Episode 8 Building Dream Homes

Across the nation architects are building,

designing and transforming the homes we live in.

One day I'm going to live in a house like this

-and not just do it for others.

-We're following some of those

leading the way in ground-breaking design.

Their jaw would drop if they saw that.

I can't believe it.

We'll be with them every step of the way as they battle with

builders, blueprints and the clients who hire them.

You've got a very strange understanding of the word "today".

Whoa, whoa, whoa!

That's not good.

-It's like working with the Chuckle Brothers.

-Ho, ho, ho!

We're with them as they draw on their seven years of training

to solve everyday problems.

Quick word in his ear, make sure there's no more mishaps.

He's come in on an angle and ripped up the road,

but he's now ripped his exhaust pipe off.

Oh, man!

I've said many prayers.

That's amazing! That's a pretty incredible difference, isn't it?

The fixings alone cost 17 grand.

All in the name of making the properties we dream of a reality.

Today, the amazing pre-fabricated house designed by architect Paul

comes to life in a factory in Germany.

It's quite large, isn't it? Wow.

Very impressive.

But even German precision engineering can sometimes go awry.

That's not good.

And in Glasgow, architect Gerry

takes on a historically important property...

It's a privilege to be able to work with a building like this.

It's "A"-listed because of its special character.

..where if he doesn't get his calculations right,

things could go very, very wrong.

There is a structural problem with the roof.

It essentially wants to collapse out the way, like that.

In Dorset, company director Marcus Grazziano

and his family are building their new home.

The 1930s bungalow Marcus purchased for its beautiful views

almost a decade ago has been demolished.

After a monumental battle against the elements,

the foundations have gone in.

This part here has been really, really challenging, this has.

We've had it collapsing and all sorts.

You can see where we're having to physically hold the clay boards in

as we pump the concrete in.

And the site is now ready for Marcus to put up something quite special.

The man who has designed Marcus's new home is architect

Paul Robinson.

He's come up with a sophisticated yet simple plan,

making full use of the great views.

We decided to introduce some nice spaces internally

like some double-height spaces.

It's a family home.

Having spaces that flow vertically as well as horizontally with

the idea that, you know, Tanya can be in the kitchen,

the kids can be upstairs in a separate lounge

but you've got that double height galleried landing

where she can just shout up to them, you know, "Your tea's ready,"

or "Do you want a drink?"

It just helps the house work for a family, really.

But what's unusual about this project is that the entire shell

of the building is being made 500 miles away in a factory in Germany.

It eliminates risk involved with working on site in terms

of weather conditions, things going wrong on site -

it just takes all of that out of the programme.

The bespoke prefabricated house is being produced by Streif -

trail blazers in the timber frame housing market -

before being shipped to site.

For a third of Marcus's £600,000 budget,

they're able to perfectly reproduce Paul's designs

and the controlled environment here

means flat-packed houses fly off the production line.

Marcus's house is due to take just five days to go through the factory

and then only another five days to assemble on site.

Today, architect Paul, client Marcus, and head contractor Barry

have come to Germany to see how the house is shaping up on the factory floor.

We're hoping to see the house come together, the reality of all this planning.

See it on the production line.

Yeah, it'll be quite exciting.

Each super-insulated solid timber frame

already has its internal skins,

windows and even the electrical socket holes

fixed in place before it's delivered to site.

What's great about this system... it's not a panel system -

it can be bespoke, so there is still that freedom for us

as architects to be able to do quite a bespoke design.

We wasn't compromised in any way because we were trying to do

a prefabricated timber building, you know.

We almost did the design first

and then we thought about how we were going to build it.

Keeping an eye on every aspect of Paul's design on the factory floor

is Bill Treves, who'll handle Marcus' house

right through to its delivery and assembly in Dorset.

So this is where it starts, basically.

How many properties are on the line at any one time?

It varies. At the moment there's yours, Grasmere,

-and I think at least two or three others.

-OK.

47 tonnes of timber are needed to produce

the 87 panels required to construct Marcus's dream home.

And that's not all that's impressive.

The massive rear patio doors to Marcus's house have been

designed by Paul to make the most of the views

and they're about to see the huge steel frame that will hold them.

There is your nine-metre goal post. That is your opening.

-It's quite large, isn't it?

-It's quite large.

-Yeah, exactly.

That was exactly my reaction when I saw it yesterday.

-You went, "Wow!"

-I don't think I was expecting it to quite look like that,

but when you see the size of it

-and then you imagine it with the glass in - very impressive.

-Yeah.

But even in the controlled environment of a factory,

it pays to keep your wits about you.

That's not good. Whoops.

A crucial panel has fallen off its support -

a rare slip-up from the Germans.

Mate, that's unfortunate. You know, we're building a bespoke house here.

-Even the Germans make mistakes!

-Even the Germans make mistakes!

Careful checks are made to ensure no damage has been done

before it's shipped over to the UK.

Astonishingly, it's all OK.

The rest of the day goes smoothly.

There's even time for a spot of tool envy.

That's a serious bit of kit. That would be fun, that would be.

Seeing the processes involved in building Marcus's dream home

has fired all their enthusiasm.

The whole scale of the thing is pretty impressive.

You can see it and you can look at walls and you can go, "Well,

"that wall butts on to that wall, and that's going to create that room."

And that's what brings it all to life.

I just want it to come now, it's as simple as that -

I want it to be there so we can start putting it up

because we're ready for it in England.

We've just now got to wait for this production line to produce

the product and get it on to the lorries and get it to us.

Everything is good in Germany,

but back in England, the worst storm in hundreds of years has hit.

Barry has already had problems with access to the site,

now he has to work out how to get six 47-tonne trucks

carrying hundreds of thousands of pounds' worth of house

onto a waterlogged site that's been battered by a hurricane.

North of the border, in the West End of Glasgow,

patent attorney Andrew Shanks wanted more space for his family

and an artist's studio for his wife...

and he didn't have to look far for a solution.

Andrew managed to buy this run-down mews house at the end of his garden -

the perfect property to fulfil his desire for more space.

I think just because of the location that initially attracted us,

and then we went and had a look around

and realised it was quite a beautiful property.

We got upstairs and it's quite light

and it looked like there had been a cathedral ceiling

so we thought there was a possibility there to open up

back to original layout and it would make quite a spectacular space.

And the hidden cathedral ceiling wasn't Andrew's only surprise.

Before we bought it, we did some research to see if it was listed

and, according to everything we looked at, there was no listing.

It was only once we went for planning permission that we

discovered that it was "A" listed.

Andrew's mews house has earned its "A" listing

because of its proximity to one of Glasgow's greatest

Victorian buildings, the stunning Great Westbourne Terrace,

designed by architect Alexander "Greek" Thomson.

For Andrew, it means that what he thought would be a simple

conversion when he bought the mews has taken him 22 months

and one set of rejected plans to get to the point of starting the work.

A planning application went off to Historic Scotland

and various people, and they intervened and they initially

seemed to think there was all sorts of interesting architectural

features in the inside, when in fact it I don't think there were any.

Historic Scotland is the agency in charge of safeguarding

the nation's historic environment.

Andrew has employed Gerry Hogan.

Hi there, Sean, it's Gerry.

Gerry specialises in conservation architecture

and will redesign Andrew's old coach house for modern-day use.

The building behind it is a large,

very, very high-profile tenement by Alexander "Greek" Thomson. It's a mews building.

This is the front of the building

and technically this is where the access lane would be,

where horses would have come in on the ground floor so,

in some ways, what we consider the rear elevation

becomes the front elevation.

That's what the wealthy people

who commissioned the building would have seen.

So there's more detail, there's more craft actually on the rear.

It is a very beautiful building but it is also a very special context.

We have this Greek Thomson building behind,

We've got some really beautiful courtyards round about.

It's a really important part of Glasgow's West End so, from my point of view,

it's a privilege to be able to work with a building like this.

What Andrew and his family want from the building is quite something.

There's a number of things

about the project that are particularly exciting and special.

There is the restoration

externally - we're re-pointing, we're lifting the quality

and we're making sure it lasts, there is the alteration

of the roof upstairs because we're turning what was essentially

three rather poky little rooms

into one really quite grand and elegant space,

and then we've also got this new extension at the side, this

conservatory that's quite an elegant combination of steel and glass

and is clearly new but it's also respectful in terms of the scale.

With Gerry's help,

Andrew finally has permission for his mews conversion.

Downstairs, he's creating a garage and workshop.

Upstairs he'll remove the walls between the three rooms to create

a light, bright studio space.

The one thing that's still waiting for approval is the opening up

of the roof to create a double-height cathedral ceiling.

The team were hoping to get the project completed in three months

but work on the ceiling has slowed down the build significantly

whilst they wait for the engineer's plans to be approved.

As well as a specialist architect,

Andrew has also hired site manager Stuart Mortimer,

who is used to working on projects like this,

and the delays are starting to worry him.

Sometimes it is frustrating

when you're waiting on a drawing from the likes of an engineer or

an architect to confirm something on site,

but as long as we've got other work to keep us going,

then we're quite happy with that but we do get

a wee bit anxious at times when we see ourselves running out of work.

After almost a month of waiting,

the engineer's drawings for the ceiling are approved.

It's going to be a big and risky job for Stuart and his men.

Once the horizontal beams that are holding the A-frame together are

removed, the whole structural support for the ceiling will have gone.

There's quite a bit of work in this one because we've got to try

and support a lot here at this point.

These are intermediate trusses...rafters

and we have got to double these up with one new rafter on each one of them,

at the side of each one of them.

But just doubling up the rafters won't be enough to stop

the heavy roof from caving in on itself.

When we take away these horizontal and vertical members,

then there's a structural problem with the roof.

It essentially wants to collapse out the way, like that.

Architect Gerry has come up with a solution that he hopes will

allow Stuart and his men to remove the old horizontal ceiling joists.

We are going to hang a beam.

That beam will span the full length of the roof.

It's going to be hung rather than sitting on top.

The new steel ridge beam will hang in the centre of the ceiling,

taking the full weight of the roof.

The beam is further supported by three super-rafters

made from tripled-up timber.

It's a clever but risky plan. If Gerry and the engineer have

got their calculations wrong, the whole roof could come down.

At the factory in Germany,

Marcus Grazziano's timber-framed four-bedroom house is almost complete.

But back in Britain, the worst storm of the winter has hit the Southwest

and the already waterlogged site in Dorset has been badly affected.

Severe gales have destroyed huge sections of scaffolding.

The tricky access roads to the site have already caused serious issues.

Head builder Barry has previously poured eight lorry-loads of cement to shore them up

but the storms have churned them up again and Barry is worried.

We have all these lorries most probably in the next two days

over in Germany being loaded and then they're coming over.

What happens if we can't actually get them on site?

We then have to find an alternative.

Bill Treves from the factory in Germany is equally

concerned about how to get Marcus's house on site.

He has arrived for an inspection

and he's brought an articulated lorry along for a trial run.

It's the most challenging access but then we always knew that.

In an ideal world, we wouldn't be doing it at this time of year,

and not in the wettest winter for 250 years,

but unfortunately that's the way it is.

Barry has strengthened sections

of this waterlogged, muddy narrow track but with such big, heavy lorries,

they don't know whether it will be enough.

Thankfully, his efforts have paid off and this empty lorry

does get up the drive,

but a lorry with a house on its trailer is quite another matter.

If I took that fence out over that concrete.

-We'll take that out.

-Yeah, we can do that on the day.

Cool, right, let's try the next bit.

This is the bit which I've been waiting for.

To get all the timber materials for Marcus's house on site,

six trucks need to get up and down this drive.

This will be interesting.

And reversing a 13m-long trailer in a tight space isn't easy.

It's not just important, it's vital

because you can't afford to discover this

when you've got a 44-tonne load on.

If you get stuck, then you really are in trouble.

Let's not panic.

Do I look like I'm panicking?! I don't panic.

Don't panic, Mr Mainwaring!

Getting Marcus's house safely up this drive is a major challenge.

This trial run has shown them exactly what would happen

if the house had been on board today.

That is the artic turning tight coming round here

and its wheel's there.

Now if that was a full load, that would slip.

The stuff on board is worth tens of thousands of pounds

and if that falls over, you've had it.

Barry needs to consider more radical measures to make the road wider.

What are you walking on?

He's putting down yet more cement, concreting part of a field

and cutting back undergrowth to make sure

the roads are ready for the arrival of the house in just ten days' time.

Ten days later and the first truck laden with the kit

for the dream home has arrived in the UK and is making its approach.

On site, builder Barry is waiting to see

if he's made the road wide enough to get the heavily laden lorries in.

Almost had a bit of a problem there because they're doing road works

but luckily they let us go through.

He's done it. All Barry's efforts have paid off.

The first truck containing the walls for the ground floor makes it

round the tricky corner.

It's a big relief for the team.

-It's happy days.

-It worked perfectly.

-It's about time it worked perfectly, after all the effort that has gone into it.

-It worked.

The first one is in, so if the first one is in, that's it.

You can see I'm a lot happier, I tell you. A lot happier!

They've overcome the latest hurdle.

Next they have to build the house and,

if it all goes to plan, that will take just five days.

In Glasgow's West End,

work is well under way to restore this "A"-listed mews property

to its former glory.

A conservation project like this requires someone with

a special set of skills.

Architect Gerry Hogan was the obvious man for the job.

He has dedicated most of his career to restoring buildings

and today he's hopping across to the Isle of Bute to revisit

a project that he's especially proud of.

I think I've always had a latent interest in what's existing -

the built environment that was there - and I suppose that's

led into an interest in conservation architecture.

But the interest really sort of started

with the Old Courthouse project in Rothesay that I started

working on when I was about 21, which was over ten years ago now.

That was the project that showed me the complexity

and the different challenges that working with existing buildings has.

This beautifully restored "B"-listed courthouse

is in Rothesay on the Isle of Bute.

Previously dilapidated,

the iconic building is in the centre of town and has been

transformed into social housing at a cost of £4.5 million.

Combining conservation with modern living was a huge challenge

for Gerry and his team and one that took them over a decade to overcome.

This was the original entrance for both the Sheriff Court

and the Council Chamber.

This is our spiral stair, which is quite ornate,

and the balustrade and the handrail, and then

when you get a chance to look all the way up you can see the stained

glass window at the top which in itself is quite a beautiful object.

As an architect, you're always quite keen to do new things

but I think sometimes you need to step back and say

"Actually, what's really important about this building?"

This space here is what's really important

because the stained glass window in particular is a beautiful object.

I mean, just put aside any historical relevance or significance,

it just is a really stunning thing.

It's only when you reach the top of this imposing building that

you discover the carefully designed additions that

weave the old in with the new.

This is the... I suppose the key architectural move for the building.

It's almost like a diagram.

You can see over there, that area was the former Sheriff Court

and it has been left primarily intact, albeit improved internally.

And then round where we're standing just now,

this whole side of the building has been reconstructed

essentially round about a new steel frame.

What we can't see is that the existing facade on the other side

has been retained as well.

Our approach here was essentially to be quite sympathetic in terms

of the tone and the colouring of the materials,

so you can see the existing slate roof here, you can sort of

see obviously that comes through and the choice of brick and then choice

of this anthra-zinc, this dark, dark grey zinc.

I'm quite comfortable with what we've done because we've held on

to the existing elevation that dates back

to the mid-19th century - that was the key thing that people identified

as giving the building identity and character for the centre of the town,

so we've done that while also installing something new behind it.

With this ten-year project under his belt, Gerry consolidated

his standing as a specialist in conservation architecture.

It made him the perfect person to work on the restoration of

Andrew Shanks' 100-year-old listed mews house in Glasgow's West End.

Stuart is on his way down.

After weeks of waiting, the design plans for Andrew's vaulted

ceiling have finally been approved and today the metal beams

that will secure the roof structure have arrived.

Site manager Stuart's been itching to get started with the roof.

But before any of the technicalities of securing it are tackled,

his first big challenge is trying to manoeuvre this five-metre-long steel

through this tiny window frame.

The heaviest beam weighs in at 95kg

and requires careful handling to avoid damaging the building.

Easy now.

With all hands on deck, the team manage this difficult

manoeuvre in an awkward space.

That's it. Back to me now.

Easy! OK.

Now they're safely in, there is important structural work to be done

to secure the roof trusses

before the steel beams are locked into their final positions.

Before we actually fix this steel itself,

what we're going to do is set up some timbers and fix them

to our rafter so the steel can sit on top of it.

That allows us, you know, the weight is off of us.

We can set up our brackets and then just ease up the steel as and when we need to.

Once they're in place, they'll be held by steel brackets.

What this is, this is a bracket that will carry the stainless steel rod.

It will pull the major trusses together and hold the roof up.

Up, up. Back to Danny.

Right there.

It's a tricky technical exercise

so will all their efforts have paid off?

Well, that's the steel beams in now, the rigid steel beams in just now.

It's awkward but as long as you get a wee plan, it will all come together.

It will all come together.

After months of poring over every detail of the design plans,

architect Gerry has come to site to inspect the new roof structure.

Wow, that's amazing.

It's a triumph in engineering.

That's a pretty incredible difference, isn't it?

Aye, it's looking good.

I'm really happy to see the way the volume has changed.

I mean, if you can imagine this was three separate rooms

and a corridor previously and the ceiling was at about this height.

Um, yeah, the shift is amazing. It's quite impressive.

Confident that the roof structure is now safe,

Gerry turns his attention to another potentially serious problem.

-Wow.

-On the outside, the original stonework is crumbling away.

There's about 40 mil of the stone that's just completely worn away.

Having suffered from bad patch-ups in the past,

how the stone is cared for now is critical to its conservation.

Gerry summons stonemason Joe

to site to discuss the scale of the work.

How are you doing? Are you the architect?

-Yes. How are you doing?

-I'm good, thank you.

Will I join you up there?

The deteriorating stone could throw up unexpected costs.

When you're looking at the front, it looks like a bad cementing and pointing there.

That's what I was thinking.

The front is more where I would concentrate the best of our efforts.

But restoring the stonework

back to its former glory is going to cost the best part of £20,000.

You want to build it all out with lithomex, obviously.

-Lithomex isn't the cheapest.

-Yeah.

Luckily for Gerry, his client Andrew trusts him completely.

I think balancing conservation with efficiency is...

Again it is Gerry's expertise that... He has taken care of that.

You know, if it had been left to me it would have been a quick patch-up.

But, with Gerry, the first time we took him

round to the property he came in with a little trowel and I was a bit

dismayed because he just he picked out cement and all sorts of things.

He said, "That's no good, that has to come off, that has to be changed."

And it was initially a bit of a shock but once you've spent

a little bit of time with Gerry,

you walk around the streets of Glasgow

and you look up at the buildings and say, "God, that's a terrible repair.

"They're going to pay for that in the future,"

because I think it has to be done properly and sensitively and Gerry

absolutely knows what he's doing so I think once we have a great-looking

building that will stay a great-looking building

for many years.

And today, after one failed planning application

and over half a year of careful and meticulous building and restoration,

Andrew and his family are close to having the space they dreamed of.

Gerry is back to take a look.

What was a neglected mews building has been given a new lease of life.

By sticking to the architect's design

and marrying conservation with a contemporary style, they haven't

just breathed new life into a dilapidated building but created

a flexible, modern studio that can be used by the whole family.

The old upstairs, once cramped

and dark, has been opened up into one large, bright studio space.

Thanks to the new steelwork,

the full ceiling height has also been achieved and is

complimented by expert finishes to both the windows and floor.

-They have finished the floor.

-They have finished the floor.

It's the first time Andrew has seen the room for four weeks.

It's looking good.

I think it works.

I think so. It's fabulous.

How do you feel about the roof? It is what you thought it would be?

-It's much brighter.

-It is much brighter.

And also, I mean, just replacing some of the glazing at the front...

and cleaning all the windows...

I mean, you can see through the windows there,

round about the stair, we've got north and south light coming in

so it's always going to be fairly bright.

The first floor conservatory is close to completion

and in just a few weeks, the downstairs will follow

and provide Andrew with a workshop space.

The outside of this 100-year-old coach house has been reinvigorated.

Andrew has spent a total of £40,000 repairing the roof

and the crumbling stonework, but the results speak for themselves.

I remember when you came with a tiny little trowel

and proceeded to pick all of it.

I just decided to pick your wall apart, yes!

I thought, when we'd bought it, it was in pretty good condition

but then you came in and you picked it apart.

The closer you look, the worse you always realise something is!

I know! I thought, "Oh, no, what have we done?!"

It was symptomatic of a conservation project, generally,

when you're working with an existing building.

It is tempting to think, "Well, the building is there, it should be quicker,"

but in some ways it's actually more involved.

I always find you need to...

I suppose you really need to understand

the materials that you're working with and take great care about which

ones you retain, when you repair and where you replace, because I think

the priority should always be to hold on to as much as possible.

Allowing Gerry to guide them through the restoration of their old

coach house, the Shanks family have not only created a dream

space for themselves to enjoy but also made sure that this

beautiful, historic building will be around for at least another century.

Well, Gerry, I think, certainly has an eye for detail

and this idea of leaving things

so you can actually see the history of the building...

It is one that initially seemed a bit strange to me

but now I'm on board with that.

One of the main points that I'm really

pleased about is my contribution that the building will be

in a really robust, really good condition for the next 50-60 years.

I think leaving a building or place in a better condition than

what you found it in sounds like a small ambition

but actually it's not, because there are

so many mistakes made over so many projects in so many places

that to actually be able to come in and know that you're doing the right

thing, and know that you're helping the situation, is really valuable.

Next time on Building Dream Homes -

in Dorset, it's a race against the clock

to put the factory-built kit house together.

If you can see me smiling, I'm happy.

That doesn't happen very often.

And in Edinburgh, a gaping hole puts architect David Blaikie's

state-of-the-art mechanical step in serious danger.

The knock-on effect is that if we can't get that steel in today,

the lift ain't getting installed on Monday.