Episode 9 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.

HE CHUCKLES

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 in Dorset, homeowner Marcus' amazing pre-fabricated house

is finally shipped in from Germany.

It has a crack team on board

in a bid to assemble it in just five days.

If you see me smiling, I'm happy. That doesn't happen very often.

HE LAUGHS

And in Edinburgh, architect David Blaikie designs

a set of £100,000 steps in an attempt to change one woman's life.

It feels amazing. I never really believed that we'd get permission.

But getting them in is going to take more than divine intervention.

I've said many prayers.

In Dorset, Marcus Graziano

and his family are undertaking a massive build.

They have demolished their old 1930s bungalow and are replacing it

with their dream house, the likes of which have never been seen

before in their country village. A cutting-edge factory-built home,

designed by local architects Paul Robinson and Laurence Bowen.

It's contemporary in how it functions

and how the space is organised, but we're using traditional materials.

Marcus has a budget of £600,000 for this four-bedroom house.

What makes it unusual is the whole thing is being

built in a factory in Germany and shipped over to the UK.

After years of planning, months of preparing the site,

and weeks of setbacks caused by terrible weather,

today is the day they've all been waiting for.

It's February and the house is arriving from Germany.

Six lorry-loads and 87 pre-fabricated pieces,

all ready to be put together in just five days.

It's a huge moment for architects Paul and Laurence,

who have never designed a pre-fabricated house before.

They've come to the site to watch it go up.

I think it's interesting because, you know, it is different,

you know, we're used to this country making most...probably 90% of the

houses that we build are made out of bits of concrete and some muck.

And today we'll be using something a little bit different.

It's going to be interesting in terms of the speed.

We're probably going to get to a point, certainly in the next

five days, that would generally take three or four months,

so it's going to be pretty new

to be here on Monday and seeing a concrete slab and then by

Friday we'll pretty much have, you know, this house in place, really.

We're going to see German precision and engineering, hopefully.

We've seen it in the factory and obviously, you know,

we're really impressed with what we saw there,

so to see it again on site coming together will be...should be great.

To make sure the house goes up in just five days, Streif,

the company who built it in Germany,

has also brought in a specially trained crew to construct it.

OK!

They all need to be on their A game

if they're going to achieve their goal.

But it's February, it's day one of the build

and bad weather is forecast.

The building firm's UK company director, Bill Treves, is on site.

He'll put a stop to proceedings if the weather turns.

We don't want it to be too wet but we can't have it too windy.

There's a wind meter on top of the crane.

If it's 20mph we can't lift.

With the first trucks already on site

and the weather holding for now, they have little option

but to crack on and start assembling the house.

Each panel has been built

and designed to go together as efficiently as possible,

and comes pre-fitted with everything from insulated walls,

right down to holes for electricity sockets and a built-in cat-flap.

The meticulous nature of the build appeals to architect Laurence.

It's a standard screw.

Quite big panels.

It's basically what's going to hold this house together.

I've got to put it back because there is exactly 325 of them!

Paul watches as every section of this kit house goes together

with millimetre precision.

What's really important is that they get the ground floor

absolutely spot-on because as they go up, anything that's

sort of out slightly gets exaggerated as we go up.

Each panel of the house has been carefully measured

to slot together exactly.

A tiny mistake at this stage would be extremely

problematic by the time it comes to trying to fit the roof.

Next, the spectacular steel that will frame the huge rear

sliding doors is being lifted into place.

Weighing in at over a tonne,

it's one of the trickiest pieces of the entire jigsaw.

The three sliding doors are very expensive items

so getting this steel right is critical, really.

You don't want that to be wrong and then the doors don't fit

because there's quite a lot of money involved.

It's no wonder architect Paul is nervous -

the three double-glazed glass units

that will go into the giant frame are going to cost £22,000.

The frame's in.

It still remains to be seen if the huge sliding doors fit,

but if they don't, it will take three months to order new ones.

The weather stays fine

and after only two days, the ground floor is almost assembled.

No-one is more relieved than the house's new owner, Marcus.

It's quite crazy how quick they get stuff in, isn't it?

Marcus has poured his heart,

soul and £600,000 of his money into his new house.

He and his family are living in rented accommodation

until it's up, so he's keener than anyone to check on progress.

That's quite impressive, actually.

You can imagine the wind catching that

-and it just...

-Yeah.

-..cartwheeling around.

It's the way forward, isn't it?

I don't like that wall there. I think we should move it!

The first days of the build have gone smoothly

but at the end of day two high winds are forecast,

meaning the site is hugely vulnerable.

The installation could be jeopardised.

Bill Treves from the build company gives instructions

to batten down the existing structure.

He is seriously considering cancelling tomorrow's lift.

You can't have high winds or gusty winds

when we're lifting those big walls.

We've got to lift up over the top of the scaffolding.

The biggest wall is 12 metres long. it's virtually fully glazed.

If there's, you know, a gust when you're up there, you can't control it.

It's not like when you're down on the ground floor, you can walk it in.

When you're up, there's no chance.

Everyone hopes for the best

but the morning sees the protective layer blown off and torrential rain.

The bad weather threatens to put the build's tight schedule at risk.

In Edinburgh, in the heart of the New Town and in the shadow

of Scotland's most famous castle lies the A-listed Gayfield estate.

The historic nature of the buildings here means

they can't be altered in any way without special permission.

Angelica Goodden has just taken early retirement

from her lecturing role at Oxford University

and moved into one of the estate's stunning Georgian flats.

It's perfect in every way but one.

There are three steps up to the front door.

I have MS.

I've had it for years

but I've reached the age where MS does tend to get worse.

Angelica's passion for her new home has made her determined to overcome

the stairs without compromising the beauty of her new surroundings.

I don't want to give up because actually

when I'm wheelchair-bound, I intend to wheel myself around everywhere.

Because the house is listed, coming up with an access solution

the council will approve hasn't been easy.

So she's called on the services of architect David Blaikie.

We have to make the final project look like the project

when it started, so, you know, technically, there was

visually as little change as possible and that's how we

were able to convince the Planning Department to let us do this.

The, er...

When Angelica made her first approach to the Planning Department,

they were quite negative about what she was trying to do.

David has worked with Angelica and a Surrey-based lift company

to come up with a cutting-edge but elegantly beautiful solution.

What they're proposing is a hydraulic lift that will

look like the original steps and be clad in traditional stone

so it blends seamlessly with its surroundings.

It's a very, very light touch.

It was about retaining the visual appearance

of a A-listed Georgian building in Edinburgh

so that you didn't notice that anything was there.

Angelica's insistence on preserving the beauty

of her Edinburgh entrance isn't coming cheap -

she's having to spend her life savings to get what she wants.

It's shocking that something like this is going to cost

the best part of £100,000.

I hope I'm going to be solvent by the end of it,

but who knows exactly what the future's going to bring?

But for her £100,000 budget,

she'll end up with state-of-the-art

hydraulic steps in just four weeks' time.

This project may be slightly out of the ordinary for David

but it's exactly the sort of hands-on and personal job he likes.

It's one of the reasons I became

or I really wanted to become an architect, was

I always understood that it wasn't a desk-based profession.

You know, yes, you had to spend time at your desk or on the computer,

but you did get a chance to get out and about and see building sites

and meet other people and bits and pieces, so I do quite enjoy it.

It has taken weeks to get the steps through planning

but the big day finally arrives for work to begin.

Starting with the removal of the old stone steps.

It feels amazing.

I never really believed that we'd get the permission to install it

and that this stuff would begin

but come this morning,

noise of heavy lorries at about eight o'clock,

it was obviously going ahead.

David has given contractor Dennis McLister the task of making sure

the site is completely ready for the lift to be craned in.

It's a small job but it's very complicated.

We have gas pipes in the way,

the main electricity mains for the building in the way.

We're now removing Angelica's... not her only access

but her main access to the property.

We want the stonework to come out

and what needs to go back in as quickly as possible.

The problem is you have to break the egg to start making the omelette,

but once you've done it

you've got to get on with it quickly so she's not stuck in the house.

So far all the bricks are falling into place but, you know,

time will tell.

You know, these things never run smoothly.

With limited access to and from her flat,

Angelica's MS means she is virtually a prisoner in her own home.

She needs the job done as quickly and efficiently as possible.

But there's already a problem

so architect David is on a troubleshooting mission.

OK, back by about ten past one, Michael. OK.

Cheers. No, stay. DOG BARKS

They're putting the steelwork in this morning.

They've run into difficulties with Scottish Power, unfortunately,

which means that one of the bits of steel works is going to be

delayed until the end of the week.

The lift company are due to arrive in just four days.

If the steels aren't in place, the state-of-the-art steps

that will give Angelica back her freedom could be delayed for weeks.

In Dorset, it's day three of Marcus's house build.

The night's high winds have turned to rain but come lunchtime,

to the relief of the building company director Bill

and his team, there's a break in the weather.

We're going for it.

As long as there's blue sky around, there's hope!

They've lost half a day so they have to pull out all the stops

to make up for lost time so there's no margin for error.

Luckily they have a secret weapon in the shape of site manager

and precision pedant Tony.

Yeah, we're going to start putting the first floor cassette on.

I just want to check the level of the steels from the top there

which I'll do before we get going.

He works across all of the company's builds.

Yeah, the quality's paramount

and with Tony in charge, they'll get nothing past Tony.

He even straightens the carpet rugs in the place we're staying in,

and that's why he's called "Two-mil Tony"!

To guarantee he gets every stage of this construction spot on,

Tony relies on one trusty old faithful tool.

32 years I've had that and it's never let me down once.

Precise level within two mil. I love it!

And he's spotted something that bothers him with the steel levels.

In the middle...up.

Stefan with the column.

It must come up at least six or seven mil.

So he's got to lift it

and then we've got to put a packer underneath that column.

It is, it's going down.

Tony's attention to detail is crucial in such a quick

and sophisticated construction.

If his measurements are out, then the house won't fit together.

Fantastic. Two mil.

So if you see me smiling, I'm happy.

That doesn't happen very often...

because I'm always worried!

With Tony and the team on the case,

the next floor of the house shoots up over the next few days.

It's day five of the build

and the last of the wall panels they will lift is about to go in.

Normally, heavy panes of glass are fitted into a build on site

but not here - here, the walls come pre-glazed.

How they do it in the factory is remarkable.

All these things in, saves having to put it in on-site,

bringing in windows and stuff, putting them all in at once.

Fantastic. Saves a lot of grief.

Not only is this the biggest and heaviest panel

but it has to be lifted and fitted on to the first floor.

Even a small gust of wind could be disastrous.

It's substantial. It's one of the biggest ones.

I like when the front doors go in because they're really big

and this is the next exciting one.

Fantastic.

THEY SHOUT

No hiccups, no breakages - that's fantastic.

Under site manager Two-mil Tony's supervision,

they pull off another tricky manoeuvre - the panel

slots in perfectly, much to the relief of company director Bill.

Very satisfying.

That's the last major panel

on what was meant to be a complete no-lift day.

If we get the roof on and it all fits, I think we'll have done very well.

The bad weather has slowed them down so the build has had to be extended.

As the morning of day six dawns,

Bill and his team are left with the final and most challenging

part of the build - the roof, which is made up of eight huge panels.

Making sure the first one fits with millimetre precision is vital,

as the whole roof structure depends on it.

They're very long - they're nearly 13 metres long.

They have to fit over three walls.

They lift at four points.

They're even trying to lift it at the pitch that the roof is,

which is ten degrees.

It'll be a test of Tony's ingenuity.

We've got two-and-a-half mil to play with which,

over that height of building, is not a lot, so we'll see.

It won't be until the last panel slots into place

that Tony and the team will know if all of their measurements have paid off.

If they're even a few millimetres out with any of the walls,

then the panels simply won't fit.

Hey, hey, hey, how's that?!

This has gone in with less than a millimetre.

It's absolutely brilliant!

The last panel is lowered into position.

If this fits, then the whole house will have been

a masterclass in German efficiency and engineering.

If it doesn't, then it's back to the drawing board for Tony and his crew.

Whoa, whoa, whoa!

Waaayy!

Woo!

It's an instant house

but what's more satisfying is that it's a proper house.

It's well built and very substantial.

It's really in, two mil, I'm proud to say, so yes.

It's great.

This building is remarkable.

Designed by architects Paul and Laurence,

made hundreds of miles away in Germany,

transported to the UK and finally fitted with millimetre precision.

It's taken just six days,

where most conventionally built houses take months.

And Marcus, the proud new owner, is delighted.

That's awesome...we are, we're there. One house.

One week, one house. Brilliant.

Next, fixtures and fittings, then Marcus and his family can move in.

Back in Edinburgh, the construction

of Angelica's £100,000 hydraulic steps is not going to plan.

Architect David has gone to site to meet with the project manager, Dennis.

Very good, Dennis. How are you?

It's all levelled and squared.

The electricity main is in the way.

-Is it?

-Yes.

The electricity board have to dig up the pavement

and move the cable running under the steps before Dennis can put

the rest of the steels in.

The next steel comes across here

so the electricity main is in the way.

They will just come and rejoin the cable on the pavement,

poke it through here and re-run the tails into the two meters

which are just inside both the doors.

They said they could do it all on Friday morning.

-Well, good.

-Fingers crossed.

-Yes.

With the lift arriving on Monday, they're cutting it fine.

If the electricity cable isn't moved,

they could miss their slot with the lift company

and have to wait weeks before the fitters can return.

But Friday morning brings an unpleasant surprise for Dennis.

The electricity board have been out and dug the hole

for the electricity main,

but digging the hole is about as far as they've got.

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

then the lift isn't getting installed on Monday.

The electricity company were supposed to move a power supply.

They've dug a massive hole but, so far, that's it.

Lead contractor Dennis is meeting the electricity company on site

but it's a different team to the one that has dug the hole.

I've never seen a hole like it in my life!

It's not big enough.

It's not big enough?

I'm more concerned about who's going to fill the hole in

and get rid of this because all this lot has got to be

gone by lunchtime or we're all up the creek without a paddle.

-And you guys don't do the digging?

-I'm a cable jointer.

-So can I dig that?

-Aye, you can dig that.

Alec, shovel time. We're going to have to dig this.

The guys have dug the hole in the wrong place. Surprise, surprise!

Whilst Alec gets to work digging,

architect David arrives on site and is met by a worried Dennis.

Big problem is, we've got a huge hole and

unless they backfill that, we've got no chance of getting our steel in.

Can we not use those yellow plates that they put over a hole,

or is the hole too big?

-Let's go and have a look.

-Come and have a look.

In terms of getting the last bit of steel inside,

the third one's in there.

Will you park it there or take

these down and take it in a bit closer?

Well, it depends on whether we've backfilled or not.

If this isn't backfilled, then this barrier system has to stay.

As architect, David has to liaise with the builder, the client

and the lift company.

Not to mention all the utilities that are involved in this small

but complicated build.

If we can't create sufficient access across here for our

contractor to put in the steelwork, we have to cancel Sesame.

I don't know what the repercussions of that are.

I've heard them saying it might be after Christmas

before they can do it and that would be disastrous.

They're up against the clock.

The steels need to be in place

to support the huge hydraulic system that will power the steps.

It's a lot of disruption but there's a couple of ways around it.

We'd probably be able to get the steel down the stairs

and install it that way.

It's not the safest way to do it but we need to move forward and get it done.

With Angelica struggling to leave her flat with all the work,

David heads in with an update.

We were a bit concerned earlier on because they've had to dig

a much bigger hole than they thought they were going to have to dig.

Because the guys from the company have actually been very helpful,

they've done all that they can do.

-They're not used to this sort of pressure, I think.

-Yeah.

They're going to divert a lorry from another site nearby to come

and collect all the rubbish and take it away.

-That would be brilliant.

-Then Dennis can put down some boards

and put the steelwork in this afternoon.

As Friday afternoon comes to an end,

the power main is finally moved to its new position.

And Dennis employs good old-fashioned muscle power

to carry the last of the steels around the hole.

The only question now is with all that disruption,

will they have managed to achieve the millimetre precision needed

for the lift firm to fit their bespoke system?

It's the day of the installation

and right on time, the lift company arrive.

-I'm Dennis, by the way.

-I'm Sam. This is Simon.

Sam. Don't worry, Sam and Simon, I'll forget!

As the team start measuring up for the state-of-the-art stairlift,

David arrives with colleague Ryan Duthie

to cast his professional eye over proceedings.

-See how things are going.

-Yep.

They're checking the levels and the plumbness and levels and

positions of the steels and they say they've all got to come out again.

LAUGHTER

No! They said they're fine. They said...

I heard that, so that's good. That must be good.

The steels may be looking good

but there's only a minute margin for error

if the lift is going to fit into its new home.

They won't know if they've achieved it

until the first section is lifted into place.

With the critical stage approaching,

Angelica's made it out through the basement flat

to see her stairs take shape.

The first thing that's going in is the grey box, which they're then going to position.

-That's enormous.

-This is the bit that moves the stone steps up

and down so it's the first part that goes in

and rests on the steels that Dennis has put in,

and then this scissor lift which moves the main platform

up and down goes in after that.

It's crunch time.

It's taken months to get to this point,

services have been moved, the steels to support the step have been

put in with millimetre accuracy...

..but if this first part of the lift

doesn't fit, everything will have to stop.

I've said many prayers.

The steels will have to come out again

and it could set the project back by weeks.

OK? Ready, Simon? Are you all good?

All good.

Wa-hey!

That's it. That's perfect.

It fits, and with the crucial first part of the lift in place,

the rest follows easily.

That's it. Keep going. Like it. Say when you stop.

-Yeah.

-Stop!

The new stairs are clad with the same local stone

used in the surrounding properties,

helping the whole system to blend seamlessly into its surroundings.

Finally, David can breathe a sigh of relief.

You begin to see the final picture now.

After having to deal with all the utilities

and the Roads Department and all the rest of them

and it's now taking shape in front of our eyes, it's fantastic.

A week later, Angelica is already making full use of her new access

and David's come back to take a look at his design in action.

Morning, Angelica. How are you?

-Fine.

-Good. So...

-Doesn't it look stunning?

-Doesn't it? A beautiful day.

-Yes.

-Gorgeous light.

Instead of just going straight up,

it's got to go down through of all this.

It's got to activate the wheel something or other

-Ah right, the wheel stop at the back.

-Wheel stop, yeah.

-So that then sort of lifts this one.

-Yeah.

Here it comes.

It all looks so crisp and smart.

Doesn't it? I mean, it is a work of art.

Yeah. There we go.

It's been a long time, was it all worth it?

Oh, absolutely definitely.

Yeah? Good. I'm so glad to hear you say that because I think

it's an extraordinarily brave thing to have chosen to do.

I think it's been worth it both from a disability point of view

-and from an aesthetic point of view.

-Yeah, absolutely.

I think it's a wonderful bit of design that I'm proud of.

Yeah. I'm really pleased.

I'm really happy that it's turned out so well.

I think it's really impressive to see the step working

because it is so quiet and it's so precise.

It just sits there neat and tidy, lovely.

So it's just everything comes together really nicely in the end. It's good.

To celebrate her new step, Angelica has invited her friends,

neighbours and family round for a party.

I think it's wonderful

and I think it's amazing that you don't see any difference,

and it means that she can stay in her home and that's what matters.

It just gives me everything I hoped for.

It means I can go to and fro without needing to ask a passer-by

to help me get the bike or me down the steps.

It just feels like the best use of money I've ever

made in my life, I think.

It feels very important to have won that freedom back that I feel

I haven't had for a long time.

In the process I've got to know

a whole group of really interesting committed people.

It's felt like a great sort of life-affirming experience.

It sounds a bit of a cliche but that's how it feels to me now.

Next time on Building Dream Homes - for the factory-built house,

the massive £22,000 rear doors

are finally fitted and Marcus's new home is complete.

You have to just catch the corner.

On something that's as strong as that,

You know, you can hit it with a lump hammer

but you only need to catch it wrong. Poof! It's gone.

And in the New Forest, architect Wendy designs a new home in a tiny space.

But her big ideas for a small house come unstuck when disaster strikes.

It's thousands of pounds' worth of damage.