15 and a half Peckham House

[Tarbicus]

Just finished watching a great episode of Grand Designs, where cameras follow people building their own homes. Very inspiring and thought I'd just pass this on, as the end result took my breathe away, epsecially as I live not far from where the house was built.

There are a lot of dross house programmes on TV here, but this is worth watching.

A young couple, he's a filmmaker/actor, she's a dance teacher, so they can't get a mortgage. Fed up, they have an idea; his dad offers to mortgage his own home for them, they buy what's essentially a driveway between two houses, their friends help out. They have no proper building experience, but he's been an inventor all his life, so....

From this

To this

One influence was a Roman villa as they weren't allowed to put windows on the sides of the house. The top skylight opens and closes to let the air in, which he invented.

Here's a newspaper article:
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/sto ... 20,00.html

And here's the website for the house itself, where you can download 90 minutes worth of programme (more than the TV show I just watched)
http://www.peckhamhouse.com/

Just thought I'd share it.

Oh yeah, the mortgage brokers and banks wanted to throw money at them after it was finished.

[Arthes]

What a lovely house, and imagine being able to lie on the sofa and at look at the stars in the sky, instead of the box in the corner....

Oh yeah, the mortgage brokers and banks wanted to throw money at them after it was finished.

Of course they would, and I hope they told them what to do with their damn money:wink:

[Narukami]

Rome lives!

Great solution to a seemingly intractable problem.

The Romans were a practical people and that spirit lives on.

Thanks for the links Tarbicus.

Narukami

[Tarbicus]

The best thing about the house is it's made from unconventional materials, in a very ingenious way, by rank amateurs. Even the council planning department didn't know what to make of it and couldn't pass it until it was nearly finished and Monty actually bothered to do plans for them

The best bit is the baby's bath is under the parents' bed, which actually works brilliantly (they just keep the bath toys in it, so no clutter). The whole things like a boat functionally. There was even space for a proper dance studio!

[Arthes]

You can usually tell when men design the kitchen too....hehehe
If you ever find a home that has a decent kitchen....either too big, too small, badly laid out....the list goes on...and if it has a decent kitchen, then the bathroom is awful....etc, etc,
I have no experience in this field either...yet sometimes have a much better idea than the 'professionals'...
I just hope they remember to take the baby out of the bath, before going to bed... :roll: :roll: :wink:

[Tarbicus]

Ah, but the family love the bath under the bed, including Mum. It was a great solution to a problem of space, and they get to keep a very open feel to the rooms. Even the sink is in a drawer