Grand Designs Season 27 Episode 3

Name: Grand Designs Season 27 Episode 3
Uploaded: 2025-10-15T22:49:03+00:00
Duration: 46 min 40 s
Channel: Reality Insight Hub
Description: Grand Designs Season 27 Episode 3 #GrandDesigns #RealityInsightHub 🎞 Please subscribe to our official channel to watch the full movie for free, as soon as possible. ❤️Reality Insight Hub❤️ 👉 Official Channel: https://www.dailymotion.com/TrailerBolt 👉 THANK YOU ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Reality Insight Hub

Grand Designs Season 27 Episode 3

#GrandDesigns
#RealityInsightHub

🎞 Please subscribe to our official channel to watch the full movie for free, as soon as possible. ❤️Reality Insight Hub❤️
👉 Official Channel: https://www.dailymotion.com/TrailerBolt
👉 THANK YOU ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

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Fun

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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. Who gets to build a house here?

01:11No one, surely? The UK is one of the most deforested nations in Europe. So our woodlands are precious. And permission to build a home in them is close to unheard of.

01:26This oak tree, since we've taken a few ash down around it, it's already kind of opening out. But here, in a far corner of West Wales, Marcus has got permission to build a family home in a 20-acre woodland that he's known all over the world.

01:45I don't feel it's like my right to build in here. It feels amazing to be able to build in a woodland. I think it's so exceptional.

01:52Marcus's father, Paul, was a pioneering environmentalist and bought this woodland over 30 years ago.

01:58So 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.

02:08Now, Marcus has the rare opportunity to build a home here.

02:11with his wife, Abby, and their twin daughters.

02:12What are you most excited about the new house?

02:18It's bigger. I'm not having to sleep with her.

02:23She keeps me awake all night.

02:25She keeps me awake all night.

02:26And she keeps me awake all night.

02:29So we are at my dad's grave. We buried him in the woods.

02:32He was only 54. Yeah, it was a massive, yeah, huge shock.

02:36I'm not having to sleep with her. She keeps me awake all night.

02:41The family own a house in the seaside town of Tembe.

02:45But every summer they rent it out and move 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.

03:05Abby works for a renewables trade organisation.

03:09She's head of strategic communications.

03:12It is imperative that we do start to look ahead and think,

03:15rather than just tell people at the last minute, what do we need to be doing now?

03:19I 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.

03:28Coffee.

03:29With his lifelong friend and business partner, Simon.

03:32This is one of ours. It's modern and contemporary.

03:34Some of those techniques might come through in the build, I guess.

03:38This project, to be built from the trees within their woodland, is an exciting opportunity, but also a profound responsibility.

03:46Hello.

03:48Hi.

03:49Hi.

03:50You started.

03:51We couldn't start.

03:52You couldn't wait.

03:53And what an extraordinary sight to find yourselves in.

03:55It's one thing to manage the woodland, create the clearings and the glaze, quite another to get permission to build a house in one of them.

04:01Yeah.

04:02How did that happen?

04:03A lot of hard work.

04:04It'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, to what food we're growing, what food we're eating.

04:15Hang on a minute, this isn't just about the building.

04:17No, 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...

04:27Yeah, five years' worth of cash.

04:29Of personal accounts.

04:30Yeah.

04:31This is about you changing your lives under scrutiny, and if after five years you fail...

04:35Get chucked off.

04:36You get chucked off.

04:37Yeah.

04:38You have to dismantle the house.

04:39Yeah.

04:40Wow.

04:41So ordinarily, I'd say to people, what are you going to build?

04:43But actually, it seems secondary here.

04:44So it's definitely cabin-like.

04:46It'll be timber clad, with a wriggly tin roof, which 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.

05:02Of course you have.

05:03That was the first thing I bought.

05:05This is like the dream opportunity to build our own house, using the timber that stood in this very spot.

05:10They're unique planning permission means Marcus and Abby are able to utilize the Caravan Act.

05:17This will limit the size of the building, but it also frees them from the rigors of building control,

05:23and means Marcus doesn't need detailed plans.

05:25In fact, this building is all in his head.

05:29Twenty-seven small pits have been filled with compacted, recycled concrete, and each topped with a boulder to create some super-low-impact foundations.

05:42These support a timber frame, chiselled and worked to fit the shape of the hill and the shapes of the boulders.

05:51Powered 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, which should save them a small fortune.

06:13Insulation will be rigid wood-fibre board backed up by recycled newspaper blown into all the wall, floor and roof cavities.

06:22An airtight membrane should bring us 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.

06:34They'll be punctured with large roof lights to bring more dappled forest light in.

06:39This pioneering shack will then be clad in larch.

06:43Inside, however, the rustic materials will be polished to designer specifications,

06:48and 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 larched 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.

07:15This is a family determined to make a difference.

07:18You have designed this building.

07:21Yep.

07:22Have you got any professional help here from an architect, an engineer, a quantity surveyor?

07:27Not 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?

07:44What did we say?

07:45100.

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.

08:09You 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.

08:23But there is something contagious about Marcus and Abby's noble naivety.

08:34They want to be living here in just over a year.

08:37And 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.

08:54The foundation timbers are charred to prevent decay.

08:58An ancient Japanese technique, Shisugi-ban.

09:01I wish I could have said that I've been learning it in Japan for 30 years.

09:05But...

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.

09:37It would seem there are some teething problems.

09:40It's hard to be precise when you haven't got any detailed drawings to work from.

09:58But after two hours, there is progress.

10:02First corner done, squared up, which is quite exciting.

10:09To feed construction, once a month, freshly cut large are 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 sight.

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.

10:44Because he's the details man.

10:45As Marcus works on the house, the only money coming in is from Abby's job.

10:53I've got a meeting at two o'clock and I slightly don't know what I'm doing.

10:59So that's why we're a bit stressed.

11:01I trust that he will kind of, you know, do a good job.

11:05And 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.

11:18Unique 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?

11:33I 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,

11:46provided they're prepared to live a low carbon life.

11:50The 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.

12:01We have to acknowledge that these people are the most extraordinary pioneers.

12:08It 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.

12:57The beauty of being both architect and builder, you can kind of make things up as you go along.

13:02There 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.

13:19They 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.

13:27There'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.

13:44The barn also houses the large floorboards for the interior and they were free.

13:49That'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.

14:01Oh, that is good!

14:04That's very good.

14:05I tell you, you've come on much further than I have before.

14:08I've had a lot of rain, tons of rain.

14:11It may seem skeletal and simple, but this is, of course, two caravans side by side.

14:17This is theoretically two moveable structures.

14:23There is a gap.

14:24There'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.

14:32The whole thing, yeah.

14:34The timber used has come from trees at risk from disease or those posing an imminent threat to the building.

14:40The 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.

14:52And then every time we remove one tree, the trees next to it will get a bit bigger.

14:56Yeah.

14:57So 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.

15:11Oh.

15:12Yeah?

15:13I'm going to put the video on.

15:14Yeah.

15:15Maybe it'll be fine.

15:16You think so?

15:17Well, your call.

15:18It's your phone.

15:19Yeah, it's my phone.

15:21Right, I'm going to get out of the way.

15:23That was the sound of a phone breaking into a thousand pieces.

15:44Oh, God.

15:47Oh, what?

15:48What?

15:49What?

15:50That was the phone.

15:51What?

15:52Well, 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.

16:05It's now sent to emergency services.

16:07Charlie got it bang on.

16:08Bang on.

16:09Congratulations, 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.

16:23Anyway, 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.

16:37Massive 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.

16:50Big 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.

17:00And 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.

17:10And, yeah, it is about saying that to the world and saying that back to the people that I love.

17:17For Abby, generating change is a serious business.

17:22But in Marcus and Simon's studio, which is right next to the garden...

17:25Very wildly different.

17:30Oh, yeah.

17:31It is like a gallery in Hoxton.

17:34Their work demonstrates a fascination with fun.

17:39Probably the most well-known is...

17:41Is that, yeah.

17:42Is 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...

17:47Leftovers.

17:48Coming up with kind of crazy contraptions.

17:50Cool thing, though.

17:51It's well-known, this.

17:52Kind of...

17:53We're playing.

17:54Yeah.

17:55This is probably one of our most experimental pieces.

17:57Oh, jeez.

17:58Pieces.

18:00It's very clever.

18:01Yeah, you just leave it.

18:02It'll rebuild itself.

18:04This is a pool table.

18:06Exquisite.

18:07And I'll have one of these in the house.

18:08I definitely want them to try, so...

18:10Little slice of...

18:11Hockney, California.

18:13Yeah.

18:15These delicate and playful designs are a world away from that of splintered timber construction.

18:24Six months in, they're now racing to get a skin on the building before winter bites.

18:31To help, they have an apprentice.

18:35Abby's on site, too.

18:36I only get, like, one day a week to come and help out, but it's a really nice change.

18:40To go from being in an office to being out on the site.

18:43Every time Abby gets to join Marcus on the project, the conversation turns to money.

18:49I think Marcus's idea of a budget is just try to spend as little as possible.

18:53And 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.

19:01We have a little bit of tension about that between us, because every time I try and open the computer and look at the spreadsheet, he 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 didn'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.

19:51There we have it.

19:53One rafter.

19:56Another 48 today.

20:01Somehow we'll finish it.

20:03When I make a return journey in the new year, the building's been wrapped in black membrane.

20:16Hey Marcus.

20:17Hi Kevin.

20:18But I can sense that the winter has not treated Marcus well.

20:23It's stealthy and kind of broody now.

20:25A couple of weeks ago it was covered in white tarpaulin.

20:29Spent so much time fixing tarpaulins and then I'd come back when it's pouring rain and they'll still all be dripping in.

20:36It was getting all the OSB board wet, which was warping.

20:39Wow.

20:40That was a low point.

20:42Yeah.

20:44Money?

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.

20:53You know, to be in that situation is an amazing privilege.

20:56And so we're going to try...

20:58It's borrowing.

21:00Still needs to be repaid.

21:01Still needs to be repaid.

21:03Marcus has only spent £40,000.

21:07But now for the first time he is buying in materials, like the environmental insulation.

21:13This is wood fibre board, so that's made entirely of wood.

21:16I love this stuff.

21:17I've spoken to architects who don't even know this.

21:19You know, don't know the alternative to using polyurethane.

21:23Efficiency compared to polyurethane?

21:24It's not quite as good and it's more expensive.

21:27But you've just got to, I don't know.

21:29Okay.

21:30So you've got to soak that up.

21:31What about the bit in between?

21:32In between will be another product, which is the recycled newspaper, which will be pumped in.

21:37Our thickness will be this much of insulation, which is up to sort of passive house standards.

21:41Amazing.

21:42Marcus has a responsibility here.

21:44Not just to the environmental planning conditions, but 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've come here because they say, don't they, that death removes a person, but 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-grid family woodland home is straining its meagre budget of just 100 grand.

22:50Cash is going fast.

22:52It's going.

22:53It's going.

22:54The timber frame's complete, so the windows can at last go in.

22:59We've never fitted bifold doors before.

23:01It's not that difficult.

23:03These windows are mainly recycled, so installation.

23:07I just want to go in.

23:09Takes 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.

23:21One, two.

23:22It's not too heavy.

23:25Just be careful guys, this is the last window.

23:28To fit the skylight in the kitchen, Marcus has recruited a local farmer and his tractor.

23:34Ready?

23:36One of the few pieces of heavy machinery allowed on the forest floor.

23:40So that's it, we've sealed the house up.

23:43By the following week, the building grows a fresh larch of skin.

23:48This glade is transforming.

23:52Will you look at that?

23:53Look.

23:55That looks like somebody's house, doesn't it?

23:58Looks like the chainsaw's been here.

24:00Preparing more larch and turning into these boards, which go onto that building.

24:05So that building, I love the directness of that.

24:08Tree, boards, building.

24:12It'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?

24:25Yeah.

24:26There'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,

24:59a 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.

25:19I 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.

25:36And, yeah, just appreciate being in this setting.

25:41It'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.

26:03It's an insulation system that dates back to the 70s, but its environmental credentials now make it more popular than ever.

26:12It'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 cold bridging and any drafts coming through.

26:25But once it's in and it's put in correctly, it works. It seriously works, I'll be honest with you.

26:32It takes just two days to fill the walls, floors and roof space, in which time Marcus has another arrival.

26:39The long-awaited Swedish sewerage system.

26:42Everything from the toilet comes down through here, goes into this centrifugal thing.

26:48Solids drop down into that, and then the liquid comes out at the bottom.

26:52This Scandi filtration system has cost £2,000.

26:57But 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.

27:11We have our own power, and this is it. This is charging the house.

27:15I think it's fascinating.

27:17Solar panels on the barn are now wired up to the house, and the walls can now be plastered.

27:22Let the knees bend, fold forward as you breathe out.

27:26Marcus has enlisted the help of his friend Luke.

27:29Breathe in, bring your hands to the shins, and come half way up.

27:33And 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, and gives a quite spectacular finish.

28:00This project was supposed to take a year.

28:06Now, 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.

28:25Every bit of wood, I've felled it, sawed it, I've stacked it, then I've got to oil it and polish it.

28:34It's a lot of processes, isn't it?

28:37Even with Abby's help...

28:39Cut 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.

28:52And we have to be in here in June, whether it's finished or not.

28:55Are you doing it? Hello! Hello!

28:5993 dailies.

29:01Yeah, the idea is we rent this out, kind of like to sell it, really.

29:05But 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.

29:14The 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.

29:28A new life which not every member of the family seems too excited by.

29:33As 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! Hi, team!

29:59Hi!

30:00You laid the floor!

30:01So you felled these?

30:03Yeah, felled them from this very spot.

30:05That's amazing!

30:06Slightly running out of energy, I think.

30:08You? Yeah.

30:09How 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.

30:17The 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.

30:41Because 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.

30:51As 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.

31:09This is a really, really great project. You should remind yourself of that.

31:12Yeah, thank you.

31:13Marcus's energy is clearly depleting. Luckily, he can lean more on a growing team of volunteers to help him get over the line.

31:23Happy'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.

31:54Very heavy.

31:56Getting it into the house will wait for another day.

31:58Yeah.

31:59But Marcus knows days are fast running out.

32:07In 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.

32:16Then I'll start the next thing, then.

32:18See, you better not start the next thing. I'm serious.

32:21But can 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

32:45and by the skilled hands of local craftspeople who understood them.

32:52Two years ago, Marcus and Abby set out to rediscover that tradition.

32:58Drawing on age-old techniques and the resources around them

33:03to build a truly modern, sustainable home

33:07and to forge a new path for others to follow.

33:15So I come to a crossroads.

33:17Hey, look.

33:18A beautiful, enticing lane.

33:20I mean, you might think that that way civilisation lies

33:23and 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.

33:33It's hard to imagine how this Welsh wilderness could ever be tamed.

33:38But slowly, Marcus and Abby's home has grown within this verdant frame.

33:44Oh, well, that's good.

33:45That...

33:46That is really good.

33:57That is a building full of stuff you want to explore.

34:18Every stick of wood is in the right place.

34:21For 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.

34:34There'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.

34:57Yeah.

34:58Hey.

34:59Hello, Domino.

35:00Yeah.

35:01It's a wonderland of woods and woodland.

35:04It's a...

35:05It's like...

35:06I 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.

35:25A little bit of luxury.

35:26One Planet Luxury.

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 and it will do without heating.

35:36And then the plan is to extend it this way and that'll become our greenhouse.

35:41Inside?

35:42Are you pleased?

35:43I think so.

35:44I think you're going to like it.

35:45Come on.

35:46Come inside and look.

35:47Yeah, Domino.

35:49Around the other side of this building, there's another little adventure.

35:54What's this little building?

35:56That is a boot room utility.

35:58And...

35:59And...

36:00What?

36:01A little Zen garden?

36:02Yeah.

36:03Got a little Zen rake.

36:04Yeah.

36:05It's, um...

36:06Yeah.

36:07Got to be in the right state of mind.

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...

36:21Ah, 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, made 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 30 years ago, and I've had in the shed for a special occasion.

36:54And, yeah, thought we'd use those.

36:56Well, that is beautiful.

36:58What more could you ask of a piece of furniture?

37:00The whole story's there.

37:01Yeah.

37:02Love this.

37:03It's amazing, isn't it?

37:04Welsh slate, of course.

37:05This isn't one planet living, is this?

37:07No.

37:08This is a gas hob.

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.

37:18But in the long run, I want to start making my own biogas.

37:22A gas hob, 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, you kind of want to, you want to go out.

37:55I think that was part of the thing we've always had, was that you should be encouraged to be in those outside spaces as much as you can.

38:00Yeah.

38:01Marcus and 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.

38:21I haven't had a space where you felt like this is a permanent space.

38:24We're not moving out every so long.

38:25A few decades.

38:26Yeah, yeah.

38:27So it just, yeah, feels like it's all landed.

38:29The crittle window recycled from a central London office block had never even dreamed of a view like this.

38:36There again, this house is full of delightful surprises.

38:42It'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?

38:57At the raised end, for the first time, the twins have their own rooms, with mezzanined treehouse beds.

39:06Every space here connects to the forest outside.

39:11Look, look, a teenage exit route.

39:14A place to truly commune.

39:18This home has sprung from Marcus's imagination.

39:22Empowered by Abby's face in a carbon-free future.

39:27But so much of the crisply crafted resolution of these ideas lies with the details man.

39:34Marcus's friend and design partner, Simon.

39:39Do you feel like you've earned an ownership in the building?

39:42I know where the key is, so that's fine.

39:45I'd like to think so, I suppose.

39:46Yeah, 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.

39:53The 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.

40:03It's relentless.

40:04So that's hard work.

40:06This experience has sort of changed you and evolved you, doesn't it?

40:10Yeah.

40:11And, you know, that background is furniture and lighting.

40:14And 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.

40:23I think it sits nicely in the landscape.

40:26I think the inside's worked really well.

40:28I think the way it flows and how much you feel part of the outside when you're inside.

40:35It 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.

40:47And 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 tranquility.

40:59I guess for you there's just less to do.

41:02Yeah.

41:03But do 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.

41:17And then just basically just being in the woods, because that's quite different.

41:22Yeah.

41:23From being where we were in Tenby 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 Tenby, 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.

41:54It's a good space, isn't it?

41:55Yeah.

41:56Yeah, I'm tired, but I'm pleased.

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...

42:31Yeah, 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 and 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 decode materials.

43:03You have really 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 to just do it as cheaply as possible.

43:20Feels 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.

43:27And just the level of negativity towards this kind of lifestyle.

43:32I 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 this 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 beautiful place to live.

44:02To 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?

44:31It has 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 points to the future.

44:49It 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.

45:00What 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.

45:09However, its job is only just starting.

45:13It has so many responsibilities to the family, to their future, to the memory of Marcus's father, to the local community, to Welsh planning policy and to the planet.

45:27The planet.

45:28Goodness me.

45:29Those are all responsibilities that we should take more seriously.

45:34So the grand plan is to build Viking inspired long house.

45:49The diagnosis of cancer triggered me into saying, right, better get on with it now.

45:53They're working like Trojans to make sure we get it done in good time.

45:57We don't have the funds.

45:58I feel like I'm just paying out thousands more or less every day.

46:02Her health is deteriorating.

46:03They're working over the bank holiday, the poor guys.

46:06Well, there's a Viking long house, if ever I saw one.

46:23Susan Levitty, where he lives.