Building An Epic Remote Jungle Retreat | World's Most Secret Homes

Imagine living in a home that sits secluded in a forest, on a 100 kilometer beach, or on top of a mountain. In this series we travel the globe to explore some of the world's most secret homes, hidden away in truly inspiring locations. From stunning lakeside escapes and secluded mountain cabins, our favorite activity is sitting here and looking at the view, to coastal sanctuaries and city treasures. Spaces like this can cause the spirit to soar. We explore how these spectacular homes were built. The whole thing is on the move all the way along this coastline. And meet the people who live in them. We fell in love with the nature, the sea, it was a love at first sight. As we discover the world's most secret homes. Stretching for over 320 kilometers across southeastern Brazil, the Serra da Mantequera mountain range has some of the highest peaks in the country. Mantequera means the mountain that cries. It's a reference to the vast number of springs, streams and waterfalls that run down the peaks and valleys. These mountains have always been important to Brazil. From the gold rush of the 17th and 18th centuries, to the coffee boom a century later. Today this remote area, famed for its wildlife and spectacular scenery, is also the site of a secret home. Hidden amongst the local arucaria trees, an enormous wooden grid appears to hover above the valley. The straight lines and right angles contrast sharply with the undulating terrain. Yet the house still seems to perfectly fit in its setting. This striking building is known as the grid house and the checkerboard home is unique. The owner of this remote mountaintop complex is Wilson Cusajara. His aim was to create a home in a place he has loved for many years. I decided with my wife that this was the place that we would like to build a house. I said I would like a house integrated with nature to protect and respect all the environments. The design of this sprawling house is inspired by the sliding doors and wide verandas of traditional Japanese homes. From above it resembles a giant crossword puzzle. The whole area covers 2000 square meters and is constructed in modules over one main floor. There's a living room, kitchen, dining room, TV room and four self-contained family pods, each with a bed and living area. To build this dream mountain home, Wilson worked with architect Fernando Forte. Wilson said okay let's walk now about four or five kilometers into the woods and I want to show you some special place. And then we came up here and what there was like a big plot in the middle of the jungle with some little cows around and he said what do you guys think? Do you think it's possible to make an interesting house here? And we said oh yes of course just do it. We will do something great here together. The terrain here is uneven so to respect the contours of the land, Fernando came up with an unusual design for this isolated house. We did not want to put a house that came from like a flying saucer that was landed here so we decided to make it like a grid so nature after maybe 10-15 years will go across it and we have like a new harmony between architecture and nature. The house is so vast that covered walkways connect all of the self-contained family units. Japanese style benches on the verandas allow visitors to rest and take in the views. This is kind of the heart of the house because it's the passage through the house from one side of the other and the way to get into the different rooms. And you can see all the grid here in different aspects. You can see the garden underneath. Here we did a lot of pergolas. The original plan was to put glass on top of it. Before the putting the glass Wilson told us oh we love it like this. We'll just leave a couple of umbrellas over there. If you want to go to a room and by any chance it's raining you just use an umbrella. The real luxury of this home becomes clear when you step inside. The largest part of the grid is taken up by the main living space. There's a large area for relaxing, a kitchen, and dining space. The roof comes with a surprise, its own stream. And these Japanese style water mirrors have been created to reflect the edges of the garden. You can see here how a symmetrical landscape is on top of the house so it's not like trying to imitate nature. We didn't want rails all over the place. We wanted to make these water mirrors here so people won't fall down the gaps here in the structure and so you get your feet wet before you fall down. So if your feet is wet you're in danger. I think this is one of the most interesting places to understand the house because we can see there are alcaria trees. They are protected by law so we have to take really good care of them during construction but also integrate them with the grid. This is one of the children's rooms and we sat with each one of them separately and said okay what do we want? We want two bedrooms, one bedroom. Each one of them could choose the way they wanted this particular space for their upcoming families. All the living spaces in this home have been specifically designed to meet the family's needs. A set of concrete pillars supports the grid house. The home is embedded into the landscape on two sides to form a bridge-like structure. The edges of the grid are anchored into the hill while the pillars hold up the central section. A series of specially made steel brackets attach these pillars to the metal and wooden beams above. Two 11 meter long steel beams reinforce the structure to avoid an excessive number of pillars. The grid house is full of surprises. It's an unconventional concept that has been brilliantly executed and its epic design conceals yet more secrets. Two leisure pavilions jut out from the mountain. These structures sit on the highest point of the land to make the most of their magical surroundings. The rooms have 360 degree views across the landscape and provide a dramatic counterpoint to the house set in the valley below. Inside the main pavilion there is a pool table which leads onto a kitchen diner and living area with panoramic window. The second pavilion houses a spa with wet and dry sauna and a jacuzzi. Spended above the valley yet merging into the hills, the grid house redefines the boundaries of interior and exterior living. The 70,000 local species of trees planted around the site will help it merge even more into the landscape as time passes. It's a very special place to stay. It's a secret house. There's a masterpiece. Wilson has achieved his ambition of building an extraordinary house in one of his favorite places in the world. His dream really has come true. 9,400 kilometers northeast off the south coast of England lies the Isle of Wight. Known for its coastal scenery and lush countryside, this island played a big part in the success of the allied forces during World War II. Today an intriguing wartime relic has been transformed into an inspiring secret home. Hidden under the landscape on the edge of the island's south coast is an historic structure that's been reinvented for 21st century living. This building was originally constructed as a radar station during the war. Today it's been transformed into the secret bunker house. The owners of this historic home are architect Lincoln Miles and his wife, artist Lisa Traxler. We acquired the site three years ago. It was a gift of a project, you know, it's a second world bunker in the landscape next to the sea. What's not to love about that? So it was it was like the ultimate project. The house covers 287 square meters over two floors. On the top floor there is a master bedroom with dressing room, ensuite bathroom and sauna, reading room and guest room with bathroom. On the ground floor there's a living room, kitchen and dining room. A long corridor connects the house to the old bunker itself. It was a no-brainer in one way because it's so beautiful here and I think the history of the place for me was just amazing. Once they bought the site and decided to incorporate the old bunker into the build of their new home, Lisa undertook extensive research on the abandoned building that had been built in 1942. It was really on the front line during the second world war so it was very, very important for the UK and I think just uncovering this history and the stories behind what was going on here, it just drew me in. The more and more I looked into it there were so many more layers to it. The bunker had been built as an early warning radar station by the Royal Air Force to detect and track enemy aircraft and warn the nation of their approach. It was the most southerly radar station in Britain. The idea when we were talking together about doing this project was the fact that we talked about not doing anything with the bunker so we weren't making it into a kitchen, we weren't making it into a spare room, that sort of thing. I think we're very lucky that we've been able to leave it very pure so it's still what it actually was. The design of this dwelling which hooks into the existing bunker is done in such a way that the foundations don't meet, aren't joining, the buildings are separated by a void. That was important to us. Strip us out and you're back to 1942. Effectively I described the house as hidden in plain sight. It's here, you can see it, but it's a silhouette for what is it. It reveals itself as you go around the corners but still not sure what it is. Lincoln and Lisa designed the facade of the house to resemble the military camouflage system called Dazzle camouflage. The striking pattern was developed originally to protect warships at sea. Its idea was it was painted onto vessels out at sea, huge geometric patterning all over the side of the vessels, and what this did was it confused the eye. I just thought how fascinating this would be on our building. So how could we wrap our building in a dazzle camouflage? The result is a steel system that enhances the modern feel of the house but at the same time looks to its past. As you cross the threshold you enter straight into the open plan living space. Only when you come through this door, this entrance here, this portal here, does it really unfold and reveal the brilliance of the space. This is the first time you get an experience of our home, the kitchen and the dining. It's a light-filled space. The whole sort of design intent here is to be non-fussy. The materials are all on show, cross-laminate timber ceiling, rough cast concrete and all these surfaces. We've zoned things so there's quite a drop between here and the lounge, and then you're presented with the views of the English Channel and the landscape. This little sculpture park we have here, it's an amazing space. The window frames of this home are quite extraordinary as they're made from paper that has been treated in a revolutionary way. All the doors and windows in this property are made of this paper composite. No screws, no bolts, no welding, no rusty bits, just pure paper. The material comes from skate parks in the States. Very resilient and tough outside and tape bashing and now it's being used architecturally to do doors and windows. The paper is compressed into an extremely durable material. Up to 250 layers of pulped, recycled paper are coated in resin and fused together under compression and heat. This solid mass goes through a machine that forms it into the shape of a window frame that won't rot or need any maintenance. It is very exciting that this is the first paper door and window framing system in the world. Upstairs is the master bedroom and ensuite bathroom with a sauna. There's also a guest suite and a reading room. The deeper you travel into this house, the more its history is revealed. Lincoln designed this corridor to connect the modern house with the old bunker. I'm first viewing what the hell's going on. It's a bit of a tunnel to it. It's quite compressed with the ceiling but then equally there's painting on the wall and block work walls and concrete floor but there is something in the distance which is a sort of yellowy glow so that's all presenting the idea of the bunker somewhere in the distance. The bunker space is now where artist Lisa exhibits her work. Here we are in the bunker itself so in this little time chamber and it's got the really brutalist walls. You can see all the marks of time and it's a really still space as well. I like to think of it as the room of requirement so it can be what we need it to be. At the moment I've got an exhibition in here so this is a space now that we've created or we've left and let be created that will encourage other creatives to come along so whether it be other artists to have shows or musicians. We've had a theatre troupe here. To have this space as part of our home, I can't quite get my head around it. We are so so so lucky to have this space. Lisa and Lincoln have successfully merged the old with the new in their efforts to forge a modern home around the old bunker and this historic site conceals one more surprise. We found when we acquired the site that we had some quite beautiful but very derelict huts almost like a glorified garden shed. These army huts were built at the same time as the bunker. They were used as a living space for the soldiers who operated and guarded the early warning radar system. Now fully restored, Lisa and Lincoln used them as their studios. I think you get a feeling that you could still be steeped in history here and you could time travel a little bit and when I think back to what these little huts were like originally, they were very very derelict. I have a beautiful view out the window, I have lovely light, I can watch the storms rolling in across the sea and this is my thinking space as well. I'm so lucky to be able to work from here. It's such a wonderful place to live. It's just staggeringly beautiful actually and we love it. Lisa and Lincoln have created a beautiful modern home from the ruins of this derelict building, saving it for future generations and retaining a small piece of this island's legacy. 8,600 kilometers west is San Francisco on America's North Californian coast. Known for its unique microclimate, rolling hills and liberal attitudes, it's a cool, elegant city. It is the cultural and financial center of the western United States, but this success comes at a price. San Francisco is the second most densely populated city in the US, which makes living space here very, very precious. This is Lombard Street, the location of many classic 19th century homes. Its unusual zigzag shape has earned it the title of being the crookedest street in the world and on this most famous of streets nestles something very different from its historic neighbors. These shadowy cedar boards mask an astonishing piece of interior design. This building is called the Hidden House. It is a home with a split personality. When owner Doug Smith discovered the site, there wasn't an awful lot to see. It was a one-story building that had been here for the better part of 80 years. There was nothing redeeming. It was certainly not a historical landmark. The challenge for Doug was to create a modern home on a very confined plot. You've got, you know, the better part of 3,000 square feet of living space squeezed into a box that is framed by three houses and so it creates a great architectural challenge. The Hidden House covers 268 square meters over three floors. The top floor of this extraordinary house contains the master bedroom, bathroom and a private terrace. On the first floor there's the main open plan living space, dining room and kitchen and on the ground floor there's an office, guest bedroom and bathroom. Doug also needed to make the house blend into an area of much-loved traditional houses without upsetting the very close neighbors. Not easy. I think that the architects knew that if we were going to get the affection of the city in terms of their willingness to accept us to build this, we had to acknowledge that it was being built in San Francisco so that means bay windows. If you look around there's bay windows everywhere. The pared back timber facade of this house conceals a bright innovative and edgy design inside. The first thing you see when you come in is all the angles. There's a sharp angular set of stairs and the stairs themselves are their own geometry and then as you look up you see the angles coming from each floor and it really brings the eye straight up to the skylight and that brings all the light into the house. The house has two very clearly defined areas. One side contains the staircases and the other all the rooms for living in. Color has been used very cleverly to separate these two zones. The side of the house that you transport yourself in is the color side of the house so it's it's where color lives and that's that's its purpose. If you move to the other side of the house where we live it's all materials so there's wood materials, there's concrete, there's metal and there's the ceiling itself which is in its raw form. This house transforms those raw materials to create a bright and modern 21st century home in this 19th century neighborhood. On the ground floor is a guest bedroom and a bathroom. Doug's office is also on this level. It's ingeniously designed to open out onto a hidden space. There may be many rooms crammed onto this small plot but the home's clever layout still leaves space for a surprising garden. It's best in the fall when the weather comes and turns nice you know my office literally becomes an outdoor living space. It's great just to be able to have this incredibly private space that's you know it's very zen in its feeling. A metal staircase leads up to the hidden home's first floor. This is the main floor which is where we live. You've got a kitchen area, a dining area and a living area in traditional sense but it's all just one big open space. Doug worked with local architect Zoe Prillinger to design this bijou yet spacious family house on this challenging plot. The location is special and the site itself this property is small it's shallow. We actually did the project as a remodel of the existing property and so the bones of that old building are within this building on the first floor. So this project became a challenge of how to create a variety of spaces within a fairly small footprint. It's taking something that's old or conventional and doing something that's refreshing with it. So that's how it all started. Zoe has expanded the home's original footprint to create light and well-proportioned rooms. The slats that make up the cedar facade of this house were conceived to hide the interior but they also allow light through to all the floors inside. They have an innovative design. A unique joint allows the slats to lie flat against the house's facade. At the point where the slat touches the joint the connection allows it to rotate 90 degrees from vertical to horizontal. This allows light to stream through to the rooms that lie behind. It's a simple yet effective idea. Above the main living area on the top floor lies the master bedroom. It's our bedroom. It also opens you up to the outdoors. We have a sleeping area and then there's a you know beautiful bathroom in the back. The top floor of this fascinating building has one final trick up its sleeve. This is the secret passageway and this is the back way into the roof. Doug has not one garden but two. This is one of our favorite places to be. We're on top of the world here with a great wonderful view of San Francisco Bay and Alcatraz and the Golden Gate. This is our place to play and relax and really come to appreciate what an amazing city we live in. This is our space. This is the special part of the house, the wow factor part of the house. This is the place where we get to really bring San Francisco into our lives. We're really happy to be living here and enjoying being in San Francisco. This hugely ambitious house is the perfect meeting of old and new. It's a jewel in San Francisco's crown. Five thousand kilometers east the province of Nova Scotia sits on the easterly tip of Canada. This remote location famous for its rugged landscape and high tides is not for the faint-hearted. It's a tough place to live so building a house here comes with many challenges. Perched on this rugged coastline with breathtaking views over the Atlantic Ocean is this dramatic structure. It's called the DeVries House. The owner of this unusual home is writer Peter DeVries and it's a house he has waited for for a very long time. I bought the land about 18-19 years ago. I was looking for a place for retirement. I was living in the U.S. at the time. I kept in touch with the land for years and years and finally when I retired I finally decided yes it's time to do it. Living next to the sea has always been a dream for Peter. I fell in love with the ocean and the water. What attracts me most about the ocean is the light and the movement. The light is different here. I don't mind stormy weather. Sometimes there's too much of it of course you know. We wish that every day was sunny but such is life you know. This was affordable and so you put up with the weather. The frame of the house is built from timber, steel and concrete. It has a galvanized steel outer shell to protect it from the elements. The building covers 204 square meters across two floors. On the top floor there's a library and office, spare room and bathroom. And on the ground floor there's a living space, kitchen, dining area and master bedroom with ensuite. Peter worked with project architect Will Perkins to build this secret home. I love this. I love this view of the house right here. One of the best things about our job is designing these projects and building them in your head with the clients and then seeing them come to life. So every project is exciting in that way but working with Peter was a treat. This was my first finished project and I'm very proud of it. This home's wedge-shaped design stands proudly on the water's edge. The building is situated so you arrive in the driveway you're presented with the back of the building which is the north side. You enter into that part of the building and you're greeted with this corridor that's quite narrow and quite tall. And as you move through that's where you're presented with this view of the Atlantic Ocean. A kind of secret aspect of the building that is not maybe obvious at first but has a real impact. When it came to designing the inside of his home Peter had a very particular request. The most important thing that Peter brought to the table was his incredible collection of books. That was something we attached ourselves to instantly in terms of like an exciting design challenge and a unique story that Peter brings to the project. What I really like about this space, first of all are these you know the very nicely designed bookcases, is that it functions as sort of a library. Two walls of books and then of course the window on that side. One of the things that I asked the architect was that there be no bookcases in the living room so that there is an area that is book free, that the whole house did not become a monument to my books. I mean I love books but I don't want to be buried by them. Getting the room sizes right was another challenge. Peter wanted his upstairs library to be tall and imposing but the rest of the living spaces to be cosy with low ceilings. The design of each room also had to maximise the views. Peter wanted his home to sit on the cliff edge overlooking the sea. Making it sturdy enough to stand up to the strong winds and rain here was a formidable engineering challenge. The vertical face of the house takes the full force of the North Atlantic winds. Strong gusts could easily lift the home off its foundations. To guard against this a large timber frame runs right through the house. This frame connects to steel work which in turn transfers the force of the wind into concrete buttresses hidden in the internal walls that go deep underground. This house full of books has a small secret upstairs in the library, hidden away like something from Alice in Wonderland. So on the north side of the house in the floor to ceiling bookshelves we incorporated this door. It almost feels like it's part of the shelving unit and then you get this sort of interesting experience of being able to move through this wall of books into the second room here where you get a view of the forest. There's almost a secret kind of hidden quality to this room from the rest of the house. It took around 20 years for Peter to finally get to live in his dream home and it was well worth the wait. I'm very proud of this house, very proud of it and I love to show it. There are two things that made it a dream come true. One is being on the ocean and two is to have an architect actually build something that was built or designed with me in mind. I can't imagine anyone could appreciate the house more than me. I love it.