... or did anyone else think that last night's Grand Designs project was perfectly hideous ? Location, concept and final execution ? I reckon that
1.1 million would find you something better than that, even in The Smoke ...Arfa
I doubt it would anywhere near that size - especially on one level. Perfectly ordinary Victorian semis and terraces are making a million in the more popular areas - and some parts of Camden would fit that.
Agreed. The money wasn't so much spent on making a nice home but more on solving engineering problems. Ended up looking like a ware house with some oversized packing crates at one end.
More bloody mindedness by the owner than vision.
mark
Yes, I dont think there was much design to it at all. Poor layout - kitchen in the middle of the open building - what happens to the cooking smells? I saw there was something above the hob, even if a carbon filter, it would stop the whole building smelling of cooking. Must cost a fortune to heat, was there any insulation in the roof? It looked like the corrugated panels on the inside, maybe there were 2 layers of corrugated with insulation in between?
I think it is the kind of design that only rich people in London could consider attractive.
1.1 million dosn't buy much in Camden.
Owner was a architect, at least he was spending his own money rather than someone else's.
Almost certainly, what was strange they had no idea of the cost to heat the place, surely they have some idea of the heat loss in order to meet building regs?
Some of us would have a workshop that big with a George Clarke's Amazing Spaces 'shed' tucked in the corner for living accomodation
Yep. The architect was a plonker. We'd thought (perhaps due to a form of racism - we've seen so many brilliant German trades on Grand Designs) that he'd be really diligent in measurements and specification, but nothing seemed to fit, and it was almost certainly his fault for not specifying correctly, which was almost certainly due to poor surveying.
Once they'd recognised that they couldn't actually keep the existing steelwork, they should have cleared the site, buttressed the neighbours' walls and designed something with straight lines and right angles. Even then, I suspect the result would have been ugly - he didn't have a good eye, IMHO.
The final result was, as another poster said, like a empty warehouse and the plywood"pods" looked like shuttering, not architecture.
Their neighbours were long-suffering - I'd have expected the property lawyer to have taken them to the cleaners. Overstaying their welcome in the gardens and f*cking up the (charming) pregnant woman's roof was pretty unforgivable.
We have a rule of thumb for Grand Designs - the people we "take to" tend to have nice results. We didn't take to this couple.
That about sums it up.
Plus I'm sure it will be freezing cold. They only had the stove and all the heat would end up in the roof. Nowhere to store the wood either.
Massive incompetence not to notice that the roof trusses were rusted through.
ALL architects are plonkers. All they can think of is high tech glass boxes. All the best designs on GD have been by normal people. Dunno why they have architects on GD.
Did you miss the bit where the underfloor heating was being installed?
Did you miss the bit where Kev asked about this and they said no it wasn't.
Do you want to disagree with the underfloor heating feed and return pipes sticking out the floor?
Final walk round at end, they have super insulation and underfloor heating, but they have no idea about costs of heating the place.
Do you want to disagree with the visuals, soundtrack and the subtitles?
Because occasionally they come out with quite stunning bulidings
From the wikipedia episodes list
The Oak-Framed House The Marlborough Farm House The Glass & Timber House
Take those three and add on "The Woodsmans Cottage" and "The Cambridgeshire Eco Home" that were done without an architect and IMHO you have what are probably the best five houses on Grand Designs ever.
Although in saying that I also like "The Larch-Clad House" from a couple of weeks ago
Rather liked the very modest cottage on a Welsh hillside - which was stranded by foot & mouth.
I thought the only interesting part (and I didn't watch it all) was the kitchen worktop. How do you make a polished concrete worktop anyway? :-)
The same as you make a pathing slab, sheet of wood to size, 4 wood edges to depth, secure them together, pour in concrete, tamp down to get out bubbles, smooth it over regularly, polish it once it is almost set, polish again when fully set.
... or did anyone else think that last night's Grand Designs project was perfectly hideous ? Location, concept and final execution ? I reckon that
1.1 million would find you something better than that, even in The Smoke ..."The Smoke" ????
What era are you *actually* living in?
OK, these days it's "The Traffic Fumes".
Yep, "The Isolated Cottage" George Clarke covered a similar one in Northumbria on Channel 5 (Build A New Life in the Country) more of a homebuild than many, the woman of the household was about 4ft tall and was hefting stone slates that looked about twice her own weight.
Yes, I get it that far, obviously, but how do you polish concrete to a shiny smooth surface like that? Particularly in situ on a kitchen worktop, where you have to get right into the corners with walls etc (although that one was an island). I wondered if it wa some kind of epoxy coating or summat on top of the concrete.
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