Shell of an an idea
KEVIN McCloud channels Sir David Attenborough tonight. Crouching in a bush, he’s holding a coiled-up fern leaf.
“Build with this shape and build at your peril,” he warns. “Build with this shape and you enter the terrifying world of... the spiral.” Cue dramatic cut to opening credits.
Nature has indeed provided the inspiration for tonight’s build – billed as one of the most ambitious homes seen on Grand Designs.
We know they’re always saying that, but once you see the giant curved house that looks like a coiled snake, you’ll be impressed, pretentious though it all might be.
The daring couple are Stephen Tetlow, head of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and his wife Elizabeth, a horticulturalist. They wanted to build a home that brought both their passions together. “We were talking to an architect and on our kitchen table was an ammonite fossil. It evolved from that,” explains Stephen.
The shell, found on their land in the Blackdown Hills in Devon, inspired them to build a house that spiralled onto the landscape over two levels, mixing natural materials with cutting edge technology. Kevin first met them in 2015, when this was just a dream and a chunk of bare land. Some nifty graphics give us a rough idea of what’s in store – the house will swirl around an ornamental garden. Two words spring to mind at this point – complicated and expensive. But the couple only have a budget of £600,000 and want to move in in 12 months.
“But nothing is straight, everything is round!” says the contractor as the real graft begins. Progress is slow, but as ever, you’ll be desperate to see the big finish.