TV23
  • 3 months ago
Grand Designs - S25E01 - East Yorkshire 2024

Grand Designs - S25E02 >>> https://dai.ly/x96ncji
Transcript
00:00Oh, wow. What a landscape. What a seascape here.
00:13This is where the clay worlds of Holderness, of East Yorkshire,
00:18suddenly gives way to these monumental cliffs,
00:21which are sort of like nature's buildings.
00:24Big, chunky lumps.
00:26And it's as though the architecture here almost respects that.
00:29The buildings themselves actually follow the contour of the landscape.
00:32They hug down. The sparse population has just lightly put its foot down here.
00:36Not a place where you can make large, ostentatious statements.
00:41But an ostentatious statement is exactly what's going to happen over there,
00:46to that ugly, ghastly carbuncle, the Coast Guard station,
00:50which is a sort of horrible mixture of 60s functionality and Edwardian house.
00:57And plenty of people, I'm sure, would love to see that come down.
01:02Whether they'd like to see anything as powerful go up in its place
01:06is another matter.
01:28Stuck like a limpet to a terrace,
01:31this battered Coast Guard's tower was abandoned nearly a decade ago
01:35when it became unsafe.
01:37For the last two years, it's belonged to Zaid and Farzana from Leeds.
01:41They saw it at an auction. Guide price, £20,000.
01:46Zaid showed me pictures and I was just a bit like,
01:49oh, no, I don't think it's for us.
01:52And he's like, no, no, it'll be beautiful. He hadn't seen it.
01:55I hadn't seen it.
01:57But while my daughter was actually in labour with her first child,
02:00Zaid disappeared.
02:02And I was on the telephone bidding. It started very low at 20.
02:06And pretty quickly it shot up past 100,000.
02:09An hour later, our beautiful grandson was born.
02:13So I went rushing in and my wife said...
02:16Congratulations, you have a beautiful grandson.
02:19And he said, congratulations,
02:22I bought you a dilapidated watchtower.
02:26And the winning bid, £175,000.
02:30So I was not too impressed at that point.
02:37Zaid wasn't in the doghouse for long, though.
02:40Once Farzana, their three children and their grandchildren
02:43saw what the place had to offer...
02:45I'm really pleasantly surprised. Absolutely love it.
02:49It's beautiful.
02:52..it's a contrast with life back home,
02:55where Farzana and Zaid's business is building affordable retail units
02:59that help regenerate town centres.
03:01His passion is finding redundant, useless spaces and transforming them.
03:07And he's a very, very big risk-taker.
03:10Hence, perhaps, Zaid's boldness in replacing a dog's dinner of a building
03:15with a strident modern home in a Yorkshire beauty spot.
03:19There'll be people that'll love it and there'll be people that'll hate it.
03:23Which I'm glad, because buildings should provoke conversation.
03:28It might also seem controversial
03:30to hand the management of this project to Yusuf,
03:33their son who's a recent architecture graduate.
03:37I have done one project before this, so I am nervous.
03:41I'm young, my dad is winding down.
03:44There is kind of a little passing of the torch, I feel,
03:48so I do want to prove myself.
03:53Hello. Hi. How are you? Pretty good.
03:56So I was expecting to say to you,
03:58what an amazing piece of industrial architecture this is
04:01and you should keep this, but it's grim.
04:03I think it's at the end of its lifespan, this building.
04:06Can I ask what you're going to do with it?
04:08We're going to rebuild it as a three-bedroom family home,
04:11so that we can spend a lot of time relaxing with our grandchildren.
04:15It's a bolt hole. It is that chapter of slowing down.
04:19Totally get it, yeah.
04:21Is it going to resemble an engineering building at all
04:23or is it going to be very domestic?
04:25I don't think it's going to be domestic
04:27because we've still tried to keep it...
04:29Similar form, yeah, a watchtower form.
04:31I think it probably will be the third highest structure
04:36after the two lighthouses.
04:38And we have a cantilever structure.
04:41How far out does it come?
04:43It comes as far as this boundary.
04:45It comes pretty far out.
04:47It can't. That's about five metres.
04:49Yeah, that's right.
04:51Well, I admire the ambition.
04:53It's not a house which is hiding away, is it?
04:56If this doesn't work, you will suffer the opprobrium of everybody,
05:00from passing walkers and naturalists...
05:02Golf balls in the glass. Golf balls in the glass.
05:05We're certainly putting ourselves out there.
05:07From the very get-go, this project will be tricky.
05:10The tower must be gingerly dismantled
05:12because it shares utilities with the neighbouring terrace
05:15and a party wall with next door.
05:18To help the chunky cantilever defy gravity,
05:21Yousef and Zaid hope to drive concrete piles
05:24deep into the earth below
05:26and anchor their structure to hard rock.
05:28But as yet, they've no idea what lies underfoot.
05:31Their planned reinforced concrete slab
05:35shows how tiny the building's footprint is.
05:38But such modesty belies the project's ambitions.
05:41122 pieces of steel will bolt together on this base,
05:45the top two floors jutting out nearly four metres to sea,
05:49which more than doubles the volume of its predecessor.
05:52Bracing the structure to prevent movement on this windy bluff
05:55is going to be crucial.
05:57An early design showed columns at all the four corners,
06:00but Zaid insisted he wanted an overhang,
06:03and that transformed his project from technically easy
06:06to super challenging.
06:08The steel lattice will be infilled with rockwork
06:11and skinned in a crisp white render.
06:13Glazed areas will be vast
06:15and will use an innovative bird-friendly glass
06:18to reduce impacts from old watchtower to new watchtower.
06:22Given the small footprint,
06:24the design has the staircase hanging in a box
06:27outside the building.
06:29Zaid's ingenuity extends to inverting the house
06:32so that the darker ground floor is for sleeping.
06:35A bedroom and a bathroom will sit on both sides of the stairs,
06:39which will lead up to the family bathroom
06:41and Zaid and Farzana's light-filled bedroom
06:44with incomparable views,
06:46where his industrial tastes should be tempered
06:49by Farzana's more comfortable approach.
06:52And saving the best for last,
06:54the top floor will be the family's living room and compact kitchen
06:58that bring you into the most exciting contact
07:01with the powerful presence of the sea and the natural world.
07:07Oh, amazing view sideways, yeah.
07:09See, right round, and then right round on the other side too as well.
07:13Well, it's a head covers it all. Yeah, exactly.
07:15It's windy and cold out here.
07:18Do you want to give it a whirl?
07:20LAUGHTER
07:22Well, I've seen people do this kind of thing before at the seaside,
07:25the problem of wind that does that,
07:27vertically climbs a building and brings water up into it.
07:30The more you can resolve that beforehand...
07:32I'm glad Yusuf's doing it rather than me.
07:34He's far more into everything's got to be detailed and planned.
07:37Plans, instead of being this thick before on site, should be this thick.
07:41Where somebody like myself has probably picked up too many bad habits
07:44and you think, well, I'll be able to do it, it'll work,
07:47and that's when you make mistakes.
07:49So how long do you reckon it's going to take?
07:51Ten months. That's swift.
07:53What about the cost of all this?
07:55Yusuf's got a budget of 325. Yeah.
07:57That is... It's got to be tight.
07:59Yeah. The great thing here, Yusuf, is that it's not your money.
08:03LAUGHTER
08:05His parents' savings are at stake here, but that's not all.
08:08The structural integrity of their neighbour, Vic's home,
08:11depends on this project being done well.
08:13He should know.
08:15He worked as a coastguard in the tower for 30 years.
08:18By the looks of it, its back wall is your front wall.
08:21In other words, they're not abutted, but they are the same thing.
08:24If it falls down, there'll be trouble.
08:26Exactly, that'll be your bedroom gone.
08:28The other thing is the disruption this is going to mean to you
08:31in the short term, at least. Yes.
08:33I mean, you've got to sort of brace yourself a little, haven't you?
08:36Well, a little bit. I want something done with it before it gets any worse.
08:39Yeah, yeah, exactly, yeah.
08:41They're wearing an air of tatty at the moment.
08:43So, down it must come.
08:50But before they start, they need a ground survey
08:53to see how deep the foundations need to be
08:56to support Said's fantastical cantilever.
09:00I'm just about ready to start drilling.
09:02Right. How far down do you reckon we'll go?
09:04When do you think we'll be hitting good stuff?
09:06I think it'll be pretty good straight away.
09:08Well, fingers crossed.
09:12They're looking for bedrock
09:14that they can use to anchor the structure in place.
09:17The deeper it is, the more it'll cost.
09:20First day on the job and it's already something way, way past
09:23I'm used to dealing with.
09:25Just looking at how deep we're going.
09:27I can see my dad in the cafe at a safe distance,
09:30keeping a watchful eye.
09:32He might come and I might be out of a job.
09:36I have to be careful not to get too involved
09:38because I wouldn't want to overpower Yusuf and throw him off.
09:42But Said might have already done that.
09:45He kind of took out the struts that made this job easy
09:49and made it a bit more difficult.
09:52I can see that he's nervous because it's a completely new style of build.
09:57He's got to feel his way through it.
10:01Yusuf's day, however, is turning bleaker.
10:04After four hours of drilling, there's no sign of rock.
10:07It all keeps Vic next door entertained.
10:11We're now about 13, 14 metres in
10:14and we're getting pebbles, some of them from the last ice age.
10:19It's quite fascinating.
10:22But also troubling.
10:24Said now can't resist getting involved.
10:27We're going to go another metre. I think we're going to go to 17.
10:30However, at 17 metres, it unexpectedly gets worse.
10:35Wow, we've gone past the pebble strata and we're back into clay again.
10:40It's strange.
10:42At 4.30, after hitting nothing but clay and stones, they call it a day.
10:48I'm not a structural engineer so I can't really comment.
10:51Let's see what the report says.
10:53We'll see.
10:55With nothing to tie this house down to, it might never be built.
11:10On the coast of East Yorkshire,
11:12Said is nine months into his ten-month mega cantilever project
11:17and they've only just started demolition
11:20due to a shocking ground survey
11:22that forced a complete redesign of the foundations.
11:25Fortunately, it looks like we're going to have to go for a huge lump
11:29of concrete and metal which is buried in the ground,
11:33almost acting like a counterweight for the cantilever.
11:37Sadly, during the long redesign,
11:39his son and project manager, Yousef, has left the project.
11:43Unfortunately, I'm not working on the house anymore.
11:46A project that I've been working on as a hobby,
11:49something I'm very passionate about, an animated series,
11:52has kind of become full-time work for me.
11:55There's a sense of relief because my dad has this passion
11:58to see this thing go up as a freestanding cantilever structure
12:03and it's proving to be a bit of a headache to get right,
12:07so it's kind of now someone else's thing to deal with.
12:11That someone else is Said,
12:13who will have to squeeze it alongside his day job developing retail sites.
12:18Scott will be his site manager.
12:20I've been working on and off with Said for 20 years.
12:23To be fair, he's a nightmare.
12:25Instead of having things to a drawing, he just likes to design it himself.
12:30Yeah, we'll change this today
12:32when you've got yourself set for everything else.
12:35Wow, the developer is now the official on-the-hoof project designer,
12:40but at least work can proceed.
12:42Like demolishing the old tower bit by bit,
12:45they disentangle the services
12:47and the party wall shared with their neighbour, Vic.
12:50Four noisy weeks later, they're still picking it apart.
12:56The demolition work has been traumatic.
13:00We thought they were coming through
13:02the back of the built-in wardrobe in the bedroom,
13:05banging on the party wall.
13:07Things started falling off a mantelpiece.
13:09But it's getting towards the end of it now.
13:15The end does come, but brutally.
13:18The site gets shut down after a visit from a planning enforcement officer.
13:23The workmen were told that the works that they were doing
13:27didn't have planning permission.
13:29The problem was that we had planning
13:32to convert a former Course Guard watchtower
13:38and the watchtower, as you can see, has been removed.
13:42Zaid thought that keeping the party wall
13:45would retain enough of the old building
13:47to class the project as a renovation.
13:49The planners disagreed.
13:51It's frightening because we stand to lose £200,000.
13:56You have a worthless site.
13:58It's devastating because all your dreams are shattered.
14:03Zaid's workforce is redeployed to his commercial sites,
14:07while his dreams lie corroding.
14:13Twelve weeks pass until, at last, there's news.
14:18So we resubmitted the identical planning application,
14:22just changing conversion to demolish a new build.
14:25Heart in mouth, I imagine. Heart in mouth, yeah.
14:28Luckily, it went through. That's remarkable. It is.
14:31But when did you pick it up again?
14:34Literally yesterday.
14:36And hopefully we'll start pouring the concrete next week
14:40and then we can get the steel structure set up. Yeah.
14:43Days later, proper construction can at last begin.
14:47Highly reinforced concrete footings are being poured
14:50to eventually support the steel superstructure
14:53in this windy location.
14:55Yeah, that's how they are.
14:57These are the bolt boxes for the main structure to bolt to.
15:01It's pretty crucial that these are right
15:04because if not, all the steel won't fit.
15:09Scott's exactitude is put to the test two weeks later,
15:13when £30,000 of steel arrives.
15:17Over 120 pieces in all to form two,
15:21Jason is in charge.
15:24That's a three-dimensional drawing of the job.
15:27It's very complicated to look at it like that because it's...
15:31Whoa.
15:33God forbid if things went wrong.
15:35All we care about are those bolt boxes.
15:38If they're out, the steel won't fit, the floors won't fit,
15:41so you might have to shorten beams, come down and re-weld.
15:45There's all sorts of scenarios.
15:47The first 10-metre steels do align with the footings.
15:53That's lovely, but this frame is quite intricate.
16:01Jenga, innit? Jenga.
16:03I've got a little granddaughter, she's five,
16:05and she beats me at jenga every time.
16:08Like jenga, it's a bit of a challenge.
16:11It's a bit of a challenge.
16:13She beats me at jenga every time.
16:16Like jenga, if you're not precise, it can all end dramatically.
16:23As they lower one of the last steel sections onto its face,
16:27they discover that there's an almighty gap
16:30between it and the rest of the frame it should attach to.
16:34Miles out.
16:3611.14, we're, like, 70 odd mil out, aren't we?
16:39This is different to ours.
16:41Have they been working on this joint?
16:43Yeah, I think this one's out as well, mate.
16:47It looks like two bolt boxes are out.
16:52Scott jumps in to manage the crisis.
16:5514.99, that doesn't look a million mile away.
16:59So, with a bit of luck...
17:02One's within the stated 5mm tolerance, but the others way off.
17:06We think we can get round it by a re-drilling base plate.
17:09New holes are called for, after which, to Scott's huge relief,
17:14it fits together.
17:18Ah, we're here to check it all, aren't we?
17:20It's my fault, it's all that.
17:22It's just an error from us setting them out on the boxes like...
17:25And when it gets mass-filled with concrete, it shouldn't be an issue.
17:29It should be up here for 1,000 years.
17:35It's all been a bit skin of teeth so far.
17:38The project now needs plain sailing and precision
17:41for it to withstand the vagaries of weather and the cruel sea,
17:45something this restored coastguard's tower in Dungeness
17:49has done for decades.
17:54This is nice. It's civilised.
17:57It offers a delight and a respite from the world out there.
18:04Every cosy inch of this brick-built retreat
18:07has been considered.
18:09Every comfort, zealously protected from the onslaught of storms,
18:13and it is all under constant attack.
18:19Hear that noise? That's the seal of the door
18:23against the stone slab out here.
18:26And there, where the water's crept under the door,
18:29you can see how the salt has just eaten away the stone.
18:32It's remarkable, in a way, that it is in still such good nick
18:35as it was done 20 years ago.
18:40The sea-loving adventurer who bought this building over 20 years ago
18:44is the designer Fiona Naylor.
18:47So you have to think about these buildings like ships.
18:51It's the salt in the air that's the real killer.
18:54So they're steel railings.
18:56We raked everything off back to bare metal,
18:59sprayed them with this hot liquid aluminium,
19:02then painted them in galvanised paint,
19:05then painted them with a two-pack epoxy oil rig paint.
19:09Yeah.
19:10And that was done six years ago, and they're still rusting through now.
19:14So what would your advice be to anybody wanting to build in a place like this?
19:18You just need to be very considered and really think about the detailing.
19:27I'm not sure that's Said's approach.
19:30Six weeks after the steel went up, the ground-floor blockwork is built
19:34and the steel trays that form the concrete floors are in.
19:37But Scott is struggling with Said's decision
19:40to not go with detailed construction drawings.
19:43Very basic, these drawings.
19:45Everything where you want to look at a bit of detail,
19:48it tells you, see specification.
19:50Then when you go to see a specification, there is no specification.
19:54It just slows things down, because whereas I should be building it,
19:58I'm now researching it and designing it.
20:01We do tell Said all the time that it would be a lot easier
20:04if everything was on this drawing, then it would just be plain sailing for us.
20:12But Said's mind is elsewhere.
20:17This one is empty.
20:19This one here is empty as well.
20:21This one we had returned.
20:24Covid has decimated the retail industry,
20:27a disaster for the shopping arcade he's developing.
20:31We've literally just stopped working on the site
20:34and there is absolutely no income whatsoever on it.
20:37It's soul-destroying, because it's not just the financial impact,
20:41it's all of your work as well.
20:45At least Said's £325,000 house is currently on budget.
20:50Amazing!
20:52Although they're 19 months into what was going to be a ten-month schedule.
20:56Yes, you see...
20:59..it's taken shape.
21:01You can't say it doesn't have presence, can you?
21:04And it's becoming more robust
21:06as each floor tray is filled with self-levelling screed
21:10at a cost of £12,000.
21:12Good to see you. Good to see this, the cantilever.
21:15I'm so pleased you went with that. Beautiful thing.
21:18Thank you. Are you pleased? Are you excited? Are you happy?
21:21It's hard to be happy at the moment.
21:23Covid has had quite a dramatic impact.
21:26I'm in retail and it's actually seeing tenants
21:30close up their businesses. Struggle.
21:32It's hard to then focus on what we're doing here.
21:35I guess you need to be careful here,
21:37because if you stay away from the project,
21:39it will suffer further, won't it?
21:41It's the one thing that I fear,
21:43because the level of detail has to be right.
21:45So the conventional route to get there
21:48is with some really, really tightly detailed drawings,
21:51which you have?
21:53We will have.
21:55We will have.
21:57I fear that Zaid may have already left his detailing too late.
22:02Some weeks later, when the internal fit-out contractor,
22:06David, comes to measure up, he's stumbled on a structural issue.
22:11There's nothing for some of the glass to sit on.
22:14So this is the problem. This is the concrete line.
22:17This is the steel line, which we can all see.
22:20The glass line is on this line here. It has nowhere to sit.
22:23If the drawings were correct, then that slab would have been
22:27almost 100mm further forward of this column here.
22:30It's just a major, major cock-up.
22:34It's February,
22:36and East Yorkshire has endured months of icy bluster.
22:40Zaid's site has remained frozen for eight weeks
22:44because of the flaw in the steelwork design
22:47that led to key pieces of glass not fitting.
22:50We weren't left enough room for the frames to sit on, basically.
22:54The steel comes so far to the edge of the frame
22:57that there's no room for the frame to sit on.
23:00A lot of that is my fault.
23:02I should have spent more time and money on the plans.
23:06To find a solution, he's brought in some experts from his commercial world.
23:11Andy does glazing systems and David internal fit-outs.
23:15So if we can put a steel flange
23:18all the way around the bottom of that steel frame, welded on...
23:22Yeah. ..that you can sit your aluminium channel on,
23:28we need to have it so it wraps round
23:30and so the glazing is just glass on glass.
23:33Right. You're going to need an upright on this corner.
23:36No, can't do that.
23:37You can't have a full pane of glass here and a full pane of glass there.
23:40You've got to have some sort of framework there.
23:42What's it going to be fastening to?
23:44To the steel.
23:46To the steel? Yeah.
23:49Not only does Zaid want heavy double glazing
23:52mounted onto a new welded ledge,
23:54but also no ugly supporting frames.
23:56John, who supplies aluminium window systems,
23:59comes to see if it's possible.
24:01I mean, you can feel the wind up here now.
24:03It's too large an area with nothing holding it.
24:06And it's going to be mortar on the second floor.
24:08Yeah. I don't think this is suitable for frameless glazing.
24:11But we'll do the calculations and we'll see.
24:15The calculations, sadly, rule out frameless glazing.
24:19Even with an extra welded edge,
24:21so work stops again.
24:2721 months pass as Zaid juggles a new retail project
24:31and tries to find glazing specialists to realise his vision.
24:38Back on it.
24:39At last, as another winter begins, the site reopens.
24:42There we are.
24:43And window frames start going in.
24:46To be honest, it's been a bit of a nightmare the last two years.
24:49We've gone through about four to five window companies
24:52to get to where we are today.
24:55Zaid, who has conceded to less glass and chunkier frames,
24:59is slightly sheepish.
25:02Being involved in the building trade,
25:04sometimes I was a bit embarrassed.
25:06I thought, well, God, I'm supposed to know what I'm doing.
25:09I'm supposed to know what I'm doing.
25:11Sometimes I was a bit embarrassed.
25:13I thought, well, God, I'm supposed to know what I'm doing.
25:16But still, it's the site that challenged us more than anything else.
25:20But luckily, I think now we've got over the worst of it.
25:23I just don't want to jinx it.
25:25I just want to get everything...
25:27As soon as we're glazed, then I'll be a very happy man.
25:31But the glazing will not be straightforward,
25:35because beyond Zaid's front garden
25:38are the UK's largest seabird colonies.
25:42Understandably, planning are insisting on anti-collision glass.
25:47So how does that work?
25:50The answer lies in one of nature's own death traps.
25:55In the beauty of one of these.
25:59Some spiders' silk reflects ultraviolet light.
26:02Birds who can see into the UV spectrum can then avoid the spiders' webs.
26:06It's a trick now used in glazing.
26:08Top Hill Lone Nature Reserve has over 160 visiting bird species.
26:14Understandably, they wanted to try this glass out.
26:18Glass kills in the region of 35 million birds every year in the UK.
26:23That's half the population of the UK of human beings.
26:26But now, with this glass...
26:28It's not foolproof, but they reckon about 90% reduction in bird strikes...
26:32That's huge.
26:34So, yeah, big difference.
26:36These huge panes look normal, but they're covered in a UV pattern.
26:41Is it that kind of, almost like a crazed...
26:44It looks like somebody's thrown a load of cocktail sticks all over the window.
26:47I can just see it, yeah.
26:49They used to have normal glass here,
26:51and in daylight, it's easy to see why it was lethal.
26:55If you're a small bird and a sparrowhawk's attacking,
26:58it'll give you a lovely reflection of all trees, foliage, perfect escape route.
27:04Instead, the new glass suggests a barrier.
27:08So how much is this stuff? More expensive?
27:10£36,000 on this building.
27:12Right, I was going to say, I'm sure you could have spent 20.
27:15That's a significant hike, isn't it, in price?
27:18Just depends how much you like birds, I guess.
27:25I am hotly anticipating this miracle glass at Said's,
27:29given that he's four years in and three years over schedule,
27:33but holy cantilevers, only the normal glass is in.
27:37The bird-proof glazing is missing.
27:39Blimey, O'Reilly. Do you know where the glass is?
27:42Well, as of about half an hour ago,
27:45I was told that our company that was going to be fitting the glass
27:50had failed to spot an email.
27:52It had gone into their junk. It's been done now.
27:55Oh, Lord. Truth is, though,
27:57he wouldn't be in this position with proper detailing.
28:00Can I ask you, when are you going to produce the detailed drawings?
28:03Is it when it's finished?
28:05Probably. Oh, so...
28:08Wow.
28:10He's charmingly incorrigible, and as I enter his house...
28:15Yes! ..I am incorrigibly charmed.
28:18And so it seems are the Starlings.
28:21It's like they're all individually dancing.
28:30I've never experienced that, to be in a murmuration.
28:37Until I stood here, I didn't really understand what this place was for.
28:43I am, as I'm sure you are, impatient to see a finished building now.
28:48Yeah. We will finish it. OK. We will.
28:51We have to.
28:54Zaid's determination is remarkable, powering this project on.
28:59By November, the steel is clad
29:01and the big window openings, minus their glass,
29:04are covered in temporary panels so work can continue indoors.
29:08Josh the builder and his foreman Scott
29:10feel at war with the tempestuous North Sea.
29:13It is horrendous, cos when Josh were trying to fix one upstairs,
29:17we blew him to the back of the building.
29:20Straight on his arse with screen on top of him like this.
29:24But amidst this stormy misery, a ray of sunshine has arrived.
29:29Dad, smile.
29:30Zaid's daughter Sana, who's helping with the interiors.
29:34We finally feel like we've got a home that's coming together,
29:38so that's one of the reasons that I brought Sana with me.
29:41I've seen a sofa. You've seen a sofa, right?
29:43I've taken a seat in the tree. What's a sofa like?
29:46I think my dad's cell is quite eclectic.
29:48It's got, like, curves, it's like a wave.
29:50He'll just see something and be like,
29:52oh, wow, yeah, let's get that.
29:54I need to see it. I need to see this curly sofa.
29:57I will take you and show you.
29:59This is enjoyable work, but Sana has another reason to be here.
30:05A mother of two, she was born with a genetic heart condition
30:09and suffered a life-changing incident five months ago.
30:13I was doing some shopping with my mum and she turned around
30:17and I was just...
30:20..on the floor.
30:21I effectively had, like, a mini heart attack.
30:26Since recovering, Sana's been drawn to this restorative coast.
30:31It was scary. I felt quite a bit of anxiety.
30:36I don't really like going to busy places
30:38and I like just having a quieter...
30:41..quieter life.
30:44It might just explain Saeed's lack of focus on the project.
30:48It was horrific, but we're grateful for every day,
30:51we're grateful for every moment.
30:54He rings me every day and texts me, are you OK?
30:58I'll ring him before I go to bed and just say,
31:00oh, Dad, I just want to tell you that...
31:02..I love you and so forth.
31:05It's made us all, as a family,
31:07re-evaluate what we think is a priority.
31:12Given the trauma, this family butthole seems timely.
31:16But the saga of the bird glass drags on.
31:19It takes eight months for the paints to be imported from Germany
31:23and, at last, on a windless day in spring,
31:26it's time to get back to work.
31:28Nice and steady, Jack.
31:30Andy, who is responsible for the glazing system,
31:33is aware of the stakes.
31:35I'm feeling very nervous until the glass goes in.
31:38As soon as we know the sizes are right and it fits as it should.
31:41When you're ready, yeah, we'll start taking it around then, yeah?
31:44Don't go too high with it.
31:46Over two days, 12 fragile paints...
31:48Keep it nice and low.
31:50..some two metres by three metres wide,
31:52will be flying around the world.
31:54Keep it nice and low.
31:56Some two metres by three metres wide
31:58will be flying through the air.
32:00Do you want to start coming into the glass
32:02and get hands-on when you can?
32:04Your weakest point on tougher glass is in your corners,
32:07so if you've got a metal to glass touching them,
32:10it can just end up crushing it.
32:12Hang on, hang on, hang on!
32:14But some of the openings are tight.
32:16It's hitting there, look.
32:18Replacing these special paints would take forever.
32:21Right, offer it in, Dan.
32:23The wind picks up, catching the 200kg paints.
32:27Windy up here. It's gusting.
32:29Right, bring her back again, Jack.
32:31Yeah, just take it down.
32:33That's what, the armour going off and all.
32:35Adding a third crane day would cost a whopping £6,000.
32:39The pressure is unbearable.
32:43They battle the wind...
32:45I'm low, eh? Feel that wind.
32:47..and the rain, which can make the suckers slip.
32:50And as the second day draws to a close...
32:53..so does Zaid's window nightmare,
32:56which has cost him £84,000.
32:58Last one, all done.
33:00Catapulting his entire spend,
33:02£50,000 over his £325 grand budget.
33:05He's just glad it's over.
33:07I am relieved that they've managed to get all of it in.
33:11I'm really happy.
33:13We're on the home run, I would say, another three months
33:16and we should be ready to move in.
33:19Zaid's schedule is, as always, optimistic.
33:23Two months later and five years in,
33:26Sana and her son, Sully, visit with paint samples,
33:29even though the place is still being plasterboarded.
33:32I've gone for a blossom pink shade
33:35and then I've gone for, like, a khaki and a, like, stone shade.
33:41Before decorating can start,
33:43there's a chilling to-do list,
33:45from floors to second fixes.
33:47However, Zaid's attention has leapt ahead.
33:50Right, we're going the same line where it was before.
33:53It'll come skipping in garden, all right, yeah, we're going on,
33:56this is looking lovely now.
33:58And put a panel on that side and a panel on this side
34:00so you won't see any of them.
34:02It's here, there and everywhere.
34:04What I want you to do is order me a nice ash.
34:07He just makes it up as he goes along.
34:09Burnt ash. Re-clad all this in it in black
34:11and then follow that around there.
34:13He'll start talking about garage or something.
34:15Just hang on a minute, mate, let's get house finished first.
34:18Then get Andy to re-roof that.
34:20It'd be nice to get him sat down for at least an hour,
34:23go through things. And knock that down.
34:25It's like Tasmanian Devil, he'll come in here...
34:28And he's off. I need a cup of tea now.
34:31None of this augurs well.
34:34There's a scene in the film Clueless
34:37where Cher describes a woman she knows as a Monet painting.
34:43Beautiful from a distance but up close a right old mess.
34:46I think that's what's going to happen with this building.
34:49With no detail, no fine junctions, no beauty.
34:52That's where it's headed.
35:06This is why you come here,
35:08to the tip of this East Yorkshire headland.
35:12The wildlife.
35:15Nature.
35:17Coastal paths that cross hulking cliffs.
35:20It is as wild and unpredictable as Zaid's project,
35:23challenged as it was by the exposed site
35:26and the salt-laden high winds of the North Sea.
35:29Weather has shaped everything here.
35:32I love the fact that in this windswept village on these cliffs,
35:36all you can see is roofs, it's so hungered and low down,
35:39but there are objects here which are white and they stick out.
35:43Wander Golf Club.
35:45Next to it, there's an ancient lighthouse.
35:48There's a 19th-century lighthouse there and a coastal station over there.
35:52In between them all, the fifth object.
35:55Zaid's house.
36:00Over five years ago, Zaid and Farzana set out to replace
36:04a grim coastguard's tower with a powerful cantilevered new home.
36:08So far, it's like a miniature lightbox and it hints a promise.
36:13Closer, could it be as convincing?
36:16HE CHUCKLES
36:18Well, no.
36:20It absolutely speaks of what was here before.
36:24This building still has the spirit of the coastguard's station about it.
36:30It's quite heroic, the way that it looks out to sea that way.
36:35Goodness me. It's reborn.
36:38Like a cool, glamorous cousin.
36:40The building is, of course, impossible to ignore.
36:43A clean white cube, part Miami beach and part 1930s English seaside.
36:49And hats off to Zaid.
36:51The junctions look crisp, the details are sharp and highly respectable.
36:57The glazing even appears as though it was always meant to look like that.
37:03Hi. Hi. How are you? Come on in.
37:05How have you been? Very well, thank you.
37:07I'm good. I'm just admiring the fact that I can see through the building to sky beyond.
37:11That's lovely, isn't it? It is.
37:13It's one thing to have a cantilever and for it to defy the law of gravity,
37:17it's quite another to be able to see through it.
37:19Prasanna, what do you think of it?
37:21I love it. I just like everything about it, the windows, the door, the glass.
37:26Breathtaking.
37:28Tell me about the glass, because, I mean, it was such a heartache
37:32and such a fundamental error with the steelwork.
37:36But do you miss having more glazing?
37:40Yes, I think it would have been a bit more dramatic.
37:44The mistake, which led to more render and less glass, now seems insignificant.
37:50But I know Zaid feels the loss of his seamless glazing,
37:54abandoned because of the wind here.
37:56I mean, it might have looked 5% nicer if you'd had it just like a sheer wall of glass,
38:00but I'm not really sure what that would have achieved, actually.
38:03It's because we got the corner. Yeah.
38:05I think that was the most important thing. Absolutely. It's great.
38:09So, five years in the making, in a really harsh environment, is it done?
38:15Not quite, but it's almost.
38:18We're on the home run now. Good. I'd love to see inside.
38:21We have to. Thank you.
38:23Exciting. The last time I was here, the place was a steel skeleton,
38:27a dripping hulk through which the weather whistled.
38:30I love this door. It's like from a submarine or something.
38:33This, however, is Welcome Sanctuary. It's terrific.
38:37The lookout's ground floor now provides comfortable guest sleeping quarters.
38:41Nice room. Large room. It's really lovely.
38:44All very cosy and enclosed.
38:47Here we're on the footprint of the old...
38:49Yep, this was the Coast Guard watchtower, what we're in now.
38:53So this was it? This room was it.
38:55Blimey. I remember it. It was quite miserable, wasn't it?
38:59It was.
39:01Now there's a second snug bedroom and two bathrooms.
39:07Upstairs, Zahid and Farzana's cantilevered main bedroom awaits on the first floor.
39:16Wow.
39:18Oh, this is your room? Yes.
39:20Lovely. That's what it's about.
39:23That. Yes.
39:25This is quite a remarkable thing.
39:29This place springs alive every time you stare through the big wall of glass.
39:34You can see the whole village, though. They can see you.
39:37Yeah, that's the downside.
39:39So what's the plan?
39:41Electric blinds. OK.
39:43And a bit of glass across the end, no? Yes.
39:46A Julian trunk. A little balcony.
39:48The decoration is deliberately understated.
39:52Can't compete with the drama out there.
39:55So is this the anti-bird strike glass? It's not, is it?
39:59It is, yes. It is? It is.
40:01I can't see... Hang on. Take a closer look.
40:04That's all that matters, though, isn't it, is that the birds can see it?
40:07Oh, I can just.
40:09It's really discreet and clever.
40:11This saves lives.
40:13Yes.
40:15This house should connect with nature, not destroy it.
40:20It's a viewing lookout with very few distractions inside,
40:24other than the sybaritic main bathroom.
40:28Even the staircases have been removed from the observatory decks.
40:32They're bolted outside.
40:34Their purpose is to deliver you to the next view.
40:39Oh, wow! Yeah. It's stupendous.
40:42One floor up, and everything changes.
40:45The horizon just rises up and up and up, and you see more sea. Much more.
40:49It's like you can see another 60 miles or something.
40:52It's absolutely brilliant. Beautiful.
40:55So are you going to rent this out? No.
40:58Not even to friends? You're welcome.
41:00Ah!
41:02Is that one of those clever fold-away magic
41:04now-you-see-and-now-you-don't kitchens?
41:06It is. You know how to do it? Just about.
41:10It's that fumed oak, isn't it? Yes. That's what it is.
41:14Clever. The mess of the dinner party is hidden.
41:17I prefer not to see the kitchen.
41:19I really like it.
41:21If you want a cup of tea, though, you've got to go hunting for it.
41:25And this is the curvy sofa.
41:27It's the one that Son was unsure about.
41:29Yeah? Yeah.
41:32It's really comfortable.
41:34Really comfortable.
41:36Yeah. I'm glad you like it.
41:39It's beautiful.
41:41Wow. Romantic, magical view.
41:48This house was created for this,
41:52as a retreat and a place for family to come together.
41:56And it's already working its magic on Sana.
42:00So, Sana, how's your health? It's been really great.
42:03Obviously, I had quite a scary incident. Yeah.
42:07I have a defibrillator now. Wow. Yeah.
42:10And, thank God, it's been absolutely fine. Yeah.
42:13I feel like coming here has been extremely therapeutic.
42:16Just coming and breathing in that fresh air has really, really
42:20made the world of difference to me, health-wise.
42:24There's something that your father's been really consistent about,
42:27and that is the purpose of the building. Yeah.
42:30Which is that it's for family. Definitely.
42:32They have four grandchildren who do not leave their side.
42:36They are very hands-on, whether they like it or not.
42:41It's safe to say they are in love with it.
42:44Zaid and Farzana's bond with their children and grandchildren
42:48is the core reason this house exists.
42:50But this project has not been without its negative impacts.
42:54It's been tough on next door.
42:56So, how are things, Vic, now that you've got a building
42:59up against your wall?
43:01Well, I'm damn glad to see the back of the scaffolding. Oh, yeah.
43:05Peering through a birdcage, almost, at front and back of the houses.
43:09Yeah. Yeah. I think you've been quite tolerant. Yeah.
43:12It's built, it's done. Exactly. Yeah.
43:16It's all still too raw for Vic.
43:19Time may heal things.
43:23So, why has it taken five years?
43:25It was more complex than I originally envisaged.
43:29We didn't factor for the fact that we're five miles out in the North Sea.
43:33But do you know what? With the team that he's got,
43:35whatever problems there are... They're our problem.
43:38They're his problems, but they overcome them so well.
43:41I think they deserve recognition.
43:43Scott and... Yeah. Josh and Stu and... Yeah.
43:46I can't remember how much you said you were going to spend.
43:49325.
43:51And you spent... About 375.
43:54Which isn't too bad.
43:56A lot of the things were done at very, very good rates for us
43:59by people who we use time and time again, so...
44:03I hadn't been able to speak to Yusuf a piece of way at the moment.
44:06You're not sticking with the project?
44:08I don't think I'm an easy person to work with.
44:11No.
44:13Because people need programmes, drawings,
44:16so it's not fair on somebody like Yusuf.
44:19So you clearly don't regret doing this?
44:22Oh, not for one moment.
44:25Nor should they.
44:27Despite the painful adventure getting here,
44:30Zaid and Farzana took an unloved hunk
44:34and rebuilt it as the glorious lookout
44:37it perhaps once dreamed of being.
44:42You might think that some powerful blocks of white render
44:46have got no place right at the end of a terrace of Victorian houses
44:50and overlooking this beautiful landscape,
44:52but, of course, this replaces a government building that was here before,
44:56doing exactly the same thing, filling the same void.
44:59You might think that engineered structures
45:02have got no place in a village of pointy-roofed bungalows,
45:07but if you look across the skyline of this peninsula,
45:11what you'll see is other shapes just like this.
45:15You might think that five years is too long
45:18to wait with some scaffolding in your garden and a leaky gable wall,
45:22and I'd have to agree with you about that,
45:24but one thing I will say here is that there is an overriding idea
45:29that this building represents, and it isn't just about landscape and view.
45:34It's something much closer to the heart of Zaid.
45:38It's the idea about sharing something,
45:41building it and sharing it then with those you love.
45:45With family.
45:55What do your friends say when you say,
45:58I think the first thing is always like,
46:00Do you bring experience of project management?
46:02Not related to construction.
46:04A little bit nervous. I think it looks bigger than it is.
46:06It's a lot of pressure.
46:08We wouldn't have ideally liked to have done the measurements ourselves.
46:11You can't just shave a little bit off. Fingers crossed it will all go to plan.
46:14Yeah, but that looks rough like that. Rough. Properly rough.
46:18Oh, my word. What is that?
46:21A two-up, two-down with a built-in shark tank.
46:24Oh, and a helicopter pad too.
46:26Unleash your inner supervillain with Building Britain's Super Homes here next.
46:30Or get relationship repair in the rainforest.
46:33Six dads and their kids are well out of their comfort zones.
46:36Head into the jungle with Ed Stafford.
46:38It's streaming now.
46:50Subs by www.zeoranger.co.uk