thanks to the 2010 One Planet Development Policy, unique to Wales, and introduced by Jane Davidson, then Cabinet Minister for Planning.
11:25So, Jane, you were responsible, really, for driving through this legislation.
11:29How many have, in fact, been built in that time?
11:32I think it's around about 50 have been through the planning process.
11:36They're very specific because they allow people to build in the open countryside.
11:42I think it's probably the only policy that allows that in the UK, provided they're prepared to live a low carbon life.
11:49The lifestyle required seems perhaps at odds with the majority of the ways that most of us live.
11:57The way we live now is actually under threat.
12:00We have to acknowledge that these people are the most extraordinary pioneers.
12:07It may be driven by change, but all projects are underpinned by an age-old inconvenient truth.
12:16Yeah, money's a worry.
12:18Yeah, you know, it's a tiny, tiny budget for a build.
12:20There's going to be loads of other expenses that I haven't even thought about.
12:23I don't want to get into massive debts to finish it off.
12:27With only half the 100 grand budget he needs, saving the planet might be more difficult than Marcus thinks.
12:35In Pembrokeshire, Marcus and his friend Simon are making steady progress with their £100,000 low impact family home.
12:56The beauty of being both architect and builder, you can kind of make things up as you go along.
13:03There are no detailed drawings and, as professional designers, they're employing a spontaneous style.
13:13Windows three metres long and we're talking about whether to have it 400mm that way or 400mm this way.
13:18They may have flexibility with the position of the windows, but they can't change the size because most of them are second-hand and on-site.
13:28There's the barn with the windows.
13:31Total glazing bill is probably about 8,000.
13:35We've saved probably two-thirds on windows, I imagine, from using recycled ones.
13:43The barn also houses the large floorboards for the interior, and they were free.
13:50That's all drying out for when we get to that stage, whenever that is.
13:57They're three months in and I'm surprised how well they're making progress.
14:02Oh, that is good!
14:05I tell you, you've come on much further than I have before.
14:09We've had a lot of rain, tons of rain.
14:12It may seem skeletal and simple, but this is, of course, two caravans side by side.
14:18This is theoretically two moveable structures.
14:23There is a gap. There's a gap and the only thing holding it at the moment is a few clamps.
14:28You could have a piece of string and pull it through the whole...
14:31Through the thing, like flossing.
14:33The whole thing, yeah.
14:34The timber used has come from trees at risk from disease or those posing an imminent threat to the building.
14:43The best thing we could do, if we have to take a tree down, is take that wood and preserve it some way.
14:49In construction, ideally, in a building.
14:51Embedded. And then every time we remove one tree, the trees next to it will get a bit bigger.
14:55Yeah.
14:56So it's part of the woodland management.
14:59Sustainable forestry requires selective felling.
15:02And Charlie, Marcus's tree surgeon, can fell them with pinpoint accuracy.
15:07So I'm going to put the phone here, slightly underneath this bow and hope it doesn't break.
15:12Yeah? I'm going to put the video on.
15:14Yeah, maybe it'll be fine.
15:16You think so?
15:17Well, your call. It's your phone.
15:19Yeah, it's my phone.
15:21Right, I'm going to get out of the way.
15:23Yeah.
15:39That was the sound of a phone breaking into a thousand pieces.
15:44Oh, God.
15:47Oh, what? What? What?
15:49What's the phone?
15:51What?
15:53Well, it smashed my phone.
15:55Look, that's really, really, really, really, really not good.
15:59I feel like I need to apologise.
16:03I think that's the alarm signal it's now sent to emergency services.
16:07Charlie got it bang on.
16:09Bang on. Congratulations, Charlie.
16:10A tree crushing a mobile phone seems symbolic of this project's hardcore perspective.
16:19It's a pity it just had to be my phone.
16:22Anyway, Abby and Marcus are not just self-sufficient in timber, because down the road from site is a communal garden that, under the One Planet Development Policy, will need to supply 35% of the family's food.
16:36Massive field of onions.
16:38Yeah.
16:39Right off.
16:40Everybody eats onions.
16:41Look at these.
16:42I've got loads of strawberries, late crop.
16:45But why are they doing that?
16:46They're just as confused as we are by this summer.
16:48Yeah, yeah, yeah.
16:50The big motivator for you doing this project is to be able to provide the exemplar and demonstrate to others this can be done.
16:57I totally, thoroughly believe in what we're doing and why we're doing it.
17:01And I work in a world of sustainability.
17:03I want to sort of practise what I preach.
17:06If you have the passion, you have the determination, you can do it.
17:11And, yeah, it is about saying that to the world and saying that back to the people that I love.
17:17For Abi, generating change is a serious business.
17:22But in Marcus and Simon's studio, which is right next to the garden...
17:27Very wildly different.
17:31Oh, yeah. It is like a gallery in Hoxton.
17:33Their work demonstrates a fascination with fun.
17:39Probably the most well-known is...
17:41Is that, yeah. Is that one of yours?
17:43This is one of ours, similar to what we're doing in the woods, playing around with bits of wood and...
17:48Leftovers.
17:49Coming up with kind of crazy contraptions.
17:50Cool thing, though. It's well-known, this.
17:52Kind of, we're playing.
17:54This is probably one of our most experimental pieces.
17:57Pieces.
17:58Pieces.
18:00It's very clever.
18:01Yeah, you just leave it, it'll rebuild itself.
18:04This is a pool table.
18:06Exquisite.
18:07And I'll have one of these in the house, I definitely want them to try.
18:10Little slice of...
18:12Hockney, California.
18:14Yeah.
18:16These delicate and playful designs are a world away from that of splintered timber construction.
18:21Six months in, they're now racing to get a skin on the building before winter bites.
18:31To help, they have an apprentice.
18:34Abby's on site, too.
18:37I only get, like, one day a week to come and help out, but it's a really nice change to go from being in an office to being out on the site.
18:44Every time Abby gets to join Marcus on the project, the conversation turns to money.
18:48I think Marcus's idea of a budget is just try to spend as little as possible, and that's just not how budgets really work.
18:56Abby's got a spreadsheet.
18:58She keeps hassling me, but you haven't filled out the spreadsheet of the costs.
19:02We have a little bit of tension about that between us, because every time I try and open the computer and look at the spreadsheet,
19:08he kind of, he looks like he's sort of having a mild heart attack.
19:12I'm just so determined to save costs anyway, I don't have time to fill out the spreadsheet.
19:17Now that the building is boarded, attention can turn to the complexities of the roof.
19:23A quick look at the plans should help.
19:26Oh, I forgot they don't have any plans.
19:29So it's just working out how these, how these timbers are fixed in place, and somehow we need to make the rafters come down.
19:40Marcus wants to create a big overhang to support the roofing sheets and help protect the cladding.
19:47A quick sketch and the first rafter is cut.
19:50There we have it, one rafter. Another 48 today. Somehow we'll finish it.
20:02When I make a return journey in the new year, the building's been wrapped in black membrane.
20:15Hey Marcus. Hi Kevin.
20:16But I can sense that the winter has not treated Marcus well.
20:22It's stealthy and kind of broody now.
20:25A couple of weeks ago it was, it was covered in white tarpaulin.
20:29Spent so much time fixing tarpaulins and then I'd come back when it was pouring rain,
20:34it would still all be dripping in. It was getting all the OSB board wet, which was warping.
20:38Wow.
20:40That was a low point.
20:41Yeah.
20:43Money?
20:45Money's, so we had savings, that's coming to an end.
20:50So we are looking into borrowing some money from the family.
20:54You know, to be in that situation is amazing privilege.
20:57And so we're going to try and...
20:59So it's borrowing, still needs to be repaid.
21:01It still needs to be repaid.
21:03Marcus has only spent £40,000, but now for the first time he is buying in materials,
21:10like the environmental insulation.
21:13This is wood fibre board, so that's made entirely of wood.
21:16I love this stuff.
21:17And I've spoken to architects who don't even know this.
21:20You know, don't know the alternative to using polyurethane.
21:23Efficiency compared to polyurethane?
21:25It's not quite as good and it's more expensive.
21:27But you've just got to, I don't know, it's just, you've got to soak that up.
21:30What about the bit in between?
21:31In between will be another product, which is the recycled newspaper,
21:35which will be pumped in.
21:37Our thickness will be this much of insulation, which is up to sort of passive house standards.
21:41Amazing.
21:43Marcus has a responsibility here.
21:45Not just to the environmental planning conditions,
21:48but also to the man who first introduced him to these woods.
21:51Paul, Marcus's dad, 54 when he died.
22:02I'm glad I'd come here because they say, don't they, that death removes a person,
22:09but it doesn't eliminate the relationship with that person.
22:12That carries on.
22:15In this case, the place itself connects Marcus to his father.
22:24Because Paul is buried here.
22:26In Pembrokeshire, Marcus's budget off-bridge family woodland home is straining its meagre budget of just 100 grand.
22:45Cash is going fast. It's going. It's going. The timber frame's complete, so the windows can at last go in.
22:59We've never fitted bifold doors before. It's not that difficult.
23:02These windows are mainly recycled, so installation...
23:07I just want to go in.
23:09...takes persistence.
23:11I think that's about right then.
23:14Ta-da.
23:16Yeah, it's good.
23:18Come spring, this building is almost weathertight.
23:23One, two. It's not too heavy.
23:25Just be careful, guys. This is the last window.
23:28To fit the skylight in the kitchen,
23:30Marcus has recruited a local farmer and his tractor.
23:35Ready?
23:37One of the few pieces of heavy machinery allowed on the forest floor.
23:41So that's it. We've sealed the house up.
23:43By the following week, the building grows a fresh, lush skin.
23:48This glade is transforming.
23:51Will you look at that? Look.
23:55That looks like somebody's house, doesn't it?
23:57Looks like the chainsaw's been here.
24:00Preparing more larch.
24:02And turning into these boards, which go onto that building.
24:06I love the directness of that.
24:08Tree. Boards. Building.
24:11It's looking really good.
24:16Do you find it frustrating in a way that you can't just go out there and just buy stuff and build immediately?
24:24Yeah. There's a few walls where it would be so much easier to go and buy some plasterboard, fill it with rock wool and sound insulation.
24:35So, yeah, it's a moral dilemma.
24:37We've got a composting loo system.
24:40It's got to come from Sweden and, you know, they've sent it, but it's taking weeks to get here.
24:47But it's what we need.
24:49This ethical approach is rare, but as the noise of impact screwdrivers subsides...
24:54A new sound takes over, and it's deafening.
25:06What time is it now?
25:08It's just gone 4.30, isn't it?
25:11It's just, like, by the minute it's getting brighter.
25:15I think because Marcus is here every day, he gets to experience the house and the wood in a different way than I do.
25:28So it's really nice to, yeah, steal a few moments like this to sort of feel what it's like to be here and, yeah, just appreciate being in this setting.
25:42It's kind of important, I think.
25:44This dawn chorus reminds me of what this project is all about.
25:51By mid-summer, and at a civilised time of day, Marcus's walls are ready to be filled with recycled newspaper.
25:59My office today is very good. Mobile power, because we're off the grid.
26:04It's an insulation system that dates back to the 70s, but its environmental credentials now make it more popular than ever.
26:10It's made from 100% recycled newspaper, and we use a machine to break up the fibre.
26:19It fills all those nook and crannies, all those small gaps.
26:22It stops all that coal bridging and any drafts coming through. But once it's in and it's put in correctly, it works. It seriously works, I'll be honest with you.
26:31It takes just two days to fill the walls, floors and roof space, in which time Marcus has another arrival, the long-awaited Swedish sewerage system.
26:41Everything from the toilet comes down through here, goes into this centrifugal thing, solids drop down into that, and then the liquid comes out at the bottom.
26:51This Scandi filtration system has cost 2,000 pounds, but it will enable the luxury of off-grid flushing toilets.
27:02Another cost to do things right for the environment.
27:06By the autumn, Marcus not only has sewerage, but electricity.
27:09We have our own power, and this is it, this is charging the house. I think it's fascinating.
27:16Solar panels on the barn are now wired up to the house, and the walls can now be plastered.
27:21Let the knees bend, fold forward as you breathe out.
27:25Marcus has enlisted the help of his friend Luke.
27:28Breathe in, bring your hands to the shins and come half way up.
27:32And Ness, a professional plasterer, and...
27:36Gonna reach up the arms.
27:38Yoga teacher.
27:40Forward fold, so hands come down, step back.
27:42A little limbering up is probably a good idea, as Marcus is using a lime plaster, and it's not simple to apply.
27:51I prefer yoga.
27:53It's a lot of work, but it's also sustainable.
27:57And gives a quite spectacular finish.
28:03This project was supposed to take a year.
28:05Now, after 20 months, the pressure of building is relentless.
28:10I've just been working four hours at the moment.
28:13Yeah, I'm shattered.
28:15Just can't physically do it, unless there's four of me.
28:18I mean, it is stressful.
28:20They are only just laying the dried larch floorboards.
28:26Every bit of wood, I've felled it, sawed it, I've stacked it.
28:30Then I've got to oil it and polish it.
28:34It's a lot of processes, isn't it?
28:36Even with Abby's help...
28:38Cut my first floorboard!
28:41Laying this floor will take three weeks.
28:44And for the first time, they have a very real deadline.
28:49We have to be out of our house, because it's rented out, and we have to be in here in June, whether it's finished or not.
28:54Are you done with it?
28:55Hello.
28:56Hello.
28:59All right, two, three days.
29:00Can you have them?
29:01Yeah, the idea is we rent this out.
29:03Kind of like to sell it, really.
29:04But then, if it all goes wrong, then we're kind of left with a nice house in the woods where we're not allowed to live.
29:11That's a bit of a disaster for the kids.
29:13The house in Tenby will remain a critical source of income.
29:18Hello, girls.
29:20And be an important safety net.
29:24If their new life in the woods ever fails.
29:27A new life which not every member of the family seems too excited by.
29:39As this project welcomes its second spring, Marcus's building is also budding into life.
29:48What a magical thing!
29:50It's the little house in the woods.
29:53Oh, it's just looking gorgeous.
29:57Hey.
29:58Hi, team.
29:59Hi.
30:00You laid the floor.
30:01So you felled these?
30:02Yeah, felled them from this very spot.
30:05That's amazing.
30:06Slightly running out of energy, I think.
30:08You?
30:09Yeah.
30:10How long have you got to put all this together?
30:12We need to move in here in ten weeks' time.
30:15Oh, guys, the pressure's on.
30:16The pressure is on, yeah.
30:19Moving day is looming, and Marcus has a growing anxiety around the off-grid lifestyle he's signing his family up to.
30:28There was always a big fear that the 14-year-old girls just wanted to live in a house like everyone else.
30:34Yeah.
30:35And I think they're, you know, would probably prefer to be staying where they are at the moment.
30:40Because you're a parent of somebody that age, it doesn't matter what you do, there will always be kickback, there will always be a rebellion.
30:47Yeah.
30:48I didn't start out to do it as well as we are doing it.
30:50As things have progressed, I've kind of upped the level, both the quality and using all the right environmental choices as well.
31:01Those two things we've upped, you know, our initial budget has gone over because we're realising actually it's the right choice.
31:08This is a really, really great project. You should remind yourself of that.
31:12Yeah. Thank you.
31:15Marcus's energy is clearly depleting. Luckily, he can lean more on a growing team of volunteers to help him get over the line.
31:23Javi's here helping. There's my brother Casper in there and Simon's here.
31:28It's all like the final rush now.
31:30I'm over it.
31:31No.
31:32Yeah, I'll get finished, too. I don't know what point.
31:35One of the last deliveries is the polished Welsh slate worktop for the kitchen.
31:47It takes five men the best part of an hour to get it off the truck.
31:53Very heavy.
31:55Yeah.
31:56Getting it into the house will wait for another day.
31:59Yeah.
32:00But Marcus knows days are fast running out.
32:08In just a few months' time, it's not long now. You're going to have some time off.
32:12The floor feels like the final kind of big job.
32:15You're doing really well, though.
32:17Then I'll start the next thing, then.
32:19You better not start the next thing. I'm serious.
32:21Can we just finish this house, though?
32:23I'll try.
32:24Please.
32:25I'll try.
32:26Oh, God, what have we done?
32:28For millennia, our homes were shaped by local materials and by the skilled hands of local craftspeople who understood them.
32:49Two years ago, Marcus and Abby set out to rediscover that tradition, drawing on age-old techniques and the resources around them to build a truly modern, sustainable home and to forge a new path for others to follow.
33:11So I come to a crossroads.
33:14A beautiful, enticing lane.
33:16I mean, you might think that that way civilisation lies and here, well, this is just all chaos and wilderness.
33:26Except, of course, given the choice, I always take a walk on the wild side.
33:30It's hard to imagine how this Welsh wilderness could ever be tamed.
33:37But slowly, Marcus and Abby's home has grown within this verdant frame.
33:43Oh, well, that's good.
33:56That is really good.
34:06It's a building full of stuff you want to explore.
34:18Every stick of wood is in the right place.
34:25For a building detailed on the back of an envelope, it is pretty flawless and it captures the spirit of adventure with which it was built.
34:35There's a hot tub.
34:37It would seem environmental homes have a new poster boy.
34:43One Planet Pioneers.
34:45We did it.
34:46Yeah, you've done it.
34:47You've done it.
34:48You've built it.
34:49You've gardened it.
34:50You've planted it.
34:51Just about.
34:52It's amazing.
34:53Good to see you both.
34:54You are.
34:55Hey, Marcus.
34:56Hi.
34:57Hey.
34:58Hello, Domino.
34:59Yeah.
35:00Yeah.
35:01It's a wonderland of woods and woodland.
35:04It's like I suddenly find myself in Oregon or Sweden or somewhere.
35:09It doesn't seem sort of...
35:11Typically Welsh.
35:12Particularly Welsh or British, no.
35:14I wanted the whole place to feel like we could be anywhere.
35:18It's magical.
35:19You have to...
35:20You have to be able to live a modern lifestyle, but you just...
35:22It doesn't have to be, like, hugely carbon hungry.
35:24A little bit of luxury.
35:25One Planet Luxury.
35:26Yeah.
35:27I like the fact that this is sort of a hamlet of little buildings, this place.
35:30Yeah, that's our boiler.
35:31So that's keeping the hot water at the moment.
35:33And it will do without heating.
35:35And then the plan is to extend it this way and that'll become our greenhouse.
35:40Inside?
35:41Are you pleased?
35:42I think so.
35:43I think you're going to like it.
35:44Come on.
35:45Come inside and look.
35:46Yeah, I don't want to...
35:47Around the other side of this building, there's another little adventure.
35:53What's this little building?
35:55That is a boot room, utility.
35:58And...
35:59What?
36:00Little Zen garden?
36:01Yeah.
36:02Got a little Zen rake.
36:03Yeah.
36:04It's, um...
36:05Yeah.
36:06Got to be in the right state of mind.
36:07He gets quite...
36:08He gets quite protectable.
36:09Yeah, I don't like people stepping on it.
36:10Can I have a go?
36:11Yes.
36:12Yes.
36:13Proper door.
36:14Yeah, proper door.
36:15And an eave for protection.
36:17I love all this.
36:18The playful, rustic chic of the outside.
36:21Oh, ha, ha, ha, ha!
36:23Yes!
36:24Gives way to a bright, grown-up interior.
36:31Oh, this is nice.
36:32This is properly populated.
36:33This is the real deal.
36:35It's great.
36:36It's super, um, refined, you know?
36:39It's very curated.
36:41The table's extraordinary.
36:43Made out of log.
36:45Yeah.
36:46I really like the trunk legs.
36:47Yeah.
36:48The top bits are planks of wood my dad had bought.
36:5030 years ago, and I've had in the shed for a special occasion.
36:53And, yeah, thought we'd use those.
36:55Well, that is beautiful.
36:57What more could you ask of a piece of furniture?
36:59The whole story's there.
37:00Yeah.
37:01Love this.
37:02It's amazing, isn't it?
37:03Welsh slate, of course.
37:05This isn't one planet living, is this?
37:07No.
37:08This is a gas hog.
37:09How do you justify this?
37:10We really like cooking, so we can't have electric in the winter so much.
37:15We had to have some sort of gas, which is fine for now.
37:19But in the long run, I want to start making my own biogas.
37:22A gas hog, fueled by rotting veg instead of a bottle from the garage, fits this building's cyclical ethos.
37:31There's a biomass boiler burning construction offcuts for heating and hot water.
37:36And the solar panels on the barn harness the same dappled sunlight that dances on the deck.
37:43A deck that frames the embrace of the forest, discovering a new friend.
37:52It draws you out.
37:53You kind of want to go out.
37:55I think that was part of the thing we always had, was that you should be encouraged to be in those outside spaces as much as you can.
38:01The parker St Dabby's modest bedroom is tucked behind another big window, and even has the luxury of an en-suite.
38:10The open main living space also enjoys a small snug.
38:15That, that, I've never seen it in, as it were, in situ.
38:20Oh, it looks so good.
38:22I haven't had a space where you felt like this is a permanent base.
38:25We're not moving out every so long.
38:26A few decades.
38:27Yeah, yeah.
38:28So it just, yeah, it feels like it's all landed.
38:30A little window, recycled from a central London office block, had never even dreamed of a view like this.
38:37There again, this house is full of delightful surprises.
38:43It's not just a bathroom, it's a bath deck.
38:47That is so neat.
38:48Unless you've had a bath outside when it's raining in the winter, you don't know how luxurious and great it feels, isn't it?
38:56At the raised end, for the first time, the twins have their own rooms, with mezzanined treehouse beds.
39:05Every space here connects to the forest outside.
39:09Look, look, a teenage exit route, a place to truly commune.
39:18This home has sprung from Marcus's imagination, empowered by Abby's face in a carbon-free future.
39:26But so much of the crisply crafted resolution of these ideas lies with the details man, Marcus's friend and design partner, Simon.
39:39Do you feel like you've earned an ownership in the building?
39:43I know where the key is, so it's fine.
39:45I'd like to think so, I suppose.
39:47Yeah, I think, you know, it's been a long journey and, yeah, there's a big part of me in it.
39:51It got harder towards the end, I think, you know, the pressures build and you solve one problem and then the stress of, like, moving on to needing to solve the next problem.
40:01Yeah.
40:02And so there's no let-up. It's relentless. So that's hard work.
40:06This experience has sort of changed you and evolved you, doesn't it?
40:10Yeah, and, you know, that background is furniture and lighting and I've learned there's a difference between building furniture and building a house, that's for sure.
40:21What do you think of it?
40:22I love it. I think it sits nicely in the landscape. I think the insides worked really well, I think the way it flows and how much you feel part of the outside when you're inside.
40:34It really works.
40:37While Simon's journey with this building slows to a close, for Marcus, Abby and their twin girls, the journey is just starting.
40:46And it's clear the twins may still need a little persuading to fully embrace the new wildlife on offer.
40:54For somebody my age, I think, oh, I'd love to live in the woodland, peace and quiet and tranquillity.
40:59I guess for you, there's just less to do.
41:02Yeah.
41:03Do you think you will, Dad?
41:05Yeah, probably, because we've only just moved in now.
41:08Yeah.
41:09So we haven't been here for that long, so it's still quite, like, new to us.
41:12What are the big changes, do you reckon?
41:14Well, having our own rooms is one of them and then just basically just being in the woods, because that's quite different.
41:21Yeah.
41:22From being where we were in Tempe before.
41:25And it is good to have Dad back.
41:28Yeah.
41:29He's had, like, a lot, been working very hard on the woods, so things could be better.
41:34The family still own their house in Tempe, which is now a permanent holiday let and a source of income.
41:41But in time, I'd hope the girls fall in love with this woodland playground their parents have built for them.
41:49I mean, first of all, congratulations, because I think this is just magical.
41:53It's a good space, isn't it?
41:55Yeah.
41:56Yeah, I'm tired, but I'm...
41:58I think we all understand that.
42:00It's kind of like, it's just now we can, yeah, just sit back and kind of enjoy it.
42:05Because the design and the evolution of the project has remained so much in Marcus's hands and in his head,
42:12how has the building turned out relative to your expectations?
42:16I think it's better.
42:17Yeah, I just think that's incredible to sort of have that vision and have that, I don't know, confidence to go,
42:23I can make this work.
42:25Yeah, yeah.
42:26We've just been incredibly lucky to be able to do it.
42:29How would your dad have...
42:30Yeah, I think he'd have been proud.
42:32Yeah, everyone, lots of people say how proud he'd have been.
42:35So, yeah, it's definitely inspiration from him.
42:38And so how much have you spent?
42:39I think it's 150,000.
42:42150,000, that's 50% over budget.
42:45Yeah.
42:46And how do you account for that overspend?
42:48I think it just, the ambition of the building sort of took on a little bit
42:52and just grew a little bit more.
42:54You know, we've built an off-grid house for 150 using pretty much the, you know, the best eco materials.
43:03Yes, you have.
43:04Really well built, properly membraned.
43:06You've got double glazing, biomass boiler.
43:09Yeah.
43:10Electricity batteries and solar panels.
43:12You've got mechanical ventilation and heat recovery.
43:15He's got the highest possible spec, really.
43:17That's remarkable.
43:18You've just got this amazing philosophy of just do it as cheaply as possible.
43:21Feels kind of miraculous and free, you know.
43:23I just remember, like, sitting in that planning meeting when we were trying to get the permission to do this.
43:28Yeah.
43:29And just the level of negativity towards this kind of lifestyle.
43:33I just remember feeling like I'm just, I'm determined to prove you wrong.
43:36I'm determined to say this is something you can be proud of.
43:38This is something, you know, Pembrokeshire can be proud of to have said that they've enabled this.
43:42Wales can be proud of that they've, you know, enabled these kind of, this kind of creativity to flourish.
43:48And it's in a sustainable way.
43:49I think there's an image perception problem with that, with that lifestyle.
43:53And I just hope that perhaps we're challenging that.
43:55This house demonstrates that beautifully.
43:57It is a, it's a beautiful place to live.
44:06To take the path less travelled is always brave.
44:09And this rare wooden cabin captures that modern pioneering spirit.
44:13It doesn't preach, but it does signpost to a greener, more sustainable way of building.
44:19And frankly, hardcore eco-conscious living has never looked so stylish or so inviting.
44:28Isn't this place innocent?
44:31Has an almost childlike quality about it.
44:34After all, it is just a simple cabin in the woods.
44:38At the same time, of course, it's also a really high-performing piece of technology.
44:45It's, it, it points to the future.
44:48It actually challenges so many of the conventional ideas we have about our homes.
44:55How we procure them.
44:56Where we source the materials for them.
44:58How we put them together.
44:59What the planning for them should be.
45:02Yes, it was a test.
45:04It was a test for Marcus and for Abby and for Simon too.
45:07However, its job is only just starting.
45:14It has so many responsibilities.
45:16To the family, to their future.
45:18To the memory of Marcus's father.
45:21To the local community.
45:23To Welsh planning policy.
45:25And to the planet.
45:26Goodness me.
45:27Those are all responsibilities that we should take more seriously.
45:32So the grand plan is to build Viking inspired long house.
45:45The diagnosis of cancer triggered me into saying, right, better get on with it now.
45:51They're working like Trojans to make sure we get it done in good time.
45:53We don't have the funds.
45:54Feels like I'm just paying out thousands more or less every day.
45:55Her health is deteriorating.
45:56They're working over the bank holiday, the poor guys.
45:57Well there's a Viking long house if ever I saw one.
46:28My buddies can use them.
46:31They're figuring it out quickly.
46:32I'm not in clear.
46:33This was an old game day.
46:35I was married to him.
46:37I was like, you're ahhh.
46:39What am I being?
46:40Yes, it was developed so I would be wielki.
46:41Part of time.
46:45I wasanta food.
46:47The creator.
46:48This was phlegies and meroommate
46:49part of this academy.
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