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  • 5/18/2025
Grand Designs NZ (2025) S09E04

Grand Designs NZ S09E05 >>> https://dai.ly/x9k9x26
Transcript
00:00The great architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, once said there is no architecture without philosophy.
00:14However, to survive the process of building, philosophy must climb down from its ivory tower and do battle.
00:26It must take on the oppressive forces of practicality, of stone and wood and steel.
00:35In truly successful architecture, only exists when philosophy is victorious.
00:55Ah, the Carpety Coast. It sings a song of freedom to windswept Wellingtonians.
01:12You can hear it in the gentle crash of the waves on the beaches, the rustling of the trees on the Tararuas,
01:19in the burble of the Waikanae River, and in the silence left by the lack of wind in your ears.
01:28The latest to succumb to this seduction are Andrew Simpson, Christy Peebles and their three retired and beloved whippets.
01:39I grew up just down the line a little way and lived most of my life in Wellington
01:46and swore I'd never come back out because he was a good boy.
01:51When we did start spending time out here, we really settled into the quieter lifestyle I suppose.
01:58It just seemed right.
02:00Come here. Come on. Oh, oh. Come here. Hey puppy.
02:08The decision to move was made after Andrew's father offered to sell them a section overlooking the town.
02:14The site that we're building on, it's pretty spectacular.
02:18Yeah, it's unique.
02:19Yeah, and so we just saw it as an opportunity that we couldn't sort of pass up.
02:24This is an official place for us, and the dogs love it here. They are living the doggy dream. Hey Vinny.
02:32Christy commutes to Wellington where she works as a public servant,
02:36so even though they're co-designers, architectural designer Andrew will oversee the build.
02:42It will be made from rammed earth, a specialist and sometimes slow construction method
02:47that upholds the couple's stringent environmental principles.
02:53It's becoming increasingly clear that we're really screwing the planet over,
02:58and so if you're intervening on a piece of land with something as dramatic as building,
03:02then you have a responsibility to make sure that that building is as good as it can be,
03:08and ideally have a positive environmental impact.
03:14Even though they're using rammed earth, a house with a positive environmental impact is a supremely ambitious goal.
03:22The first stage was to sell up and move to a tiny converted garage overlooking the build site.
03:31So they spend a lot of time at the neighbour's place.
03:34Andrew's dad Chris and step mum Heather live right next door.
03:39I always reckon that the only way you can get rid of your kids is to stop feeding them or stop giving them money,
03:45but in this case we've managed to shift them at least a little way down the hill.
03:50It means a lot of socialising and drinking of wine.
03:53Having wine on hand might be necessary.
03:56They've already been in their cosy accommodation for three and a half years,
04:01as they've battled for subdivision and consents.
04:05But they've also built before, so this is a partnership that's already proven hardy and perennial.
04:11Perfect.
04:12Our friends always tell us about we're the couple that never argues.
04:15We just find a way to kind of respect other person's passions.
04:19No we don't.
04:21Yes.
04:23Music
04:29The appeal of the site is obvious.
04:31I'm greeted by a fine colonnade of cherry trees that leads me to a build site,
04:36already out of the ground, after six months of work.
04:42Christy.
04:43Tom, good to meet you.
04:44You too.
04:45Fantastic to meet you.
04:46You too.
04:47So you laid the house out for us, that's great, thank you.
04:49Yeah, yeah.
04:50Before we get started.
04:51We're doing some test walls at the moment for the rammed earth.
04:54Well rammed earth is a starter, that's special already.
04:56It is, and we are lucky enough that the dirt is suitable on the site to be using itself.
05:02Fantastic, that doesn't always happen.
05:04No.
05:05Absolutely.
05:07The shuttering we're using is Lawson Cypress.
05:11That's not your normal shutter material.
05:14No.
05:15That's going to be what we use for the timber elements of the building.
05:18Very little construction waste.
05:20Yeah, as little as we can.
05:22Fantastic.
05:23The house is leaning towards a passive design.
05:26This is a design for us.
05:28And these dogs.
05:29And these guys.
05:30They're the true sort of owners.
05:32Skinny, they don't take up much space.
05:34That's true.
05:38The house has a modest footprint of 150 square metres.
05:41The thick rammed earth walls cut that down to just 120
05:45and are painstakingly built using soil from this very site.
05:49Once completed, they resemble stonehenge-like megaliths.
05:54Wooden framing, largely made from recycled shuttering, completes the skeleton.
05:59Before the Stone Age comes to an apocalyptic end,
06:02when highly engineered, German-made, triple-glazed windows smash into the earth.
06:09Traditional lime plaster is the next ingredient, protecting most of the walls.
06:14Before a Japanese flavour is added with chemical-free yakisugi charred timber.
06:19It's a bold concoction, iced with a sparkling aluminium roof.
06:24An expensive but durable and easily recycled alternative to steel.
06:29A big feature is the earthen floor, insulated with a layer of charcoal made from waste timber.
06:35It runs through the open-plan lounge and dining area in front of the kitchen.
06:39This one-bedroom home is hard to classify.
06:42It's loud and quiet, modern and ancient.
06:46Is it heavy metal? Is it classical?
06:49Can it create harmony from these conflicts?
06:52And will it fulfil the overarching philosophy of having a positive impact on the world?
07:02We are trying to make this house sustainable.
07:05So one of the ways of doing that is just choosing your materials carefully.
07:09And that's a shared ambition.
07:11Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
07:13I think everyone's very aware about treading lightly.
07:16We would like to do it here and as lightly as we can.
07:18And now from here, shuttering for foundations, how long's it going to take?
07:22Well, I mean, ramming earth in the middle of winter, what could possibly go wrong?
07:26It's quite hard to ram mud.
07:28So you're avoiding the question, how long till you finish this place?
07:31We're trying not to think about it.
07:33Yeah, yeah. Um, I don't know.
07:37I'd say a year.
07:38I'd say a year.
07:40Absolutely.
07:41About a year, hopefully.
07:42Yeah.
07:43And what about the cost of this place?
07:45About a year.
07:48You can't use the same answer again.
07:50Um, the cost, I mean, I'm hoping for around about 800.
07:56Well, that would be incredible value.
07:59Has it become tricky if it goes beyond that?
08:02Absolutely.
08:03I think the reality of building in New Zealand is it's incredibly scary.
08:11The fact that they're using rammed earth will just add to the fear factor.
08:16Andrew and Christy have a philosophy that considers the entire life cycle of building a house.
08:22But alongside that, there's a vagueness about the mundane but very real practicalities of a construction project.
08:29How much will this actually cost?
08:31How long will it actually take to build this house?
08:34Let's just hope that those practicalities don't trip them up on what promises to be a fascinating journey
08:41and a very progressive way of building a home.
08:51This may look like a bunch of old cowsheds, but it's actually a laboratory
08:56where lead builder and earth building expert Tom Beecham experiments
09:00with the most modern and ancient earth building techniques.
09:05So this is one of our earth building inspirations, a little welcome swallows nest.
09:10And so that's made out of very similar materials to what we use.
09:14This is three and a half million years of evolution.
09:17We're just jumping on the bandwagon, really.
09:21Today, Tom and Offsider Blue are doing strength tests for different earth mixtures for the rammed earth walls.
09:33Their test bricks are made of clay-rich soil from the build site,
09:37as well as biodegradable reinforcing materials like straw or even cow dung.
09:44They need to find a mixture that breaks at greater than 400 kilopascals.
09:54That broke at 284.8 kilopascals.
10:00Basically that block has failed.
10:03Most modern earth builds are stabilised with cement,
10:06but this team are hell-bent on avoiding that ingredient
10:09because of the major carbon emissions from its production
10:12and pollution caused when the building is finally demolished.
10:18It's not just about, you know, doing less bad, but actually how can you do good,
10:22or how can the buildings we make actually kind of help be part of the solution, not just the problem.
10:29So the search continues for the perfect, sustainable reinforcing material.
10:35Winter has turned to spring,
10:39and a winning reinforcing material has been found.
10:43That's the magic ingredient.
10:45Simple paper pulp has passed the strength test,
10:48and production is now on an industrial scale.
10:54It's time to test it.
10:56Simple paper pulp has passed the strength test,
10:59and production is now on an industrial scale.
11:04Just add water, and then it's over to apprentice Steff on the rammer.
11:14It's a laborious process that requires dry weather to keep the mixture at the right consistency.
11:21With so much at stake, it's a nervous moment when a section is revealed.
11:34It's quite nice, you can see the sort of, yeah, lines of aggregate,
11:38and you can see the paper pulp and stuff like that.
11:42It's almost epic.
11:45It's so solid and so present.
11:47I've got this real feeling that we'll be in a little stonehenge of our own,
11:51for a while at least anyway.
11:55Unfortunately, this stonehenge is also moving at a geologic pace.
12:01It's been very wet, and you can't ram mud, as Tom will say.
12:06In fact, it's been one of the wettest winters on record,
12:09so Andrew's vague schedule has already blown out, as has his budget.
12:14No turning back now.
12:17You know, if you've got the tiger by the tail, you can't let go.
12:21So hopefully the tiger won't get us.
12:26In Andrew's metaphor, the tiger is the brutal, ravenous reality of time and money.
12:32And the tiger doesn't care about Andrew's philosophy or ethics or environmental principles.
12:38And the tiger is hungry.
12:48The warmer, drier months have arrived,
12:51and most of the earth's walls are up and looking glorious.
12:55The strata on this one over here is fantastic.
12:58But the decision to start ramming earth in a very wet winter
13:01has put Andrew at a disadvantage.
13:04But the decision to start ramming earth in a very wet winter
13:07has put the schedule even further behind.
13:13We're not anywhere close to being on schedule.
13:15You're getting much shrinkage at the top.
13:17You're seeing there's a little bit.
13:18We would like it to go as quickly as it possibly could, obviously.
13:21But good things take time.
13:25Hopefully we'll be in by this time next year.
13:28Actually, I'd be pretty disappointed if we weren't in by this time next year.
13:33So Andrew's about-a-year schedule is now about another year.
13:38Not that Andrew seems too bothered.
13:40This is my favourite, the dung one.
13:43But I'm not going to get that past my partner.
13:45He's even hosting a public open day.
13:48It takes about four years to fully dry to the centre.
13:51The fines in it.
13:52The whole process of building a house like this
13:55is to make people aware that you can actually build sustainably,
13:59but to a higher level of design as well.
14:02But it also kind of bonds with the clay and makes it...
14:05If someone sees this and says,
14:07I want to build something that is less impactful on the planet,
14:11then I've won.
14:14Winning for most builders means being somewhere close to budget,
14:18schedule and design intent.
14:20But Andrew has redefined victory to something far less tangible,
14:25because to him, this is not just a house,
14:28but the symbol of a different, better way of life.
14:39When we build walls in a conventional house,
14:42we take all sorts of chemically preserved and synthetic materials.
14:47But when it's done its dash, what happens?
14:50Well, typically...
14:54..it ends up in landfill.
14:56Andrew and Christy's cement-free earthen walls, however,
14:59at the end of their life,
15:01they can literally be absorbed back into the garden that they came from.
15:04And it's not just the walls.
15:06Charcoal, made from offcuts from site,
15:09replaces polystyrene in the floors.
15:13And the weatherboard is preserved by charring
15:15instead of paint or by chemicals.
15:18The roof is made from recyclable aluminium.
15:23And instead of plasterboard,
15:25the linings are made from old milk cartons destined for landfill.
15:30Andrew's designed the whole house
15:32based on what's known as a circular building philosophy,
15:35which focuses on keeping materials out of landfill and in the system.
15:42And that's why we've ended up at a reclaimed timber yard.
15:47It's quite a building, isn't it?
15:49It's just incredible. I love the gutters.
15:51Yeah. It's a green roof. Yeah.
15:54Oh, wow.
15:57Is it all reclaimed timber? It's all reclaimed.
15:59Look at this big slab here. I know. It's amazing, eh?
16:01You know, and it's all got stories to tell.
16:03Andrew's already bought chunks of an old Timaru wharf,
16:07but today he's got his eye on a little piece of Wellington's history.
16:12This is the old sea line.
16:14It's the boat that I always saw
16:16when I was walking along the waterfront in Wellington
16:18about two years ago that sunk.
16:20It'd be nice to have something from it in the house.
16:22A bit of meaning there. Yeah.
16:24You know, when you're building a new building,
16:26it doesn't have those memories and associations of an ancient building,
16:30but perhaps you can bring some into it.
16:33Yeah, I mean, I think it'd be nice for this to go on in a different form.
16:38Yeah, yeah. Another circle. Yes.
16:41I love Andrew's joyful approach to these gnarly old materials,
16:45but I do worry that they're a distraction
16:48from the serious business of building.
16:57After nine months of construction, the earth walls are finally finished,
17:02and it's bond beam day... That's good!
17:05..when huge spans of heavy-duty timber
17:08add structural stability to the rammed earth walls.
17:11Back towards me and still a little bit across, eh?
17:14The massive beams have been pre-drilled with holes
17:17that need to land perfectly on rods of reinforcing steel.
17:22Down a little bit.
17:31I reckon that's pretty damn good.
17:34Who measured that?
17:38Hey, Tom. You put the beam on upside down.
17:41Oh, it's cos we didn't have a plan.
17:43Oh, is that right? Yeah.
17:45Jacked it!
17:48The Stone Age is over,
17:50and this site has finally been dragged into its next era.
17:55Can't believe all of them fitted on.
17:58I think this is the beginning of the building feeling more like a home.
18:08It's about a year since my first visit,
18:11so what better time for a catch-up?
18:16MUSIC PLAYS
18:22Hello. How's it going? Andrew. Tom.
18:24Very good. Yeah, very good. Hey, Tom. Good to see you.
18:27Yeah, you too. You too. It's looking great.
18:29It's pretty sweet. Yeah. Yeah.
18:31Don't stop. I'm going to carry on.
18:35The roof membrane is finally on,
18:37protecting the earth walls,
18:39a comforting presence that almost demand to be touched.
18:44So you've got this lovely aggregate, which is very tactile.
18:47Yeah, yeah. So you see the layers of its construction.
18:50And this is all from the site as well,
18:52so it's nice to kind of see the land.
18:55Despite the progress, the reality is that they are well behind.
19:00I wonder if Christy remains as philosophical as Andrew.
19:06There's the moment when you get up and look down and think,
19:09I'm not quite there.
19:10But also the team are really moving to get it done.
19:13This is exactly where it needs to be.
19:16Yeah, and so a sense that maybe there's a little bit of,
19:21let's get this finished. Yeah.
19:23And what from you, Andrew?
19:24Sort of watching something grow.
19:27You know, we've planted something and it's grown.
19:29Yeah. More philosophy.
19:31Yeah. Yeah. Wow.
19:33Deep.
19:35But what's the reality of when you will finish?
19:37Will it be another year?
19:38No, no, it won't be another year.
19:40What's your guess?
19:41By Christmas.
19:44I'm aiming for it.
19:45By Christmas.
19:46Everyone says that.
19:47I'm aiming for September.
19:49September?
19:50Yeah, I'm moving in in September regardless.
19:53No, no.
19:54It's still a while, though.
19:56Yeah, plans meet reality.
19:59And it takes as long as it takes.
20:01We'll see who wins.
20:03I'll come back in a year's time.
20:05Yeah.
20:08Well, what do you make of that?
20:10It seems that Christy has run out of patience
20:13with Andrew's philosophical approach.
20:15And that's news to him.
20:17Which makes me wonder,
20:19what else hasn't been communicated?
20:22And what might the consequences be?
20:36It's the depths of a second winter,
20:39and Andrew and Christy's rammed earth walls
20:42stand silent amongst the clamour of activity.
20:46Hydration.
20:48It's only four weeks since my last visit,
20:51and the aluminium roof is going on.
20:53The base layer of the earth floor is being finished,
20:56and the plumber is getting started on the bathroom.
21:00Could this be the end of the world?
21:04Could this acceleration be due to what is now known as
21:08Septembergate?
21:10Rainbow?
21:11Yeah, I guess when I heard Christy saying
21:13that she wants to be in by September,
21:15and that she was, you know, quite frustrated,
21:18that that was a little bit of a surprise.
21:21You know, and...
21:23But fair enough, it has been sort of a year and a half.
21:29There might have been slight panic mode triggers.
21:32Clearly, September was not in their heads.
21:36But I don't know what was in their heads,
21:38because we've never really talked about a firm
21:41in by a particular date.
21:44Christy, who deals with organisational efficiency
21:47in her day job,
21:48is finally bringing her skills to this build.
21:53How's it going?
21:54Good.
21:55It felt like being called into the headmaster's office.
21:58Kind of decided almost, eh?
22:00Yeah, yeah, I think so.
22:01Christy's putting together something called a Kanban board.
22:05I'm not quite sure what Kanban is.
22:07I think it's some sort of scheduling thing,
22:11which involves...
22:16..scheduling.
22:18The schedule so far has been 18 months of building,
22:22on top of the three and a half years
22:24it took for subdivision and consents.
22:26It's no wonder Christy's patience has been worn thin.
22:31I commute, you know, two hours a day.
22:33Then I come home to live in a converted garage.
22:36So that certainly has taken a toll on me, personally.
22:40You know, it takes a toll on Andrew, too.
22:43We're both feeling pretty tired.
22:46There's Flynn.
22:48Hey, Flynny.
22:50There's no doubt that this build needed to accelerate,
22:54but there is a cost.
22:56Let's not put a cavity on here.
22:59They're trying to do it
23:00just as the finer detail bespoke work really begins.
23:05The drill bit's gotten blunt cos this wood's so hard.
23:08Like the salvaged hardwood from the Timaru Wharf
23:11that needs to be converted into veranda posts.
23:14Oh, hang on.
23:16The drill's catching on fire.
23:18It's these details that give the house its identity,
23:22and they can't be faked or fudged,
23:24and they can't be rushed.
23:28DRILL WHIRS
23:35The short side is facing the house.
23:37Short side, long side? Short side.
23:39So far, Andrew's philosophy has been top of the hierarchy.
23:43It's like raising the flag.
23:45But it may have just lost its place to Christy's practicality.
23:49Let's just hope they have those priorities the right way round.
23:55Shouldn't that be facing the house?
23:57Oh, when I say short side, I mean this.
24:00That short side?
24:01Yeah, yeah.
24:02I mean, it's not that it's heavy or anything.
24:04We'll just take it back down and put it back up again.
24:06LAUGHS
24:09MUSIC CONTINUES
24:20Early spring, and Steph is busy making earth plaster for the interior,
24:24which Tom is boldly installing on the ceiling.
24:28Not usually done with earth plaster because of a force called gravity.
24:34The triple-glazed windows from Germany are in,
24:37and the yakisubi cladding is going on.
24:40The house has certainly transformed,
24:43but I'm a little unsure that it's for the better.
24:46Oh, gosh, there's certainly some big changes here.
24:49My vision of this building is columns of raw rammed earth,
24:53and now, with all these new elements,
24:55it's almost like those beautiful rammed earth walls are hiding
24:58until you get up close.
25:00And they're still here and looking very fine in the sunshine.
25:04And here's one of the reclaimed posts,
25:06looking gnarly and beautiful and raw.
25:09Very good.
25:13This is where the rammed earth has been hiding.
25:16Lovely to see it again.
25:18And a dirt floor.
25:20Oh, and that view.
25:22Andrew and Christy have been mucking in,
25:25running ducting and installing insulation.
25:28And Christy's even taken on the Herculean task
25:31of charring 1,200 metres of timber.
25:36Christy, hey.
25:39I'm sure there's something about never distracting a woman
25:42with a blade torch, but how did this fall on you?
25:45Precision.
25:47Good with fire, I don't know.
25:50So the last time I was here,
25:52I asked you when you were going to finish this place.
25:54I think you said September.
25:56Sowing in by September was definitely a bit facetious.
25:59But it seems to have had the right effect, right?
26:01Yeah, maybe.
26:03A call to arms.
26:05I think it's just for a really long time,
26:07it just felt like it was just a whole lot of dirt.
26:09So when is the date? When are you moving in?
26:11Oh, we haven't got a...
26:13You don't want to be too firm about these things.
26:15It sounds like you do.
26:17I mean, I think by Christmas, right?
26:19It's certainly not going to be polished and finished,
26:21but that's okay.
26:23So the September deadline is up in flames,
26:27but Christmas still seems incredibly ambitious
26:29if they don't sacrifice some of the crafted features.
26:38And where do I find Andrew?
26:40In his dad's basement workshop, crafting away.
26:44There's a man at work in here somewhere.
26:46Oh, yeah.
26:48Welcome to the dungeon. Nice to see you again.
26:50So what are you doing?
26:52I'm doing some backplates for the light switches.
26:55This was just the offcuts from the post we've got,
26:58and we've been just experimenting with the different timbers.
27:01So I've noticed with the house,
27:03there's been this big acceleration,
27:05and yet, you know, these things, these crafted processes,
27:08you can't really rush, so how are you finding it?
27:10How are you pairing those two things?
27:12Well, it's difficult.
27:14I'm also putting the ducting in down in the house.
27:16I was up at 5.30 the other day,
27:18sort of scrambling around in the roof space.
27:20Okay.
27:22And so it's a balance between that and this sort of stuff,
27:24which is a little bit more delicate and time-consuming.
27:28The question is, do you have the time to do it?
27:30I can't not have the time to do it.
27:35I've got nothing but admiration
27:37for Andrew's quiet commitment to craft.
27:40He hasn't wavered, has he?
27:42But you do suspect that compromises will have to be made
27:46in order to meet that Christmas deadline.
27:55MUSIC PLAYS
28:01The cherry trees of Waikanae are in full flower,
28:04a fitting welcome to a valid guest.
28:08The earth-building mascots have given us their blessing,
28:11and they may well get their house finished
28:13before we get the main house finished.
28:16And there's another new arrival,
28:18the timber from the sea lion boat,
28:20which builder Mac is busy turning
28:22into a step for the main entrance.
28:26It's the latest idiosyncratic touch
28:29in a project animated by an experimental ethos.
28:33But the thing about experiments is that sometimes they fail.
28:42So that's for another?
28:44Shutboard. Yeah.
28:46Not only did they defy convention and plaster the ceiling,
28:50the floor behind is made from recycled milk cartons
28:53rather than tried and tested plasterboard.
28:56It's maybe one experiment too far.
29:00The whole thing is one big experiment.
29:04It's like playing in the mud.
29:06But surely playtime is over?
29:08It's not like we're trying to get you in by Christmas.
29:11No, no.
29:12And it's time to get serious.
29:17Language.
29:21Andrew seems to be leaving the serious business
29:23of fixing the ceiling to the builders
29:25while he continues an unstoppable quest for beautiful details.
29:31He's managed to track down a skilled craftsman.
29:35Right, so you reckon it's about 140?
29:39My dad has a very particular set of skills.
29:42Andrew's father Chris is a semi-retired fitter and turner.
29:47He's got a huge brain's trust
29:50of figuring out how to do things with metal.
29:53Instead of using off-the-shelf components,
29:55he's crafting tiny bespoke brackets
29:58that will connect the window frames to the posts.
30:02But for Andrew, it adds another old story to a new house.
30:08In the future, I can point to that bracket and say,
30:11Dad made that, and it's a beautiful, practical thing.
30:21Back on site, a new primer has resolved the ceiling issue.
30:25Kind of.
30:27Andrew's getting to work on another beautiful, practical thing,
30:31the kitchen bench.
30:33So there's a bit of dog poo in there.
30:35I don't know if that one's going in the mix or not.
30:39Speaking of dog poo,
30:41something that has been equally undesirable on this build
30:44has suddenly made an appearance.
30:48Nothing, there's nothing.
30:50Nothing.
30:51That's cement.
30:53It's a little bit of cement.
30:56Just a little bit of cement.
30:59After all the effort to keep cement out of the earth walls,
31:03Andrew has finally relented.
31:05Is this the first sign of compromise?
31:10We're using it in the kitchen bench top,
31:12and that needs to be pretty bulletproof.
31:15And I was having a chat with the plasterer,
31:18and he said, don't necessarily just put some cement on it.
31:23No such thing as climate change.
31:26Andrew may have compromised on his materials,
31:29but not on his specialist tools.
31:33This here we call Mr Thingy.
31:37Mr Thingy started out life as a massager.
31:42It's a specialist concrete vibrating tool.
31:47Very expensive.
31:49A secret centre gift to my father.
31:53So hopefully it's going to clean up OK.
31:56And it's got a heat thing as well.
31:59Bit of both.
32:00What happens if it goes off too quick?
32:02Oh God.
32:07As Andrew finishes the bench,
32:11Blue is getting started on a cob mix of clay, sand and straw
32:15for the next layer of the floor.
32:17This is one of the traditional ways for mixing your cob mix.
32:22So you just mix the wet soil up and start stomping,
32:25and you have a bit of a party, get together, dance around.
32:28And you end up with a nice consistent mix of cob.
32:35It's one of the nicest materials to work with really.
32:38It helps exfoliate your skin and make you nice, soft and beautiful.
32:43Don't have to go to the gym.
32:46The Christmas deadline is looming, and the site is a hive of activity.
32:52Hey.
32:53Hey, Tom, how's it going?
32:55Yeah, good.
32:56It's not a cancer inspection, so you can relax.
32:59Come on in.
33:00The rotting keel of the sea lion has been transformed
33:04into a new home for the sea lion.
33:07It's a new home for the sea lion.
33:09It's a new home for the sea lion.
33:11The rotting keel of the sea lion has been transformed
33:14into a gorgeous, pristine step.
33:17But that's not enough of a story for Andrew.
33:20We're going to get people to carve their initials in the step.
33:24So is this an invite to me?
33:26Yes.
33:27Okay.
33:28Please don't screw it up.
33:31It's a good thing you're not hovering over my shoulder,
33:33because I'd be quite nervous.
33:34No, it's fine.
33:37I think...
33:39I'm going to leave it as that.
33:40Excellent.
33:41Welcome to the house.
33:47Oh, now.
33:48That's quite a ceiling, isn't it?
33:49Look, acres of burnt timber.
33:51Yep.
33:52It was many weekends, but, look, it looks amazing.
33:57There's still so much to do, but the biggest job is the floor,
34:01which needs two more messy layers of mud and a sealant.
34:05To my eyes, this is months from completion,
34:08but Christy has other ideas.
34:10Another two to three weeks, we're expecting to move in.
34:14The windows are sealed in.
34:18The floor looks like that.
34:20Yep.
34:21The kitchen, does it work?
34:23Traditional floor.
34:24Once the new...
34:26The ability to stay energetic and interested in the project
34:32must be a little bit hard.
34:34Yes.
34:35I think there's, you know, it ebbs and flows.
34:37Yes.
34:38It ebbs and flows.
34:39A clear yes.
34:40I think it is exhausting, you know, both doing, you know,
34:44full-day jobs and then coming home at night and going,
34:47OK, what decisions do we need to make tonight?
34:50We're not builders and we're not project managers,
34:53and then you compound it with doing something
34:55that's a little bit outside of the usual.
34:58It's not like, hey, here's your two kitchen designs,
35:02pick the one you want.
35:03It's how are you going to do this plaster so that it stays up?
35:09It does seem very much like time has run out for Andrew and Christy.
35:14They were supposed to pluck their beautiful philosophy
35:17from the realms of imagination and make it real.
35:20A modern crafted home built from earth and old stories.
35:25Can they still sum up the energy to realise this dream?
35:30Or will it remain a reality of patchy ceilings,
35:34exposed cable and paw prints?
35:48The last time I was here, Christy was desperate to get into the house,
35:53come hell or high water.
35:55But it wasn't finished, was it?
35:57And there's a danger in that because much of the beauty,
36:01the magic in this house is about the finishing.
36:05So the question is, in order to get finished,
36:08has he had to make any of those dreaded compromises?
36:13While I can see the cherry trees blossoming,
36:16here's hoping the house is too.
36:20And there it is, sitting neat and complete.
36:25A combination of contrasting materials
36:29under a striking, shining aluminium roof.
36:40Now, that is stunning.
36:44These different materials and the texture.
36:50It's very good.
36:52A little glimpse into what lies beneath the rammed earth.
36:55And you know what? It looks kind of finished.
36:59I'm going to follow this curve around. It invites you in.
37:03Ah, the door opens.
37:05Hey, Tom. Hello.
37:07How are you? Good, really good.
37:10Andrew, it's beautiful, beautiful. You must be so happy.
37:13Come on in. Yeah, thank you.
37:18What an entranceway.
37:20Somebody put a little dink in me in there.
37:22Just a little one, yeah.
37:24The rammed earth, it was always beautiful,
37:26but now the composition is fantastic.
37:30And these two curved walls that open up into the view.
37:37Ah.
37:38Beautiful, isn't it?
37:40It's pretty stunning.
37:42Hard to think of the right word to describe how beautiful that is.
37:46But, of course, here, look the other way,
37:50and there's an equally stunning view there.
37:54And the brilliant thing is, of course, this always existed,
37:57but now it's gone.
37:59It's gone.
38:01Stunning view there.
38:03And the brilliant thing is, of course, this always existed,
38:06but the fact that this house uses those views so well
38:09wasn't a given. I think he's done all right.
38:11I think he's done all right. This guy.
38:13We're just lucky.
38:15Yeah, we all are. Thank you, Andrew.
38:21There's careful use of internal space, too.
38:23The wall cutouts are display cases.
38:26Cleverly taking up no room at all and everywhere a look,
38:29there's creative attention to detail.
38:33You can feel in all of these materials the human input.
38:37You can see Steph ramming the air to form the walls.
38:40Amazing work.
38:41Oh, look, I've just seen the brackets.
38:43That's your dad turning on the lathe.
38:46And, of course, we don't have to look too far.
38:48We look up and I see you burning a kilometre of timber.
38:52Yes. I love it.
38:53Was it worth it? Yeah, I think it was.
38:55Maybe not in the moment.
38:57Not at the time, maybe not.
38:59But now, yeah, absolutely.
39:08There's another moment here, isn't there?
39:10A different feeling.
39:11Cosy. Very cosy.
39:13Yeah, lovely on a rainy day.
39:15Yeah.
39:16The precision of the windows makes you really notice
39:20the beautiful roughness.
39:22That sort of melding between the technology
39:25that's so modern with something that is so sort of primal, I suppose.
39:29As you lean on Mr Thingy's bench here...
39:32Oh, yeah. No cracks?
39:34No. No.
39:36Everybody should have a Mr Thingy.
39:38Well, Des still got it if you want to borrow it.
39:40Yeah, well, we'll see.
39:47This is your bespoke, one-of-a-kind
39:50electrical light switch bracket system.
39:53Yeah, they turned out really nicely, I think.
39:56There's a satisfaction in details, isn't there?
39:58I feel it. Do you feel it, Christy?
40:00Yeah, I do.
40:01Just adds an extra little nuance of lift.
40:11Through to the more private spaces,
40:14the earthiness of elsewhere is contrasted
40:16by rich, deeper tones in the bathroom.
40:19Despite the pressure to finish,
40:21it's clear Andrew has taken his time and experimented here too.
40:28This bathroom is the epitome of bespoke.
40:31Every crack and crevice has been meticulously planned and crafted.
40:38And right next door, the intimacy of the master bedroom.
40:46The thickness of these walls, eh?
40:48Even moving between rooms in this house is an event.
40:51I actually just see Blue dancing in the cob.
40:56Oh, absolutely, yeah.
40:58And what a bedroom, I mean, come on.
41:00It's such a lovely space, just in the bed,
41:03looking out through the oak tree. It's gorgeous.
41:19What's it like to actually live here?
41:22I find it really calming.
41:24The walls give it a sense of real groundedness.
41:34The rest of the time has been somewhat chaotic.
41:38Hard work, long journey.
41:41So you deserve this.
41:49How would you reflect on the process of building this?
41:53There's a lot of experimental stuff.
41:55I get the impression, Andrew,
41:57that that really is where you're the happiest.
42:00Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
42:02Whereas Christy didn't enjoy the time that it took.
42:06No.
42:07We needed to get in.
42:09It was time to ramp it up a bit.
42:11So get those post-its up on the wall.
42:14Yeah, yeah.
42:15Makes all the difference.
42:18So, of course, the big concept here
42:20was that you wanted this house not just to be good,
42:23but to have a positive environmental impact.
42:26This circular building philosophy,
42:28how does a house stack up?
42:30There's always more you can do, obviously,
42:33but we know where most of the materials of the house came from,
42:37and the rest, we know what goes into them.
42:40Do you think it'll inspire people?
42:42Well, that's the goal, to show that it can.
42:45And it can be done in a beautiful way.
42:52At the beginning, $800,000, I think,
42:54that's what we wanted to spend.
42:56How did you go with that?
42:58I'd say we're all up without calculating all the receipts.
43:02We were a bit over a million.
43:04What's the bet? $0.12?
43:06Probably about, I don't know, $50,000 or $60,000 over.
43:09Yeah.
43:10You're OK with that?
43:12Yeah, it would have been nice if it was less,
43:15but also, you know, that's what it is.
43:23Fantastic house. It's inspired me.
43:25So if your measure is that you've inspired somebody
43:28to build something with lower environmental impact,
43:31I'll sign up to that.
43:33This house speaks, and it will speak to lots of people.
43:36Magic.
43:43Andrew and Christy set out to construct a building
43:46with a very strict philosophy of sustainability,
43:49and they succeeded.
43:51But being here, more than that,
43:54this home feels like it has a genuine sense of warmth and soul.
44:00Perhaps that's because it reflects the passions
44:04and beliefs of the individuals that built it.
44:07And you know what?
44:09It feels like they've left part of their spirit and their stories
44:13imbued in the very substance of this building.
44:17It's almost as if these walls can talk,
44:21and they're speaking about philosophy,
44:25and that philosophy has been triumphant.
44:39¶¶