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00:00Facial arrangement, play of light and all that, but you don't need the bifold doors, okay?
00:06What I'm really saying is that you're not quite ready for the Royal Institute of British Architects House of the Year competition, you know?
00:14Maybe next year.
00:16However, this lot are good to go.
00:21Yes, it's that time again when Britain's boldest new homes step into the spotlight.
00:28While the rest of us wonder if we've chosen the wrong shade of greige.
00:33Dear Santa, could I please have a house like this yours, Kevin?
00:43The judges have chosen a long list of Britain's most remarkable new buildings.
00:49Fantastic view. I mean, that could be the Mediterranean there.
00:53From houses that squeeze into the tightest of corners.
00:56You had to get everything past that drainpipe.
00:59It was like building a ship in a bottle.
01:02To bungalows that feel like basilicas.
01:05Oh, my Lord.
01:06This is the first bungalow I've ever seen that has a sort of ecclesiastical corridor.
01:11The houses we explore will be whittled down to a short list of just seven.
01:15The range on offer is really, really exciting.
01:18I think it'll be really exciting to see the house that wins and shines through.
01:22Before we find out in the final programme, which one is the House of the Year 2025?
01:30So, come and get some tips as we show you the next set of nominees.
01:35And by the way, those big green ceramic bowls that look like cabbages.
01:39I mean, they're just weird.
01:40So far, two homes have claimed their place on the short list.
02:06Kirk and the Crake, a jewel set deep in the Isle of Harris.
02:12And Hastings House, a triumph of engineering and elegance.
02:19Now, there are six more buildings to explore.
02:23Oh, well, that's good.
02:28You know the feeling.
02:30It's when you arrive and exhale, and it might be the smell of the salt air, or it could be a reflection on a polished floor,
02:38or just that somebody else is doing the washing up.
02:40But whatever it is, you know you are on holiday.
02:44But what if that feeling wasn't restricted to two weeks in August?
02:48Well, what if your home, the place where you live, could make you feel like that every day?
02:55This week, we are escaping to houses that do just that, that pick you up and drop you somewhere utterly magical.
03:04Of course, they offer the delights of great design.
03:08But they also promise escape.
03:11Snooping around these homes with me this time is the architect Damien Burroughs.
03:20It's a certain amount of design and a certain amount of just making it work.
03:31Now, I'm off to visit our first long-listed house in North London.
03:36Where, tucked into these tightly packed city streets, is a piece of remarkably clever design.
03:44This is Catching Sun House.
03:47Hendian are all sides.
03:49It's been shaped to drink in daylight from morning till dusk.
03:53Step inside, and you're somewhere else entirely.
03:57The architect and owner is Mark Shaw.
04:01Hello.
04:03Hi.
04:03Hey, Mark.
04:04Hello. How are you?
04:05Yeah, really well. How are you?
04:07I'm very well. Thanks for coming.
04:08This is a lovely, lovely place to arrive at.
04:11I've just come off this very British street into something that is from the other side of the planet.
04:14You know, it's like something from Asia or Australia.
04:18That is the most common response.
04:20And that's what I was trying to do, actually, to have that escape from life.
04:25And, you know, I'd spent, I don't know, 16 years living in a Victorian terraced house,
04:29which faced north and west, and there was never any light in the house.
04:34So I wanted to have as much light as possible in here.
04:42Mark designed the house around the movement of the sun over the plot so he could bring light into every room.
04:49On the ground floor, there's a kitchen, dining, living space, a bathroom, two bedrooms, and then above, a study.
04:56The RIBA judges praised the ingenuity of the architect in creating an unexpected and serene home.
05:07I love the fair-faced blockwork walls.
05:12The smooth, polished concrete floor.
05:15But this is a new one.
05:18What is that?
05:19So I hate kitchen extractors, and I had a brainwave where I remembered when I was at college and I used to do welding.
05:26Yeah. So this, this is a welding extractor, which you can pull down, you can have a big piece of meat on here,
05:33and all the fumes just get extracted out.
05:35Amazing. It's like one of those kind of things at the dentist, where you have, you know, they do an X-ray.
05:39They all leave the room.
05:40That's what I want to do, why don't you switch that on. How noisy is it?
05:43Er, I can switch it on.
05:45It's not, it's not that noisy.
05:46No?
05:47Need a bit of paper.
05:49I've got a handkerchief.
05:50Hang on, it's clean.
05:51OK, so let's just find out.
05:56Yes!
05:57Most of them are bright yellow and really ugly.
06:00Yeah.
06:00Eventually found this one, um, it's from Poland, and it's dim steel.
06:05So I shit, I FedExed it over from Poland.
06:10Tracking down an industrial welding extractor in Poland?
06:14That was the easy bit.
06:15But getting permission to build the house at all meant negotiating with the neighbours,
06:20a task as appealing as diffusing a bomb while wearing a blindfold.
06:24And it was Emma Hugh, the project architect, who got handed the wire cutters.
06:30So with this kind of site, probably the biggest challenge was the fact that there's 27 neighbouring
06:35properties around it. And we needed to get agreement with those 27 neighbours that we could access
06:42their gardens to be able to build the building and replace the wall that was at the end of their
06:46gardens. So that was a complicated process that took quite a bit of time.
06:5527 neighbours, five months of garden diplomacy, a legal jigsaw of party walls and permissions.
07:02But back inside, all that hassle evaporates. The master bedroom is calm and elegant,
07:11with a view that feels almost Mediterranean.
07:16Lovely room with a beautiful, again, lifted ceiling. So you get that.
07:20View of the sky. Fantastic view. Sky, greenery. But this, this is, so you've got a shower in the
07:28bedroom. No, you haven't got a shower in the bedroom. That's the bedroom. This is the shower.
07:31This is in the outside world. Yeah. Right, I'm with you.
07:37Where did this idea come from?
07:38I was on holiday in Thailand and was staying in a sort of typical Thai sort of bungalow and the
07:46bathroom, it was just out the back where there was just a sort of pipe coming out of the wall
07:52and no shower tray. And it was surrounded by like really amazing tropical plants.
07:58And I just thought, how can I transport this magical feeling to...
08:02But you've done it here, haven't you? To East London.
08:08And in a dense part of the city, plots like this are tight. So Mark's made every inch count.
08:16This pigeon step staircase is allowed just because it only leads to a single room above.
08:23It's clever, compact and just wide enough if you breathe in.
08:29So you might be thinking, as I am in this moment, two or three questions. How do I navigate a
08:34staircase like that? Does it meet building breaks? It does.
08:38And what happens when I'm drunk?
08:44But I'm not. I'm sober, lying as a mountain goat, and I am blown away by this.
08:53It's a study with a view like none I've seen in a built-up urban area.
08:58How can your soul not be touched by that? Which was once a disused MOT garage.
09:11That's the magic. It's not so much of architecture, but of the architectural mind.
09:16So these are people, like Mark, who can turn scraps into things of beauty.
09:24Who can see the potential of something where no one else can see it.
09:29Who can take things which are free, like the sun and the wind and the rain,
09:35and from them craft experiences which are priceless.
09:46We've seen one house so far. Five more to go before we find out who will be shortlisted for
09:51the House of the Year 2025.
10:05Designing your way to paradise sounds appealing, but it's a fine line between escapism and theme park.
10:12I mean, one minute you're painting a wall coral pink, the next minute there's a flamingo in the loo
10:16and a pineapple-shaped lamp, judging your life choices.
10:20Anyway, this next house doesn't mess about with props.
10:24It builds its fantasy properly, with geometry and conviction and a cocktail of its own.
10:29One part drama, one part delight, shaken, not stirred.
10:34Mmm.
10:36Oh, that tastes like regret.
10:42I'm in Surrey to visit our next longlister.
10:46This is Triangle House, a mid-century home which has had a Caribbean-inspired reworking.
10:54The RIBA judges praise the playful and inventive use of materials,
10:58colour and form that propel it into something exceptional.
11:03Inside, there's a double-height hallway that connects the living room, TV room and storage space
11:16of the original house.
11:18There's a long kitchen diner, split by brick petitions, with a larder at the front and doors to the garden.
11:25Upstairs, there are three bedrooms, connected by a bridge and a bathroom.
11:30It was designed by architects Benedetta Rogers and Daniel Marmot.
11:36Benedetta, how are you?
11:37Hi, nice to meet you, welcome.
11:39Hi, nice to meet you.
11:41Where did this overhanging canopy and V-shaped structure come from?
11:44We added this quite colourful canopy and column which sort of wanted to show
11:49that something slightly different was happening beyond.
11:52Looking at the house, it's got a really strong identity.
11:55The client gave us this book called Caribbean Style, which is an amazing reference book of
12:00kind of different colours and atmospheres in traditional Caribbean houses and some more modern ones.
12:05And they really wanted to bring some of that flavour through into this house.
12:09So we really wanted this feeling of a house that's transportative when you step through the front door.
12:14And when you step into the kitchen, it doesn't disappoint.
12:21This just makes you happy, doesn't it?
12:24Yeah, I mean, the yellow was like a really important colour for the client.
12:28They really love this idea of it feeling like a really sunny, optimistic interior.
12:32But it's not just the colour that lifts you. It's the way the house opens up.
12:38There are no corridors, no rigid plan, just a gentle sequence of spaces,
12:43each one giving you a glimpse of the next.
12:46The client at the beginning, they were quite clear they didn't want it to be open plan.
12:52But we've created something which feels like an overall space, but it's also got very distinct qualities.
12:59And yet the result still feels expansive and open.
13:04In Caribbean homes, open layouts are often used to keep heat from building up.
13:10Here, they're used for a different reason.
13:14Every time you have a doorway, you have to buy the door, you have to pay for the hinges,
13:17you have to install it, you have to paint it, you have to line it.
13:20So doing away with doorways was a way of both taking the cost out of the project,
13:24but also creating this spatial experience.
13:26Wow. And when you take that and then multiply it by 10, 20, these are significant savings.
13:33And we call this an enfilade of spaces almost.
13:35Like you might get in an art gallery where you walk from one room into another, into another,
13:39but you always get views from one room to the next.
13:42So for example, if you're in the kitchen cooking, you get a glimpse of the dining hall,
13:45but you don't feel like the kitchen and the dining hall are all open plan.
13:48So it's kind of somewhere between open plan living and a series of isolated rooms.
13:54Step out into the garden.
13:56And you really couldn't feel further away from suburban Surrey outside.
14:01This is the space, isn't it? This is what it's all about.
14:04It's about being out here, this relationship with the garden.
14:07It's just magical.
14:09Yeah, it's funny, the clients call this space Club Tropicana,
14:11because it does feel like it's quite, um, it's quite unusual in this setting.
14:15So you've got these kind of big banana palms and all the really lush planting,
14:19make it feel like you're not in the UK.
14:22The careful use of colour inside continues outdoors,
14:26where the blocks making up the triangular columns aren't quite the familiar grey.
14:31They're a very subtle shade of blue.
14:34And all of those colours from inside, those bright, vibrant colours, they're pulled through into here,
14:40but then just slightly notch down a tone to this wonderful kind of aqua blue.
14:46Well, it's funny that you say wonderful, because these have actually never been specified before this house.
14:51They were so unpopular when the company launched them,
14:53that we, uh, we showed them to the client and they really loved them.
14:56So we asked for some, they said, actually, well, we're not really producing them anymore.
15:00They've been discontinued. They're so unpopular.
15:02But we managed to find a dusty pallet in the corner of their factory that was left over.
15:06So we took that and brought it to site.
15:08And then the builder really skillfully cut them into these triangular columns.
15:15They didn't throw money at it.
15:17Instead, they found value in the overlooked, the dusty and forgotten,
15:22allowing them to focus on what's really important.
15:26By stripping out expensive finishes and complex detailing,
15:30they've allowed this house to truly sing.
15:34Which means that every single day, it transports you to a tropical paradise.
15:45Architecture can do many things.
15:49It can shelter you. It can cuddle and exalt you.
15:52It can impress your neighbours. It can even drain your bank account.
15:56And sometimes it can do all of these things at the same time.
16:01But the best architecture messes with your sense of place.
16:06It can transport you.
16:08So you walk into your front door in, I don't know, Splott, which is in Cardiff,
16:14and suddenly you are taken to a completely different place.
16:18Our next house in the running for a place on the shortlist is in South London,
16:24and was commissioned by a young couple, Iroki and Rachel.
16:29A few weeks after Rachel and I got married, I was cycling through Regent's Park and hit a car.
16:37So it was my fault. And yeah, we got rushed to A&E at St Mary's Hospital.
16:46Four or five hours later, and I saw you in hospital, and you were laying in the bed.
16:50And they told us that he was never going to walk again.
16:54Out of this life-changing event emerged an idea for something extraordinary.
17:03We started to think maybe we should think about building.
17:06And then we had a very, like, actionable reason that we needed to do this.
17:10This is Niwa House, formerly a derelict infill site, given new life.
17:23The RIBA judges praised this hidden gem as a secluded oasis that allows escape from the noise of the city.
17:33In this intricate home, there's a study that looks out onto the garden.
17:37A living room, which connects to a dining room, kitchen and utility room.
17:42In the basement is a main bedroom, with an accessible wardrobe.
17:47A bathroom, two further bedrooms, and a cinema and gym.
17:54Hiroki was born in Japan, which has been a powerful driver for some of the design.
18:00We've definitely been influenced through a lot of the principles that we think represents Japanese culture.
18:06We always knew that that was something that, you know, we connected with.
18:13The architecture is based on a traditional Japanese summer pavilion, or azumaya.
18:18There is an engawa, a covered Japanese porch that runs around the house.
18:24The forest of columns inside is taken from traditional Japanese temple architecture.
18:30There are subtle nods to Japanese design throughout.
18:36It's like when you go to Japan and you go to the temples and all of the doors, like, slide to one side when you open them.
18:42And then very similarly here, if you slide all the windows open, you're out onto the garden.
18:45I don't think you come in and go, oh, this is a wheelchair accessible app.
19:03There are obviously, like, individual smaller things where, you know, there's grab rails in the bathroom and things like that.
19:10And even there, we've tried to do it in a way that makes it a bit more muted than in your face.
19:16More through the choice of materials and things like that.
19:19I'd say 90% of the accessibility is not specifically making it accessible, but factoring it in as you design a house.
19:27Architecturally, it was very important that it doesn't feel like it was designed by guidelines
19:35and, you know, design codes for accessibility.
19:39So we discussed a lot about how the house needed to be uncluttered, open, very kind of generous.
19:48So there's plenty of open planned space with generous wide corridors and an easy transition between ground floor to basement in a lift.
19:55Below, Hiroki and Rachel can train in the gym or watch a film with their kids.
20:02One of their proudest spaces, though, is the garden.
20:07Niwa means garden in Japanese.
20:10Having a home where, from every angle, you can see something of nature, I think makes a big difference.
20:17The ambition here was not to frame a view of the garden.
20:20It was to live in it.
20:22It almost feels more like a house that's in a walled garden than a house with, like, a garden attached to it.
20:38This house is connected to nature everywhere through large openings and long views which make all the difference.
20:45We really, really love it here.
20:50Even when you've got this chaos around you with kids and, you know, you still have these moments of relaxation and peace and tranquility.
20:59It enables me to live much more freely as well.
21:02And I think that says a lot for, you know, what they did designing this house.
21:12So far, we've seen three houses that take you on holiday.
21:17But there are three more to explore before we find out which will be shortlisted for the 2025 House of the Year Award.
21:24Oh, to be beside the seaside, eh?
21:37Thing is, many of us do harbour some dream to recreate those childhood holidays.
21:46Up sticks. Relocate to the coast.
21:48All in the pursuit of this idea of creating the perfect permanent vacation, right?
21:56Except it's not like that.
21:57Because the realities of the everyday, uh, pressures of work, money, worries.
22:02They soon find out where we live.
22:04And yes, before long, they've moved in as well.
22:07However, this next family, I think, may have cracked that problem.
22:13What's that?
22:15Oh, I've gone overdrawn again!
22:22Our next home vying for a place on the House of the Year shortlist is on the glorious Kent coast.
22:29This is Sea Sky House, a big, beautiful beach hut of a home.
22:34But one mercifully lacking in seaside cliché.
22:38Not an anchor or porthole in sight.
22:40No, this is an elegant Scandi coastal home.
22:44Minimal, clean, full of natural materials with an enveloping sense of coziness.
22:50Its architects and owners are David and Sophie.
22:56We were in London, in Hackney.
22:58We were expecting our second child and decided that we wanted to escape the city.
23:06We came down on a Sunday and the sailing fleet was going out.
23:10We got some fish and chips on the beach and we were sold.
23:18The plot was expensive and by themselves they couldn't afford it.
23:22So they devised a cunning plan.
23:26It came up at just the right moment when it was possible for us to buy the site together with
23:30two other families. It's a really fun thing to do with friends.
23:37One of the families building next to them were Tim and Katie.
23:40We were invited to kind of come in on the project. We didn't really hesitate.
23:46We were like, yep, we'll sell our house.
23:47You were at the pub, weren't you? And you phoned me and said, uh, how about this?
23:50Yep. I literally sent him a link and said, shall we sell our house and do this?
23:54And Tim said, yes.
23:56And the kids were small. So that idea of having this community
24:00and this space where they can kind of play and be together and safe,
24:03because I don't think kids play out the same way anymore.
24:13To make the most of the view, David and Sophie flipped the layout of their house.
24:18This is an upside down home. So the sleeping area is at the bottom and the living area on the top.
24:27On the ground floor, there are four bedrooms and a family bathroom.
24:31Then on the first floor, there's an open plan living, dining and kitchen area
24:38and a roof terrace looking out to majestic views over the sea.
24:46Organising the floors this way meant there were some important things to consider.
24:51Building the house upside down means that you have to have a slightly different kind of hallway
24:55because the living rooms are upstairs. You want to have some way of receiving people on the ground
24:59floor and having a little bit of space to say hello and have a chat before you actually head upstairs.
25:05And you head upstairs expecting a sensible, well-behaved kitchen.
25:10What you get is far more interesting. There's a light used in Marrakesh airport hanging over the table.
25:18An open hearth fireplace perched on a lumb of church wall. And doors that belonged to a public building in the 1930s.
25:26The RIBA judges called it surprisingly eclectic and entertaining, which is code for someone enjoyed themselves doing this.
25:39We reclaimed a lot of science lab tables and we tried to use every square inch of them.
25:47So sills, thresholds, baths around, steps are all made from them.
25:53And I love the fact that they've got old pen drawings from the 60s or something, some of them slightly inappropriate.
25:59What s really extraordinary is that they didn't get the objects to fit the house they designed.
26:07In some places, they designed the house around the object.
26:10With the doors, for example, we bought them months before we finished designing the house.
26:16So we actually designed all of the corridors and the bedrooms and the scale of the spaces downstairs to
26:20suit the doors rather than the other way around, which is completely different to how we normally do that.
26:23So everyone's always like, it's so high on the ground floor. It's like, well, it's designed around the doors.
26:32So yes, the ceilings are tall, but only because the doors said so.
26:37But amid all the whimsy and architectural mischief, Sophie and David have carved out something
26:44surprisingly grown up, a fully soundproofed workspace.
26:48It was important for us to have a space where we could do video calls.
26:53And obviously, it's amazing during lunchtime.
26:55You can just walk down to the beach within two minutes, which is a nice way to break up the day.
27:02It's the lunchtime reset I like.
27:06No doom scrolling, no sad sandwich, just a walk to the beach and sand in your socks before the 2pm Zoom.
27:16Evenings here aren't scheduled, they just unfold.
27:20A view, a sunset, someone mixing drinks, and suddenly the day's taking a turn for the blissful.
27:27It's like a nice sea, with a view, with a sunset, everything.
27:34With my dad making cocktails, yes.
27:38And nice suppers and stuff like that.
27:41It's definitely like a holiday.
27:54It's like a holiday.
27:55It's like a holiday.
27:56It's like a holiday.
27:57Houses which are built in impossibly sunny climates, like California, for example,
28:03obviously, they give you the sensation of being on holiday every single day of the year.
28:08What with their sun-soaked walls of glass and their flat roofs serving as sun decks
28:14and their inside-outside swimming pools and their ridiculous cantilevers.
28:17The question really is, of course, can you reproduce that kind of architecture
28:22and the sensations it produces under the grey skies of London?
28:28Well, our next house tried to do just that, failed, and then succeeded.
28:39This is South London.
28:41I used to live very briefly not far from here, and I'm so pleased to see nothing much has changed.
28:47Oh, except for this.
28:51This is not a garage.
28:57No, this is Courtyard House.
29:00A California-inspired home with glass walls, lush outdoor planting,
29:06and space to imagine yourself in sunnier climes.
29:09The owner is a brand consultant, Ruth, who lives here with her two daughters.
29:22She originally came from this part of London and decided to move back.
29:26I kind of knew this house already because I knew the area, and I'd always spotted this black fence
29:33with the orange door, and I always wondered what was behind it.
29:37So when it popped up for sale, it was quite interesting to see what actually was behind it.
29:42This was here from the 70s, this house?
29:45It was.
29:46So an architect bought the plot of land where a garage was, and some of the garden at the back,
29:53and built a single-storey house for him to live in back in 1979.
29:58The house was built on a sort of Californian aesthetic.
30:03So it was very light, it had lots of glass, but the glass was all single-glaze.
30:08It was floor to ceiling.
30:09It was a Californian-style house, built as a homage to the American case study houses
30:16built between the 1940s and 60s. There was a housing boom after World War II,
30:22as US soldiers returned, and world-famous architects in California designed a series
30:27of prototypes for affordable homes that could be replicated and rolled out.
30:35Great, can we...
30:36Come on in.
30:37Yeah, I'd love to. Thank you.
30:38It's just kind of hinting at an invitation.
30:45Off the courtyard garden at the front of the house is Ruth's office,
30:49which connects to a long L-shaped kitchen, living and dining space that opens onto the rear garden,
30:56with a bathroom in the middle and one of the girls' bedrooms facing the front yard.
31:01Ruth's added a first floor to the home that was here.
31:05Up there is a mezzanine second living room, with Ruth's room at the back, a second bathroom in the
31:11middle, and her other daughter's room at the front. As you walk in, the effect is extraordinary.
31:18Wow! It's very light in here. That's partly because of that thing.
31:26That's bringing so much of the sun into the building.
31:29Beautiful. How do you clean it?
31:32I have a very agile window cleaner.
31:34Ha! The Spider-Man!
31:37He is.
31:38So if we assume that this building is paying homage to its case study roots, the idea of somehow
31:44amplifying light in the hope that you could persuade yourself you're living in California,
31:49was that part of your brief?
31:50It was, but obviously, you know, a case study house in California is great for warmth,
31:56Californian warmth and Californian sun. You know, we had to make that ethos work for a rainy,
32:00cold London. You know, it rains, it's cold, it snows sometimes.
32:07Case study houses relied on the warm L.A. climate to heat them.
32:12So they were built with light materials and were single glazed.
32:17So Ruth's upgraded her home.
32:22You've more than double glazed, so you've kind of upped the performance.
32:24Yeah. The windows were the most expensive thing.
32:27You know, you can have a Californian aesthetic, but it's got to function for London.
32:32Hence the thermal insulation, the triple glazing glass.
32:37You know, you can have the aesthetic, but the function of it has to be right.
32:41Yeah. Do you need to go on holiday as much as you used to?
32:45Does this provide?
32:46I can't afford to go on holiday anymore.
32:51Who needs a holiday when you've built the escape already?
32:55The house that gives back more than any around the world trip could.
32:59And her children are the lucky ones here.
33:04Nice staircase, Trixie.
33:06It's really nice. You don't feel any kind of bounce to it whatsoever.
33:09Her daughter, Trixie's room, sits right at the top of the house.
33:13You have this amazing, wonderful green view, kind of contrasted by this bright white.
33:20And then this kind of cosy space in between.
33:22It's offering a great deal of experience, the building, for a very small amount of building.
33:28Yeah. I mean, this is a small space, but it's actually just so lovely to come and sit here,
33:33because you have all of that going on and all of that going on as well.
33:37Trixie was so inspired by this project that it prompted her to take up a career in design.
33:43But I never actually considered going into architecture until this project came around.
33:49Oh, really?
33:50Yes. I actually got to do some work experience with the architects.
33:54And just seeing how they operated and being in their office, um, I was like,
34:01actually, you know what, I, like, I can do this.
34:03So I think, well, of course I feel at home here, but mainly I just feel really inspired.
34:15A house that can inspire a choice in career is one extraordinary building.
34:21But I think the secret to its success isn't just the building itself,
34:24but the way it makes the best of what's around it.
34:28It brings in greenery from everywhere.
34:34You had the extreme luxury here, the fabulous condition that these gardens pre-existed.
34:40That's right.
34:40The views, that tree in that neighbour's garden pre-existed.
34:43Everything's established and mature, so you could place this building and orientate it, organise it.
34:48It's very much a project where we were organising the rooms around the gardens.
34:52The idea of being able to see nature from virtually any part of this house is a great luxury to have.
34:58Massively so, in dense urban environments, yeah.
35:03Massively so, in dense urban environments, yeah.
35:06Oh, this is so lush.
35:09I could be in Brazil, or looking at some case study house in California.
35:15And, of course, the building that was on this site originally reached for those ideas.
35:24It wanted to be an exciting, glamorous home that was sunshine-filled, and yet it never quite got there,
35:31thanks to its engineering and the climate of the UK.
35:34It got stranded halfway across the Atlantic.
35:39It took Ruth and Lawrence to finally land it here.
35:44We've seen five homes so far that take you somewhere completely magical.
35:58There's one more to go before we find out which will earn a place on the shortlist.
36:02There's one more to go before we find out which will be the first place to be the first place to be the first place to be the first place to be the first place to be the first place.
36:12At some point in life, most of us reach a moment when a colleague takes us aside and says,
36:18Kevin, I think you should think about retiring, maybe stepping back a little, you know, letting somebody else in, slowing the pace.
36:28What happens then?
36:29I mean, what are you going to do with all that time, you know?
36:32Where am I going to live?
36:33How am I going to live, yeah?
36:36Because retirement, it should not feel like the end of something.
36:40Yeah, you get this?
36:42It ought to feel like the beginning of a new career.
36:44And Damien is going to visit our last home on the long list built for one such retired couple.
36:54And just to be clear, I have no intention of retiring anytime soon, all right?
37:00Oh, hello.
37:02What a strikingly beautiful building.
37:08It's called Ferry House.
37:10The RIBA judges praised the creativity, invention and skill involved in creating this extraordinary shape
37:18for a dramatic and unique home.
37:21The architect was Andy Ramis.
37:23How are you doing?
37:25Hi, nice to hear you.
37:28It certainly takes the breath away when you see all of this.
37:31Now, who are you designing this for?
37:33It was designed for a couple and it was basically their retirement home.
37:37And, you know, who doesn't dream of building a home for their retirement?
37:41If you think about the way that we normally live, we're at work all the time.
37:44And this is a home where they're going to be spending a lot of time, all their time.
37:52Ferry House is arranged across two floors with three distinct wings.
37:57One of the main wings hosts an impressive main bedroom complete with walk-in wardrobe and bathroom.
38:03Opposite is an expansive, open-plan living kitchen area.
38:07At the rear of the property is the smallest wing, which contains the utility room and garage.
38:14Downstairs, on the lower ground floor, there are additional guest rooms and bathrooms.
38:18You walk into the kitchen and immediately consider retirement.
38:27It's calm, it's crisp, it's beautiful.
38:30The kind of space that says, you've done enough.
38:34Sit down, have something lemony.
38:37Oh, Andy, this is absolutely breathtaking.
38:44My overriding ambition was to create a place that made you feel incredibly calm,
38:50that you could feel really, really at ease, really, really connected to nature.
38:54The clients used to live in a house next door on the site,
38:58so had a very strong idea about what they wanted.
39:02It was all about views, views, views.
39:04You know, that was what we were told.
39:06We are literally walking around with them and grading the views, almost like one to ten,
39:11say, which is your favourite view?
39:13Which is your ten out of ten view?
39:16Then we're thinking, okay, well, that's where we want to put the lounge.
39:19Where's your next favourite view?
39:21That's where we want to put the kitchen.
39:23And so on and so on and so on.
39:24And that's how the plan really starts to come together.
39:28It's not just the views that captivate.
39:31The craftsmanship is extraordinary.
39:34The timber roof runs right through the house,
39:37right through all of the rooms in the bedroom wing.
39:41How do you make that happen?
39:44Not a single one is out of place.
39:48So number one is meticulous planning.
39:50So it all has to be drawn so that everything is worked out beforehand.
39:54And then you need a very, very skilled trade to put it together.
39:57And someone who's very tolerant as well because this is the kind of thing
40:00that could really drive you crazy if you weren't careful.
40:02Yeah.
40:03And I'm not sure they were my best friends actually at the end of it.
40:10Andy sketched the big ideas.
40:12Project architect Laura Locke had to make them work.
40:17Three wings, tilting roofs and angles everywhere.
40:21She had to make it all align.
40:24Think architectural origami with steel and timber and no second chances.
40:35The three wings all angle and fall to the centre of this building,
40:40which brings with it a number of complexities.
40:44The lining up of all of the finishes, both internally and externally,
40:48which is not necessarily a parallel situation when you've got so many angles coming together.
40:54How do you go about making something like this happen?
40:56Everyone kind of thinks, oh, you know, it's 100% design.
40:59But in reality, it's not, is it?
41:02It's a certain amount of design and a certain amount of just making it work.
41:06It's quite difficult.
41:07And I think communication with contractors is really vital in projects like this.
41:11The work here was so complicated that something got lost in translation.
41:19We initially set it up with a line of timber that ran on the underside of the ridge and the hit
41:26boards and then ran all the rafter cladding into that ridge board alignment.
41:33The architects weren't happy with that, so we had to take it down.
41:36Rather than connect the cladding to a central ridge board, every piece of wood had to be cut
41:44and angled so that it met its twin from the other side in a razor sharp, seamless joint.
41:53This place is beautiful. It's the sort of house that makes you not care where you left your passport.
42:00The architect. Being here really does feel like being on a holiday with incredible access to the outdoors,
42:08amazing views and vistas in every direction, even a place to sun yourself.
42:14And all of this is contained within a house that has been beautifully designed and detailed by the architect.
42:30We've explored six remarkable homes so far, but which will earn their place on the coveted shortlist?
42:47In the running are the bold and beautiful triangle house with a whisper of the Caribbean.
42:52The restrained and elegant Niwa House. A home shaped by Japanese design principles and tranquility.
43:01The Californian Courtyard House. Bright, breezy and designed for soaking up the sun.
43:08Sea Sky House. A coastal retreat where every day feels like a holiday.
43:14Catching Sun House. A house that basks in light from morning till night.
43:20And Ferry House. Proving that retirement can be anything but retiring.
43:28Joining me is one of the judges, Livia Wang.
43:32How many houses have you shortlisted from this category?
43:34One. Just the one? Just the one.
43:36Which is? Triangle House. Triangle.
43:42So what is it about that house that caught your imagination?
43:45It's colourful. It's inventive. So all the blue block work.
43:50The two cuts on it, they all came on an angle so they had this really nice blue stone columns.
43:55It's pointing to adventure isn't it? It's saying come with me and I'm going to
43:58I'm going to take you by the hand and lead you on an exciting journey through this place.
44:03Yeah, absolutely.
44:04Oh, that's amazing.
44:05Wow, that's really good news.
44:07I mean, it's great. It's because it's also one of our first projects.
44:12We only started our practice about four years ago and building takes a long time.
44:17So Triangle House joins the shortest alongside Kirk and the Crake and Hastings House.
44:23There are four more places up for grabs before we find out which is crowned the 2025 RIBA House of the Year.
44:34Adversity isn't an essential quality in great buildings.
44:40But when it happens, it actually often deepens the rewards.
44:43I mean, homes which have difficult births, shaped by struggle and perseverance, where every decision has been hard won.
44:53When that long journey ends in a place of escape or in a building that lifts you from the everyday
45:00and takes you on holiday, for example, then the result is all the sweeter.
45:06It's that Teddy Roosevelt quote, you know,
45:08I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life.
45:12But I have envied many people who led difficult lives, but led them well.
45:22Next time, we'll explore houses that celebrate their use of craftsmanship.
45:27They're on spring-loaded pivots.
45:28Yes, spring. Oh, wow, that's so elegant.
45:31Six more homes that draw you inside.
45:34They're stored. This is brass, isn't it?
45:35Yes. It makes a very impressive entrance.
45:38And inspire wonder.
45:39Oh, wow, look at this.
45:41The timber frame is the star of the show.
46:08The wind that acompavie's
46:14The timber frame is the star of the day from this ray.
46:18It's always for the stomp-old record.
46:19Just keep drawing.
46:21The snow found on a path to this.
46:22This is the big wall I could make for the years.
46:24It looks like I don't have to live in a new state.
46:26There's a big wall it's not facile.
46:28Yeah, he had to qual spin.
46:29But I have to draw to this.
46:30The timber frame is the CSS custom shaft.
46:32It's a very Overall row,
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