Build It's Education House
Our Self Build Education House is an access-all-areas home designed to give you a blueprint for the choices you’ll make on your own self build journey
Since Build It magazine’s launch in 1989, we’ve featured thousands of amazing bespoke homes. 30 years on, we’ve taken that to the ultimate level by actually building our own house. Our goal was to create a unique educational hub to not only inspire, but also arm you with the tools you need to complete your own dream home – so you’ll have a reallife reference point on which to base your decisions and budgets. You can follow the entire journey online at www.buildit.co.uk/ourhouse – but here’s a quick overview of some of our project highlights.
Our plot & key design decisions
We created the Education House in partnership with Graven Hill, the UK’S largest custom build development, set in Bicester, Oxfordshire. Every shovel-ready self build site at Graven Hill (find out more on page
Build It 62) comes with a Plot Passport and services already in place and ready to tap into. So you know everything you need to know before you buy, including the maximum house size, where it can sit on the plot, permitted roof ridge heights and any restrictions on materials.
e Education House is in a zone that offers lots of design freedom, but we still had parameters such as an 8.1m ridge height and an above-ground internal floor area of 160m . ese helped to inform some key decision decisions, such as the shallow triple aspect roof to enabled two full height storeys and a ready-to-convert loft.
Editor Chris Bates project managed the build – alongside main contractor
Drewett & Hunt – and worked with
Opinder Liddar from lapd Architects to develop plans for a wow-factor, highperformance home that represented good value for money.
Our project doesn’t set out to show how cheaply you can build a house. Instead, we’re showcasing some of the bells and whistles – such as the latest heating systems, feature staircases, glazed gables and smart home tech – so you can experience them first-hand and decide which elements matter most to you when allocating chunks of your self build budget. We’ve also made some creative cost-saving choices, including
Nudura insulating concrete formwork from ICF Supplies; SIPCO structural insulated panel (SIPS) roof
PROJECT ROUTE
Architect designed, self projectmanaged with support from main contractor
HOUSE SIZE 250m2
PLOT SIZE 330m2
PROJECT COST £517,892
PROJECT COST PER M2 £2,072 BUILDING WORK COMMENCED November 2018
BUILDING WORK TOOK
10 months upgrading a relatively affordable kitchen with impressive quartz and silestone worktops. Similarly, the basement stair is a variation on the theme of the main feature flight, showing what you can achieve for £5,000 as opposed to £15,000.