joe90 Posted January 5, 2018 Share Posted January 5, 2018 "Your home should be about enriching the daily experience.” i found this interesting. https://www.theguardian.com/money/2011/apr/09/grand-designs-kevin-mccloud Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToughButterCup Posted January 5, 2018 Share Posted January 5, 2018 Thanks @joe90 for the link. Surprised they sell the Grauniad down your way.... As it happens the man himself is also in the news today for unhappier reasons This bit could have been written by @JSHarris ' • Grand Designs don't happen without what McCloud believes to be the essential component of any home improvement project: an architect. "Expert help needn't be impossibly expensive. Everyone deserves and needs to work with talented individuals. If you go to a good architect, your fees will pay for themselves." and most uncomfortably this is all too true I come across people who are very successful in their own sphere, and really believe they can do it all themselves, but they can't." Ouch. Thanks @nod for teaching me that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joe90 Posted January 5, 2018 Author Share Posted January 5, 2018 Yes, I too think I can do it all but my builder, my best friend, and my wife all tell me I am overdoing it so I have subbed out more work than I originally thought. As far as the architect bit is concerned, I didn’t need one, I knew all along what I wanted. As I have been a project manager in a previous life I didn’t need one of those either ( but I am retired so can be on site all the time). I am not saying there are not good architects out there to help people “ discover” what they want. I just don’t like the architects that push their own “ wet dream” despite the customers requirements. Typical example on TV recently, a programme about turning an ugly house into a dream house, client tells architect what he wants and their budget, architect comes up with a scheme that’s double the customers budget, but it will look good!!!! So sad about that self biuld, did they not have insurance.? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProDave Posted January 5, 2018 Share Posted January 5, 2018 "He also has his own £18m grand project: a development of 109 new-build homes in Oxford. It will perhaps be a bigger challenge than most Grand Designs. McCloud's company, Hab, is aiming to create low-cost, affordable and sustainable homes that embrace an eco-vision that includes car clubs, cycleways and food collectives." Is that Graven Hill, or somewhere else? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AliMcLeod Posted January 5, 2018 Share Posted January 5, 2018 20 minutes ago, ProDave said: "He also has his own £18m grand project: a development of 109 new-build homes in Oxford. It will perhaps be a bigger challenge than most Grand Designs. McCloud's company, Hab, is aiming to create low-cost, affordable and sustainable homes that embrace an eco-vision that includes car clubs, cycleways and food collectives." Is that Graven Hill, or somewhere else? The interview is nearly 7 years old. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daiking Posted January 5, 2018 Share Posted January 5, 2018 17 minutes ago, AliMcLeod said: The interview is nearly 7 years old. Just append "re-visited" to the thread title... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted January 5, 2018 Share Posted January 5, 2018 41 minutes ago, ProDave said: "He also has his own £18m grand project: a development of 109 new-build homes in Oxford. It will perhaps be a bigger challenge than most Grand Designs. McCloud's company, Hab, is aiming to create low-cost, affordable and sustainable homes that embrace an eco-vision that includes car clubs, cycleways and food collectives." Is that Graven Hill, or somewhere else? Pretty sure this was the disaster that ended up on TV a few years ago. Really bad design flaws, like toilets that you couldn't get into because the door hit the pan, daft plywood "chimneys" that were supposed to work as passive ventilators, but didn't and a whole host of conflicts between the design team and the builders. I'm pretty sure they didn't meet half the targets they'd set, either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteamyTea Posted January 5, 2018 Share Posted January 5, 2018 (edited) Not going to bother to read the article (some of us down here read, and read the Guardian). But does he justify the "studying for 7 years" at all? There are several ways to interpret that. Not that I would ever say a word against Architects, without at least one expletive Edited January 5, 2018 by SteamyTea Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Visti Posted January 5, 2018 Share Posted January 5, 2018 (edited) That £18m project was was rejected, but two other projects of his in Oxford were approved around the same time: article. A look at the google street view on those roads mentioned doesn't appear to show anything 'special' with regards to those house designs I believe the one riddled with issues was the Applewood Development in Stroud (Telegraph). Edited January 5, 2018 by Visti Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferdinand Posted January 5, 2018 Share Posted January 5, 2018 (edited) 1 hour ago, JSHarris said: Pretty sure this was the disaster that ended up on TV a few years ago. Really bad design flaws, like toilets that you couldn't get into because the door hit the pan, daft plywood "chimneys" that were supposed to work as passive ventilators, but didn't and a whole host of conflicts between the design team and the builders. I'm pretty sure they didn't meet half the targets they'd set, either. That was The Triangle in Rugby - at least the plywood chimneys were. They are now on about site 8 or 10. I tracked the the first few, and they did get better each time. At the start they were a bit gimmick-driven eg pocket orchards. Now they do far more in-house, and particularly thorough engagement and Design statements. But they are still in expensive areas. https://www.habhousing.co.uk/projects I am quite impressed with how he has driven it on. It is the type of smaller company we need another hundred of. Ferdinand Edited January 5, 2018 by Ferdinand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joe90 Posted January 6, 2018 Author Share Posted January 6, 2018 Yes the interview was 7 years old but what caught my eye, and supprised me about him was this:- His personal favourite Grand Design cost just £28,000. It was built by Sussex woodsman Ben Law from the trees in the woods in which it stands. Recycled newspaper insulates the floor and thick straw bales line the walls, covered in lime plaster. All the electricity comes from solar panels and wind turbines, while water is taken from a nearby spring. "He built the most delightful home and he built it all on budget. It's the extraordinary personal values of people like Ben Law that matter. It's not about half a million or three-quarters of a million pounds. It's the brutality of those sorts of figures that stops people in their projects." Beautiful crafting, innovative design and highly personal touches are what makes a home improvement work, not piles of money, says McCloud. He points to Monty Ravenscroft's home built on a sliver of land in Peckham on a small budget as one of the enduring stars of Grand Designs. also:- "Your home should be about enriching the daily experience. I don't want to be too philosophical, but next week you might be under a bus. Figure out what you have, do you like it, do you really want it? Don't try building a fantasy of how you should be." food for thought. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RandAbuild Posted January 6, 2018 Share Posted January 6, 2018 Unfortunately the Sussex house isn't quite the Grand Design now... https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/grand-designs-family-devastated-after-blaze-burns-down-ecohome-hailed-as-cheapest-home-in-britain-a3732361.html Tragic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterW Posted January 6, 2018 Share Posted January 6, 2018 7 hours ago, RandAbuild said: Unfortunately the Sussex house isn't quite the Grand Design now... https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/grand-designs-family-devastated-after-blaze-burns-down-ecohome-hailed-as-cheapest-home-in-britain-a3732361.html Tragic Yet bizarrely they are saying it will cost £500k to rebuild ..??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dpmiller Posted January 6, 2018 Share Posted January 6, 2018 that's insurance for you... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterW Posted January 6, 2018 Share Posted January 6, 2018 2 minutes ago, dpmiller said: that's insurance for you... It’s not insured ...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joe90 Posted January 6, 2018 Author Share Posted January 6, 2018 Oops. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremy Harris Posted January 6, 2018 Share Posted January 6, 2018 23 minutes ago, PeterW said: Yet bizarrely they are saying it will cost £500k to rebuild ..??? Who on earth has put the rebuild cost at £500k? IIRC, the original build cost was something like £25k. Accepting that there will be a premium if they want it rebuilt more quickly than they originally built it, and that as it was made from "found materials" there will be a premium on finding close approximations to those materials, but there's no way that it can cost 20 times more to rebuild it than it cost to build. I sounds to me that someone has made an error. £50k would seem believable, around double the original build cost, as costs haven't increased massively since they finished building it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeterW Posted January 6, 2018 Share Posted January 6, 2018 This was the £500k quote http://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/grand-designs-cheapest-ever-house-burns-ground/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billt Posted January 6, 2018 Share Posted January 6, 2018 8 hours ago, RandAbuild said: Unfortunately the Sussex house isn't quite the Grand Design now... https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/grand-designs-family-devastated-after-blaze-burns-down-ecohome-hailed-as-cheapest-home-in-britain-a3732361.html Tragic That's Pembrokeshire not the Ben Law woodman's house in Sussex! I can't see where the £500,000 comes from either. They seem to be trying to raise £20,000. Of course, if you were to get either the Lammas or Ben Law house built by a builder, either could easily cost £500,000 to rebuikd as the labour cost for such bespoke houses would be enormous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oz07 Posted January 7, 2018 Share Posted January 7, 2018 How many hours of free labour did he put into it? Perhaps he wants a wage this time round?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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