WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:22.560 [Music] 2 00:00:22.560 --> 00:00:26.230 Because you're so hidden as a house, because you don't actually have a street 3 00:00:26.230 --> 00:00:27.200 address, 4 00:00:27.200 --> 00:00:30.230 the nice things that's like, you know, there are no cars going past, it's 5 00:00:30.230 --> 00:00:30.800 pretty quiet. 6 00:00:30.800 --> 00:00:35.200 Hi! Wow, you're really tucked away back here. 7 00:00:35.200 --> 00:00:37.520 It is! 8 00:00:37.520 --> 00:00:45.280 We called it "Cover House". 9 00:00:45.280 --> 00:00:48.880 "Cover", obviously, so that the idea being that nobody can see it, you can't 10 00:00:48.880 --> 00:00:49.760 see it from the street. 11 00:00:49.760 --> 00:00:54.720 Actually, most of the parameters of the heights and so forth, 12 00:00:54.720 --> 00:00:58.480 so that you can't really see it very much from people's gardens. 13 00:00:58.480 --> 00:01:02.880 This is looking down into one of the courtyard, so the bedrooms are all below 14 00:01:02.880 --> 00:01:03.600 ground, 15 00:01:03.600 --> 00:01:08.880 and but they have full height glazing, and they're quite a shallow courtyard, 16 00:01:08.880 --> 00:01:10.240 works really well for that. 17 00:01:10.240 --> 00:01:15.520 The landscaping is stepped here to make sure that you get a more comfortable 18 00:01:15.520 --> 00:01:16.160 view, 19 00:01:16.160 --> 00:01:19.040 and it brings some greenery into the foreground there as well. 20 00:01:19.040 --> 00:01:23.710 You weren't allowed to build any higher, so you thought, okay, we'll go 21 00:01:23.710 --> 00:01:24.480 underground. 22 00:01:24.480 --> 00:01:28.320 Yeah, and the guy who had this fantastic concrete contractor, 23 00:01:28.320 --> 00:01:31.440 he told us we should just excavate everything. 24 00:01:31.440 --> 00:01:36.020 He builds mega basements, I guess, but we didn't, we equally wanted to, you 25 00:01:36.020 --> 00:01:38.320 know, retain some garden, 26 00:01:38.320 --> 00:01:44.080 real garden, but he did rationalise everything, so we have made a lot more use 27 00:01:44.080 --> 00:01:45.040 of the space below 28 00:01:45.040 --> 00:01:49.200 ground, so you can see probably from where you are the staircase coming up. 29 00:01:49.200 --> 00:01:54.160 The line of the concrete box in the ground is defined by this line. 30 00:01:54.320 --> 00:01:56.640 So you mean you literally have a cement concrete box? 31 00:01:56.640 --> 00:02:01.760 We dug a big hole to build the house in, and that's also cheaper, it's just a 32 00:02:01.760 --> 00:02:02.880 square box. 33 00:02:02.880 --> 00:02:07.030 Every time you have to push in and out, then your building really complicated, 34 00:02:07.030 --> 00:02:07.680 shuttering, 35 00:02:07.680 --> 00:02:11.840 and so when you go down, the simpler you can make it the better. 36 00:02:11.840 --> 00:02:15.680 We worked out how much space we needed for light to come down, 37 00:02:15.680 --> 00:02:18.240 and then that just defined the corners of the house. 38 00:02:22.000 --> 00:02:26.160 Being semi underground, upstairs, what's above ground? 39 00:02:26.160 --> 00:02:27.200 Yeah, it's pretty modest. 40 00:02:27.200 --> 00:02:32.630 When you look at this building from above, actually some people's garden sheds 41 00:02:32.630 --> 00:02:32.880 of it 42 00:02:32.880 --> 00:02:34.640 look almost the same size. 43 00:02:34.640 --> 00:02:40.400 Are you from this neighbourhood? 44 00:02:40.400 --> 00:02:45.440 So we used to live like three streets along, and my part was an architect, 45 00:02:45.440 --> 00:02:50.140 so you'd always wanted to build her own house, and obviously in London that's 46 00:02:50.140 --> 00:02:50.720 not very easy. 47 00:02:51.440 --> 00:02:56.240 And so, well she did a Google search, an aerial search of houses that had big 48 00:02:56.240 --> 00:02:56.880 gardens. 49 00:02:56.880 --> 00:03:01.440 The condition in London, some streets are built with huge gardens, and there's 50 00:03:01.440 --> 00:03:02.640 quite often 51 00:03:02.640 --> 00:03:08.400 left over space in the middle, and she wrote and ended land registry searches, 52 00:03:08.400 --> 00:03:13.900 and she wrote to like six people I think, and the owner of the pink house here 53 00:03:13.900 --> 00:03:14.400 wrote back and 54 00:03:14.400 --> 00:03:16.960 said, "Well actually, yeah sure, I've been trying to sell this." 55 00:03:16.960 --> 00:03:20.080 And in the London property market, you wanted loads of money. 56 00:03:20.640 --> 00:03:25.440 So Deborah explains how you could actually get the real value for what the 57 00:03:25.440 --> 00:03:26.560 place was worth, 58 00:03:26.560 --> 00:03:29.600 with the intention that we would then take the risk to get planning commission 59 00:03:29.600 --> 00:03:30.320 to build 60 00:03:30.320 --> 00:03:31.200 in the garden. 61 00:03:31.200 --> 00:03:36.080 So we instantly divided up the land, sold the pink house with some friends, 62 00:03:36.080 --> 00:03:39.660 which is romantically called the farmhouse, it's always been called the farm 63 00:03:39.660 --> 00:03:39.840 house, 64 00:03:39.840 --> 00:03:41.360 it's never a farmhouse but you need to think. 65 00:03:41.360 --> 00:03:48.320 The weird story here is that historically the pink house had actually been 66 00:03:48.320 --> 00:03:49.040 built, 67 00:03:49.040 --> 00:03:53.600 because this house at the end was built by the builder who built the street. 68 00:03:53.600 --> 00:03:59.360 Subsequently, the owner of the bin written to in 1871, had said, "We've noticed 69 00:03:59.360 --> 00:04:00.080 you have a yard 70 00:04:00.080 --> 00:04:03.780 out there, could we build a house there?" And that's how the pink house got 71 00:04:03.780 --> 00:04:04.080 built. 72 00:04:04.080 --> 00:04:08.480 So this house here, well this is who you bought the land from. 73 00:04:08.480 --> 00:04:11.600 So they were a backyard of somebody else, or they, 74 00:04:11.600 --> 00:04:14.080 their house was built in a backyard in the 19th century. 75 00:04:14.080 --> 00:04:15.040 Yeah, absolutely. 76 00:04:15.040 --> 00:04:16.480 And then you then again said, 77 00:04:16.480 --> 00:04:17.760 "We did it in the 20th century." 78 00:04:17.760 --> 00:04:18.640 "We wore it in the 20th century." 79 00:04:18.640 --> 00:04:18.720 Yeah. 80 00:04:18.720 --> 00:04:20.720 So it was like, "So I didn't want it." 81 00:04:20.720 --> 00:04:21.680 "I don't think we could do it again." 82 00:04:21.680 --> 00:04:23.040 "You're a backyard." 83 00:04:23.040 --> 00:04:25.450 "Or maybe I'm going to build a kennel now for the dark, you know that'll be the 84 00:04:25.450 --> 00:04:25.760 thing." 85 00:04:25.760 --> 00:04:32.720 So this was completely overgrown, because the person who lived here, 86 00:04:32.720 --> 00:04:36.160 oh my god it's really falling down, isn't it? 87 00:04:36.160 --> 00:04:37.680 "Let's do it, sigh and open." 88 00:04:37.680 --> 00:04:39.120 "Okay, thank you." 89 00:04:39.120 --> 00:04:43.520 "Hi." 90 00:04:43.520 --> 00:04:44.240 "Hi." 91 00:04:45.120 --> 00:04:45.600 "Hi." 92 00:04:45.600 --> 00:04:48.240 There we go, the full view of the rain. 93 00:04:48.240 --> 00:04:51.680 This was all a completely overgrown garden 94 00:04:51.680 --> 00:04:56.880 of self-seeded sycamores, because she'd moved in and I think done some work 95 00:04:56.880 --> 00:05:00.880 in the 50 years ago, and then had never touched it since. 96 00:05:00.880 --> 00:05:04.480 They were, it was a lord from the house of lords, 97 00:05:04.480 --> 00:05:08.000 and they have a state in Scotland, so they were basically waiting to retire, 98 00:05:08.000 --> 00:05:09.920 and this place was just run down. 99 00:05:09.920 --> 00:05:12.560 But we also do have a lot of neighbours. 100 00:05:13.280 --> 00:05:15.520 It's like rear window here, you know, it's... 101 00:05:15.520 --> 00:05:19.040 So all of the neighbours were obviously really concerned 102 00:05:19.040 --> 00:05:21.920 about the loss of this overgrown garden, 103 00:05:21.920 --> 00:05:25.600 because even though it really was just kind of pretty poor quality 104 00:05:25.600 --> 00:05:29.200 sycamore trees that covered in ivy, it was a green oasis. 105 00:05:29.200 --> 00:05:33.920 And so we had to work really hard with the planners 106 00:05:33.920 --> 00:05:38.640 to negotiate all of the constraints, so the height was limited, 107 00:05:38.640 --> 00:05:40.560 distance from the boundaries was limited, 108 00:05:41.360 --> 00:05:43.280 and in everything about the house. 109 00:05:43.280 --> 00:05:47.600 The roof is a green roof. 110 00:05:47.600 --> 00:05:49.680 We have solar hot water. 111 00:05:49.680 --> 00:05:54.480 It's a seed and roof, so it's a drought tolerant planting. 112 00:05:54.480 --> 00:05:59.040 It requires a very thin build-up, but it creates a sustainable climate, 113 00:05:59.040 --> 00:06:01.520 microclimate for wildlife. 114 00:06:01.520 --> 00:06:06.000 I mean, from above, you're not seeing a lot of house. 115 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:10.160 Yeah, and we planted, you know, this is an old-brue tree. 116 00:06:10.160 --> 00:06:13.200 We planted, there's a whole series of trees you can see around the edges, 117 00:06:13.200 --> 00:06:17.120 so there's a lot of screening from the neighbour's gardens anyways. 118 00:06:17.120 --> 00:06:19.920 We're deliberately keeping, you know, growing quite big trees, 119 00:06:19.920 --> 00:06:21.600 because we quite like shady garden, 120 00:06:21.600 --> 00:06:24.960 particularly as the world's getting hotter and hotter. 121 00:06:24.960 --> 00:06:27.200 Shade is a precious commodity. 122 00:06:27.200 --> 00:06:33.680 So what we tried to do with the corners was all of the windows 123 00:06:33.680 --> 00:06:37.600 on the upper floor are pushed in to create these quite deep reveals 124 00:06:37.600 --> 00:06:41.120 with angled mirrors, so that the mirror will reflect 125 00:06:41.120 --> 00:06:45.760 something from a slightly different view, and the corners start to dissolve. 126 00:06:45.760 --> 00:06:48.480 So these are... 127 00:06:48.480 --> 00:06:49.120 It's just mirror. 128 00:06:49.120 --> 00:06:49.600 It's just... 129 00:06:49.600 --> 00:06:53.440 Yeah, it's actually polished stainless steel on the backing, 130 00:06:53.440 --> 00:06:56.480 so it's really very lightweight cutting. 131 00:06:56.480 --> 00:07:00.880 You know, it starts to just reflect different things. 132 00:07:00.880 --> 00:07:07.600 [silence] 133 00:07:07.600 --> 00:07:12.560 So the house is like this series of interlocking cubes, essentially, 134 00:07:12.560 --> 00:07:15.440 with a third cube cut into the ground, 135 00:07:15.440 --> 00:07:16.880 so they come out of this third volume. 136 00:07:16.880 --> 00:07:21.200 Down here we get these lovely views out to the gardens, 137 00:07:21.200 --> 00:07:23.040 you don't feel like you're underground at all. 138 00:07:23.040 --> 00:07:25.200 That's a great point. 139 00:07:25.200 --> 00:07:27.360 It's natural life and a rainy day. 140 00:07:27.360 --> 00:07:29.120 Yeah, yeah, and it is a really great day. 141 00:07:30.320 --> 00:07:33.680 Because you took advantage of just the sliver of space that's above ground to 142 00:07:33.680 --> 00:07:34.240 make a window. 143 00:07:34.240 --> 00:07:36.000 Yes, this is the ground outside. 144 00:07:36.000 --> 00:07:40.560 We raised the ground floor by 600 mil, so that we would automatically have this 145 00:07:40.560 --> 00:07:44.320 clear-story light, and then when it carries throughout size, there's another 146 00:07:44.320 --> 00:07:45.200 wall of mirror, 147 00:07:45.200 --> 00:07:49.120 so that's got the whole house ventilation kit, the hot water cylinder. 148 00:07:49.120 --> 00:07:52.240 It has an air source heat pump, which you can just see out the window there. 149 00:07:52.240 --> 00:07:56.640 So the house is designed that you can keep it completely sealed, 150 00:07:56.640 --> 00:08:02.240 and it sort of self-regulates. By being semi-underground, it's really stable. 151 00:08:02.240 --> 00:08:07.120 The temperature particularly down here, in the summer this stays cool, 152 00:08:07.120 --> 00:08:09.360 and in the winter it stays relatively warm. 153 00:08:09.360 --> 00:08:12.720 So you don't actually need much heating at all anyway. 154 00:08:12.720 --> 00:08:18.880 One of the things of having these doors is if the rooms are tidy and you can 155 00:08:18.880 --> 00:08:19.760 leave them open, 156 00:08:19.760 --> 00:08:24.070 again, when you're down in this space, you get a sense of light on all sides 157 00:08:24.070 --> 00:08:24.640 again. 158 00:08:24.640 --> 00:08:28.160 So you've got the light behind you, the east light coming through here. 159 00:08:28.160 --> 00:08:32.240 The view out to the south, as I said, when it's sunny, is amazing, and you're 160 00:08:32.240 --> 00:08:33.600 getting the light dropping down. 161 00:08:33.600 --> 00:08:40.080 It's not fully below ground, but I think the important thing here 162 00:08:40.080 --> 00:08:43.600 was bringing the windows down to the ground floor and having a sense that you 163 00:08:43.600 --> 00:08:44.720 can go outside as well. 164 00:08:44.720 --> 00:08:49.920 Really, you're going to try and take this box back. 165 00:08:53.520 --> 00:08:58.030 This is a parcel which has been in our house for two weeks, and it has this 166 00:08:58.030 --> 00:08:59.360 amazing delivery service 167 00:08:59.360 --> 00:09:02.810 that you're supposed to be able to go and drop it off. We've tried like four 168 00:09:02.810 --> 00:09:04.080 places that we won't 169 00:09:04.080 --> 00:09:08.960 take that, it's too big or any. It's constantly moved from one space to another 170 00:09:08.960 --> 00:09:08.960 . 171 00:09:08.960 --> 00:09:14.550 And it's obviously a concrete house. We didn't want to put any lights in the 172 00:09:14.550 --> 00:09:15.600 ceiling. 173 00:09:15.600 --> 00:09:21.840 I really don't like down lights, because I think if you, in a home, you might 174 00:09:21.840 --> 00:09:23.280 be lying down on the sofa, 175 00:09:23.280 --> 00:09:27.360 and the last thing you want to do is stare up at a light. So we played all 176 00:09:27.360 --> 00:09:27.840 these tricks. 177 00:09:27.840 --> 00:09:32.980 So we wanted these beams to run past so that again the light came through the 178 00:09:32.980 --> 00:09:33.760 ceiling. 179 00:09:33.760 --> 00:09:39.200 So it gives you a sensor, almost outdoors. You can't really tell where... 180 00:09:39.200 --> 00:09:42.080 Yeah, how is it enclosed? You don't really know. 181 00:09:42.080 --> 00:09:48.790 There's built-in lighting into the top of these beams. There's a recessed LED 182 00:09:48.790 --> 00:09:49.440 lighting. 183 00:09:49.440 --> 00:09:54.210 So that gives a really soft glow. There's the same in here. There's a recessed 184 00:09:54.210 --> 00:09:54.800 light, 185 00:09:54.800 --> 00:09:59.280 which you can actually see here. This one is a task light. So this is, we 186 00:09:59.280 --> 00:10:00.160 designed this fitting, 187 00:10:00.160 --> 00:10:03.760 so there was something that you can actually have direct light if you want to 188 00:10:03.760 --> 00:10:04.320 over where you're 189 00:10:04.320 --> 00:10:08.130 cooking. But otherwise all the lights are hidden. They're just built into the 190 00:10:08.130 --> 00:10:09.360 furniture. This is a 191 00:10:09.360 --> 00:10:13.250 light fitting. So you can just see the lights. So you can see these lights will 192 00:10:13.250 --> 00:10:13.680 come on. 193 00:10:14.640 --> 00:10:18.960 You know, daylight is most important to us. So this is a glass cabinet because 194 00:10:18.960 --> 00:10:19.760 it then lets the 195 00:10:19.760 --> 00:10:24.030 light come through from the other side. So during the day, this is just sort of 196 00:10:24.030 --> 00:10:25.440 filtering natural 197 00:10:25.440 --> 00:10:29.560 daylight. So you don't feel particularly enclosed. And then at night you can 198 00:10:29.560 --> 00:10:30.640 turn those lights on 199 00:10:30.640 --> 00:10:35.370 and that will let a diffuse light come through. You design lighting usually to 200 00:10:35.370 --> 00:10:36.240 sort of turn it 201 00:10:36.240 --> 00:10:41.600 on almost like the flood light level. And it's almost Victorian here. The light 202 00:10:41.600 --> 00:10:42.240 level is much 203 00:10:42.240 --> 00:10:46.900 lower. And I found it really brilliant because when I came home from work, 204 00:10:46.900 --> 00:10:48.800 there's a different 205 00:10:48.800 --> 00:10:53.990 quality of light. You know, you can never turn it into an office lighting. So 206 00:10:53.990 --> 00:10:55.360 you know that you're 207 00:10:55.360 --> 00:10:58.960 in the evening, you live much more in tune with daylight. 208 00:10:58.960 --> 00:11:09.760 So the concept here is that, well, you only had a certain amount of space that 209 00:11:09.760 --> 00:11:10.960 you were allowed to 210 00:11:10.960 --> 00:11:15.890 build above ground. Yeah, we were obviously we wanted to be sympathetic to the 211 00:11:15.890 --> 00:11:17.280 pink has the farmhouse. 212 00:11:17.280 --> 00:11:20.410 So there are, you can't look into the house. So we said, right, we don't want 213 00:11:20.410 --> 00:11:21.280 any windows which 214 00:11:21.280 --> 00:11:24.240 are going to be either way, you know, looking through because that's the 215 00:11:24.240 --> 00:11:25.120 closest neighbor. 216 00:11:25.120 --> 00:11:29.650 And then we're also given a height issue at the boundaries. So this is lower 217 00:11:29.650 --> 00:11:30.400 towards those two 218 00:11:30.400 --> 00:11:34.240 boundaries. And it's lower on that side because of the proximity to those 219 00:11:34.240 --> 00:11:35.680 houses. Those guys have 220 00:11:35.680 --> 00:11:40.640 shorter gardens than everyone else. So you come into the house in a low space. 221 00:11:40.640 --> 00:11:42.240 The kitchen is 222 00:11:42.240 --> 00:11:46.640 again in a low space and this volume of the living room is slightly higher. 223 00:11:46.640 --> 00:11:49.120 Yeah, so that's the 224 00:11:49.120 --> 00:11:54.410 rear of just like a very lovely terrace of houses. And you look out this window 225 00:11:54.410 --> 00:11:55.120 or any of these 226 00:11:55.120 --> 00:12:00.240 windows and you'll see the same. They did have huge gardens. So we're basically 227 00:12:00.240 --> 00:12:02.240 buried in this, 228 00:12:02.240 --> 00:12:05.440 but this particular house kind of claimed the middle of the plot. 229 00:12:05.440 --> 00:12:12.560 And what's great is you get all of these accidental views. And then we've used 230 00:12:12.560 --> 00:12:13.040 that whole 231 00:12:13.040 --> 00:12:17.140 principle. So we've carved a series of courtyards so that you then get full 232 00:12:17.140 --> 00:12:17.920 height glazing in the 233 00:12:17.920 --> 00:12:23.360 lower ground floor rooms as well. Light was really important. Even the store is 234 00:12:23.360 --> 00:12:24.400 great. I mean, 235 00:12:24.400 --> 00:12:28.320 yeah, this is it's a really everybody loves this store because it's just it's 236 00:12:28.320 --> 00:12:29.760 here notionally, 237 00:12:29.760 --> 00:12:36.440 you know, just to give a degree of separation. But it's not obviously a full 238 00:12:36.440 --> 00:12:37.120 soundproof talk, 239 00:12:37.120 --> 00:12:45.120 but it just kind of buffers the thing. The house, it's very fluid, open plan in 240 00:12:45.120 --> 00:12:46.240 the way that we 241 00:12:46.240 --> 00:12:49.570 use our homes in a very different way now. The same materials you use 242 00:12:49.570 --> 00:12:50.720 everywhere. So the living 243 00:12:50.720 --> 00:12:54.690 room is the same as the bedroom, almost the same as the bathroom. And that you 244 00:12:54.690 --> 00:12:56.400 can work or sleep or 245 00:12:56.400 --> 00:12:59.870 play wherever you want to. But it's sort of and I think that helps with the 246 00:12:59.870 --> 00:13:01.520 sense of spaciousness 247 00:13:01.520 --> 00:13:05.970 as well. It's a relatively small house. So using a really limited palette of 248 00:13:05.970 --> 00:13:07.280 materials just helps 249 00:13:07.280 --> 00:13:13.690 it to feel much more kind of fluid. As I mentioned that there were lots of 250 00:13:13.690 --> 00:13:16.000 trees here. And so we 251 00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:21.610 chopped down all the trees. So this room here is lined with sycamore trees. 252 00:13:21.610 --> 00:13:23.040 Yeah, so through this 253 00:13:23.040 --> 00:13:27.580 mirror. So first we come with more mirrors. And we don't like handles, but 254 00:13:27.580 --> 00:13:28.480 anyways, so then there's 255 00:13:28.480 --> 00:13:33.240 the you come into the this little room, the WC here, and this is lined with 256 00:13:33.240 --> 00:13:34.560 timber that's cut 257 00:13:34.560 --> 00:13:40.620 from the garden. So yeah, so this is sort of memory on of the site itself, 258 00:13:40.620 --> 00:13:41.680 which is the one 259 00:13:41.680 --> 00:13:46.200 room where we allowed ourselves to a different materiality. The house is 260 00:13:46.200 --> 00:13:47.680 compact. So everywhere 261 00:13:47.680 --> 00:13:52.630 we can you push and there is wherever there's depth, there's a little bit of 262 00:13:52.630 --> 00:13:54.000 storage. So you know, 263 00:13:54.000 --> 00:13:58.480 you've got your kitchen rolls behind there and behind here is just you know, 264 00:13:58.480 --> 00:13:58.960 there's another 265 00:13:58.960 --> 00:14:03.120 little cupboard for bits and pieces behind there. This is another cupboard for 266 00:14:03.120 --> 00:14:04.480 you know, other 267 00:14:04.480 --> 00:14:14.370 central. The staircase is white concrete. Although concrete is gray everywhere. 268 00:14:14.370 --> 00:14:14.880 It's made with 269 00:14:14.880 --> 00:14:20.000 recycled aggregate, but there's white concrete using marble dust where it is 270 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:21.040 used to offer the 271 00:14:21.040 --> 00:14:28.960 stairs or to change change level. So the idea is that both the upstairs and 272 00:14:28.960 --> 00:14:31.040 downstairs are the same 273 00:14:31.040 --> 00:14:35.440 size. They're not the same size. Actually downstairs is bigger because it goes 274 00:14:35.440 --> 00:14:36.640 under the terrace. 275 00:14:36.640 --> 00:14:42.670 We have extra height down here to give you a sort of sense of spaciousness. It 276 00:14:42.670 --> 00:14:43.520 's a nice, 277 00:14:43.520 --> 00:14:50.800 informal second living space. And then through here, the main bedroom. 278 00:14:50.800 --> 00:14:57.600 So down here you get a sense of this is coming underneath the roof light. This 279 00:14:57.600 --> 00:14:58.160 is so that you 280 00:14:58.160 --> 00:15:01.670 have a separate study. The roof light that you can walk on comes out from the 281 00:15:01.670 --> 00:15:02.720 kitchen. The light 282 00:15:02.720 --> 00:15:06.700 here is great. Again, we get your, you know, what can I say? You're in a 283 00:15:06.700 --> 00:15:07.920 basement, but you really 284 00:15:07.920 --> 00:15:12.810 wouldn't think so. And I think it was important to us that you could actually 285 00:15:12.810 --> 00:15:13.760 go outside from all 286 00:15:13.760 --> 00:15:18.230 of these rooms as well. So it's connected to the garden. You'll see more mirror 287 00:15:18.230 --> 00:15:19.600 here. So where we 288 00:15:19.600 --> 00:15:24.180 stepped to the section here, there's the pond which reflects the sky obviously. 289 00:15:24.180 --> 00:15:24.800 Then you come down, 290 00:15:24.800 --> 00:15:30.000 there's mirror which this doubles the impact of the greenery here. And again, 291 00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:31.040 just starts bouncing 292 00:15:31.040 --> 00:15:34.970 kind of more views. People often say, "What's through there?" Again, as if 293 00:15:34.970 --> 00:15:36.720 there's another, 294 00:15:36.720 --> 00:15:41.130 is just to create the illusion of connection to space beyond or to dissolve a 295 00:15:41.130 --> 00:15:41.920 boundary. 296 00:15:41.920 --> 00:15:47.600 You'll see these clear-street windows because they're sort of pushed back. What 297 00:15:47.600 --> 00:15:48.320 it does is just 298 00:15:48.320 --> 00:15:54.990 slightly softens the light coming inside down here. And what we love down here, 299 00:15:54.990 --> 00:15:55.520 you can see the 300 00:15:55.520 --> 00:16:00.620 story of the house being built. You see the line that tracks around. It's where 301 00:16:00.620 --> 00:16:01.520 they were doing 302 00:16:01.520 --> 00:16:05.980 the pause of concrete. It was a hot day. And they poured the hole of this floor 303 00:16:05.980 --> 00:16:06.640 in one go. 304 00:16:06.640 --> 00:16:11.730 It had to be vibrated, waiting for the second pause to come, but I think it 305 00:16:11.730 --> 00:16:13.200 took an hour longer 306 00:16:13.200 --> 00:16:18.040 than it was supposed to. And so the joint is expressed, which I think lots of 307 00:16:18.040 --> 00:16:18.480 people would have 308 00:16:18.480 --> 00:16:21.730 been really upset about. And for us, it was like, well, this is like the archae 309 00:16:21.730 --> 00:16:22.480 ology of the house. 310 00:16:22.480 --> 00:16:27.180 It's a really nice sort of moment of imperfection. It's as it comes. It's like, 311 00:16:27.180 --> 00:16:28.400 we're not going to 312 00:16:28.400 --> 00:16:33.970 be uptight and trying, you know, put slurry over the top and cover it all up. 313 00:16:33.970 --> 00:16:34.880 It has a matte 314 00:16:34.880 --> 00:16:39.660 varnish on it so that it's easier to clean and maintain. And it's just a really 315 00:16:39.660 --> 00:16:41.040 simple surface. 316 00:16:41.040 --> 00:16:44.780 It's more like stone. It's more natural. Yeah, it feels like a natural material 317 00:16:44.780 --> 00:16:44.960 . 318 00:16:44.960 --> 00:16:50.060 So the same material goes straight into the bathrooms as well. In the bathroom, 319 00:16:50.060 --> 00:16:50.480 you shower 320 00:16:50.480 --> 00:16:53.670 against concrete as well. So it's like, you know, it's an amazing house to live 321 00:16:53.670 --> 00:16:54.160 in that you don't 322 00:16:54.160 --> 00:16:59.680 have to look after it. It looks after itself. There's no circulation space. 323 00:16:59.680 --> 00:17:00.800 Everything is used. 324 00:17:00.800 --> 00:17:05.120 And even here, you know, there's the separation between these two rooms. This 325 00:17:05.120 --> 00:17:05.920 is a deep wall of 326 00:17:05.920 --> 00:17:11.230 storage. Now these are all, these are all your cupboards. So it's like, you 327 00:17:11.230 --> 00:17:12.240 know, everything. 328 00:17:12.240 --> 00:17:16.000 There's a lot more space to make it functional as a house. 329 00:17:22.720 --> 00:17:27.200 Well, equally, we're standing with the doors open. But I think it's just much 330 00:17:27.200 --> 00:17:35.600 karma to be in a space and not feel like there's, you know, a wall of doors. 331 00:17:35.600 --> 00:17:36.480 You know, that's why 332 00:17:36.480 --> 00:17:40.640 the handles are just, you know, these are just recesses. So it's just paneling. 333 00:17:40.640 --> 00:17:41.040 You know, if you're 334 00:17:41.040 --> 00:17:46.080 in this room and you want to watch a movie, you can, you know, you can close 335 00:17:46.080 --> 00:17:46.800 the doors. 336 00:17:47.600 --> 00:17:56.080 And it's like a room that's designed to watch a film. You know, so, you know, 337 00:17:56.080 --> 00:17:56.480 you can, 338 00:17:56.480 --> 00:18:02.660 again, it's not a circulation space once you're here. It's just very, very calm 339 00:18:02.660 --> 00:18:03.120 . 340 00:18:03.120 --> 00:18:13.750 Yeah, these rooms, Stella and Isaac's rooms, the territory that no cameras ever 341 00:18:13.750 --> 00:18:14.320 allowed in. 342 00:18:16.320 --> 00:18:19.440 But these are really simple, flexible rooms. I don't know, is Isaac in here? 343 00:18:19.440 --> 00:18:25.120 Well, I'm in their teenagers rooms, but they change all the time. 344 00:18:25.120 --> 00:18:30.160 It's a wall of window. Yeah. So again, you don't feel underground. 345 00:18:30.160 --> 00:18:33.840 Yeah, and this is south facing. So, you know, on a sunny day, actually, these 346 00:18:33.840 --> 00:18:34.960 all have blackout blind. 347 00:18:34.960 --> 00:18:41.970 Upstairs, there are sort of blinds that just filter over you. But down here, 348 00:18:41.970 --> 00:18:42.560 obviously, for 349 00:18:42.560 --> 00:18:46.400 sleeping, you can kind of completely close this off, which is great. 350 00:18:46.400 --> 00:18:55.200 So you can pick up on the wall here again. You can see this line that runs 351 00:18:55.200 --> 00:18:56.240 around the concrete, 352 00:18:56.240 --> 00:19:01.680 that just tracks that through. And we designed this with the felt walls between 353 00:19:01.680 --> 00:19:02.720 these rooms, 354 00:19:02.720 --> 00:19:06.650 so that you could open the two rooms up together if you want to. So this could 355 00:19:06.650 --> 00:19:07.520 become one room. 356 00:19:08.080 --> 00:19:13.680 How can you go with you as you go through different stages? 357 00:19:13.680 --> 00:19:17.440 Yeah, I mean, I think people always will ask about concrete and sustainability. 358 00:19:17.440 --> 00:19:21.440 So this uses a pulverized fuel elation, so it has a recycled aggregate 359 00:19:21.440 --> 00:19:23.120 essentially to reduce 360 00:19:23.120 --> 00:19:27.350 how that's used. But the thing that we love about it, not only is it's therm 361 00:19:27.350 --> 00:19:28.160 ally very stable, 362 00:19:28.160 --> 00:19:33.760 is that it's going to be here forever. It doesn't really invite flexibility, 363 00:19:33.760 --> 00:19:34.400 but we could then 364 00:19:34.400 --> 00:19:38.850 minimize the amount that we use so that the framing of the building is as open 365 00:19:38.850 --> 00:19:40.000 as possible. 366 00:19:40.000 --> 00:19:45.150 Houses are different now, especially given the kitchen. I mean, your kitchen 367 00:19:45.150 --> 00:19:45.600 doesn't even really 368 00:19:45.600 --> 00:19:48.580 look like a kitchen. Well, I think that's really important, isn't it? You don't 369 00:19:48.580 --> 00:19:49.280 visually want to 370 00:19:49.280 --> 00:19:54.550 see it. So we usually try to design them so they look like furniture. I don't 371 00:19:54.550 --> 00:19:56.080 even see a refrigerator. 372 00:19:56.080 --> 00:20:01.920 So this is the fridge, very full fridge at the moment. And then, you know, 373 00:20:01.920 --> 00:20:02.640 where there's a kind 374 00:20:02.640 --> 00:20:05.850 of slither of extra space where you would always design something so that you 375 00:20:05.850 --> 00:20:06.720 know, you've got tiny 376 00:20:06.720 --> 00:20:12.940 little spice racks here. The dishwasher is tucked under here. And then, you 377 00:20:12.940 --> 00:20:14.560 know, the bins, blah, 378 00:20:14.560 --> 00:20:18.350 blah, blah. The oven is hidden, but obviously this is the, so it's nice and 379 00:20:18.350 --> 00:20:19.520 theatrical when you are 380 00:20:19.520 --> 00:20:24.180 cooking. You know, you're really in the room and everything is then pull out, 381 00:20:24.180 --> 00:20:26.240 pull out drawers within. 382 00:20:26.240 --> 00:20:30.640 So it's actually, it's really optimized storage. There's a freezer in there, 383 00:20:30.640 --> 00:20:33.840 hadn't. The hob is not 384 00:20:33.840 --> 00:20:38.080 even raised up everything. It's completely flush so that it is just like one 385 00:20:38.080 --> 00:20:39.040 surface. You know, 386 00:20:39.040 --> 00:20:42.930 there's no controls or anything. Where are the controls? The controls are in 387 00:20:42.930 --> 00:20:43.840 the drawer. 388 00:20:43.840 --> 00:20:48.170 It's your local store. Well, you just put it on there and then it, now it will 389 00:20:48.170 --> 00:20:48.880 work. So now you 390 00:20:48.880 --> 00:20:55.800 can turn it on and you can control it. So, induction? Yeah. So long as you don 391 00:20:55.800 --> 00:20:56.160 't lose it, 392 00:20:56.160 --> 00:21:06.000 of course. Now you see how subtle all the lighting is. It's really nice. 393 00:21:06.000 --> 00:21:12.240 Yeah, I do have one front and their house has only candle light still. They're 394 00:21:12.240 --> 00:21:12.640 living so 395 00:21:12.640 --> 00:21:16.700 how many of these in some amazing house where there's no electric light on it 396 00:21:16.700 --> 00:21:17.600 at all. So that 397 00:21:17.600 --> 00:21:21.720 gave me great confidence that you can still live without the house being sort 398 00:21:21.720 --> 00:21:22.640 of flood lit. 399 00:21:22.640 --> 00:21:29.920 One of the things we love for is that little window there. We added in at the 400 00:21:29.920 --> 00:21:30.480 last minute and 401 00:21:30.480 --> 00:21:35.350 it's, we love small windows. Just a weirdly place. But that's an east facing 402 00:21:35.350 --> 00:21:36.880 elevation. So what 403 00:21:36.880 --> 00:21:40.980 happens is you get a little square of sunlight in the morning, you know, just 404 00:21:40.980 --> 00:21:42.000 that just tracks 405 00:21:42.000 --> 00:21:46.360 across this wall. And so there are things like that which are just really nice 406 00:21:46.360 --> 00:21:47.840 about the, you know, 407 00:21:47.840 --> 00:21:56.130 just sensing the day. It's just being able to track, yeah, track that movement 408 00:21:56.130 --> 00:21:57.920 is wonderful. 409 00:21:57.920 --> 00:22:25.840 [Music]