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00:00Hello. Gosh, how I've missed you. But now the Royal Institute of British Architects House of
00:10the Year Award is back. And we have more beautiful homes to show you than ever before. We are also
00:17fully upgraded. So the drone, for example, is now quieter and more respectful of context.
00:25No way. Oh, and the houses. Well, they are, of course, truly exceptional. They are completely
00:34out of this world. Where are you, you little bastard?
00:42The show that celebrates the UK's favourite pastime, snooping around other people's homes,
00:48is back. What is that? And the fixtures have never been more artisanal. It's like one of those kind
00:55of things at the dentist where you have, you know, they do an extra. They all leave the room.
00:58The judges have handpicked a long list of Britain's most awe-inspiring new buildings. Don't just come
01:04off this very British street into something that is from the other side of the planet.
01:08These are all houses that'll take your breath away. I mean, what the heck? The judges will have the hard
01:14task of whittling them down to a shortlist of just seven. It's just so complicated. There are so many
01:20things at play. And in the final programme, we'll find out which of these will be crowned House of
01:26the Year 2025. The stakes are high. The ceilings are even higher. Welcome to House of the Year 2025.
01:46I've taken all the long-listed houses we're looking at and divided them into four categories. In later
02:05episodes, we'll discover homes that make you feel like you're on holiday, houses that are remarkable
02:11transformations and homes that demonstrate exceptional craftsmanship. Exploring these with me is the
02:20architect Damien Burrows. Oh, this is breathtaking. And the conservation architect Natasha Huck. Oh, look at
02:28this place. It's just so welcoming. This time we'll be looking at houses that are built against all the odds. And if
02:37grand designs has taught me anything over the past 25 years, it's that the odds are hugely stacked against
02:42the self-builder. In fact, I don't understand why anybody tries to build anything ever anywhere.
02:48But for those plucky, fearless, sometimes hapless individuals who do embark on the architectural journey,
02:57the results can be life-changing.
02:59Our first long-listed home, built against the odds, sits in the remote Outer Hebrides on Harris,
03:10a rugged island off the west coast of Scotland.
03:12This is Kirkland Creek, a jewel-like home built beside the water and through nine savage storms.
03:30The house is compact and efficient, centred on a bright, open-plan kitchen and living space.
03:36Off this is a quiet bedroom, a single bathroom, a utility room, all neatly arranged with no need
03:44for corridors. It was the work of a brave couple.
03:50It's architects Ailey and her partner, Jack, who built it by hand.
03:57First date, we were just trying to suss each other out and Jack had asked
04:00some background questions. And at the time, I had just been given the keys to a flat,
04:04my first flat that I'd bought, and I needed a kitchen made, and so I had asked Jack to make a kitchen.
04:09I was interested in architecture, but I don't think I'd ever met an architect.
04:12It was quite mysterious, actually. Ailey had been to Japan and to Norway and,
04:16you know, done all these amazing things.
04:19They moved to the island after falling in love with it when visiting.
04:22While they planned the project, they rented and got their first taste of the challenges of building here.
04:29I think we're up home.
04:31Calling it a day then.
04:32We went through one of the first-name storms there. This was a traditional stone house,
04:37and the house was shaking.
04:39The roof blew off. The polytunnel at the back flew away. We were actually nervous our car was going
04:44to roll. I think it was gusting over 100 miles an hour. It was quite a welcome to the island.
04:54Ailey had a strong vision of how to make something that would belong in this place.
04:58We knew that we wanted to be working with the stone, with the materials from the landscape.
05:03Easier said than done, of course. But their friend Dan, a stonemason, took on that hard task with relish.
05:10We were working with something called Louisian gneiss. And that is incredibly dense and incredibly heavy.
05:18So, the first few days trying to get my body conditioned to be able to just lump that stuff
05:25around. It was really, really difficult. It was really, really tough going.
05:28It was so hard to cut that Dan decided to go to the quarry to find the size of stone he needed,
05:36meaning less to chisel away at. All this lumping stone around had a strong effect on him.
05:42I started the job slightly rotund. We just had our wee boy. So, I'd have what you call a bit of a dad bod.
05:51But by the time I'd finished, I had lost a fair bit of weight. I was a different man
05:56coming out than I was going in. I would recommend it. If you're looking to lose weight, come and spend
06:00three months on the island building Louisian gneiss and that'll sort you right out for sure.
06:04This ancient rock, Louisian gneiss, is what the whole island is made from. And there was also a
06:14great big lump of it right in the middle of where Ailey and Jack were building. So, Ailey made a big
06:21design decision. We decided to actually work with it. Using the area that we had around this rock
06:27created this 135 degree angle. Inside, this unusual shape makes the small house feel bigger. It opens
06:37it up with angled views through to other rooms. The RIBA judges admired this compact yet generous home
06:47where each space has a different character. You can see through from the living space into the kitchen
06:54space whilst they are still separate. So that's really successful. Each one of the rooms spans
07:00directly off of a centralised living room and it's making the most of the space within a very,
07:05very small house. So there's no circulation. They managed to build this extraordinarily beautiful
07:14place for just £167,000 by designing and building it themselves, living on site as they were building.
07:23It was a really intense period and we were working flat out six days a week,
07:2812 hours a day just to get it finished.
07:32He had a big beard, my hair was long, I was sharing my caravan with my dog. We didn't have a shower on
07:38site so we had to drive in and have a shower every couple of days. So it was extreme living,
07:42I would say. Went slightly feral towards the end of things, opening the door of your caravan and
07:47pissing out into the wind in the neck. Not only that, they were also under attack from the local
07:52wildlife. The midges got so bad on one occasion. I do remember we were under siege in a caravan for
07:59most of the afternoon and you've never seen anything like this. It was just outrageous. I mean there was
08:04a dense cloud of midges just hanging outside the window, climbing through the window. It was just
08:11too difficult and you'd never think that you'd have to take an afternoon off just for little
08:16insects. It was just crazy. But for Jack, Dan, Ailey and her brother who helped, every bite,
08:25every sore muscle, every night going to bed soaked to the bone was worth it. What I'm most proud of
08:33is the fact that we've done it. We kind of set out to do this without knowing what we wanted to
08:39achieve. We wanted to do a really nice design. We wanted to have a place that we could live ourselves
08:44that reflected our values, our ethos, how we practice. We ask clients to take the risk every day
08:50in our work and so if we can't do it then it's tricky to ask other people. So I'm so proud that
08:56we've taken the leap to live somewhere that we want, to build something that we want and we're now
09:01living here and it couldn't be better for me. We've seen one house so far that's defied the odds.
09:12We've got five more still to see before we find out which has been nominated for the House of the Year prize
09:182025. Gravity is a bit like aging. It's inevitable and it only goes one way. So if you try to ignore
09:36it that's pointless. When you build and attempt to defy it with cantilevers or by building on a slope
09:44for example, you need to come armed with more than optimism. You need engineering, intelligence,
09:52you need accuracy, precision. Oh, that was stupid.
10:01I'm visiting our next long-listed home in Hastings, a town spread out on a steep hill. In places the
10:08gradient is so steep it rivals a ski run. Here, building anything isn't just construction. It's a
10:16battle with gravity. It's a form of engineering gymnastics. One wrong move and whatever you're
10:22building could end up in next door's garden. But Simon embraced the challenges of building here.
10:31His previous job was making split second decisions in the volatile world of oil trading.
10:36His career was built on risk and timing.
10:40I thought, right, it's a good time to change up what I was doing and be in a different place and
10:45my grandparents lived here when I was young. So I spent a lot of school and summer holidays coming down
10:51to the coast and it felt quite natural to like to come here again when I was wanting to
10:56maybe think about relocating outside of London.
10:58He bought this twin-gabled Victorian house, refurbished it and extended it onto the slope in the back garden.
11:10And so Hastings House was born.
11:14Inside, there is a semi-open plan space, long and light-filled, like a gallery, with kitchen and dining
11:21room off it. A few steps above is a cosy private living space called the garden room. And then there's
11:29a lower courtyard, an outdoor space next to the garden room. Further up the slope, accessed by an
11:35external staircase, is Simon's office. And at the top is a pergola which crowns the top terrace, standing as
11:41a sort of outdoor room. Hi Simon. How are you? Thank you. Come in. Thank you.
11:52You walk into a refurbished living room.
11:56Basically the whole house was stripped back to brickwork and started again.
12:02But it's at the back where the real magic happens. The whole structure has been completely remade.
12:08This is amazing. It's so unexpected. It's just so much light.
12:16What was the old dining room has been modernised and now connects to a glass corridor with the
12:21kitchen area. You don't expect from the front of the house an old Victorian house and then you
12:27get the kind of contrast to the back. Because it's such a steep hill, it's trying to make sure
12:33that you don't feel that you're enclosed and trapped in the back of the house.
12:37The house didn't flow at all. You kept going to a load of dead ends. So we're trying to work out ways
12:41that you can move around the house a little bit more easily.
12:45They haven't just added rooms. They've reimagined how the whole house works. Each new space,
12:51like this garden room, follows the natural slope of the hill, stepping up in carefully judged levels,
12:57one leading seamlessly to the next.
13:00This is your first step up the hill that takes you up and works with like this steep slope.
13:04So we've got.
13:05It's just really interesting because it leads you on this journey.
13:08It's quite a steep slope and so rather than everything sitting at the bottom and then you're
13:12like looking up at it, it's trying to get this feeling of moving through the space.
13:16Gradual movement.
13:17Yeah, exactly. But also just taking advantage and using it as a benefit that we've got this steep
13:22site that has loads of different layers. So it gives you some really interesting
13:25views and angles. And as you look back across the house, you see different elements and aspects.
13:29The RIBA judges praised the beautiful refurbishment of the old house and the incredible spaces Simon
13:39and his architect created. All the more amazing when it used to look like this.
13:47The house was like a 70s fever dream. It was like someone had moved in 50 years ago,
13:53done a really beautiful, amazing top to bottom renovation and nothing since.
13:58And aside from doing nothing since, there'd just been bits added. So everything was built on top
14:04of no, nothing had ever been like stripped back and done again. It was just layer upon layer upon
14:08layer. And it's the same in the back garden. There's like layer upon sheet of concrete and then rubble
14:13and then more concrete on top of it. There's a huge vine that grew over everything.
14:20In some ways, it would have been simpler to demolish what was here and start from scratch.
14:25But Simon's architect Hugh Strange didn't want to do that.
14:29Knocking it all down and rebuilding it was a really problematic approach. Problematic in terms
14:36of the money involved, that it was like more expensive, but also in terms of the carbon and
14:40the kind of environmental considerations. And there is a lot of courage in that because it's not
14:44obviously beautiful. These kind of leftover pieces and they were viewed as an eyesore before.
14:51I think we all quite early on were committed to this idea of repairing it. I sometimes call it
14:56darning. The idea, you know, rather than throwing a pair of socks out because it's got a hole in it,
15:00we actually just carefully kind of stitched the site together. And through that, we kind of repaired
15:06the site in a way that could accept the new buildings. You know, it was just too poor a condition
15:10beforehand to take the support of a building. What he's created is a set of beautiful pavilions
15:20that step up the hill containing Simon's office and a space at the top to just enjoy the view.
15:27The actual task of doing it was challenging beyond belief and fell to structural engineer Charlotte Garvin.
15:34You can see that there is three terraces which all have retaining walls, which in some places are no
15:41longer vertical, so that they're leaning and bowing and they're moving around a little bit. They sort of
15:46equate to about two stories of retained height, which for any engineer is quite a big challenge.
15:51So obviously the retaining walls needed a lot of care to make them stable enough to build upon.
15:57They did need to be repaired. And then we added these ground anchors, which basically try and restrain
16:04the wall. You normally see them on the sides of roads and in big embankments. You wouldn't often
16:09find them in a domestic setting. But the benefit of them is that you didn't need a huge machinery to
16:15come in and install them because we have this quite constrained site.
16:22This isn't just an extension. It's civil engineering, domestic scale with all the risk and precision
16:29that implies. This house was laced into a hillside one platform at a time. And the cleverest part is that
16:36it hides the struggle to do that completely. You've got to be brave when you set out to build any house.
16:43But this, this is a leap of faith. Simon and Trusted Hugh with an almost impossible architectural
16:49challenge. And what Simon and Hugh have created is not an extension, but a series of light-filled
16:54connections that unlock the whole site, celebrating its difficult landscape and turning an unloved and
16:59dilapidated space into something truly unique.
17:10The relationship between a homeowner and their architect should be like any strong partnership,
17:27built on trust, clear communication and the occasional awkward silence when the budget gets mentioned.
17:33But what if it wasn't a partnership? What if, instead, it became more of a group activity,
17:39with more voices, more opinions, twice the emails, three times the mood boards,
17:45and decision-making by committee? Which is how they came up with the camel.
17:50Anyway, it sounds like a recipe for design by stalemate. But our next house,
17:54we're going to talk about chaos. Well, they did precisely that. And yet what emerged wasn't chaos.
17:59In fact, it was quite the opposite.
18:03And it can be found in Cornwall, above the beautiful beaches, built into a cliff.
18:11What started as a simple brief for a family retreat quickly evolved into something far more ambitious
18:17and infinitely more complicated? The client was a family that I'd worked with before. They'd asked me to
18:26find a place that would be a retreat for their family somewhere by the sea. And of course,
18:33I'm Cornish, so I said, best place, Cornwall. We looked at the site. It was fantastic.
18:39And we then found, slightly strangely, that we could push our building a little bit further back into the
18:47hillside and make it much bigger. But because it came so big, it became really an expensive project.
18:56So my client took the decision, which I loved, that rather than compromise on the design of the house,
19:02they would compromise on its ownership. So they decided to join forces with another family,
19:08their best friends or friends. And suddenly it became a house we designed for four people.
19:17This is two-family house. A second home for two families to live in, either separately or jointly.
19:26Downstairs, shared spaces bring everyone together. A pool, playroom, kitchen and dining area,
19:33TV snug, spacious living room and a carport. Upstairs, the layout, which has six bedrooms,
19:40separates into two wings, each with an adult en suite, plus a small shared kitchen, providing privacy
19:47and independence within a single unified home. It's something of a design feat to realize a house
19:53on this scale that's so beautifully resolved. It's a feat of human endurance to do it for four people
19:58with different ideas of what they wanted. Every decision was something of a debate.
20:03Um, everyone had their own priorities. One house, two husbands, two wives, four disparate points of view.
20:16Five, actually. Don't forget Mike's. He had a particular vision for the walls.
20:22One of the things that's incredibly important to me is the way the overall wall looks. So this wall was
20:30what I wanted. Nice square edges, everything beautiful. And one day, my client came down to
20:37look at the wall very proudly. There's the wall. And, um, there was a sort of silence and
20:46Richard said, uh, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's much too square. They're too sharp. I mean,
20:51there's nothing organic in it. So for the remaining walls, the stonemasons changed their approach.
20:58So this is a much more organic version. So the edges of the stones are much rougher. In my wall,
21:04they'd have been cut straight, but here they left the edges rounded.
21:08These small details pale into insignificance though, against the challenges of building the place.
21:17The structure took roughly five weeks to assemble, comprising over 400 huge timber panels,
21:24which were tricky to lift in. You've got an awful lot of uplift from the wind and so on. You're
21:31right on the cliff. So the structure itself had to be very robust. That's why the timber panels they
21:37used were the strongest possible. Built from CLT or cross laminated timber, they're slabs of wood made
21:45by gluing together timber planks in layers at 90 degrees to each other. There are a lot of work to
21:51make and they are heavy to lift. Some of them are still two ton and they're big panels. So you are
21:58almost flying a kite out there if you're not careful.
22:00This place can be measured in every drop of blood, sweat and tears invested in it. What makes it
22:12remarkable isn't just the design, but also the people who built it. Its designer, the builder, many of
22:18the craftspeople are from here. They know this landscape intimately and they're part of a long, proud
22:25tradition of Cornish craftsmanship. I build all over England, all over London, all over the world.
22:34But as my builder grandfather would always say, there's no one can build houses like the Cornish.
22:43We've seen three houses so far built against the odds. After the break, we reveal more of the
22:49extraordinary homes vying for the title RIBA House of the Year 2025.
23:01Our next long lister is one I know very well from Grand Designs and it really was epic. And I mean
23:09that not just in terms of scale or ambition, but because of its spirit. The couple building it wanted
23:15to make something not just of extraordinary architectural value, but as importantly something
23:21that could also adapt to a devastating medical diagnosis. And against all the odds, they created
23:29something extraordinary. Something calm, considered deeply personal and quietly heroic.
23:38The clients were John and Helen. They were living in a 17th century farmhouse in Bedfordshire,
23:44until in 2018, Helen experienced a life-changing event. Come on Peggy, come on now.
23:51We went down to feed the horses. As Helen was undoing the gate, she suddenly felt faint. It was an extremely
24:00serious stroke. She was in a coma for three weeks and when she started to come out, was really very severely disabled.
24:09She needed full-time care after the stroke. Their old house had steep stairs and narrow doorways.
24:21They had to live in separate buildings.
24:24It's forced us to live for separate lives that I remain living in the house now, whilst Helen lives in
24:30your barn. And whilst it's very comfy in the barn, it's not something we want to do for life, is it, love?
24:37No.
24:42This was the home they made to live in together. Clayworth. The RIBA judges praised how it delivered
24:50accessible living in a very stylish building. This glorious T-shaped home is a masterclass in
24:58rational design thinking. To one end sits a spacious, open-plan kitchen, dining and living area.
25:06At the opposite end of the house is a sleeping wing containing two bedrooms. In the bar of the T-shape,
25:13there's car parking space and a small guest apartment. On the top floor, there's a study.
25:26Hello, Helen. Hello. Hi, John. Hi, Kevin. How are you? How are you? I'm well. How are you both?
25:33We're pretty good, aren't we? So, how is your health, Helen? Very good. Oh, great. Yeah.
25:40It is so sharp and crisp, this building. It looks good when you first glimpse it. Teases you. And as
25:47you approach, it delivers more. And then the details surprise you at how fine and crisp they are. So,
25:53it carries on delivering. Yes. But that only works if it's one step better when you get indoors. Is it
26:00as good as the outside? Better. Can we have a look? Of course, please. Come on in. Thank you.
26:04Tim. Step inside and you're immediately invited to enjoy the elegant calm of the hallway and to stroke
26:12the board-marked concrete walls. This is amazing. Then you're through to the main living space,
26:20the center of shared daily life for the pair of them. Well, this is just about as perfect as it
26:25could be, isn't it, really? I mean, we are just delighted with the way this room has turned out.
26:31A space where John and Helen can be together again, open, light-filled and connected to the natural
26:38world. All I see is natural landscape. Trees, forests, the sun glinting through the leaves.
26:47It reminds me just how fantastic a sight this is. I think one of the things that really pleases me
26:53is the width of this room. Helen, she has loads of space to move around. And a Helen workshop? Yes.
27:02Got this lower area specifically so that Helen can approach it in the wheelchair. What it provides
27:10is something that you particularly need. This building to be transformational for our lives.
27:20But getting to this point was frankly excruciating because the design was very ambitious. A floating
27:27pavilion with a heavy weight above but seemingly weightless below. To pull it off, they had to crane in
27:34huge concrete roof beams. It is a really tall ass to get them in by October. But we shall see.
27:42The roof was made up of 19 of these beams, each weighing 1.7 tons, bolted to the steel frame. But
27:50it all proved too heavy. The frame couldn't cope. Fortunately, the person running things was an
27:57experienced project manager, Ollie, John's son. The welding has snapped. The chippies were up there.
28:04They were finishing off the roof. And all of a sudden, there was just a loud bang. And the welds
28:09had basically just sheared, which caused the whole roof to suddenly sag. Obviously, I mean,
28:14the first thought was, this is bad. Working with the steel contractor to resolve things,
28:21it took 10 weeks and some carefully placed steel work to hold the structure up.
28:31And what rose from that mangled mess was a house that's not just stronger, but unapologetically
28:37stranger. The bathroom is a celebration of joy, colour and creative anarchy.
28:43That's your taste, is it, John? Well, yes, it is. Yes, bonkers. And welcome to the bedroom.
28:55Gorgeous. The interior decor is quite quirky. I wanted to have a bit of fun and a bit of character,
29:02and I didn't want the rooms to feel sterile. You're part of an avant-garde. You're part of a new
29:09movement, a new drive towards comfort and joy and playfulness. Next door is just as joyful. There's
29:17a guest bedroom and bathroom, and upstairs, John's tranquil office.
29:26The architect responsible for this extraordinary building was James Arkell.
29:31Now, why do you think the building has been nominated? Why do you think it's been cited?
29:36I think it responds to the place and the site, and I think hopefully it makes the occupants' lives
29:44immeasurably better in terms of living there. And I think they're good aims to have in architecture.
29:51I don't kind of want it to be known as a house purely for accessibility. It's always struck me that
29:58good disability design, generally speaking, is good design.
30:01I don't know if architecture can properly heal, but I have seen what it can do. Ease a day, improve a mood,
30:09lift the soul, and remove barriers. And in a house like this, for the people who live here, that is everything.
30:16You have to think of the new British cheese board, if you like, representative now of context and of
30:29planning. Now this, of course, you know, you'll find this in many people's fridges still. It's not your
30:34typical resident and frankly dropped onto the cheese board. It looks brash, synthetic. It's not what that
30:41organic chair to sign up for. But handled carefully, adjusted thoughtfully, even this thing can take
30:51its place on the board. Not by pretending to be like the others, but by knowing how to live alongside them.
31:01I'm in the South Downs, a place where homes usually come wrapped in stone, flint, and a whiff of heritage.
31:09If you wanted to build a house that was unashamedly modern, the last place you'd want to try and go
31:16about getting planning permission for that would be in a national park. No? I mean, that's just gotta
31:24be asking for trouble.
31:29But that's exactly what happened here. Against all odds, this extraordinary building appeared.
31:36South Downs Farm. The RIBA judges described the detailing and execution as near faultless.
31:46The brave architect who took on this project was Sandy Rendell, a previous House of the Year nominee.
31:53Sandy, looking at this house, all I can say is utter sublime elegance. It's so beautiful.
32:01Oh, thanks. That's extremely kind. Not sure it's everyone's taste, but we're pretty proud of it.
32:07South Downs Farm is split over two floors. On the ground floor is a cloakroom, laundry,
32:13and utility room, and a grand double-height hallway. Open-plan kitchen, diner, larder, and a boot room.
32:21On the other side is the main living room and study. Upstairs are four guest bedrooms, two with en-suite and
32:29a guest bathroom. And the main bedroom with an en-suite. Surprisingly, this wasn't the home
32:36the clients originally intended to build. The clients had consent for a much more traditional
32:42style house. They'd actually knocked down the old house, they'd laid the piling mat down, they'd pegged
32:46it all out, they were just about to start, and they got slight cold feet. I think they thought,
32:50actually, interestingly, the previous design was too big. Did they come to you and say,
32:55Sandy, we want something really modern, just reinvent everything for us? What they gave us a huge
33:00amount of freedom on was the appearance and the form of the building. How do you even go about
33:06getting planning permission for a contemporary house like this, of this size, in this location?
33:14It's not a straightforward process. The first challenge was getting an independent group of
33:19experts, the South Downs National Park Design Review Panel, on side and evolving an idea with them.
33:27I think looking at the wider landscape, this particular bit of Sussex, people have used it for
33:32country houses. And that was the sort of starting point for thinking about what this could be.
33:37The reimagination of a country house? Yeah, a Parkland villa rather than a country house,
33:42so a smaller scale version. This is a country house for the 21st century.
33:48Oh. There's a real sense of calm in here. I love the light that's coming through. Oh, God.
33:57The double height. There are plenty of things here to draw your eye, whether it's the upper-level
34:04balcony inside or this giant stove. Then there's a stove as well. This is double-sided.
34:12What does it lead to? Oh, that's nice. This is nice. The connection between the two rooms through
34:22the focal point is a really beautiful feature. This wood burner actually has a back boiler as well,
34:27so you can run all the heating and hot water from the house of this. If there's a disaster,
34:31like an electrical failure or something, the whole house can be heated and hot water from here.
34:35It's deliberately oversized, straddling the large open-plan living room and the smaller snug beyond,
34:47and linking them through warmth and flame. It's a clever trick. The grander the room in one space,
34:54the cozier the one next to it feels. You see the same contrast upstairs, where a broad,
35:00classically-scaled hallway makes the more modest bedrooms feel even more intimate. And that contrast
35:07continues outside, with quiet, low-slung wings on one side and a bold, formal row of columns on the other.
35:16Stood up here on this balcony with this incredible view, you really get a sense of the grandeur of this scale.
35:25Yeah, I mean, it's largely generated by these massively oversized columns.
35:29They've got this wonderful kind of pitted surface that you just want to try to sort of get your fingers in.
35:34Yeah, we wanted everything to be self-finished, really express its materiality. These are actually
35:41made in very low lifts with a sort of low water, low cement, unreinforced and hand-rammed to give you
35:48that sort of character of stone, using a very local stone just from a couple of miles up the road from
35:53Macquarie as it aggregates to the mix. It's a house shaped by its setting and by a client willing to be
36:01brave. A bold addition now? Perhaps. But one that will mellow and in time belong as naturally to this
36:09landscape as any ancestral pile. This really is a wonderful addition to the long and noble tradition
36:18of English country houses. Yes, it may have contemporary concrete columns, but just remember
36:26the next time that you're visiting that beloved National Park Manor House, everything was once modern.
36:38There is one more house to see before we discover
36:41which will make the shortlist for the RIBA House of the Year 2025.
36:56We've seen five houses on the long list so far, and our last home that was built against the odds
37:02took on the sort of challenge that usually ends in tears. Trying to build a home where there isn't any
37:08space for one in the tight jostling streets of North London. I am looking for a portal. It's a way in to a
37:19magical world of architecture and generous spaces, yeah? A place of calm and relaxation. Oh, I don't know. Ah, hmm.
37:38This is not it. Surely. No, actually, it is. Because at the end of this grim concrete passageway lies this.
37:56This is Haringey Brick Bungalow, a hidden jewel tucked away from the busy street beyond,
38:04as calm and serene inside, as it is beautiful outside.
38:22In this extraordinary home, there's a courtyard area at the front and a small patio garden at the back.
38:28Then, inside, there's a glorious main living, kitchen and dining space, with two bedrooms and a bathroom off it.
38:38It was designed by the architect Satish Jassil.
38:41Oh, what a joy. What a thing to find. I mean, unlikely, isn't it? Just a little bit of a backlands plot. What was it before?
38:53It was just an empty plot, a bit overgrown, left over, like many plots around London. Yeah.
38:59So, we like to think of it as a bit of a diamond in the rough. Yeah.
39:04Something unexpected.
39:05That is a very unlikely entrance.
39:08It is. It's only one metre wide. So, we had to build the whole house through this little passageway.
39:14You had to get everything past that drain pipe. It was like building a ship in a bottle.
39:21Wow. So, I mean, what about the bigger items? Is there a bath?
39:26We had to make sure whatever we put into the house could fit through that alleyway.
39:31White goods and everything. Exactly.
39:34Can we have a look inside? Of course.
39:37Oh, it's nice.
39:44Inside, there's no sense of the pain and difficulty that went into creating it.
39:53There's a sort of continuity of materials, which is so lovely. There's nothing jars. It's just a sort of,
39:59there's a flow. But above us are these things. I mean, what the heck?
40:12Something of Satish's own imagination is this coffered ceiling of vertical planks,
40:18but made into a pyramid. I've not seen anything quite like it. It's like looking up into a honeycomb.
40:25The building itself, the footprint is actually quite small. So, by using the volume, it makes
40:34something small feel quite grand and expansive. So, it doesn't feel that small.
40:42The roof here doesn't just lend the room height. It gives it character, like that of origami.
40:49It's quite subtle and ingenious. And I imagine you could just sit on the sofa
40:56all evening with a bottle of something and just, you know…
40:59Look at the ceiling.
41:00Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly.
41:01I could look at it all day. I love this place. Not just because of the ingenuity that Satish has
41:12applied on this improbably small site, but also because of the feeling you get just standing here.
41:18We all love looking at buildings in magazines and on the internet and on the television,
41:26and that's not what buildings are about. Buildings are about spending time in the place. And this
41:32building gives gently and slowly. This building doesn't communicate itself easily in photographs,
41:40because to enjoy it, to drink its energy, yeah, you need to quietly sit and spend time in it.
41:49Best thing about architecture? The experience.
42:00We've explored six remarkable homes so far, but which will earn a place on the coveted shortlist?
42:06Will it be the handcrafted poetic Kirk of the Creek? The engineering success that is Hastings House?
42:13The diplomatically accomplished two-family house? The sculpturally serene Clayworth?
42:20The 21st-century English country house at South Downs Farm? Or the miniature marvel that is Haringey Brick Bungalow?
42:31Joining me is the chair of the judges, David Kahn.
42:34David, how many houses have you chosen from this category to be on the shorelist?
42:40So in this category, there are two.
42:41First being?
42:42Coak and the Creek.
42:47It's very, very carefully put together.
42:51It's a level of craftsmanship that exceeds just the material and its assembly. It's so inspiring.
42:58It really isn't a building that's about itself. It's a building about a way of making homes, about the island, about craft traditions.
43:08That's amazing. Yeah, wonderful.
43:13Oh, well, if we can, I don't know, again, if our story can inspire others, then that would be the nicest thing that maybe comes of it. But that is, that is an incredible piece of news. Thank you.
43:23There's one more house in this category. So what's the second house you've shortlisted?
43:28The second house is Hastings House.
43:34What strikes me as interesting is that's such an unusual approach. He thought, I want to somehow evolve this sequence of little pavilions out of the building and stitch it back in.
43:47I would say it is the treatment of the landscape that is the really exciting bit of the project that drives everything else.
43:54And it looks like it was a lot of work, a lot of costs, technically very challenging.
44:01From the interior, it feels like you move from something familiar and Victorian into something quite other, heading up to the road above.
44:11It definitely feels unexpected and a complete surprise. And you have the feeling like it'd just be such a great place to have guests that they would come and just realize that you knew that this existed.
44:30That's great. Congratulations. Isn't that terrific?
44:33That's surprising, actually. How exciting, yeah. There's, you know, hours and hours and years and years of care and, um, and kind of resourcefulness there in the project. So it's really great that that's rewarded.
44:46Kirken, the Craig and Hastings House are first on the shortlist. There are five more places up for grabs before we find out which of them will be crowned the 2025 RIBA House of the Year.
44:59The homes we've been looking at are of course all prototypes, but prototypes for a more intelligent,
45:08more grounded, more sustainable way of building. And they show us that architecture isn't just about designing buildings.
45:15It's about designing better ways to live. And if that is the direction of travel we're heading in, then let's pick up the pace.
45:24I'm in. Next time we'll explore houses that whisk you on holiday.
45:33This just makes you happy, doesn't it? The client really loved this idea of it feeling like a really sunny optimistic interior.
45:40Six more homes to inspire relaxation.
45:43My ambition was to create a place that made you feel really, really at ease, really, really connected to nature.
45:49And just escapism.
45:51I was on holiday in Thailand and I just thought, how can I transport this magical feeling to East London?
45:56And that next batch is here at next Wednesday from eight.
46:03Now more fours back on the footplate in just a minute.
46:07Incredible achievements of engineering in God's own country with steam train diaries.
46:12And from steaming to streaming, dark secrets in the Scottish wilderness with our new drama, Summer Water.
46:18You can catch every episode right now.
46:2024 Hours in A&E is here next.
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