Grand Designs

[Tankus]

He was the first architect that Kev's had on that I've actually liked .....the building didn't turn out to be yet another architectural wank fest for other architects to glop over. . it was just all round good design from a challenging base.... Not that I know much ..

...I didn't like the bath either ...wetroom kick off shower would have done it for me...

....and I also would have been tempted to run those stairs all the way to the top and run another barbies chimney from a roof patio.... Full on views all around .....A missed trick there ? Dunno ?

Loved that balcony extension ..


That house was only filmed completed only a week or two ago ....? I wonder of they are running short of projects ?

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

The one last night (shipping containers) was utterly fantastic.

 

[stavros]

Moby house make out of shipping containers lastnight looked smart outside, not do keen on the hammock bath.

I thought Moby from the very start.

A lovely house and he seemed like a lovely bloke. I did have trouble understanding quite a lot of what he said though, but that's my failing.

 

[SpookyFrank]

He was the first architect that Kev's had on that I've actually liked .....the building didn't turn out to be yet another architectural wank fest for other architects to glop over. . it was just all round good design from a challenging base.... Not that I know much ..

Yeah I had a hard time believing that the bloke was an architect, because he wasn't a total twat. The building wasn't my cup of tea but you could see it was well designed and the attention to detail was impressive.

I wonder if the 130,000 price tag included the (horrid) bath and the fancy fitted kitchen and all that? Either way it's a fucking bargain, especially when you think that developers are forever claiming they can't possibly build homes for a price normal people can pay, and the local authority simply must get rid of the requirement for them to build affordable units alongside their yuppie flats because there's simply no way they'd be able to turn a profit. Homes in the UK being so vastly undervalued and all

 

[aqua]

I loved the concept of the bath but it just looked shit in that house. Nice bloke though

 

[SpookyFrank]

I loved the concept of the bath but it just looked shit in that house. Nice bloke though

Kevin nailed it IMO.

"You've not bought a comfortable bath, you've bought an uncomfortable hammock."

...for sixteen grand. The bloke selling it had a look on his face like he was on a bet to try and palm the thing off for the most ridiculous price he could think of.

 

[Tankus]

Yeah I had a hard time believing that the bloke was an architect, because he wasn't a total twat. The building wasn't my cup of tea but you could see it was well designed and the attention to detail was impressive.

I wonder if the 130,000 price tag included the (horrid) bath and the fancy fitted kitchen and all that? Either way it's a fucking bargain, especially when you think that developers are forever claiming they can't possibly build homes for a price normal people can buy, and the local authority simply must get rid of the requirement for them to build affordable units alongside their yuppie flats because there's simply no way they'd be able to turn a profit. Homes in the UK being so vastly undervalued and all

Land was already theirs though

It would need quite a big square plot

 

[teuchter]

Last week's condensed box in Cornwall was lovely, apart from the pitch black cladding.

Just watched this one. Very nice indeed. One of the best GD projects I've seen. Very ambitious and they absolutely pulled it off.

 

[The Boy]

I wonder if the 130,000 price tag included the (horrid) bath and the fancy fitted kitchen and all that? :

Think so, but the land was owned by the family so that needs taking into account.

Was grinning ask the way through that episode though. Cracking house.

 

[stavros]

Is labour likely to be significantly cheaper in Northern Ireland than the rest of the UK, or, more specifically, England, where the majority of GDs are?

 

[ddraig]

was the one last night in or near Lordship Lane? the artist couple with the shed/plastic finish?
and if so where was the pub with the blue tiles? was really confusing me last night as have forgotten some of the area
ta

 

[braindancer]

was the one last night in or near Lordship Lane? the artist couple with the shed/plastic finish?
and if so where was the pub with the blue tiles? was really confusing me last night as have forgotten some of the area
ta

I didn't catch where it was but I did think I heard Kevin say it was in South East London? I didn't find it a particularly inspiring one - much preferred the shipping container chap last week and the Cornish project the week before (which was absolutely beautiful).

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

I thought it was awful. And the site? All surrounded by the older victorian terraces? Urgh.

 

[aqua]

I didn't catch where it was but I did think I heard Kevin say it was in South East London? I didn't find it a particularly inspiring one - much preferred the shipping container chap last week and the Cornish project the week before (which was absolutely beautiful).

last nights was horrible what the fuck must the neighbours see now!

 

[braindancer]

I thought it was awful. And the site? All surrounded by the older victorian terraces? Urgh.

And I can't imagine the residents of those Victorian terraces would have been too chuffed to see that massive thing go up at the back of their yards....

 

[ddraig]

yeah, was wondering how much light they would have all lost

 

[ddraig]

I didn't catch where it was but I did think I heard Kevin say it was in South East London? I didn't find it a particularly inspiring one - much preferred the shipping container chap last week and the Cornish project the week before (which was absolutely beautiful).

agreed
reckon it was lordship lane area/way

 

[pseudonarcissus]

I took the dog for a walk half way through, but I heard the presenter say "they were running out of money so they fired the architect....which I think was a mistake"...I guess that's the architect that massively underestimated the build costs, and didn't work through the details meaning it didn't fit together without a huge amount of site work, oh, and didn't anticipate objections over the height so they had to bury it by 2'

 

[aqua]

They struck me as a couple I really REALLY wouldn't get on with

 

[tufty79]

I thought it was lordship lane way too.. Pub might have been Franklin's?
It's 5+ years since i've been anywhere near there, so i could well be wrong

 

[ddraig]

I thought it was lordship lane way too.. Pub might have been Franklin's?
It's 5+ years since i've been anywhere near there, so i could well be wrong

longer than that for me! around 10 years

 

[Pickman's model]

last nights was horrible what the fuck must the neighbours see now!

i thought it was good on the outside although i wouldn't have got on with some aspects of the interior.

 

[tufty79]

It made me yearn for glowy panels instead of walls

 

[ringo]

It looked a hell of a lot better at the end than I thought it would, but they only showed the glowing panels, not the sides and back. What a view for the neighbours. That corrugated farm material is grim, the piece showing what it will look like in a few years should have warned them. Anyone who's ever visited a farm knows how grim it looks once it's weathered and started to disintegrate.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Sounds like they're claiming to be artists but they've actually made their money flipping houses.

 

[spliff]

I thought it was crap. The building turned it's back on it's neighbours which might not be a bad thing because it was so fucking ugly.
A lesson in not letting scenic artists and props buyers build houses.

However I did like the builders Remi and Romus, the dogs were lovely and the car was spiffing.

 

[teuchter]

I guess that's the architect that massively underestimated the build costs, and didn't work through the details meaning it didn't fit together without a huge amount of site work

That didn't work through the site details because they didn't pay him to. That would have been the stage of work that they decided not to engage him for. Detailed construction drawings. They actually did a pretty good job of it themselves, though, although they probably wasted a very large amount of their own and the builder's time doing it that way.

 

[teuchter]

I though the N. Ireland one was ok in terms of the finished house (if a little cheesy for my liking). However I didn't really buy the whole shipping container thing. Surely the whole point of using a prefabbed unit like that is to use it in a way that exploits the way it's already been designed. But as was repeatedly pointed out (with a lot of hammed-up "OMG no one knows if this is going to work" pantomine from Kevin) stacking the containers on their weakest points meant that they had to do loads of structural alteration to them. Was this really cheaper than just designing and building a purpose-built steel frame? I'm very skeptical. Plus he must have set himself up with a few very awkward thermal details doing it the way he did (with steel elements passing from inside to outside of building at the junctions).

The SE London one I thought was more original and thoughtful and more sophisticated. Not sure why everyone's fretting so much about the neighbours; as far as I understood, the whole point of the courtyard is that it backs onto existing high walls around the perimeter, so effectively has no "back" for the neighbours to look at.

 

[hash tag]

The last two epsiodes were pretty original. As for this weeks in SE London, horrid and ugly and built by a couple with too much money. With all that money they could have built something half decent. A little worried for their neigbours; 5 of them had to have their main drainage altered just to cope with the depth of the new place!
The geezer in NI was far nicer and down to earth. Reminded more of the lovely couple in a very early epsiode who converted an old water works or the chap on the Welsh Border who rebuilt an old cottage at the top of the hill and was phased by nothing, and goodness knows he ha everything thrown at him, snow, ice, floods, falling trees, foot n mouth........

 

[SpookyFrank]

This was one of those houses where I thought, the design is interesting but it wouldn't work as a house for living in.

All these people with their big open-plan spaces, they never think about where they're gonna keep the hoover.