From a tarmac terrace dubbed ‘the gulag’ by dubious neighbours to a contemporary concrete build likened to a WWII bunker, the Grand Designs homes that ‘dared to be different’ (so would YOU live in one?)
- Royal British Institute of Architects has announced its shortlist of ‘houses that dare to be different’
- Featured in Grand Designs House of the Year series, Kevin McCloud and fellow hosts explore each property
- All are in the running for the title of RIBA’s House of the Year 2018 – the winner will be unveiled in a month
- Category focuses on builds that are strikingly different to their surroundings with bold, unusual designs
No two look alike, but there is one thing the latest crop of homes shortlisted for the Royal British Institute of Architect’s House of the Year award have in common; they all dare to be different.
That and the fact their bold use of design certainly got neighbours talking, according to Grand Designs presenter Kevin McCloud, who together with his co-hosts, explores the five very different properties chosen to fight it out in the ‘houses that dare to be different’ category of the prestigious competition on the show.
Among the first group of houses visited by the Grand Designs team is Pheasants, which sits on the banks of the Thames, and which saw its owners forced to go all the way to the High Court in order to get it built, following objections from neighbours who compared the design to a ‘World War Two pillbox’.
And over in Hackney they visit a black tarmac property that one nearby resident describes as being ‘a bit gulag’ because of its stark dark render.
Scroll down for a peek inside the the first crop of contenders for the 2018 House of the Year title, before the overall winner of the competition is revealed…
PHEASANTS, HENLEY-ON-THAMES
COST: UNDISCLOSED
The owners, retired entrepreneurs Dick and Judith said they wanted to ‘commission a country villa for the 21st century’. Their two-storey, five-bedroom home took a decade from inception to completion
The property, which caused some controversy with its unusual concrete and rusting modernist lines, sits on the banks of the River Thames in Henley
A stone’s throw from the banks of the River Thames, the Pheasants house built by Sarah Griffiths and Amin Taha, caused some controversy for its concrete and rusting modernist lines sitting on the riverbank.
The owners, retired entrepreneurs Dick and Judith, talk about the inspiration for their unique design on the show.
‘There’s a natural tendency for people to want to reprise what has already been successful,’ said Dick.
‘And a hesitancy to try anything new. Introducing something new is really quite difficult.’
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They replaced their original 1950s bungalow with Pheasants – a two-storey five-bedroom home taking the form of an S-shape that attracted the judges’ attention – but the project took more than a decade from inception to completion.
The RIBA judges commented: ‘It has been a titanic struggle to win permission and get the thing built, but there is no evidence that anything at any scale has ever been downgraded or any difficulty sidestepped.
‘And the design, which has taken so much time and effort to realise, is extraordinary in its challenge to convention.’
Dick and Judith said their original plans drew lots of objections, with some of the complaints likening it to an ‘industrial estate’ or a ‘World War Two pillbox’.
They explained that they took their disputes to the high court: ‘We did dig our toes in which was a challenge that we rose to, and met them in the high court and the judge ruled in our favour and we were able to move on.’
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They replaced their 1950s bungalow with Pheasants – a two-storey five-bedroom home created in an s-shape
The RIBA judges were attracted to the modern home complimenting the design for which is ‘extraordinary in its challenge to convention’
BLACK STONE HOUSE, HACKNEY
COST: £1.22M
Black Stone House in Hackney is clad in black concrete that mirrors the black tarmac roads it sits on. It’s the home of Jess a conceptual artist, which has made the shortlist of Grand Designs RIBA House of the Year
Black Stone House started life as a run-down workshop owned by Jess, a conceptual artist and owner of a neighbourhood café in Hackney.
She said her house, built by 6a Architects, often gets a mixed reaction from people who visit her café, saying they either love it, or regard it as the ‘ugliest building in Hackney’.
Inside the black concrete monolith is a complex unfolding set of spaces that make up three individual apartments nestled tightly into this irregular corner plot in London.
The four-storey house has two flats that Jess rents out and a maisonette for on the top levels where she lives, the simple theme is kept throughout all properties
Loggias and terraces form external rooms and large sliding windows allow a diverse array of views –of sky and garden, wider vistas of North London and street scenes below
Spatially, all three homes have interesting and complex compositions of outdoor and indoor spaces that artfully manage privacy and bring daylight deep into the plan.
Although individual, the three apartments share common themes, variations of which play out over all four floors.
Loggias and terraces form external rooms and large sliding windows allow a diverse array of views –of sky and garden, wider vistas of North London and street scenes below.
Jess was welcomed to the neighbourhood after she opened her cafe, with neighbours initially worried about it all being concrete.
‘I don’t hate it but I don’t love it,’ said one.
‘On a bleak February afternoon it is a bit gulag. So I’ve named it gulag chic,’ added another.
OUSEBURN ROAD, NEWCASTLE
COST: UNDISCLOSED
Ouseburn Road is actually made up of two properties built by neighbours of 24 years Tim Kendall and his wife Pippa and Libby Davidson, who lives there with her son Fred. The two houses, which cost £300,000 each to build are connected by a joint courtyard
Two sets of neighbours came together to build this single modern property in Newcastle. The semi-detached house which is called Ouseburn Road, built by Miller Partnership Architects, is divided into two houses.
One side is owned by Tim Kendall, a furniture maker, and wife Pippa, a psychologist, while next door lives Libby Davidson, an actor, and her son Fred. They had been neighbours for 24 years when they decided to buy the building together – but each side is quite different.
In Tim and Pippa’s, the ground floor is made up of a garage and workshop, a guest room, and a utility room; and the first floor has two bedrooms and a living space.
The neighbours built the property in the bottom of their garden, with a plot on a hillside that they had to dig the soil out of and pour concrete in to make it level and secure
Each side is different, with Tim and Pippa choosing to have one less bedroom than Libby, but both house have large open plan living spaces on the first floor
Next door Libby’s house has extra space devoted to sleeping, with her ground floor featuring two bedrooms, the garage and utility space and on the first floor two more bedrooms and an open plan living space.
Both houses are connected with a shared garden and the neighbours said they had no worries going into the project – which they pulled off with minimal conflict – as they are all ‘very good friends’.
‘We have been neighbours for 24 years, and wanted to continue being neighbours,’ Tim explained.
‘We were looking to downsize and suddenly realised at the bottom of our garden we had a building plot.’
The plot was on a hill so the main concern was getting the enough light into both properties without them feeling dingy, a stumbling block that was overcome with the help of giant skylights.
It cost £300,000 to build each house. Tim and Pippa stayed close by at their old house during construction but Libby had to sell hers quickly to fund the project, and spent a year living with friends.
RED HOUSE, SOUTH EAST LONDON
COST: £465,000
Red House is built on the site of an old garage with the architects matching the bright colour to the tone of the neighbouring Victorian houses which all have red brick in the facades
Steven Davis and Will Burgess are the architects behind the south east London end terrace ‘with sun burn’, as Kevin McCloud puts it on Grand Designs.
‘To some of the neighbours it became known as “that bloody red house”… it just sort of stuck,’ they explained.
Red House is built on the site of an old garage, with guests entering by stepping down a small staircase into a TV snug, a living/dining area and a kitchen all surrounded by two courtyards built in to expand the space.
On the first floor of the new build are two bedrooms and a bathroom, with a master bedroom and en-suite taking up the top floor.
The ground floor interiors features a TV snug, a living/dining area and a kitchen all surrounded by two courtyards built within to expand the space and bring in extra light
RIBA judges were drawn to the red brick used on the facade which matches the highlight brick in the existing terrace and the patterned pre-cast pigmented concrete panel above the front door echos the decorative brick patterns on the terraced street
It was commissioned by a developer and bought by dancer Daisy and her husband Sean, a chief technology officer, who were drawn not only to the house’s unique layout but also a hidden door for the downstairs loo.
‘It’s one of my favourite bits of the house, it’s really functional and it’s really useful to have a downstairs toilet but you almost don’t want to see it too much, so it’s perfect,’ Daisy said.
The RIBA judges were drawn to the red brick used on the facade, which matches the highlight brick in the existing terrace, and how the patterned pre-cast pigmented concrete panel above the front door echos the decorative brick patterns on the terraced street saying, ‘the facade is fun and crafted’.
They added: ‘The architects have produced an exquisite crafted home that responds elegantly to it’s context providing delight to its users as well as to the surrounding area.’
DARTMOUTH PARK HOUSE, NORTH LONDON
COST: UNDISCLOSED
Behind the doors of a traditional looking Victorian townhouse is what presenter Kevin McCloud dubs ‘paradise island’, a four storey property filled with Nicaraguan wood that makes up a grand spiral staircase, flooring and door frames
Owners Karen and Colin shipped the wood 5,000 miles after using it for a hotel they build on an island they bought in the south American country. The unusual layout includes a courtyard on the ground floor and a veranda by the side of the kitchen on the first floor
The traditional front of Dartmouth Park House conceals a ‘paradise island’, as Kevin McCloud calls it, with a central courtyard housing a tropical fern tree at the heart of the house, which boasts wood balconies, an ‘exotic’ spiral staircase inside leading up to the bedrooms, and huge windows which allow an ‘unnatural amount of sunlight’ to pour into the Victorian townhouse.
The house, designed by AY Architects, is set over four floors; in the basement there is an office, the ground floor is a living/DJ room with a courtyard and guest room. Moving on to the first floor there is a kitchen and dining room along with a veranda; then on the top floor there are two bedrooms and a bathroom, all linked by the winding staircase.
Owners Karen, a music, property and travel entrepreneur, and husband Colin, a computer programmer and part-time DJ, gutted the office and flat that existed in the property, and filled it with Nicaraguan mahogany wood.
‘I went on holiday to Nicaragua and bought an island, as you do, in a lake and built a sustainable hotel on it,’ Karen explained.
She wanted to bring the wood they used for the business to their home in north London, which the judges admired. It was cut 5,000 miles away and the sent over in a shipping container.
‘It’s a quirky space, it started off a little bit quirky and we just built on that,’ Colin said.
Find out which property makes the RIBA House of the Year shortlist Grand Designs at 9pm on Channel 4
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