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Grand Designs House of the Year S08 E01 2025
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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
00:33out 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,
00:47is back. What is that? And the fixtures have never been more artisanal. It's like one of
00:54those kind of things at the dentist where you have, you know, they do an x-ray. They
00:57will leave the room. The judges have handpicked a long list of Britain's most awe-inspiring new
01:03buildings. Don't just come off this very British street into something that is from the other
01:06side of the planet. These are all houses that will take your breath away. I mean, what the
01:12heck? The judges will have the hard task of whittling them down to a short list of just
01:17seven. It's just so complicated. There are so many things at play. And in the final programme,
01:24we'll find out which of these will be crowned House of the Year 2025.
01:30The stakes are high. The ceilings are even higher. Welcome to House of the Year 2025.
01:36I've taken all the long-listed houses we're looking at and divided them into four categories. In
01:43later episodes, we'll discover homes that make you feel like you're on holiday, houses that are
02:11remarkable transformations and homes that demonstrate exceptional craftsmanship.
02:17exploring these with me is the architect Damien Burrows. Oh, this is breathtaking. And the
02:25conservation architect, Natasha Huck. Oh, look at this place. It's just so welcoming.
02:32This time, we'll be looking at houses that are built against all the odds. And if grand
02:38science 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. But
02:49for those plucky, fearless, sometimes hapless individuals who do embark on the architectural
02:55journey, the results can be life-changing. Our first long-listed home, built against the odds,
03:06sits in the remote Outer Hebrides on Harris, a rugged island off the west coast of Scotland.
03:15This is Kirkland Creek, a jewel-like home built beside the water and through nine savage storms.
03:25The house is compact and efficient, centred on a bright open plan kitchen and living space.
03:37Off 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.
03:48It's Archisex Ailey and her partner, Jack, who built it by hand.
03:55First date, we were just trying to suss each other out and Jack had asked some background questions.
04:01And at the time, I had just been given the keys to a flat, my first flat that I'd bought,
04:05and 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. It's quite mysterious,
04:13actually. Ailey had been to Japan and to Norway and, you know, done all these amazing things.
04:19They moved to the island after falling in love with it when visiting. While they planned the project,
04:24they rented and got their first taste of the challenges of building here.
04:29I think we're off home.
04:34We went through one of the first name's dorms there. This was a traditional stone house and the
04:37house was shaking. The roof blew off. The polytunnel at the back flew away. We were actually nervous our
04:44car was going to 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.
04:59We 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 the Louisiana Nice, and that is incredibly dense and incredibly heavy.
05:19So the first few days trying to get my body conditioned to be able to just
05:24lump that stuff around 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.
05:44I started the job slightly rotund. We'd 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 Louisiana Nice, and that will sort you right out for sure.
06:07This ancient rock, Louisiana Nice, is what the whole island is made from.
06:13And there was also a great big lump of it right in the middle of where Ailey and Jack were building.
06:18Ailey made a big design decision. We decided to actually work with it. Using the area that we had
06:26around this rock created this 135 degree angle. Inside, this unusual shape makes the small house
06:35feel bigger. It opens it up with angled views through to other rooms.
06:39The RIBA judges admired this compact yet generous home where each space has a different character.
06:51You can see through from the living space into the kitchen space whilst they are still separate.
06:56So that's really successful. Each one of the rooms spans directly off of a centralised living room and
07:03it's making the most of the space within a very, very small house. So there's no circulation.
07:10They managed to build this extraordinarily beautiful place for just 167,000 pounds by designing and building
07:19it themselves. Living on site as they were building. It was a really intense period and we were working
07:26flat out six days a week, 12 hours a day just to get it finished.
07:33He 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 night. 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 the caravan for
07:59most of the afternoon and you've never seen anything like this. It was just outrageous. I mean,
08:04there was a dense cloud of midges just hanging outside the window, climbing through the window.
08:11It was just too difficult and you'd never think that you'd have to take an afternoon off
08:15just for little insects. It was just crazy.
08:18But for Jack, Dan, Ailey and her brother who helped, every bite, every sore muscle,
08:26every night going to bed soaked to the bone was worth it.
08:32What I'm most proud of is the fact that we've done it.
08:37We kind of set out to do this without knowing what we wanted to achieve. We wanted to do a really nice
08:41design. We wanted to have a place that we could live ourselves that reflected our values,
08:45our ethos, how we practice. We ask clients to take the risk every day in our work. And so if we
08:52can't do it, then it's tricky to ask other people. So I'm so proud that we've taken the leap to live
08:58somewhere that we want, to build something that we want. And we're now living here and it couldn't
09:03be better for me.
09:04We've seen one house so far that's defied the odds. We've got five more still to see before we find
09:15out which has been nominated for the House of the Year prize 2025.
09:18Gravity is a bit like aging. It's inevitable and it only goes one way. So if you try to ignore it,
09:36that's pointless. When you build and attempt to defy it with cantilevers or by building on a slope,
09:43for 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.
10:07In places the gradient is so steep it rivals a ski run. Here, building anything isn't just construction.
10:16It's a battle with gravity. It's a form of engineering gymnastics. One wrong move and whatever
10:22you're building 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.
10:44And my grandparents lived here when I was young. So I spent a lot of school and summer holidays
10:50coming down to 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.
10:59I've got to go.
10:59I'm going to go.
11:00I'm going to go.
11:01I'm going to go.
11:02We bought this twin-gabled Victorian house, refurbished it, and extended it onto the slope
11:07in the back garden.
11:10And so Hastings House was born.
11:15Inside there is a semi-open-plan space, long and light-filled, like a gallery, with kitchen
11:20and dining room off it.
11:22A few steps above is a cosy private living space, called the garden room.
11:29And then there's a lower courtyard, an outdoor space next to the garden room.
11:33Further up the slope, accessed by an external staircase, is Simon's office.
11:38And at the top is a pergola, which crowns the top terrace, standing as a sort of outdoor
11:43room.
11:44Hi, Simon.
11:46How are you?
11:49Come here.
11:52You walk into a refurbished living room.
11:55Basically, the whole house was stripped back to brickwork and started again.
12:02But it's at the back where the real magic happens.
12:05The whole structure has been completely remade.
12:08This is amazing.
12:10It's so unexpected.
12:11It's just so much light.
12:17What was the old dining room has been modernised and now connects to a glass corridor with the
12:21kitchen area.
12:22You know, you don't expect from the front of the house an old Victorian house and then
12:27you get the kind of contrast to the back.
12:30Because it's such a steep hill, it's trying to make sure you don't feel that you're enclosed
12:34and trapped in the back of the house.
12:37The house didn't flow at all.
12:38You kept going to a load of dead ends.
12:40So we're trying to work out ways that you can move around the house a little bit more
12:43easily.
12:44They haven't just added rooms, they've reimagined how the whole house works.
12:50Each new space, like this garden room, follows the natural slope of the hill, stepping up
12:55in carefully judged levels, one 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
13:04that we've got.
13:05It's just really interesting because it leads you on this journey.
13:08It's sort of quite a steep slope and so rather than everything sitting at the bottom and
13:12then you're like looking up at it, it's trying to get this feeling of moving through the
13:16space.
13:17Gradual movement.
13:18Exactly.
13:19But also just taking advantage and using it as a benefit that we've got this steep site
13:22that has loads of different layers so it gives you some really interesting views and angles
13:26and as you look back across the house you see different elements and aspects.
13:33The RIBA judges praised the beautiful refurbishment of the old house and the incredible spaces
13:39Simon and his architect created.
13:42All the more amazing when it used to look like this.
13:47The house was like a 70s fever dream.
13:49It was like someone had moved in 50 years ago, done a really beautiful, amazing top
13:56to bottom renovation and nothing since.
13:59And aside from doing nothing since, there'd just been bits added so everything was built
14:04on top of.
14:05Nothing had ever been like stripped back and done again.
14:07It was just layer upon layer upon layer and it's the same in the back garden.
14:10There's like layer upon sheet of concrete and then rubble and then more concrete on top
14:15of it.
14:16There's a huge vine that grew over everything.
14:21In 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.
14:35Problematic in terms of the money involved, that it was like more expensive, but also
14:39in terms of the carbon and the kind of environmental considerations.
14:42And there is a lot of courage in that because it's not obviously beautiful.
14:46All 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.
14:55I sometimes call it darning, the idea rather than throwing a pair of socks out because it's
15:00got a hole in it, we actually just carefully kind of stitched the site together.
15:04And through that, we kind of repaired the site in a way that could accept the new buildings.
15:08You know, it was just a too poor condition beforehand to, you know, to take the support of a building.
15:17What he's created is a set of beautiful pavilions that step up the hill containing Simon's office
15:23and 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
15:33Charlotte Garvin.
15:35You can see that there is three terraces which all have retaining walls, which in some places
15:40are no longer vertical, so that they're leaning and bowing and they're moving around a little
15:45bit.
15:46They sort of equate to about two storeys of retained height, which for any engineer is
15:50quite a big challenge.
15:52So obviously the retaining walls needed a lot of care to make them stable enough to build
15:56upon.
15:57They did need to be repaired.
15:59And then we added these ground anchors, which basically try and restrain the wall.
16:04We normally see them on the sides of roads and in big embankments.
16:09You wouldn't often find them in a domestic setting.
16:11But the benefit of them is that you didn't need a huge machinery to come in and install
16:16them because we have this quite constrained site.
16:22This isn't just an extension.
16:25It's civil engineering, domestic scale with all the risk and precision that implies.
16:31This house was laced into a hillside, one platform at a time.
16:35And the cleverest part is that it hides the struggle to do that completely.
16:39You've got to be brave when you set out to build any house, but this, this is a leap of faith.
16:46Simon entrusted Hugh with an almost impossible architectural challenge.
16:49And what Simon and Hugh have created is not an extension, but a series of light filled connections
16:55elements that unlock the whole site, celebrating its difficult landscape and turning an unloved
16:59and dilapidated space into something truly unique.
17:02The relationship between a homeowner and an architect should be like any strong partnership, built
17:28on trust, clear communication and the occasional awkward silence when the budget gets mentioned.
17:33But what if it wasn't a partnership?
17:35I mean, what if instead it became more of a group activity with more voices, more opinions,
17:41twice the emails, three times the mood boards and decision making by committee,
17:47which is how they came up with the camel.
17:50Anyway, it sounds like a recipe for design by stalemate, but our next house, they did precisely that.
17:57And yet what emerged wasn't chaos. In 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 and
18:18infinitely more complicated.
18:20The client was a family that I'd worked with before.
18:25They'd asked me to find a place that would be a retreat for their family somewhere by the sea.
18:31And of course, I'm Cornish, so I said, best place in Cornwall.
18:36We looked at the site. It was fantastic.
18:39And we then found, slightly strangely, that we could push our building a little bit further
18:46back into the hillside and make it much bigger.
18:50But because it came so big, it became really an expensive project.
18:55So 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.
19:14This 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
19:47privacy and independence within a single unified home. It's something of a design feat to realize
19:53a house on this scale that's so beautifully resolved. It's a feat of human endurance to do it for four
19:58people with different ideas of what they wanted. Every decision was something of a debate.
20:03Everyone 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.
20:24One of the things that's incredibly important to me is the way the overall wall looks.
20:29So this wall was what I wanted. Nice square edges, everything beautiful. And one day my client came
20:37down to look at the wall very proudly. There's the wall. And there was a sort of silence and
20:46Richard said, 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.
20:57So 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.
21:11These 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 on
21:31the cliff. So the structure itself had to be very robust. That's why the timber panels they used were
21:37the strongest possible. Built from CLT or cross laminated timber, they're slabs of wood made by
21:45gluing together timber planks in layers at 90 degrees to each other. They're a lot of work to make,
21:52and they are heavy to lift. Some of them are still two tonned. And they're big panels,
21:57so you are almost flying a kite out there if you're not careful.
22:05This place can be measured in every drop of blood, sweat and tears invested in it.
22:11What makes it remarkable isn't just the design, but also the people who built it. Its designer,
22:17the builder, many of the crafts people are from here. They know this landscape intimately, and they're
22:24part of a long proud tradition of Cornish craftsmanship. I build all over England, all over London,
22:32all over the world. But as my builder grandfather would always say, there's no one can build houses like
22:39the Cornish. We've seen three houses so far, built against the odds. After the break, we reveal more
22:49of the extraordinary 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.
23:08And I mean that not just in terms of scale or ambition, but because of its spirit. The couple
23:14building it wanted to make something not just of extraordinary architectural value, but as importantly,
23:21something that could also adapt to a devastating medical diagnosis. And against all the odds,
23:28they created something extraordinary, something calm, considered deeply personal and quietly heroic.
23:36The clients were John and Helen. They were living in a 17th century farmhouse in Bedfordshire until,
23:44in 2018, Helen experienced a life-changing event. Come on, Peggy, come on now.
23:50We went down to feed the horses. We went down to feed the horses. As Helen was undoing the gate,
23:56she suddenly felt faint. It was an extremely serious stroke. She was in a coma for three weeks,
24:03and when she started to come out. And when she started to come out, was really very severely disabled.
24:11She needed full-time care after the stroke. Their old house had steep stairs and narrow doorways.
24:19They had to live in separate buildings. It's forced us to live separate lives that I remain living in the house now,
24:29whilst Helen lives in your barn. And, you know, 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 rational
24:58designed sinking. To one end sits a spacious, open-plan kitchen, dining and living area. At the opposite
25:07end of the house is a sleeping wing containing two bedrooms. In the bar of the T-shape, there's car
25:14parking space and a small guest apartment. On the top floor, there's a study.
25:19Hello, 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. It is so sharp and
25:42crisp, this building. It looks good when you first glimpse it. It teases you. And as you approach,
25:48it delivers more. And then the details surprise you at how fine and crisp they are. So it carries
25:54on delivering. Yes. But that only works if it's one step better when you get indoors. Is it as good
26:00as the outside? Better. Can we have a look? Of course, please. Come on in. Thank you. Step inside and
26:08you're immediately invited to enjoy the elegant calm of the hallway and to stroke the board marked concrete
26:14walls. This is amazing. Then you're through to the main living space, the center of shared daily life
26:22for the pair of them. Well, this is just about as perfect as it could be, isn't it, really?
26:27I mean, we are just delighted with the way this room has turned out. A space where John and Helen
26:33can be together again, open, light-filled and connected to the natural world.
26:38All I see is natural landscape, trees, forest, the sun glinting through the leaves. It reminds me just
26:48how fantastic a sight this is. I think one of the things that really pleases me is the width of this
26:54room. Helen, she has loads of space to move around. And a Helen won't top? Yes. Got this lower area
27:04specifically so that Helen can approach it in the wheelchair. What it provides is something that you
27:11particularly need. This building to be transformational for our lives.
27:18But 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
27:33crane in huge concrete roof beams. It is a really tall ass to get in by October. But we shall see.
27:41The 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 sink. Obviously,
28:14I mean, the first thought was, this is bad.
28:19Working with the steel contractor to resolve things, it took 10 weeks and some carefully
28:23placed steel work to hold the structure up.
28:31And what rose from that mangled mess was a house that's not just stronger,
28:35but unapologetically stranger. The bathroom is a celebration of joy, colour and creative anarchy.
28:46That's your taste, isn't it, John?
28:47Yeah, well, yes, it is. Yes, bonkers. And welcome to the bedroom. Gorgeous.
28:55The 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.
29:08You're part of a new movement, a new drive towards comfort and joy and playfulness.
29:14Next door is just as joyful. There's a guest bedroom and bathroom,
29:20and 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'
29:43lives immeasurably 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.
29:56It's always struck me that good 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.
30:21You 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.
30:33It's not your typical resident and, frankly, dropped onto the cheese board. It looks brash, synthetic.
30:40It's not what that organic cheddar signed up for. But, handled carefully, adjusted thoughtfully,
30:48even this thing can take its place on the board. Not by pretending to be like the others,
30:55but by knowing how to live alongside them. I'm in the South Downs, a place where homes usually come
31:05wrapped in stone, flint, and a whiff of heritage. If you wanted to build a house that was unashamedly
31:13modern, the last place you'd want to try and go about getting planning permission for that would be
31:19in a national park. No? I mean, that's just got to be asking for trouble.
31:29But that's exactly what happened here. Against all odds, this extraordinary building appeared.
31:37South Downs Farm. The RIBA judges described the detailing and execution as near faultless.
31:45The 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.
32:05South 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,
32:20and a boot room. On the other side is the main living room and study. Upstairs are four guest bedrooms.
32:27Two with en suite and a guest bathroom. And the main bedroom with an en suite.
32:32Surprisingly, this wasn't the home the clients originally intended to build.
32:38Our clients had consent for a much more traditional style house. They'd actually knocked down the old
32:44house. They'd laid the piling mat down. They'd pegged it all out. They were just about to start.
32:48And they got slight cold feet. I think they thought actually, interestingly, the previous design was too
32:53big. Did they come to you and say, Sandy, we want something really modern. Just reinvent everything for us.
32:59What they gave us a huge amount of freedom on was the appearance and the form of the building.
33:03How do you even go about getting planning permission for a contemporary house like this,
33:10of this size, in this location? It's not a straightforward process.
33:16The first challenge was getting an independent group of experts, the South Downs National Park Design
33:22review panel on side and evolving an idea with them. I think looking at the wider landscape,
33:29this particular bit of Sussex, people have used it for country houses. And that was the sort of
33:35starting point for thinking about what this could be. The reimagination of a country house. Yeah,
33:40a parkland villa rather than a country house. So a smaller scale version.
33:43This is a country house for the 21st century.
33:52There'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
34:05balcony inside or this giant stove. Then there's a stove as well. This is double sided. What does it lead to?
34:17Oh, that's nice. This is nice. The connection between the two rooms through the focal point.
34:23It's a really beautiful feature. This wood burner actually has a back boiler as well. So you can run
34:28all the heating and hot water in the house of this. If there's a disaster, like an electrical failure or
34:32something, the whole house can be heated and hot water from here.
34:39It'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.
35:23Yeah, 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 that
35:48sort of character of stone, using a very local stone just from a couple of miles up the road from Macquarie
35:54as an aggregates to the mix. It's a house shaped by its setting and by a client willing to be brave.
36:02A bold addition now, perhaps, but one that will mellow and in time belong as naturally to this landscape
36:10as any ancestral pile. This really is a wonderful addition to the long and noble tradition of English
36:19country houses. Yes, it may have contemporary concrete columns, but just remember the next time
36:26that you're visiting that beloved National Park Manor House, everything was once modern.
36:33There is one more house to see before we discover which 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
37:07any space for one, in the tight jostling streets of North London. I am looking for a portal.
37:17It's a way in to a magical world of architecture and generous spaces, yeah? A place of calm and relaxation.
37:28Oh, I don't know.
37:39This is not it.
37:44Surely.
37:45No, actually it is, because at the end of this grim concrete passageway lies this.
37:51This 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.
38:17In 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,
38:34with two bedrooms and a bathroom off it.
38:36It was designed by the architect Satish Jassel.
38:43Oh, what a joy. What a thing to find. I mean, unlikely, isn't it? It's 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.
38:59Yeah. So we'd like to think of it as a bit of a diamond in the rough.
39:03Yeah. Something 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.
39:15What? You had to get everything past that drain pipe?
39:18It was like building a ship in a bottle.
39:20Wow. So, I mean, what about the bigger items? Is there a bath?
39:27We 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.
39:50There's a sort of continuity of materials, which is so lovely. There's no nothing jars. It's just a sort of, there's a flow.
40:02But above us are these things. I mean, what the heck?
40:12Something of Satish's own imagination is this coffered ceiling of vertical planks, but made into a pyramid.
40:20I have not seen anything quite like it.
40:24It's like looking up into a honeycomb.
40:28The building itself, the footprint is actually quite small. So by using the volume, it makes something small feel quite grand.
40:36Yeah.
40:36And expansive. So it doesn't feel that small.
40:40The 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 all evening with a bottle of something and just, you know.
40:58Look at the sofa.
41:00Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
41:05I could look at it all day.
41:07I love this place, not just because of the ingenuity that Satish has applied 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, and that's not what buildings are about.
41:29Buildings are about spending time in the place, and this building gives gently and slowly.
41:36This building doesn't communicate itself easily in photographs, because to enjoy it, to drink its energy,
41:42you need to quietly sit and spend time in it. Best thing about architecture? The experience.
42:00We've explored six remarkable homes so far, but which will earn a place on the coveted shortlist?
42:07Will 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 shore list?
42:39So 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.
42:59It really isn't a building that's about itself.
43:01It's a building about a way of making homes, about the island, about craft traditions.
43:11That's amazing.
43:12Yeah, wonderful.
43:13Oh, well, if we can, I don't know, again, if our story can inspire others, then that would be the
43:19nicest 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 shortlisted?
43:29The second house is Hastings House.
43:34What strikes me as interesting, that's such an unusual approach.
43:38He thought, I want to somehow evolve the 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
43:53drives everything else. And it looks like it was a lot of work, a lot of costs, technically very challenging.
43:59From the interior, it feels like you move from something familiar and Victorian into something
44:08quite other, heading up to the road above. It definitely feels unexpected and a complete surprise.
44:17And you have the feeling like it'd just be such a great place to have guests, that they would come
44:23and just realize that you knew that this existed. That'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
44:38of care and, um, and kind of resourcefulness there in the project. So it's really great that that's rewarded.
44:46Kirk and the Craig and Hastings House are first on the shortlist.
44:50There are five more places up for grabs before we find out which of them will be crowned the 2025 RIBA
44:58House of the Year. The homes we've been looking at are, of course, all prototypes, but prototypes for
45:06a more intelligent, more grounded, more sustainable way of building. And they show us that architecture
45:12isn't just about designing buildings. It's about designing better ways to live. And if that is the
45:19direction of travel we're heading in, then let's pick up the pace. I'm in.
45:28Next 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
45:38sunny, optimistic interior. Six more homes to inspire relaxation.
45:43My ambition was to create a place that made you feel really, really at ease, really, really connected
45:48to nature. And escapism. I was on holiday in Thailand. And I just thought, how can I transport this
45:55magical feeling to East London?
45:56And that next batch is here at next Wednesday from eight. Now, more fours back on the footplate in just a
46:06minute. Incredible achievements of engineering in God's own country with steam train diaries. And from
46:12steaming to streaming, dark secrets in the Scottish wilderness with our new drama, Summer Water,
46:17you can catch every episode right now. 24 Hours in A&E is here next.
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