Grand Designs next week

I maintain my previous post, but I have to say - 'office block on thames' !!
Technically very clean but I am probably with Vince and the other neighbours on this one.
As a riverside owner with planning permission for a replacement dwelling I have been required to be in keeping with neighbouring properties and jumped through endless hoops. No objections from neighbours just planners.
Taste is so personal - this shoebox property is just not to my taste.:)
 
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A beautiful building made with the finest materials. It made the 1950's 'Tudor' neighbours appear rather naff.

Had to laugh about the ex-hubby architect sticking with the project just long enough to over see the demolition of the old house before buggering off though.
 
Deefor said:
Kool house :cool:

The owners like it and that's all that matters ;).
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Daughter, age 16 likes the modern style but not the actual house. Says it's too long and thin and looks squashed in. :)

I am undecided mainly because I like the older style look along the Thames. I guess traditional. Having said that, there is something that appeals. I agree with daughter on the squashed effect though.. LOL

I would love to know the true cost of the whole project though. From what little I heard about the finance side of it, I think they have spent masses over what the initial costings were.

Reality... If I could afford something like that (which only a lottery win could provide) I wouldn't buy it.

The owners obviously love their new home and have planned every detail with quality and design in mind. I admire their determination, and can see they are delighted. Good for them.

I do wonder what community relations will be like, but perhaps it doesn't bother them.

:)
 
To be honest with a site like that the biggest cost would have been the piled foundations and ring beam on which to build the property.
With a site so narrow they have gone with the box like design to maximise internal living space. A more traditional build would have robbed them of space and probably cost more than the steel box structure they decided upon.
For them looking out it works.
For me looking at it from the river it looks out of place.
I feel they will have to throw some blindingly good parties to win round the neighbours.:D
 
Moxon said:
A beautiful building made with the finest materials. It made the 1950's 'Tudor' neighbours appear rather naff.

Had to laugh about the ex-hubby architect sticking with the project just long enough to over see the demolition of the old house before buggering off though.
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Do you think it was perhaps payback for something.. ;)
 
HONEYMOMMY said:
Do you think it was perhaps payback for something.. ;)
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Yes, I did :-)



One other thing, although I happen to like open plan, heavily windowed, (often white), houses one always wonders about the lack of curtains or blinds. I didn't see any in the program this evening and couldn't help but think about getting out of the bath etc in the face of passing boaters.
 
Moxon said:
Yes, I did :-)



One other thing, although I happen to like open plan, heavily windowed, (often white), houses one always wonders about the lack of curtains or blinds. I didn't see any in the program this evening and couldn't help but think about getting out of the bath etc in the face of passing boaters.
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so as long as there are no red boards this weekend, I guess there will be quite a few nosey or pervie boaters in that area as the sun goes down and people turn their lights on....

Just to see if they have curtains.. Of course... :D
 
Having seen the completed house from the river I think it looks great and not out of place at all its more interesting than the neighbours. Vince's fake huff house looks ok if very conventional, but the 30's wooden bungalow to the right of it needs demolishing and is almost an eyesore. I guess all the house's along there looked out of place when they were first built, but they all become part of the scenary eventually.
 
I recorded the programme - so haven't watched it.

We go past those houses on nearly every trip out and have watched it going up. I'm no fan of ultra modern minimalist buildings, but for some reason do find this one attractive. A challenging site needing special treatment (I hope I'm talking about the right one as there have been several in the past years)

There is a tradition of slightly wacky buddings along the Thames which would never be allowed in a more urban environment. I suspect they get PP because the owners are "loaded" and can get the right sort of consultant well practiced in running rings around the local PA (cynic? moi?).

Some come to mind:-
Floating boxes around Molesey Lock (well one or two)
"Organ pipe" house after Bray
"Egyptian" house near Byron
Edwardian houses at Maidenhead
and so on.

One of the many things that make it a pleasure to cruise the River.
 
I struck me that the neighbours were all very snobby and all "NIMBIES".

They seem to forget that all houses were new once and their mock Tudor homes are simply copies of real Tudor homes that were brand new once and probably cause the same controversy when they were built in Tudor times.

If design never changed we would all be living in caves.

I have notice recently that there seems to be an element of nostalgia growing for some of the concrete monstrosities from the 70's, there was a 1970's crematorium featured on the news recently that has become listed.

As Vince Hills house is now empty and surrounded by builders fencing I would even suspect the term "hypocrite" may soon apply
 
Vince Hill has sold his big Tudor place and is now living in the house next door to the house featured, so I guess he does have to look at the side of it all day:D
 
Chris_d said:
Vince Hill has sold his big Tudor place and is now living in the house next door to the house featured, so I guess he does have to look at the side of it all day:D
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The chalet style one next to the one featured (to the left as views from the river) has a last teen family in it ( the blonde lady interviewed a couple of times)... Do you mean the one to the right ?
 
Just watched it.

It's stunning compared to a lot of the junk just about standing on this glorious river of ours ....

I think they may have played with the figures as its clearly been furnished top end outside of the build ... Perhaps hiding it from the ex partners ?
 
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