Tonight's Grand Designs

[Feltwell]

Possibly my least favourite episode ever tonight.

Leaving aside personal taste for the building concerned, two thoughts spring immediately to mind:

- What on earth possesses the planners to grant permission for a building that is so massively out of place with it's (crowded, urban) surroundings?

- Zero carbon? OK, the building is very energy efficient in use I'm sure. But it used masses of concrete for it's foundations and ground floor slabs, huge precast concrete slabs for the other floors, glass cladding units and finally treble glazed windows - made in Latvia! How much energy did it take to make that lot and get it to site?

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/grand-designs/episode-guide/series-8/episode-7

 

[plasticpigeon]

It's always architects that do this kind of stuff.

 

[LadyArowana]

I hope Brixton is nicer than when I lived there many many years ago, or the local hoodies will be helping it blend into it's surroundings. Unless they think that it must be owned by the neighbourhood drug dealing pimp who would exact retribution. His Lordship would vist my humble abode and leave his rather nice car outside and it never had a problem, which he reasoned must be due to his imagined profession. Either that or the low lifes commuted up to St Johns Wood to ply their trade as the same vehicle was regularly damaged there.

 

[Flyfisher]

It's always architects that do this kind of stuff.

It does seem to be somewhat out of place in that setting (though where else would it blend in?).

On the other hand, the architects involved in this little project (pay attention Joce!) have gone to extraordinary lengths to blend in:
http://swns.com/news/banker-who-made-64m-in-the-credit-crunch-spends-150k-on-a-luxury-chicken-coo/

 

[tobydog]

And it's not even 1st April!! I had to laugh when I saw the chicken in the red circle which I can only assume is to show the scale. That place will house a hell of a lot of chickens but I didn't read what his plans were regarding them being free range. Only noise, poo and time will tell whether it really is/was a good idea.

As for Grand Designs last night - truly awful. I wouldn't want to spend one day in that sanatorium. I feel sorry for the neighbours and some people in the local planning department need terminating :twisted:. Each to their own though.

 

[Feltwell]

It certainly confirms many people's view of bankers, if nothing else.

 

[michael]

I was in Hampsted North London last weekend. It still has a grand and yet villagey feel too it despite all the coffee shops and the Porches and Ferraris cruising up and down the high street, but I was alarmed to see how many of these ‘cuboid’ houses are popping up amongst its large elegant houses and this is a part of London that tried unsuccessfully to stop McDonalds setting up shop. No fast cheap food wanted but fast cheap architecture is ok it would seem.

 

[Moo]

fast cheap architecture is ok it would seem.

Are you sure that the building in question was all that cheap to build? The internal fixtures and fittings certainly weren't (at least, not by my standards). How much more (or less) would it have cost to build something more in keeping with the neighbouring houses?

 

[plasticpigeon]

I have to admit that although I am fussy, sometimes my workmanship ends up being rougher than I would have liked and I have to put up with it, but I couldn't live with the botched groundwork on that build. The bolts for the structural steels were out by 50mm and sticking out at 20 degrees from vertical. They looked like a crippled hand sticking out of the concrete!! And all they did was cut the steel flanges to ribbons to make them fit!! They obviously skimped on the build to have money for the fixtures and fittings. In a way I think Grand designs is irresponsible to show such a program. It is almost endorsing poor quality construction and in my opinion poor quality design too. I'm still waiting for a program that makes it clear that traditional buildings need to be restored using traditional materials, and that goes for Victorian terraces as well as Elizabethan manor houses.

 

[plasticpigeon]

Umm how do I delete this?

 

[Matt Green]

Umm how do I delete this?

you can't. The best thing to do with an accidental double post is to overwrite it with an addendum like:

"...and another thing:"
"Forgot to say- "
"Sorry for the rant!" is always a good cover too.

As long as nobody has quoted you, you'll get away with it.

 

[angrybird]

that "house" was certainly a carbuncle on that street.There is minimalist and there is minimalist I found it bland and boring! there wasn't so much as a tree or pot plant on the sun terrace it would make me feel as though I had been locked away in an asylum.
Someone (eejit) in our Hamlet has felt fit to build a two tiered shoe box monstrosity in the garden of one the oldest property's, a former chapel, (shown below) which happens to be next to a 17th century bridge!!!
I blame the planning dept.
I'll take a photo of the shoe box and post it soon

 

[Feltwell]

Did you see the Grand Designs couple's previous home? A barn in Norfolk with all the furniture made out of varnished Sterling board! Bizarre, to put it mildly.

Sterling board (Orientated Strand Board or OSB to give it it's proper name) is nasty cheap looking stuff that is only fit for roof decking or hoardings around building sites - and even then they usually paint it!

 

[tycarregydwr]

Oh, that's called sterling board here? Maybe that's why no one knows what I'm talking about when I say chipboard? <wanders off muttering about the Anglo-American language gap>

 

[Feltwell]

Everyone should know what you mean by chipboard - but over here it's not what you see in the picture above. It's similar, but made of much, much finer chips of wood.



Anyway - we're getting our revenge now on you lot from the Colonies ruining our language, haven't you heard? :wink:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19670686