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Grand Designs House of the Year S08 E03 2025
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00:00competition gets a bad rep these days doesn't it i mean you can get a medal just for turning up
00:07darwin however he said that competition leads to evolution the means whereby we advance
00:13how we improve our lot and ourselves and so it is with the royal institute of british
00:19architects house of the year award 2025. knuckle-draggers not welcome
00:25in the great ecosystem of british housing these are the apex predators sharp instinctive and fully
00:34evolved that's clever oh heavens the judges have chosen a long list of britain's most remarkable
00:42new buildings oh this is really really good from houses that were a battle to build it was extreme
00:51living i would say i was sharing my caravan with my dog we didn't have a shower on site to those
00:57homes that positively glow oh my lord it's good from down below but it's better from up here because
01:03i know right the houses we explore will be whittled down to a short list of just seven
01:10the range on offer is really really exciting i think it'll be really exciting to see the house
01:15that wins and shines through before we find out in the final program which one is crowned house of the
01:21year 2025. so join us as we bring you this year's pinnacle of house building evolution
01:45so far three homes have claimed their place on the shortlist kirk and the craig on the isle of harris
02:01hastings house a triumph of engineering and elegance and triangle house a home that takes you away to the
02:12caribbean now we have six more buildings to explore snooping around them with me is the architect damian
02:21burrows oh this is breathtaking and the conservation architect natasha huck oh my goodness please it's
02:31just so welcoming this time we're looking at houses that celebrate their materials and their craftsmanship
02:39and if you think that craft these days is all about hand-wittled cotton buds or crocheted modesty
02:46toilet roll holders then think again because in the 21st century craftsmanship is expressed in
02:52buildings so expect concrete steel lasers alongside the usual timber and stone it's going to be risky
03:02it's going to be exciting it's going to be a little bit dangerous
03:09and in cambridge our first long lister comes with a health warning dangerously absorbing craftsmanship
03:17the sort that stops you in your tracks and could see you missing lunch tea and possibly winter
03:23well this is mill hide outside weathered rust red steel inside cool white italian limestone a house of contrasts
03:41hello brought together by its architect owner tim and his wife liz what a lovely moment arriving here
03:56tucked into the cambridge of fenland mill hide is an extraordinary sculptural home it's designed around
04:03a central courtyard or winter garden with a giant roof light that actually opens all the rooms are off
04:10this space there's a kitchen a living area come dining space then three bedrooms and three bathrooms
04:18all encased in what looks like a continuous skin of rusty steel
04:23i'd expect to find a cladding system of panels where the gaps are all millimeter equal
04:33but here they're very tightly butted tim is known as millimeter tim in the business round
04:40i like that though i mean we could do with a few more millimeter people
04:44i wanted this to appeal as though it was a piece of solid steel but that skin is designed in such
04:50a way that there are no visible fixings the corners or the window reveals are always folded so you never
04:56see the thickness of the metal so that it actually gives you that feeling of total solidity that's
05:02really elegantly sorcery the inspiration for this was the work of the world famous sculptor richard serra
05:12who specialized in working with steel i mean he's a great sculptor and thinking about a piece of
05:18sculpture in the landscape you know you have to look at something like art and landscaping new zealand
05:24which is 280 meters of corten steel 40 millimeters thick six meters high and that was what i wanted to achieve
05:36step inside and holy illuminati it's bright white calm like walking into the center of a cloud
05:46you walk into the winter garden an internal courtyard at the center of the house from which all the rooms
05:53radiate the intention was you have open space on all four sides but the ability to actually close that
06:01off in such a way that those openings became part of the internal surface of the central court and you
06:09know so they're pivoted doors which well they do move they they do pivot yeah right so by a very simple
06:17motion oh very light they're just on a little they're on spring-loaded pivots spring oh wow that's
06:25so elegant so they land exactly where they should bye liz bye so with all the doors closed this becomes the
06:34gallery and it has that enclosure quality very very clever indeed this is super satisfying because
06:42and i would expect nothing else to him the the illusion and the integrity of that wall
06:50only works because everything's absolutely yeah flat in line and flush millimeters again yeah
06:56that's not the only trick this space offers we'd like to see the roof light open yeah i dearly would
07:08yeah i mean here we are we're inside the building so click so clearly oh the entire thing slides
07:19the light changes and shifts doors open and close and spaces change
07:41this house feels like a living breathing thing
07:44do you know when i first saw this place i thought goodness me that looks so calm and still
07:53and unchanging and almost impregnable you know then i realized of course inside it's the exact opposite
07:59its potential to change is vast it's changing all the time things are moving spaces are opening up
08:06just reminds me that great architecture has got very little to do with what things look like
08:15and much more to do with what places feel like
08:24we've seen one house so far five more to go until we find out which will be shortlisted for the house of the
08:31year 2025 ah suburbia that curious british in between neatly balanced between the buzz of the city and the
08:53calm of the calm of the countryside a land built on brick bay windows garden walls decorative lintels each
09:01a quiet celebration of everyday craft our next house doesn't just nod to that tradition it reinvents
09:08it it is a love letter to local materials and a master class in modern craftsmanship
09:15lemma and nicole set up their own architectural practice three years ago the chance to do their first
09:29project together came about one christmas at nicole's parents home it was very cramped one christmas we
09:40were trying to get everyone in the space we had it was impossible so lemma said i can make it better
09:48so he did so we said right get some plans done and have a look the house in norfolk was a beautiful
09:57victorian home with a leaky extension built in the 1990s the extension came down and instead
10:06lemma and nicole built this beautiful brick box for 500 000 pounds
10:17the new addition to the old house gives nicole's parents all the space they need for entertaining
10:24with a kitchen dining room and living space all in one all wrapped in beautiful brick detailing
10:31we looked around the local area and there's really beautiful detailing on a lot of the houses
10:40the particular ribbed brick work was inspired by the chimney on the house and the cast corbels were
10:47inspired by the dog tooth corbling on the existing house so it's kind of a contemporary take on the
10:53existing details corbling is where bricks jut out above one another dog tooth corbling is where they
11:02stick out diagonally in a sharp point you see brick corbling done but it doesn't have that point of
11:09difference that we wanted to kind of achieve when we were thinking about introducing contemporary element
11:13to the house that point of difference was using bricks in the middle and then concrete at the top
11:20to form continuous dog tooth panels it was cast in specially made molds cut from plastic foam these
11:28were placed into formwork boxes and then the concrete poured tinted brick red with dye
11:36in the back of the garden we had some fencing set up and a concrete mixer
11:41i mean it looked like a blood bath because it was pigmented concrete for a good like six months
11:47you'd know where we'd been every day you'd come home you'd rinse off your hands like lady macbeth
11:51when the first section of concrete was poured and had set the pressure was on it kind of started a
11:57stopwatch really where we had to rush to get everything cast in time for the bricklayers to come back and
12:03install it lemma and nicole had to race to cast the next piece of concrete before the bricklayer had
12:10finished the previous section of wall we had quite a grueling casting schedule we had some days where
12:18we were casting and then the next day we'd be leaving them to set and then taking them out of
12:24the molds repairing the molds because we tried to reuse as many of them as possible and then the cycle
12:30would start again because we ended up doing the casting over winter so it obviously got cold it was
12:36very wet and there were some days where it got kind of closer to freezing so we had to be really
12:41looking at whether or not the concrete was set properly keeping it warm nothing on this project
12:47came easily just as outside the concrete was painstakingly cast by lemma and nicole
12:55so the kitchen living space inside was also hard one all the timber joinery was stained and oiled by them too
13:03what's more each piece of it had to be labeled and driven by them from their workshop in london
13:11to norfolk we put 15 000 miles on the clock it was a big sacrifice and a big personal effort
13:17um overall to kind of keep things moving so what do nicole's parents make of it the kitchen has been
13:24transformed i'd be in the kitchen by myself cooking while they're all doing things in other rooms
13:34now people sit around the island or sit at the table
13:42an audience is important for this
13:48lots of people come and see it it's one of the first things we show them because they just all say
13:53i want the spice draw you did all the labeling yourself yes of course color coded i was color
14:00coded into like red for hot european and american
14:09a color-coded spice draw lets you know that people here care perhaps a little too much this is a house
14:17built by passionate obsessives a testament to what's possible when you embrace the hard way
14:23chase the details and go all in on making something extraordinary
14:33many of us build our houses not just to please ourselves but also the neighbors to fit the postcode to
14:41conform to the planning rules but what if you didn't i mean what if you built something that
14:46quietly threw caution and convention and the street's color palette to the wind and instead used its
14:53materials to stand apart at home with a distinct voice measured graceful and just provocative enough
15:02to feature in the neighborhood whatsapp group that would be something wouldn't it
15:13i'm in southwest london to see our next building that's not afraid to make an entrance
15:17on a beautiful riverside street like this each one of these houses is playing a careful game of one-upmanship
15:27but these houses politely jostle
15:34lower ham doesn't it throws bread rolls it's bold brilliant and as carefully crafted as a punk's mohawk
15:43it's a building that's loud proud full of poise and attitude
15:56this extraordinary home has a single story extension and a tower the single story section has a front
16:04office comfortable guest bedroom and downstairs bathroom there's also a spacious open plan kitchen
16:11connecting to a cozy snug beyond this there are two additional bedrooms both open directly onto a
16:18serene central courtyard garden in the tower on the ground floor there is a dining room the first floor is
16:25home to the main living area while the top floor is devoted to a luxurious master bedroom suite
16:32at the rear of the house is a garden space complete with a versatile summer house that doubles as an office
16:41the owner is retired marketing director john
16:47walking up the street this makes an impression i mean it stands out it's really quite splendid it is
16:54somewhat different and if i had one pound for everybody that they commented on it stopped and
17:00photographed it i could have paid for the whole house this is a fantastic approach and what an entrance
17:13could we have a moment for this store the scale of this john i mean it's huge yes it is
17:21i mean the material quality here this is brass isn't it yes yeah that is not something you would
17:26normally use on a door it's heavy it's expensive it's something that you would normally use for a
17:32door handle or a letter box yes it sets the scene for the whole house i think this attention to detail
17:38you will find goes through the house as a whole and that's a tribute to the architects
17:43step inside and the loud shapes and extravagant materials on the outside soften to something more serene
17:57to have a courtyard garden here is quite something the way that this corner just flies around totally
18:05unsupported you're performing structural gymnastics yes and that's not all because this door
18:12and this glass all around the courtyard opens up so the kitchen effectively becomes part of the courtyard
18:20and it's an ideal place for breakfast lunch and dinner
18:27so often you go into a house and you've got a corridor and three rooms or whatever
18:31and i thought it would be very nice to happen where you walk in and you see different aspects of the
18:38house as you walk through it if downstairs is about the calm practical day-to-day the tower
18:46is where the fun happens where guests get to enjoy the house in the first floor living room
18:53this house is all about the entertaining yes it is and part of entertaining of course is theater
18:59exactly so you have the kitchen downstairs you've got the movement through to the dining lounge and then
19:05drinks in the lounge upstairs or on a summer's evening drinks on the terrace where the sun's shining
19:11and you can have pre-dinner drinks out there or pre-dinner drinks out here
19:15and post-dinner drinks out there or post-dinner drinks out there seem to be a lot of drinks john
19:20well there are a lot of corks downstairs there are entertaining here isn't an afterthought it's the whole
19:31point like any star venue it needs a grand entrance oh they are enormous so the architect ian crane gave it
19:44one it's not even just the height i mean look at the width of these i mean how tall is this well
19:53they're just under six meters high where do you even begin to get a piece of glass that size there
19:58are only a couple of companies in the uk that can manufacture glass of this size and scale
20:02and eventually we've chose a company who are based in turkey so transporting these bits of glass across
20:08europe was fraught with danger ultimately the windows went in just before christmas and it was a bit
20:13like today very windy these large pieces of glass going in at a high level just the day before christmas
20:20one small thing on the side of the building and then you lose a piece of glass you'll be back to square
20:25one again mercifully there were no breakages what's really impressive about this house
20:32is the effortless ease with which it guides you around it from room to room
20:40it's a place that encourages exploration and rewards you for doing it
20:50most houses are containers for the chaos in our lives the stress and the pressure of work
20:58but this house well this is very different this steps in and it intervenes
21:05from the moment you walk up the grand staircase to that beautiful brass door
21:09this house takes over the continuous lines of the brickwork guide you through
21:15there you have options do you travel up to the tower and admire the views of the river
21:21or do you dwell in the serenity of this courtyard at every single moment this house steps in and
21:28slows your life down and that's a very very special thing we've seen three houses so far that take you on
21:39a holiday and we have three more to see before we find out which will win a place on the shortlist
21:52water towers lighthouses old electricity substations i mean these are all building types which are
21:58ripe for conversion to residential use of course the time-honored conversion is that of the humble agricultural
22:06barn but what if you did a barn conversion which was minimal which stripped out the interior took
22:15it back to its raw powerful earthy barniness i mean that could be amazing couldn't it
22:24any downside i can think of is that you'd end up living in a barn like a cow
22:34i'm in essex to visit our next long lister
22:37for a self-built project in a rural location barn conversions make a lot of sense first of all you
22:45have a large open space that you can cut up as you see fit then the planning process is easier because
22:51there's already a structure there and hopefully the building itself will have lots of character that you
22:57can play with
22:58the wall too often that character is the first casualty of barn conversions as the inside gets
23:08carved up to create as many rooms as possible not here though not with this 18th century threshing barn
23:17this is jank's barn a relic of rural life carefully conserved and elegantly reimagined
23:24inside this remarkable old structure under the cathedral-like ceiling there is a living space
23:33kitchen area and dining space and on top of a pulpit-like structure built within is a study
23:40of the main space there are two separate bedrooms
23:47it was commissioned by landscape designer joe
23:50hi joe hi natasha very nice to meet you and you too how are you very well thank you thank you
23:57oh look at this place it's just so welcoming oh
24:04it had been used as a barn we think until the 60s and 70s and then my neighbors who sold the barn to me
24:12they've been here for 25 years and they thought that they would one day do the barn themselves but
24:18they didn't get round to it and then they decided to sell pass the baton to me exactly and so when
24:25i first saw it it was full of family stuff goodness it was their storeroom bicycles there
24:32was a rowing boat chests of drawers you name it it was in there
24:39when joanne enlisted her architect the brief was simple retain the barn's character do only what was
24:46necessary don't change anything unless you have to the brief from me was to allow the bomb to retain
24:55its agricultural feel is it okay for you look inside absolutely come in oh wow look at this
25:08step in and you're greeted by this breathtaking space
25:11the original barn volume left intact no mezzanines no partitions no white plasterboard
25:19the judges were impressed by the care and conservation taken by all involved
25:25i didn't want to put in a mezzanine floor i didn't want to have anything that would interfere with the
25:31original structure i wanted it to be left in its original huge volume because this is how it was built
25:40and how it has stayed for the last 250 years so we've kept to the original division between what
25:49were lean twos and what was the main threshing barn
25:56there was a lot of respect for the historic structure here so the new elements sit entirely apart
26:01from it we introduced three black objects into the building there's the study platform
26:13there's the kitchen and the wood-burning stove but none of them touches the wall so they're all
26:22freestanding so the barn almost acts as the gallery to host these three pieces of sculpture yes in a way
26:30i think that the timber frame is like a work of art absolutely and the star of the show
26:36and is respected and loved and left in its original form well most of it you'd never know at first
26:44glance but some of this ancient timber had to be replaced by the craft and expertise of one man
26:49dr joseph bisphen i signed my indenture as a carpenter and joiner on the 23rd of june 1963.
26:56oh goodness so i've been doing carpentry journey for quite a long time
27:02we've lost so much of our history and this is in a way fairly unique with essex because they're not
27:08common these field bars and there was a time when it was a scrap it mentality so everything would be
27:14knocked down to repair the barn joseph carefully removes the rotten parts and then scarfs in new pieces
27:22a scarf is an old piece of timber to a new piece so if you look at that then that's a scarf and a good
27:30example is this piece of oak here so if that was a post and we were scarfing in then that will be the
27:37tenant to go hold on the plate and that will be the running scarf that will go on to the the existing
27:43piece of timber so this is the replace this is the repair right because you're looking at something
27:48that's rotted away at the bottom so it's about minimal intervention but it needs to stand the test
27:54of time it's not just new timber that's scarfed in either there you've used a salvaged piece yeah
28:02so it's this mix of old new salvage yes i mean where we could we use every piece of timber there's
28:09no bonfires here yes nothing you know so even small pieces of timber they'll most probably have
28:14a job before before you know before the job is finished the architects were patrick lynch and rachel
28:29elliott there's something about the presence of old buildings that like you can just see the notches
28:35and the cuts and the workmanship and so there's this friendly ghosts it's not alienating but it's
28:40also a bit uncanny the more you look at historic buildings and are able to read them you know that
28:45there were phases in this building we know that the mid stray was cut in later we know this wall had to
28:52be rebuilt um in the 80s because there were cattle in here and they pushed the wall over i mean i find
28:58that really interesting and a great part of working on historic buildings
29:01this is conservation not by freezing time but by working with what was there repairing it
29:12honoring how it was made and allowing something new to emerge this project is a careful restoration
29:20that finds beauty in the craft of what was once a purely functional building by celebrating the work
29:27that went into making it and by adding a few sympathetic additions this building has been
29:33given a new elegant life and become a beautiful home for joanne
29:43there is one british instinct which is is deeply embedded it's almost genetic and that's the instinct
29:50to avoid making a fuss and we cue quietly we say sorry when we open the door for somebody else
29:57although we've never apologized for stealing the elgin marbles when it comes to design of course we also
30:03like our buildings to be a little modest to be quieter polite something that knows its context and
30:11when to keep its voice down but what if what if that modesty was a mask what if playing it down was how
30:18you got away with something much bigger you know well it takes is a little camouflage to smuggle in a
30:25bit of architectural daring well our next long lister in wales has pulled that trick off rather nicely
30:36this is croiss vagh outside you see local black mountain stone and a familiar barn-like form
30:44inside it's got all the elegance and architectural drama of a danish design gallery the riba judges
30:52praised how highly crafted and well built it was inside and out he wanted to try to develop something
31:01which is of now which is contemporary but not in such a way which is unduly insensitive or likely to
31:08be alienating to people it sits into the slope with a raised drive that curves around the back of the
31:18house you enter into a double height hallway with an office and granny annex in one direction
31:25then along the other corridor there are five bedrooms and a family bathroom with access to the garden
31:31heading upstairs there's a tv room at one end with a playroom toilets and utility rooms hidden along the
31:40back all connected by a large kitchen living diner that opens onto the view it was commissioned by
31:48fernanda and ben who bought the plot with an existing house on it hoping they might extend it slightly
31:54just making some changes in the rooms making some room bigger expanding some areas yeah modifying some
32:01other ones at the same time we were also multiplying the amount of children we had so we were quickly
32:06realizing we were running out of bedrooms so they decided to knock it down and build an upside down
32:13house that took advantage of the view living space at the top bedrooms on the bottom floor perfect if
32:19you're small quick and prefer to start your day without adult supervision we sleep on the bottom we can
32:27open the door from our room so we can just go like to play outside whenever we want kind of in the morning
32:34i like to feed the chickens because that's when they start that's when they wake up so i feed the
32:41chickens at that time so they start laying eggs
32:43then they can head upstairs where the grown-up architectural magic happens
32:53you're not completely entitled to see the view until you actually reach the top of the stairs
33:00yeah a proper bit of theater once you get to the top it doesn't reveal itself until the very end
33:07okay wow yes it is a single open space wrapped in glass aimed straight at the welsh mountains beautiful
33:20but where's all the stuff i can show you a secret which is the favorite of the family
33:27and it's this lava cupboard which we design to be able to hide all the little mess that we can create
33:36as a family and once it's done you close your docks back again which are very easy and then it all get
33:45hidden away
33:48they've gone a step further than that they've built a 15 meter wall in walnut to hide entire rooms
33:55all the messy stuff off the back of the main living area so things like the playroom the water closet
34:02the utility area all of that's hidden away behind this main wall
34:09this is a house that makes the best of its setting with materials that help make it feel
34:15part of this magical place we always say how lucky we are you can't get bored so it's just nice
34:24we've seen five beautifully crafted homes so far one more to go before we find out which have been
34:35shortlisted
34:49i'm off to suffolk to visit our next house on the long list by a master architect and craftsman
34:56and i've got a personal reason for visiting this one just down here there's a house by an architect
35:02who i have long admired james gorst
35:08so it's with a little trepidation that i approach because i'm not expecting to be disappointed
35:14i don't want to be disappointed at the edge of a village here where thatch and brick meet field and
35:25shed sits something unexpected okay here we are not a cottage not a barn but something else
35:36i'm not sure i've come to the right building i mean this is just a wall and a garage
35:48although the garage is beautifully detailed with a double roof and a chain pipe and a
35:56oh douglas fur cladding and the wall oh the wall is l-shaped and it is monumental
36:06this is a mento four timber pavilions stitched together by thick brick walls as if they predate
36:17the buildings that lean against them the douglas fur interiors are crafted with the precision of a
36:23cabinet maker every joint every line and surface calmly exact
36:28the house is split into quadrants
36:40one has the entrance hall with boot room and garage
36:45the second quadrant has a snug and master bedroom
36:48the third contains two bedrooms and a bathroom and the fourth has the living and dining area with a kitchen
37:00hi hello sorry i let myself in its owners are liz and peter very nice to meet you and you liz yeah
37:08yes peter peter how are you i'm still trying to figure out the plan of it because it's got
37:14it looks like a shed next to a great big wall is that right well it's actually three walls
37:19it's a broken cruciform so there were a series of sheds here that were run down and neglected for
37:25probably decades and james gorst was quick to pick up on that see anybody else would just say i'll just
37:32do you a bunch of sheds what james does is say i'm going to do you a bunch of sheds on steroids with
37:35this great big monumental wall slicing through so what was your brief low maintenance easy to clean
37:42calm single level living we didn't want to use the b word which was bungalow but you might have used
37:48the b plural word which is bungalows that's much more attractive the RIBA judges praised the confidence
37:59and craft in the building noting particularly the sharpness of the brickwork two brothers built the
38:06walls they did it themselves 40 000 bricks they're beautifully done and same with our joiner
38:11but when you look at the work you could see that there was enjoyment in putting this house up
38:16you can see it expressed in the craftsmanship
38:22inside you walk along one of the great spine brick walls into the kitchen quarter of the house
38:30the kitchen is then incorporated into the rest of the building this is one large volume
38:35and a giant celebration of one material douglas fur wood everything in the kitchen in douglas fur
38:44you've got douglas fur cutlery how far does it extend we wanted to use the same material throughout to
38:53create uh an overall very calm palette and so as you look through everything is just seamless
39:02there's mullions those big posts are magnificent they take the rhythms of the ceiling and they
39:08carry them into the floor and wherever it's used it's sort of it's giving you a hug
39:13it's a it's a huggable material
39:18even the brick feels softer here somehow
39:22outside it looks like it's slicing the house into four neat chunks
39:28but inside you realize the walls don't divide they invite you through
39:34and what's through here through the oh does this fur door
39:37a burst of color oh so there is the wall sharply separates the pale colors of the wood and brick
39:46from an ocean of blue i'm beginning to see the walls is quite kind of powerful presences when the
39:53kids they're young adults now uh when they come home this is their private space yeah what's very nice
39:59is that it does feel very adult so it's not like returning to their old bedrooms and a family home with
40:05the posters on the wall and they feel like they're regressing every time they come home
40:11part of the idea for the house came from the sheds that were here before
40:16the rest came from the mind of its designer james gorst the little fantasy i had in my head
40:22was that these walls represented the work of some previous civilization and that a later date people
40:29came along and thought we can have these four quadrants and make them useful and so these much
40:35more human scale mono pitches were fitted around although the business of actually building his vision
40:44was nerve-wracking when the house first went up i had that terrible sinking feeling when you think
40:50you've just got something really wrong when you came here and saw these expletive deleted walls
40:58it just looked so massive and gaunt and i did think what the hell have i done here but it's okay now
41:06and that's the nature of architecture you know often you are being a bit brave with scale and initially it
41:11can be a bit concerning who dares wins it's always a worry meeting your heroes but a mento does not
41:20disappoint you can use brick and timber to do a job hold up a roof clad a wall but as the architect louis
41:29khan said even a brick wants to be something more
41:36it takes a real master of their craft somebody like james gorst to take these materials
41:44and make them sing i mean really sing to write a song for them which speaks of their hopes and their memories
41:59we've explored six remarkable homes but which will make the shortlist
42:04mill hide brutal core ten on the outside butter smooth limestone within
42:15cast corbel house a suburban semi with big ambitions a brick-built piece of architectural chutzpah
42:24lower ham part riverside folly part tuscan daydream there's a brass front door a tower and just enough
42:33restraint to stop it becoming a bond set jank's barn the glorious timber-framed relic brought back from
42:42the brink croiss vach a welch farmhouse for the 21st century that hugs the hillside and embraces the view
42:52and a mento so minimal it's practically monastic
42:56just air lights and the quiet confidence of a building that's reached enlightenment
43:06on the jury is livia wang so how many projects from this category have you shortlisted two two
43:14what's your first amento amento there was so much potential for these two different types of
43:19material languages in terms of how they meet but also what the gardens were doing in each section of
43:25the site that had just been divided up how successful do you think it was for its rigor and
43:30thoroughness i mean i think the thing that's really successful about this building is the use of
43:35materials and how finely it's all been detailed that's wonderful news that's really oh that's really
43:43good very very pleased to hear that so you've got a second project you've shortlisted in this category
43:48what is it jank's barn right that's surprising for me because it's a very very historical building so
43:57much of it is is about conservation oh but the way they did it every single beam every single little
44:04purlin even the little pieces of wood holding it all together were just cared for so well it's an essay
44:12and loving the original barn and that's not what every single conservation project is about this
44:17is not a bog-stranded barn conversion this is one that really makes you think everyone knows every
44:23single piece of wood that's great absolutely thrilled so jack's barn and amento take their place on
44:34the shortlist alongside hastings house kirk and the craic and triangle house
44:44we have just two more places on the shortlist before we find out who will be crowned house of
44:49the year 2025. good homes and i mean really good homes they don't try to be anything they're not
44:58they're quietly confident singular unmistakably themselves judy garland said be a first-rate
45:06version of yourself and never a second-rate version of somebody else that's what these homes do they
45:13follow no template they chase no trend they're built with courage and conviction and they are pure
45:19expressions of the people who dared to imagine them and the people then who made them real and that to me
45:27that is an absolute mark of beauty next time we'll explore houses which are extraordinary
45:37transformations it's so lush six more homes that challenge the way we live oh my word it's stunning
45:46and we'll discover the riba house of the year winner this project has been ambitious on so many levels
45:56so
46:03so
46:09Transcription by CastingWords
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