Grand Designs Episode Information Cambridgeshire: The Story

Date Published:

06/06/2008

The Project

Kelly and Masako Neville set about building not just a spectacular oak frame and straw bale house, but a whole new way of life in the Cambridgeshire Fens. Kelly is a carpenter by trade and has always dreamed of building an eco friendly home with his own hands. This highly sustainable house, sitting in harmony with nature and its surroundings, will become the base for Kelly and Masako's new self-sufficient life where they will produce their own food and energy from the land.

The unusual two storey house is built around a spiral staircase carved out of an 800 year old oak tree trunk, the centrepiece of an interior that draws inspiration from Tolkien's Hobbit. But this Herculean journey is far from easy. The unusual hexagonal design would challenge the most experienced builder and with no architect to turn to for advice Kelly has to tackle all the problems on his own. To keep build costs down the house has been designed to be built by just one man and a tractor. But when the tractor breaks down only four weeks into the project Kelly has to lift the huge oak beams, weighing half a ton each, into position by himself.

Budget And Build

Estimated Budget : £100,000 plus £190,000 on land
Final Budget : £120,000 plus land, total £320,000

Kelly and Masako's new two storey eco home rises up out of the Fens on stilts to reduce the risk of flooding. Unusually this timber framed house is hexagonal to mirror the shapes of the natural world, particularly honeycomb and plant cells. The huge complex oak frame was handmade by Kelly and the walls are filled with straw bales, a cheap but efficient insulation material, and protected by a layer of timber boarding, rendered on the outside with lime.

The ground floor is divided with a guest suite on one side with a bathroom and next to it a utility room. Beyond that there is a large, open plan kitchen, dining and living space.

Kelly and Masako wanted the inside of the house to be full of natural materials, so the spacious living room has a unique bespoke staircase carved from an 800 year old oak tree trunk that Kelly salvaged.

Upstairs there are three bedrooms and a bathroom, all accessed from a hexagonal landing with a balcony that overlooks the living room. Large windows in all the rooms illuminate the house with natural light, minimising the use of electricity.

The roof lantern allows more light to spill through the centre of the building filtering down onto the oak tree trunk staircase. The roof is topped off with durable cedar shingles. Despite its complexity, this six sided building was designed to be built by one man and a tractor, making it surprisingly affordable.

It really is astonishing that Kelly and Masako have achieved so much more than just building a house. By growing their own food and fuel, and by recycling the waste from the house, they're well on the road to self-sufficiency.