偉大的設計-房屋建造 第14季 S14E03_Milton Keynes

從以色列的山頂族群 到北美的印度人 人們總是建造了圓形的房子 他們是人們在洞穴出現時 當然 現在我們生活的世界 變得越來越圓形 但我認為我們應該 靠著圍欄 我認為我們應該 靠著盒子 重新建造圓形的房子 Peter和Chard Birkin 享受在Milton Keynes外面的家庭中的好生活 他們在一起20年了 Chard擔任交換醫療工作 Peter擔任GP 然而 他的保守的外貌 打敗了偉大的英國人 I've spent all my life with a project on the go I suppose over the years the projects have steadily got bigger It's escalated from bees to cars to boats He's also learnt to fly And for the last five years he's been building an aeroplane in his workshop This workshop leaks terribly The roof was a disaster I did it very cheaply and it lets water in all over the place It leaks and it's too small It was while he was planning to build a new workshop Peter thought why not build a house attached to it Workshop then house in that order It all makes sense for me tackling the biggest project ever at the point of retirement He's crazy If he's got a project to do he's excited He just has lots of energy lots of ideas They have nine children between them from previous marriages and their current home buckles under the stress of a growing army of grandchildren So they plan to build a house at the bottom of the garden that can withstand these invasions How long have you been here 17 years altogether So here we are This is the site So these grass lines these are not decorative This is literally a ground plant It's a ground plant Same size ground plant Mowed into the grass How amazing Exactly where the building is What a neat idea The design reflects Peter's organic ethos in that it's round Andrew, our architect sent me an email saying I've sent you an image I think you'll like it And it was a perfect circle I took one look at it and thought that's great It's what nature would do Nature doesn't grow squares It had suddenly become so organic And the more I played with it I came out here and stuck a post in the ground and started marking the circle out and walking around it and thinking about it It just grabbed me The footprint mowed into the lawn looks more like a crop circle where the aliens have landed But in Peter's mind it's a house and he's already moved in The edge of the building is here Okay, just imagine opening up your glazing here and you're walking into this lovely garden area to face the sun as it comes up It's already warm I'm now just outside our master bedroom All right, it's a bit cold now you've come out Inside, we'll be able to walk down a sort of spiral bit here Peter's enthusiasm and eccentricities are woven through the building's design and construction His plan for the eco roundhouse starts on unconventional foundations A shallow bed of shingle and a layer of polystyrene insulation will then be iced in a thin layer of concrete On this C-shaped slab will sit a complex single-story bespoke frame made entirely of wood 22 laminated timber pillars and over 2,000 other jointed parts will spiral out of the ground starting at 3 metres and rising to 4 metres in height Inside, there'll be 3 guest bedrooms and a large open living space with a kitchen in one corner To one side of the roundhouse the entrance hall will spur off It'll lead to the new workshop for Peter and his plane Next to the kitchen a utility room or mudlock will link the house to the productive garden As you follow the curve so the ceilings continue to rise culminating in a split-level bathroom and master bedroom The centre of the roundhouse will become a partially glazed winter garden a sheltered place for Chad to grow more exotic species from her native Thailand There's a sedum roof and walls clad in larch over a large masonry plinth in honey-coloured local stone Peter's enthusiasm for his roundhouse seems limitless It's just a shame that Chad is totally unimpressed Do you like it? Totally rejected it from the start, didn't you? I like everything square and straight I got to the point very quickly where I was so enthusiastic nothing was going to stop me doing it It has to happen because I love it And somehow I've got to find a way of making Chad love it as well In fact, I made a promise to you, didn't I? It was early in the year probably January for every time I remember saying to you you will love this house one day I promise you Yeah, one day They're not just building a house, of course The plans include a new workshop for Peter and his plane So the aeroplane's finished? No, not quite Not yet, he's going to build a plane in a new workshop That's not big enough to host his plane So that building isn't quite wide enough So part of this whole thing is that up there behind that hedge is going to be a building a square building, not round This is all just one giant ruse to rebuild the workshop, isn't it? Exactly How come you've got your way and Chad hasn't got hers? Because if I start to carry on arguing we're going to cost a lot of architect fees Chad fundamentally objects to the round design So Peter's taking an enormous leap of faith in hoping to persuade her Where does the money come from to do all this? Is it savings? Is it...? We've got quite a lot of savings We've got money in this building So I can take cash out of this place to put it into that Part of the aim was to end up moving into that in retirement without a mortgage We don't want to end up owing anybody any money As long as we keep it down certainly under 400,000 I don't think so, Kevin Not 400,000, we don't build If the 2,000-pound finish, we stop 200,000 pounds This is curved Curves cost a lot more money I told him that he said it's cheaper He's lying He said it's cheaper and easy to make easy to build, he said That's why we have lots of argument on this one Peter thinks 400, but Chad demands 200 First the shape, now the cost These two can't agree on anything Whatever their difference is they hope the equity in their current home when they sell it I like to start things and get things going Initiator, inspirer That's it, something like that I never finish anything I'm definitely not a complete finisher I must confess, looking at everything I've done The finishing detail is never there It doesn't spell a very good future for the project In addition to shape and to the cost there's another sort of discord which threatens the success of this project And it's in Peter's shed, his aeroplane What's it going to look like? Is it going to look like that? No Pictures, pictures, pictures How beautiful It's a lovely, pretty aeroplane What's this? This is a wing spar Wow This is all laminated timber So you've stuck all this together Yes How long did it take to make this? For the aeroplane, five years so far It's easy to admire Peter's enthusiasm for his plane But it's bound to be a distraction from the essential job of getting on and building a house, isn't it? Oh, child, like me But I can foresee a stage where there'll be things that aren't done And I'll be torn between being in the workshop or working in the building That is shocking, Peter So how do you keep him focused on not building the plane, but building the house? I get cross, and then he will Oh, it's that easy? It's that easy You get cross, he obeys you? Yes, I say, if you don't do it, I'll burn the plane So he'll come out You'll burn it It's a great threat I'll set fire to the plane It would destroy him, of course Yes, he said he'll kill me Was any of this your idea? Was building a house It's both of us Because I like the idea of building something That's why I talked to Andrew He's your architect? Yes So that's what started it But you do love him? Who, Andrew or Peter? No, Peter Yes, of course Good Building a house is an extremely stressful process And if you're already having arguments it's only going to get worse I am not going to be mediator between Peter and Chad That role has been taken up by their friend and architect, Andrew Arms I have to say this has always been Peter's project more than Chad's project The new workshop That was a very important part of the brief He's building this French kit plane So it's basically There's a bit of a hanger there as well Yes It's pretty cloudy up at the top Inevitably, Peter's hobby is dictating the direction of travel on this project I just hope he remembers to take Chad along with him on this journey It takes a year for Peter to finalise his plans But on a filthy wet day in May they finally break ground It all suddenly starts happening very fast It's a bit scary and hard to believe Peter's never built a house before On the roundhouse, he's going to project manage and coordinate two teams of contractors before taking over himself with some help from friends to see the roundhouse to completion Chad's job is that of financial controller in an attempt to keep an eye on her husband's spending The ground works team mark out and level the site There's hardly any digging to do just some scraping level to provide a comfortable surface for a warm bed of polystyrene So what we've got here is a large number of pieces of pre-shaped polystyrene which are going to form the circle around the outside of the house They link in with sheets of polystyrene also in many sections which cover the whole floor And the whole house sits in that raft of polystyrene which is an extremely efficient way of insulating the whole thing completely from the ground It's becoming quite a common approach in Sweden Peter's Swedish lightweight raft foundation isn't just made from polystyrene It does have other ingredients My mother used to make a pudding called abrikos svedois Swedish apricots out of meringue And this is my recipe for Swedish foundations First of all, you blind bake your case like this with an outer perimeter skin of cement board On top of that, you add more layers of meringue for insulation And that leaves here a trench on the outside perimeter of the building that'll support your walls into which you place a few nuts You dress that with some concrete reinforcing bar You might add a little bit of steel reinforcing bar as a decorative touch at the top And finally, add a sprinkling of underfloor heating There we are That's the system onto which is then poured the concrete The fondant concrete which produces a ring beam here And a floor slab here It's about the most efficient use of concrete that I can imagine in a foundation system Conventionally, you see, you would dig down six feet, say to pour your strip foundations here This system just sits on six inches of stone It's a biscuit base, really Yum The Raft Foundation is innovative, quick and low carbon But at £59,000, a sizeable expense I've been edge man all day This keeps me busy, makes me think I'm involved Revolutionary foundations And next to come will be a giant bespoke wooden frame It's not like a nice square box where you've got four corners to work with It's become increasingly scary The more I realise just how big this is now It's a lot more than I realised I was taking on Charles still isn't convinced that a roundhouse is the right way to go She still thinks I'm a bit mad She's still very scared of the potential cost implications I'm still hoping that once the thing's up that she'll fall in love with it It's testing our relationship It will do more, I think It's a month since work started on Peter and Charles' roundhouse Foundations complete, they're awaiting delivery of the 2,000-piece wooden frame Have you made the bits of aeroplane to make this? Perversely, Peter's roundhouse is made out of square parts Well, square-ish There isn't actually a 90-degree angle in it Because this lot, as well as spiralling It actually slopes very slightly to the centre Not even a right angle They're pretty close, but then they change very slightly This has been pre-cut It's all being pre-cut in Germany What kind of allowance have you got for cock-up? To be honest, none really These things have all got to drop into those Dovetailed joints all the way out It's got to be absolutely spot-on There's only three machines in the world That can cut that kind of accuracy And they're all in Germany OK, let's hope you've used one of them on this project Peter's 2,000-piece frame Is precision-engineered and round And so is in total contrast to these 74 square homes That are going up in what was the field next door We've been walking down on Sundays To have a look at what they're doing And it's bog-standard trench and fill, block and brick They go up very fast Same way they've built them for 150 years Everything is in the industry Designed around the 90-degree angle Totally, yeah, totally But it's so boring, you know That's why we have you, Peter You are one of the world's pioneers Flying in the wind of conventional building wisdom Is always expensive Peter believes the roundhouse will cost 400,000 pounds Chard, however, wants him to retire mortgage-free And so she consistently is demanding He rein the costs right back to 200,000 He needs to inform me to every penny he spends You're just taking the standard role Of a financial controller, aren't you? You just have to be very sceptical And hold on to the money Yes, yes Which is not a bad thing It is a very good thing If I was left to my own devices I'd have spent more than half a million, wouldn't I? It would have just escalated and escalated and escalated Just five days later His full-scale 15-ton precision-cut wood frame arrives I've been waiting to see these beams for 18 months I'm quite excited about seeing them now Peter has not compromised here I'm not sure if Chard's aware of this but the frame is the most expensive element of the project at over 80,000 pounds They're fabulous I had no idea they were so big Can I go and touch it? The groundwork contractors have gone having handed over to a specialist timber frame team I've not really built a full circular building before but hopefully my geometry is good and the bolts will line up If not, I'm going to look silly No margin for error with this frame 2,060 pieces of wood must fit together perfectly like an old-fashioned aircraft 22 pillars growing incrementally in height will spiral out of the ground rising to a dramatic four and a half metres There are not that many right angles One key angle is 27 degrees The fact that it's a circle it's that sort of sense of anticipation of are they going to fit, are they not going to fit So has Peter's 82,000 pound giant kit model arrived with all the correct bits and will they all fit together? I think as we lift it up we need to just sort of That's quite a good way of doing it I can see that it goes over, that's fine there It should be good there Yeah, that doesn't look too bad at all It now has a very large hammer just to tickle it into place As the frame rises one thing becomes clear Remarkable German precision is worth the money There's an aeronautical accuracy to this structure It's just so much bigger than I thought My neighbours nicknamed it the cathedral I know what he means because when you stand under the high end and look up, it's very lofty and the beams are way up there somewhere Look at that, now that is looking very strong now Tell you what's a particular delight is seeing a building like this as complicated as it is entirely made out of wood Peter and Chad's circular frame is something of a triumph Faultlessly accurate and organically shaped as though a giant tree-chomping spider had spun in just one month an elaborate timber web Hello Hi How are you? Very well I'm very admiring of this building It's a lovely thing to see something just in timber Even to the extent that they haven't used steel plates for jointing it You know, that's one of the things When we were going around the different timber frame companies and every structure I looked at they've got those bits of metal all over the place joining the timber together and I just kept saying I don't want that I want it to be pure timber There's a kind of epic quality It's good, isn't it? Do you like it? No You're right, you big liar I don't I like the wood But the circle, the dividing Still not convinced, are you? No, still very difficult to find furniture to fit in We've been looking at the kitchen Can you imagine a lovely curve, curving set of units here Even if I have to make them myself If the doors actually curve on the same radius Don't mind me Chard's still not keen and thinks a roundhouse is impractical But I'm totally beguiled by the shape It's only from up here, isn't it that you really get to see the difference in roof level between this end and over there One and a half metres of separation as this great curving roof corkscrews out of the ground Rather like a tree grows twisting as it rises Except of course this shape isn't happenstuff This shape is actually made out of lots and lots of straight pieces of timber carefully worked and jointed What this is is precision timber engineering The fact that it's gone together so speedily suggests to me that you are within your budget Chard and I have always had different budgets Like you know Chard wanted to spend half the amount that I was mentally allowing for Where does it sit now Chard started at 200,000 I started at 400,000 We've just passed the 300,000 mark And I think it's going to come out at around 350,000 300,000 Well, we're around there somewhere Chard, Chard I know, I'm going to kill him Peter's clearly not consulting Chard on what he's spending Why do you threaten to kill him about the money Because like we said Peter want to retire He doesn't want to work anymore We calculated when we finish this We don't need to work And then we can live in somewhere that we like And do the garden Go to see the grandchildren So if he overspend it You'd have to carry on working Exactly Good luck If Peter runs over his own 400,000 pound budget not even the sale of their old house will allow him to retire at the end of the project The contractors have left And it's now solely up to Peter to see the project home As the site manager he takes delivery of the cladding for the roundhouse This is Siberian larch cladding It's come all the way from Grimsby He's pulled together an enthusiastic team of friends with varied abilities who are being paid on mate's rates It's out in the fresh air It's very nice We've got a good team actually We've had four of us as mates working together However, there has been a noticeable change of pace We've been a bit slow And we've made two or three mistakes But we're learning as we go along As we get used to the process We'll speed up and be more accurate I might not have allowed enough for wastage Peter's so laid back He doesn't worry about anything He's just like, OK We'll come together in the end So there's no pressure Which is really nice The financial director, obviously Chard She's a bit more difficult to please Chard, from a distance has formed her own opinion about the competence of Peter's newly formed team The progress on the building is so slow They're old They don't know what to do Thank you very much We're not that old We're not that slow You need to finish before Christmas, basically Then we can sell this house We can put the house on the market in January So if you do the way you do Which you have made Next year, end of next year It will happen That is not good enough We need to be more professional Peter is not, is he? By his own admission A finisher of things And there is Despite the fact that the design is beautiful A sort of portentous quality about it It is an incomplete, unfinished circle Peter's plane and Peter's house are similar They are both wooden And they are both in pieces At the roundhouse, the contractors have left So every second he's not at the surgery Dr Birkin and his small team of friends Are busy cladding His glass has arrived 75 triple glazed windows and doors At 58,000 pounds They are the third most expensive element Of this project If Peter is serious about retiring I hope they are the last of his big costs 38 of these windows are bespoke trapeziums The tops of their frames Following the rising curve of the building This is the man of action Hello, Peter Hello How are you doing? You're enjoying yourself, aren't you? Very much You look like a builder I'm looking at your shoes, not your stomach The roof is weathertight? Almost watertight In fact, they've been in today And finished off the far corner Meantime, these glazes are really rocking on With the windows, aren't they? Yeah, they've only been here About three days, is it? Yeah Drawing inspiration From his half-built wooden aircraft Peter has devised a lovely, elegant way To hide these services in the building This is a thing of beauty Looks like a giant curved cutlery tray This is... How heavy is it? Fairly heavy It's not, really By aircraft standards, that's very heavy By building standards, that's super lightweight That is the world's most beautifully crafted Services duct A services duct is not usually glamorous It's for hiding the pipes and cables Around the building It'll run all the way around From that wall to that wall over there There's 16 of these to do that From then on, we can get the wires into the walls It's already a beautiful thing in progress And I'm looking forward to seeing that It might be slow, but it's thoughtful and creative Every ounce of Peter's energy and personality Is being poured into the roundhouse Now, I know I said I thought Peter wasn't a finisher But I'm not so sure There's a sort of precision That you'd expect from somebody Who builds aeroplanes for a hobby And a dedication to doing things Properly in the right order And this is a textbook example Of how to construct a building well Which means Either the construction pixies Are coming in every night To tidy up and finish off after Peter Or he's really rather good Unfortunately, in his enthusiasm He's forgotten to include Chad again So once more, he's in the doghouse So far, I kind of feel That I've been kicked out of the project I'd like to know what we're doing You know, with the project, with the money He always has a plan in his head But he never lets it out for anyone to know And that's quite difficult I feel that it's not my project anymore It's not my house It's his and his boy instead I'm terrible I just plough on and feel I'm in control And want to be in control And I tend to leave Chad behind Then she feels left out We had really a major bust-up About 10 days ago About this whole control issue I happily accept, really That I shouldn't just bully my way through Wanting to do it all And it's perhaps a good idea, really To back off a bit Not a bad idea, Peter They want savings to get them As near as possible to the finishing line Before selling their home To pay for the whole project We've just got to the point Where there's no real cash flow left In our sort of easily accessible accounts And to spend any more I've got to borrow a bit Or take funds out of areas That we were hoping to leave untouched They don't agree on costs But they do agree on a green sedum roof And it's just been delivered Oh, wow, look at that That's beautiful The colours in that are going to be superb Chad, come and look at this No, look at this, look at this Isn't it beautiful Oh, dear You can actually see the new growth That's just coming on I see a chive Is that chive? Chives on the roof It looks like a spring onion, doesn't it? Nice So we stop arguing for a day, yeah? Stop arguing for a day Work together Which way am I going? That way? There are seven types of sedum And 25 species of wildflower A treat for Peter's bees Oh, there's a bee, there's a bee They'll really come and look properly When there's no one about Here we are, right behind you Right there, right on the tip of my finger There's a bee It moved on again And lo, there's something rarer than a bee Peter and Chad working together Now on the cladding If you get someone cutting while two people are fitting then it speeds it up You see it move? That's it now That's better Bang on up there now This is a relatively new thing because we're beginning to work a system that works together So it's good True teamwork In this new spirit of cooperation Peter's decided to share his thoughts putting the contents of his brain on paper It is improving things because there's a bit more information accessible more easily And I've been doing my best to keep the thing up to date All of the major expenses I've done And it's about how much we've got left to finish the place off internally If I've got a building that I can lock the doors I can turn the heating on And I can turn the lights on Then to me, that's it I've done it And then sort of fitting it all out to me is like a second phase that I haven't even thought that much about Really? Peter, Peter You need to finish that house That's not joke Understandably,Chard wants her home finished and furnished So she's taken complete charge Peter's team can continue with simple jobs supported by family while tradesmen will be brought in for the specialist works It'll cost more than paying Peter's friends but the work can get done in half the time Peter is working very hard He makes lots of progress But, you know, under my supervision He's committed to the house He's gone from size 36 to 34 width Insulation has become Peter's latest obsession as he's determined the roundhouse reached the highest standard of energy efficiency So this is almost pure wool It's actually Welsh sheep And this is what's called an eco roll And it's exactly the right width for fitting between our structure And the nice thing about this is that we can do it ourselves Just totally insulating the place Isn't that nice? It just fits perfectly And we just know that that's going to keep all the heating It's really satisfying Peter and Chard have put their old house on the market and managed to sell it in five days There's now a real necessity to move into their new home However, there's still plenty to do Joiners are on site and the curved kitchen surfaces are being measured up Hey, Peter Outside, Peter's sorting the local stone which will cover large parts of the front of the building Have you got enough stone? I hope so We've got plenty of it lying around You've got there something like 1.8 metres of stone to do It's a big wall It's taken how long to do the cladding? Eight months In which time they've built an entire housing estate over there Well, there are hundreds of them I know, I know But, you know, there's only one of you And consequently You'll be three quarters of the way around with the stone work And they'll be coming up and saying Bye, Peter, we're finished now It's going to be weeks and weeks of this It's always been about the journey for Peter He doesn't want it to end Unlike Chard, who wants it finished She's not here today, is she? She's in Jersey OK She's gone for a break From you? From me What is it about you that drives her mad? Do you think? I take too long At one point I was trying to do all the plaster boarding myself And Chard started getting quotes from people to do it I started painting It was taking too long Chard got the quotes for painters Now the painting's being done I'm now tiling bathroom floors And she's already started writing down the numbers of tilers At least she's allowing him the satisfaction of completing the 350 square metres of cladding Mathematics, do not fail I'm easily absorbed into working on the roundhouse What's not to like about working at Peter's pace? Oh, oh, lovely The cladding may be complete The building may be weathertight But Peter ain't out of the woods yet The doors to his workshop are going on today His workshop is finished Which means the greatest distraction of all is yet to be confronted Is there not a great danger here? Bring the aeroplane in And that's it Work till everything else stops I'm afraid that's almost bound to happen I've got to admit it This whole thing has been about the aeroplane And that's probably largely why What about the whole thing? Come on, there's a house to do But it started because of the aeroplane I wanted a new workshop And then the idea that we could perhaps build a house Not just a workshop came around So I got very excited about the house I know, you built a workshop with the dwelling attached, haven't you? Not the other way around Great I can't wait to get on with the aeroplane But one of the... But you can't, you can't do... You've got to finish the house Well, yes Yes, yes Chard will go mad For over three years Peter and Chard have been at odds over the building of this modern day roundhouse From the beginning I've not really been sure if Peter had it in him to finish this project So... Good Lord Will you look at that, eh? What a magnificent fortification Hello, Chard Hello, Kevin Hello How are you? Well, I'm admiring your building I know, hi Peter, you've lost weight Only a couple of stones They're in here somewhere, Peter Which one are they? It's that one or that one, isn't it? It's six weeks of hard labour in there It's magnificent It's almost as though a giant wooden spaceship has landed on top of Stonehenge you know, interlocked with it It's amazing how they're locked together It just looks right It does Every time I've come here I've seen Peter take on a job I thought, he's not going to finish this He has built you a house He has, yes, very good Very good effort, isn't it? A good effort? Oh, thank you First time she's... It's like a school report Good effort Yeah, yeah, yeah It's good, it's finished Come on, show me Come on, then Is it a no-shoes house? It's a no-shoes house, yes OK, I'll take them off at the door Absolutely a shoe house Now then Do you know, walking in The cloudscape out there That view becomes part of the room It does, it's magical It's beautiful The building, I always thought It was like a big embrace Yeah It's very dynamic You're pleased, then, aren't you? I'm tickled pink This is a building with big volumes Tall windows A lot of connection to the outdoors A lofty exposed ceiling And a visible structure All of which suggests a modern church As much as a house Although there is glamour This is like some beautiful piece Of automotive design, you know? It's beautiful, curved, stylish All beautiful things are curved, Gary Yeah, yeah, yeah And these are just faceted, aren't they? They're flat, gorgeous thing And this top is very twinkly, isn't it? It makes special for me For you I order more sparkling Really The building needs the extra sparkle To offset those almost ceremonial details Like the jutting glulam beams Timber gargoyles Rising in what looks like a chorus Internally, the guest accommodation For children and grandchildren Sits at the lower end of the spiral Next to the main living area Peter's spacious workshop Occupies its own wing A bolthole for his imagination As the building continues to rise on the curve Behind the kitchen, a utility room Links the roundhouse to their shared passion The garden Come and look at the produce This is all you, is it? Big fat beans and spuds Your pick is this one The spuds are great this year It's my favourite room You know, our boys always like this kind of stuff It's got all the toys, it's got all the projects Underfloor manifold and Good stuff, isn't it? Lots of pipes Yeah It's a bit of cliche Making contact with the outside, you know Drinking the light, bringing in the landscape This is bringing in the landscape This is actually bringing in The productive landscape into the building And the building serving as a machine For processing that and Yeah, this is Turning it into food Yeah, it's the good life, the self-sufficiency thing Healthy food coming into here This is the engine room, this is where it all happens They're also harvesting a new crop from the garden Peter's planted a bed of solar panels They could yet be self-sufficient However, like their produce Enters the house through the utility room If this is your favourite room What is your second favourite room? Without doubt, the bedroom, the second Your next door Yeah, it's right next door to this Yeah, yeah An unusual juxtaposition Yeah, well, I can come out of the Engine room of the house Tired from the gardening And come have a lie down Wow This point, the ceiling is at its highest I know we've come up 4 or 5 steps, but Yeah, it's the top of the house Yeah, you feel elevated, don't you? There's a sort of magisterial position That this room occupies Yeah, it's a lovely space And you do have the view for the bedroom It's great, isn't it? That's what this embracing building is Embrace it, the view I have to say, it's not all round and curvy The building is blessed with plenty of straight lines Some occasionally clunky flat glazing A few sliced edges And the odd square dividing wall panel And look at these shapes through here The combination is, thankfully, restrained And connected by the concrete floor It's so glossy It's like looking at water That's just running off a beach You know, as the sea goes out It's alluvial Beautiful thing The one thing I'm struggling with here, though Is that view through that big picture window It's a great shame It was never meant to look quite like that It was a beautiful view When we took the place on I mean, what have you got there? 72 homes? 74 Built in the same time span as this That was on the same day Yeah, exactly The contrast couldn't be more extreme Nothing better illustrates Peter's desire to be different And his constant questioning of conventional wisdom Each one of these sets opens up completely Yep, so the whole thing opens up So the whole thing will... That's lovely, then you get... You get to file it Yeah, you're basking it Yeah, you see that great sweep as it shoots up That's very heroic, isn't it? It's cost £400,000 to build this extraordinary modern-day roundhouse paid for through savings and a small loan The recent sale of their house has covered these costs and replenished nearly all their savings It's slightly more than Peter anticipated So can he afford to retire? I was still a GP for the NHS until midnight last night Good Lord So today... Today? The first day of my retirement We've managed to achieve the aim which was to end up with a beautiful house to retire into with no mortgage And you've done that? We've done it, yeah That's good We wouldn't have done it if I'd been left entirely in control of the finances OK, we have a child to thank for that How much did you save? Overall, it's about £40,000 altogether That she saved you? Yeah That's a major contribution Really? You think so? It's good £40,000 discount is huge I thought it should be more Oh yeah, I bet you did, yeah Ambitious self-builds can so easily go off the rails Lose focus and hemorrhage money But surprisingly, this outstanding example has been kept on track and on budget by the one person who's disliked the concept from the very start Are you going to be happy here? Peter is, yeah I'm already happy here, I love it Are you going to be happy here? Peter is Are you going to be happy here? I don't know Very different to your last house Yes Are there things that you are coming to like or are you still sceptical? Still not sure He's going to have to take time, I think We've tested our relationship a great deal because we've had a lot of arguments over finance It's fair to ask, how much you've spent? £200,000 That's what you wanted to spend Yeah, it's very close to 400,000 It's not the finance alone, it's about how we... Decision making Yes It's quite difficult The day Andrew actually emailed that circle and said, what do you think of doing that? And I said, wow, yes And there was kind of no going back And Chad said, absolutely not Exactly And that was the point... Everybody The point of no return because I was so set on that from the moment I saw it that nothing would shift me And, yeah Yeah The perfect circle is the cause of... Yes All this This tension It is actually Yeah And in fact, in the last few weeks of the build I'd only by then really got the idea that I really should be trying to put everything past you to share everything rather than just... Yeah Is life always like this for you? Yeah This is how you operate This is the dynamic between... I think it is, yeah But it works It seems to work There's a sort of... Some kind of synthesis there Clearly it works Because this place is here now And it looks great And it's all happened Yeah There's been a lot of grief on the way, Peter There's been some pain Mental and physical, but... Chad, positive or negative? I think a positive, yes Because I'm still here with him Brilliant Good design often represents the resolution of conflicting ideas Chad's affinity with the square and Peter's with the round are an almost cartoon version of such conflict of raging battles and arguments But this place, I suspect, offers an opportunity to make peace You might, like me, generally prefer your buildings to be rectilinear You might, like Chad, think that a curved building is a really impractical space for conventional furniture But you see, I think that this contradiction between the square and the round is in fact completely resolvable And a bit like the relationship between Chad and Peter A building can take opposite ideas and it can synthesize from them something new and exciting with real magical energy And boy, does this building hum to that kind of tension You're going to build a house out of what? Chip containers This is exactly the purpose for which they're intended Yeah Not for living in Swing your knife, swing your knife Please God, it's tight, isn't it? Would you pull, would ye? It's not worth doing if it's not a challenge What a shocker