1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:04,200 I've been picked up from airports in taxis before, 2 00:00:04,200 --> 00:00:07,400 but never, never had to go to a jetty to be picked up by a boat! 3 00:00:10,240 --> 00:00:13,200 'He's Piers Taylor, an award-winning architect.' 4 00:00:14,200 --> 00:00:16,640 This building is so tactile 5 00:00:16,640 --> 00:00:19,240 and just rich, materially. 6 00:00:19,240 --> 00:00:20,640 SHE SHRIEKS 7 00:00:20,640 --> 00:00:22,360 'And she's Caroline Quentin, 8 00:00:22,360 --> 00:00:25,160 'acclaimed actress and passionate property developer.' 9 00:00:25,160 --> 00:00:27,600 Oh, I've been expecting you, Mr Bond! 10 00:00:27,600 --> 00:00:29,520 SHE LAUGHS 11 00:00:29,520 --> 00:00:30,840 'We've been given the keys 12 00:00:30,840 --> 00:00:34,240 'to some of the most incredible houses in the world...' 13 00:00:34,240 --> 00:00:36,880 It's chock full of surprises, isn't it? 14 00:00:36,880 --> 00:00:38,640 SHE SHRIEKS 15 00:00:38,640 --> 00:00:41,080 '..to discover the design, innovation, 16 00:00:41,080 --> 00:00:42,920 'passion and endurance needed 17 00:00:42,920 --> 00:00:46,400 'to transform architectural vision into an extraordinary home.' 18 00:00:46,400 --> 00:00:48,440 If this was Hollywood, 19 00:00:48,440 --> 00:00:49,960 I'd be snogging you now. 20 00:00:49,960 --> 00:00:53,000 'Together, we'll be travelling the globe.' 21 00:00:53,000 --> 00:00:54,400 Oh, look down there! 22 00:00:54,400 --> 00:00:57,440 - I would, but I'm trying not to kill us. - No, you look ahead. 23 00:00:57,440 --> 00:00:59,400 'Meeting the architects and owners 24 00:00:59,400 --> 00:01:02,840 'who have taken on the challenge of building unconventional homes 25 00:01:02,840 --> 00:01:04,720 'in demanding locations.' 26 00:01:04,720 --> 00:01:07,680 Just another day on the wing of a 747. 27 00:01:07,680 --> 00:01:11,080 'Whether it's navigating the logistics of constructing a house 28 00:01:11,080 --> 00:01:13,080 'on top of a remote mountain...' 29 00:01:13,080 --> 00:01:18,000 Why would you build a house where you can only get there by cable car? 30 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:21,760 '..negotiating the ancient trees of a fragile forest...' 31 00:01:21,760 --> 00:01:23,760 You never see a building this close to the trees. 32 00:01:23,760 --> 00:01:25,000 I mean that's six inches away. 33 00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:26,480 '..having a sea view 34 00:01:26,480 --> 00:01:30,280 'whilst perched on the edge of a dramatic coastal shoreline...' 35 00:01:30,280 --> 00:01:32,560 I'd love to know how you actually built this 36 00:01:32,560 --> 00:01:35,560 on what appears to be a sort of vertical cliff face. 37 00:01:35,560 --> 00:01:39,480 '..or excavating the earth to build a home deep underground...' 38 00:01:39,480 --> 00:01:41,800 There is always a moment where you feel fear. 39 00:01:41,800 --> 00:01:44,120 nature is never to come back the same way. 40 00:01:53,480 --> 00:01:56,320 Since earliest times, humans have had a close affinity 41 00:01:56,320 --> 00:02:00,240 with the tranquillity and isolation of the forest. 42 00:02:00,240 --> 00:02:02,920 The joys of living so close to nature 43 00:02:02,920 --> 00:02:05,920 is why I chose to build my own family home in the woods. 44 00:02:07,840 --> 00:02:10,800 But building in this natural habitat can be fraught 45 00:02:10,800 --> 00:02:14,600 with environmental obstacles and technical challenges. 46 00:02:14,600 --> 00:02:17,120 We built the road three times, it kept washing away. 47 00:02:17,120 --> 00:02:19,280 It was a long three years. 48 00:02:19,280 --> 00:02:21,640 Piers and I will be travelling from the forests 49 00:02:21,640 --> 00:02:24,160 of the Catskill Mountains of America... 50 00:02:24,160 --> 00:02:28,200 Usually, if we see this, it's in a building that has cost £150 million. 51 00:02:28,200 --> 00:02:30,760 It's been made like a piece of jewellery. 52 00:02:30,760 --> 00:02:34,080 ..to the ancient woodlands of Europe and New Zealand. 53 00:02:34,080 --> 00:02:38,000 Discovering what it takes to design, build and live 54 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:41,800 in some of the world's most extraordinary forest homes. 55 00:02:41,800 --> 00:02:45,200 It's a tight rope you walk, it can go spectacularly wrong. 56 00:02:52,200 --> 00:02:54,880 What a beautiful morning! 57 00:02:54,880 --> 00:02:57,640 The first stop on our architectural adventure 58 00:02:57,640 --> 00:03:01,680 takes us an hour's drive out of Madrid to an ancient pine forest 59 00:03:01,680 --> 00:03:05,880 on the outskirts of the town of San Lorenzo de El Escorial. 60 00:03:05,880 --> 00:03:07,880 Look at the dappled light, it is beautiful. 61 00:03:07,880 --> 00:03:10,160 - Is it up here somewhere? Are we nearly there? - I think it is. 62 00:03:12,240 --> 00:03:15,520 We're heading to an unconventional four-bedroom home, 63 00:03:15,520 --> 00:03:18,960 where one architect took on the seemingly impossible challenge 64 00:03:18,960 --> 00:03:21,800 of building a house which would weave right amongst the trees 65 00:03:21,800 --> 00:03:24,440 in the forest, without damaging them. 66 00:03:25,560 --> 00:03:28,840 - Most people clear the trees from a site before they build. - Yeah. 67 00:03:28,840 --> 00:03:30,760 But this guy kept the trees, 68 00:03:30,760 --> 00:03:32,640 allowing the house to weave among them. 69 00:03:32,640 --> 00:03:34,880 - So is that why the design's so extreme? - Yeah. 70 00:03:34,880 --> 00:03:37,400 Because they've had to take the trees into account? 71 00:03:37,400 --> 00:03:40,800 It was not just a crazy idea about doing some weird shape. 72 00:03:40,800 --> 00:03:44,760 It was actually about wanting to preserve the qualities of the trees 73 00:03:44,760 --> 00:03:46,320 that existed on the site. 74 00:03:46,320 --> 00:03:49,520 - Stop, stop, stop, stop! I think that's it. - I think it is. 75 00:03:49,520 --> 00:03:50,840 It could only be it, couldn't it? 76 00:03:50,840 --> 00:03:52,400 Check out the fence. 77 00:03:52,400 --> 00:03:53,760 It's quite industrial. 78 00:03:53,760 --> 00:03:56,280 It looks a little bit like Ford open prison in Sussex. 79 00:03:56,280 --> 00:03:57,760 - Does it? - Yeah! 80 00:03:57,760 --> 00:03:59,560 Have you got the buzzer to get us in? 81 00:03:59,560 --> 00:04:01,400 Oh, er, yes, I have somewhere. Here. 82 00:04:02,720 --> 00:04:05,080 - I'm pressing everything. Oh, yes! - Oh, there we are. - Ha-ha! 83 00:04:05,080 --> 00:04:06,880 I love it when that happens! 84 00:04:06,880 --> 00:04:08,800 GATES SQUEAK 85 00:04:15,520 --> 00:04:17,200 Richard, the owner of this house, 86 00:04:17,200 --> 00:04:20,400 is a publisher and editor of an architectural magazine, 87 00:04:20,400 --> 00:04:23,160 and wanted his own home to challenge the conventional. 88 00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:27,720 This is incredible, seeing that so close. 89 00:04:27,720 --> 00:04:29,440 It's almost touching, but not quite. 90 00:04:29,440 --> 00:04:31,600 I mean, it's beautiful, looking up there. 91 00:04:31,600 --> 00:04:33,480 I suspect when the wind blows, 92 00:04:33,480 --> 00:04:36,600 this will almost touch the building. 93 00:04:36,600 --> 00:04:37,720 It must do. 94 00:04:37,720 --> 00:04:40,600 And it'll be calculated just so it doesn't quite touch. 95 00:04:40,600 --> 00:04:42,040 And underneath here, of course, 96 00:04:42,040 --> 00:04:44,600 there'll be foundations that go down beneath the tree roots. 97 00:04:44,600 --> 00:04:46,240 If you were here and you weren't careful, 98 00:04:46,240 --> 00:04:49,280 you'd kill a lot of the very thing you were trying to use. You'd kill the trees. 99 00:04:49,280 --> 00:04:51,640 Yeah, that's the danger. And, of course, then you'd end up 100 00:04:51,640 --> 00:04:54,480 with a house that was in a barren piece of land with no trees. 101 00:04:55,800 --> 00:04:58,880 Casa Levene is a major piece of angular engineering. 102 00:05:01,120 --> 00:05:03,480 The floor plan of this structure 103 00:05:03,480 --> 00:05:06,920 cleverly takes the shape from voids left between the trees. 104 00:05:09,160 --> 00:05:12,920 Inside, individual zones have been designed like branches, 105 00:05:12,920 --> 00:05:16,400 each separately coloured to create a different atmosphere. 106 00:05:18,040 --> 00:05:21,600 Outside, the building has been entirely clad in basalt, 107 00:05:21,600 --> 00:05:25,880 a type of dark volcanic rock, to contrast the colourful interior 108 00:05:25,880 --> 00:05:28,240 and reflect the surrounding trees. 109 00:05:30,600 --> 00:05:33,400 I really like buildings that have the same material on the roof 110 00:05:33,400 --> 00:05:34,600 as on the walls. 111 00:05:34,600 --> 00:05:36,360 - Is it slippy? - No, it is fine. 112 00:05:36,360 --> 00:05:38,080 My experience of basalt is limited. 113 00:05:38,080 --> 00:05:39,440 THEY LAUGH 114 00:05:39,440 --> 00:05:41,160 Oh, this is cool. 115 00:05:41,160 --> 00:05:44,080 But what a landscape. I mean this is brilliant, this landscape. 116 00:05:44,080 --> 00:05:47,960 - Look at the trees, they're literally poking out of there. - Yeah! 117 00:05:47,960 --> 00:05:50,960 WHISPERS: It's a bit like...being in a nest. 118 00:05:52,000 --> 00:05:54,720 - We're cocooned, aren't we? - I like it, I really like it. 119 00:05:54,720 --> 00:05:57,760 There is a real respect for nature that's creeping back into 120 00:05:57,760 --> 00:05:59,720 architecture in the last 20 years or so. 121 00:05:59,720 --> 00:06:02,040 And, historically, we didn't really care about nature, 122 00:06:02,040 --> 00:06:04,760 we just battered nature into submission. 123 00:06:04,760 --> 00:06:06,680 But here they've looked at the site, 124 00:06:06,680 --> 00:06:08,440 they've kept almost all the trees, 125 00:06:08,440 --> 00:06:11,000 and then they've just looked at where you can build 126 00:06:11,000 --> 00:06:12,520 and then they've filled in the gaps. 127 00:06:12,520 --> 00:06:14,680 And what, of course, we've ended up with is a building 128 00:06:14,680 --> 00:06:16,920 that has come out of the shape of the site 129 00:06:16,920 --> 00:06:18,480 rather than an architect tradition. 130 00:06:18,480 --> 00:06:21,920 I like that. I find that quite exciting. 131 00:06:22,920 --> 00:06:26,160 Externally, the form of this building shows a complete empathy 132 00:06:26,160 --> 00:06:27,400 with the forest. 133 00:06:29,320 --> 00:06:32,560 But on the inside, the architect has had the freedom 134 00:06:32,560 --> 00:06:35,960 to let his imagination run wild. 135 00:06:35,960 --> 00:06:37,880 Oh! 136 00:06:37,880 --> 00:06:39,680 Bright yellow! 137 00:06:39,680 --> 00:06:43,000 'The use of bold colours and industrial materials 138 00:06:43,000 --> 00:06:44,640 'create a vibrant atmosphere, 139 00:06:44,640 --> 00:06:49,760 'providing an extraordinary contrast to the serene woodland outside.' 140 00:06:49,760 --> 00:06:52,760 Look at the shadows on the floor. I mean, that's beautiful. 141 00:06:52,760 --> 00:06:54,120 It's a hell of a colour, actually, 142 00:06:54,120 --> 00:06:56,760 and it's a brave choice, but I really like it. 143 00:06:56,760 --> 00:07:00,640 'Colour theory has been used to create two distinct atmospheres. 144 00:07:00,640 --> 00:07:03,720 'Lively oranges and reds to lift your mood, 145 00:07:03,720 --> 00:07:07,080 'and blues and greens to relax and focus.' 146 00:07:08,920 --> 00:07:11,400 But I also like this transparent acrylic, 147 00:07:11,400 --> 00:07:14,360 and I love the way the toys become quite decorative. 148 00:07:14,360 --> 00:07:16,200 - This is quite quirky, isn't it? - It is. 149 00:07:16,200 --> 00:07:19,520 I'm not quite sure - jury's out for me on this, 150 00:07:19,520 --> 00:07:21,720 what is it? A poly or a plastic? 151 00:07:21,720 --> 00:07:24,920 - This is an acrylic. It's a type of plastic, but it's acrylic. - Yeah. 152 00:07:24,920 --> 00:07:26,360 I love the low tech nature of it. 153 00:07:26,360 --> 00:07:28,320 It's pretty cheap and quite easy to fix. 154 00:07:28,320 --> 00:07:30,440 And this metal here, I mean, that... 155 00:07:30,440 --> 00:07:34,240 stainless steel that wraps around is really beautiful. 156 00:07:34,240 --> 00:07:38,560 This riot of material and colour, I think is really refreshing. 157 00:07:38,560 --> 00:07:41,440 And then into this beautiful blue space, 158 00:07:41,440 --> 00:07:44,760 and the flash of the lime green Perspex here, 159 00:07:44,760 --> 00:07:47,080 it's quite exciting, this use of colour, isn't it? 160 00:07:47,080 --> 00:07:48,960 - Really exciting. - Stimulating. 161 00:07:50,400 --> 00:07:52,920 Every element of this house pushes the boundaries 162 00:07:52,920 --> 00:07:54,560 of a domestic dwelling. 163 00:07:54,560 --> 00:07:58,120 Even the kitchen is wrapped in industrial stainless steel. 164 00:07:58,120 --> 00:07:59,400 Can I ask you something? 165 00:07:59,400 --> 00:08:02,040 Where do you stand on a stainless steel kitchen? 166 00:08:02,040 --> 00:08:03,800 Don't say on the surface! 167 00:08:03,800 --> 00:08:06,000 Do you like them or, do you not like them? 168 00:08:06,000 --> 00:08:08,040 I think they're great. They're really practical. 169 00:08:08,040 --> 00:08:11,080 I love things that can be the same colour all the way around. 170 00:08:11,080 --> 00:08:14,440 Some people would say it's a little bit too like a hospital. 171 00:08:14,440 --> 00:08:16,640 It means that the kitchen is part of the architecture, 172 00:08:16,640 --> 00:08:19,240 it isn't something that's just been stuck in the corner 173 00:08:19,240 --> 00:08:21,440 and it makes it less kitchen-like. 174 00:08:21,440 --> 00:08:22,480 What do you mean? 175 00:08:22,480 --> 00:08:25,960 Because most of us, our kitchens, well, they are by their very nature, kitcheny! 176 00:08:25,960 --> 00:08:29,280 If it was made out of something and there was just a standard set of units in the corner, 177 00:08:29,280 --> 00:08:31,600 - it would be a bit of a let down. - Is your kitchen kitcheny? 178 00:08:31,600 --> 00:08:33,400 It doesn't have conventional units. 179 00:08:33,400 --> 00:08:35,960 It just has a big island that everyone cooks at. 180 00:08:35,960 --> 00:08:37,440 If a man's going to have an island, 181 00:08:37,440 --> 00:08:40,000 I'm surprised it's you, because it's very suburban, an island. 182 00:08:40,000 --> 00:08:42,200 So social. It's so social! 183 00:08:42,200 --> 00:08:44,040 Don't you quote that suburban thing at me. 184 00:08:44,040 --> 00:08:46,560 It's sociable. Listen, I'm going to go and make you something! 185 00:08:46,560 --> 00:08:49,360 Oh, hello, Caroline, I can't see you any more, it's really antisocial! 186 00:08:49,360 --> 00:08:52,240 I hate cooking looking at a suburban bit of stainless steel. 187 00:08:52,240 --> 00:08:54,440 What I want to do is be in the view and talk to people, 188 00:08:54,440 --> 00:08:55,920 and actually experience the space. 189 00:08:55,920 --> 00:08:59,520 I think kitchens are about the space and the poetry of cooking. 190 00:08:59,520 --> 00:09:01,680 They're not about the units. 191 00:09:01,680 --> 00:09:04,960 If it were me, my life would be all about the birds here. 192 00:09:04,960 --> 00:09:07,080 I would have a pair of binoculars permanently there. 193 00:09:07,080 --> 00:09:09,680 I'd spend my whole life just watching nature. 194 00:09:09,680 --> 00:09:12,240 And I'd spend my whole time marvelling at the spatial sequence, 195 00:09:12,240 --> 00:09:13,440 how wonderful it is, 196 00:09:13,440 --> 00:09:15,800 and just basking in the sheer delight of it all. 197 00:09:15,800 --> 00:09:17,720 Oh, he can't help it. 198 00:09:17,720 --> 00:09:20,720 Chop off his head, it says "architect" right the way through the middle! 199 00:09:27,200 --> 00:09:30,960 This unusual house began with a very unusual brief 200 00:09:30,960 --> 00:09:33,920 for architect Eduardo Arroyo. 201 00:09:33,920 --> 00:09:36,440 Tell me how it came about, this project? 202 00:09:36,440 --> 00:09:40,320 So, one day, the client, Richard, 203 00:09:40,320 --> 00:09:44,000 arrives in the office and says, "I want a house to change my life." 204 00:09:44,000 --> 00:09:47,120 - That's pretty powerful, isn't it? A pretty powerful statement. - Yes. 205 00:09:47,120 --> 00:09:48,280 Scary at the same time. 206 00:09:48,280 --> 00:09:51,600 And when you came here, what did you think of the site initially? 207 00:09:51,600 --> 00:09:55,800 It was quite shocking, because it was completely packed with trees. 208 00:09:55,800 --> 00:09:58,720 Most of them are 100, 200 years old. 209 00:09:58,720 --> 00:10:02,880 So my first response was, "It's impossible to build anything here." 210 00:10:04,480 --> 00:10:07,360 But Eduardo and his team weren't going to be defeated 211 00:10:07,360 --> 00:10:11,080 by the plot of land, and embraced the challenge of building a home 212 00:10:11,080 --> 00:10:15,280 in what most architects would consider an unworkable location. 213 00:10:15,280 --> 00:10:19,040 Show me some early sketches that show the evolution of the house, 214 00:10:19,040 --> 00:10:20,880 I'm really interested in that. 215 00:10:20,880 --> 00:10:23,640 One of my favourites 216 00:10:23,640 --> 00:10:26,520 was the one we did the first day we were in the site. 217 00:10:26,520 --> 00:10:32,120 We did a very strict and precise work of measuring all the trees, 218 00:10:32,120 --> 00:10:36,400 the distances, the thickness of the trees. 219 00:10:36,400 --> 00:10:38,960 And once we had that very precise technical plan, 220 00:10:38,960 --> 00:10:43,680 to activate a very rough and intuitive ideas 221 00:10:43,680 --> 00:10:45,960 of how to use this forest. 222 00:10:45,960 --> 00:10:49,400 How did that feel as the form was beginning to emerge? 223 00:10:49,400 --> 00:10:50,880 The forest was guiding us. 224 00:10:50,880 --> 00:10:55,680 It was guiding us, how the forest let ourselves occupy it. 225 00:10:55,680 --> 00:10:57,800 To me it is very exciting to build things 226 00:10:57,800 --> 00:10:59,640 that haven't been built before. 227 00:10:59,640 --> 00:11:03,280 Coming back to this house, how do you feel walking around it? 228 00:11:03,280 --> 00:11:05,800 I normally don't like to come back to my buildings. 229 00:11:05,800 --> 00:11:10,000 I think once you have finished a work, then I release myself. 230 00:11:10,000 --> 00:11:13,720 So, it feels very good to see that, even if there are some changes, 231 00:11:13,720 --> 00:11:17,640 and life has developed inside, absorbing what has happened inside, 232 00:11:17,640 --> 00:11:20,160 not getting destroyed by it, 233 00:11:20,160 --> 00:11:22,760 which means that the building is very strong. 234 00:11:25,680 --> 00:11:28,280 This house is all about the trees, 235 00:11:28,280 --> 00:11:31,600 and what that means is when Eduardo first came here, 236 00:11:31,600 --> 00:11:36,560 what he did was work out exactly where the trees were 237 00:11:36,560 --> 00:11:39,400 and what it enabled Eduardo to do 238 00:11:39,400 --> 00:11:43,960 was to strike a line around the buildable volume 239 00:11:43,960 --> 00:11:46,760 and there, very naturally, 240 00:11:46,760 --> 00:11:49,760 can you see the shape of this house 241 00:11:49,760 --> 00:11:55,000 which sits beautifully in the space left over by the trees? 242 00:11:55,000 --> 00:11:58,840 With that, what Eduardo was then left with 243 00:11:58,840 --> 00:12:03,080 was the problem of how to build next to a tree 244 00:12:03,080 --> 00:12:05,720 and this house is built right up to the trees. 245 00:12:05,720 --> 00:12:08,200 Typically you need to be way outside the tree canopy, 246 00:12:08,200 --> 00:12:09,720 because that's where the roots are, 247 00:12:09,720 --> 00:12:12,640 and often, you know, if you have a tree trunk, like that, 248 00:12:12,640 --> 00:12:16,640 the tree roots spider out from that, 249 00:12:16,640 --> 00:12:20,840 to about the same distance as the canopy spreads. 250 00:12:20,840 --> 00:12:25,960 What Eduardo did was to work out that he could put these micropiles, 251 00:12:25,960 --> 00:12:29,480 little piles down between the tree roots. 252 00:12:29,480 --> 00:12:31,680 Typically what they do, they're rammed into the ground 253 00:12:31,680 --> 00:12:33,040 or driven into the ground, 254 00:12:33,040 --> 00:12:37,720 so what you have is a building built off these delicate fingers of steel 255 00:12:37,720 --> 00:12:39,880 that go down between the roots. 256 00:12:39,880 --> 00:12:43,200 Trees are really vulnerable to being disturbed. 257 00:12:43,200 --> 00:12:46,200 And if you sever roots, trees will die. 258 00:12:46,200 --> 00:12:49,440 So this is the only way you can build on a site like this. 259 00:12:52,880 --> 00:12:56,960 Just as the forest has dictated the unusual shape of this house, 260 00:12:56,960 --> 00:13:00,600 it's also heavily influenced the interior living spaces. 261 00:13:02,680 --> 00:13:06,960 From here, I really feel like I'm floating in this canopy. 262 00:13:06,960 --> 00:13:09,440 The sheer poetry of being in the trees 263 00:13:09,440 --> 00:13:11,240 with all this light bouncing around 264 00:13:11,240 --> 00:13:14,240 and all these brilliant surfaces reflecting that light - 265 00:13:14,240 --> 00:13:15,760 that's really magical. 266 00:13:19,240 --> 00:13:21,000 I think this is the perfect place to sit 267 00:13:21,000 --> 00:13:24,720 because I can hear the wind rustling through the pines and the birdsong. 268 00:13:26,480 --> 00:13:30,600 It's great the way this house doesn't have conventional rooms and conventional doors. 269 00:13:30,600 --> 00:13:35,400 It just has spaces that you can use in beautiful and inventive ways. 270 00:13:35,400 --> 00:13:38,240 And just if I really listen carefully, 271 00:13:38,240 --> 00:13:40,480 I can just about hear Piers, 272 00:13:40,480 --> 00:13:43,880 banging on about suburbia and conventional living, 273 00:13:43,880 --> 00:13:49,360 and how dull it is to have sinks in the kitchen and beds in bedrooms! 274 00:13:49,360 --> 00:13:52,280 Often people think that houses like this are difficult to live in, 275 00:13:52,280 --> 00:13:55,520 difficult to really occupy in an informal way. 276 00:13:55,520 --> 00:13:58,920 But this is a child's bedroom that is full of life. 277 00:13:58,920 --> 00:14:02,840 And I love the way these pictures sit alongside something 278 00:14:02,840 --> 00:14:04,840 that's really high architecture. 279 00:14:12,720 --> 00:14:15,120 What's fantastic about this house, Caroline, 280 00:14:15,120 --> 00:14:17,720 is that it's so poetic. 281 00:14:17,720 --> 00:14:20,520 It's all about the experience of being in the trees, 282 00:14:20,520 --> 00:14:22,960 in this extraordinary landscape. 283 00:14:22,960 --> 00:14:26,200 Nature's been respected, the trees are exactly where they were, 284 00:14:26,200 --> 00:14:29,720 and the house just flows around the trees. 285 00:14:29,720 --> 00:14:31,920 It's wonderful for that. 286 00:14:31,920 --> 00:14:33,440 But for my taste... 287 00:14:33,440 --> 00:14:35,240 It's a little conventional! 288 00:14:35,240 --> 00:14:36,760 PIERS LAUGHS 289 00:14:45,680 --> 00:14:47,560 The next leg of our forest journey 290 00:14:47,560 --> 00:14:49,920 takes us to the United States of America. 291 00:14:53,760 --> 00:14:56,760 We're heading two and a half hours north of New York 292 00:14:56,760 --> 00:14:58,720 to the Catskill Mountains. 293 00:15:01,640 --> 00:15:06,200 The owner and principle architect of our second forest house, Tom Gluck, 294 00:15:06,200 --> 00:15:10,920 wanted a weekend home for his family to escape the bustle of busy city life. 295 00:15:10,920 --> 00:15:13,920 It's spectacularly beautiful, isn't it? It's kind of dreamy. 296 00:15:13,920 --> 00:15:15,720 - Spring! - Spring in the woods. 297 00:15:15,720 --> 00:15:18,600 - Spring in a deciduous forest. - Oh, it doesn't get any better. 298 00:15:18,600 --> 00:15:21,840 - So green. Lime green everywhere! - Lovely. Young leaves. 299 00:15:21,840 --> 00:15:24,480 It's quite romantic to live in among the trees, isn't it? 300 00:15:24,480 --> 00:15:25,840 Really romantic. 301 00:15:27,680 --> 00:15:31,120 Tom's challenge was to come up with a design which would be large enough 302 00:15:31,120 --> 00:15:33,360 for a three-bedroom family home, 303 00:15:33,360 --> 00:15:36,080 but would lessen its impact on the surroundings 304 00:15:36,080 --> 00:15:40,120 by minimising the footprint within this densely wooded plot. 305 00:15:40,120 --> 00:15:41,880 I know it's the modern way, 306 00:15:41,880 --> 00:15:45,360 and I know glass and steel can be absolutely wonderful and exciting, 307 00:15:45,360 --> 00:15:47,280 but I want this to be a home. 308 00:15:47,280 --> 00:15:51,000 I want it to be an incredibly poetic experience of being in the woods. 309 00:15:51,000 --> 00:15:52,760 And a home? 310 00:15:52,760 --> 00:15:54,120 Not so fussed. 311 00:15:55,280 --> 00:16:00,120 Tom's towering vision was to build a stairway into the forest canopy, 312 00:16:00,120 --> 00:16:02,600 using the most contemporary materials 313 00:16:02,600 --> 00:16:05,200 to create a treehouse with a twist. 314 00:16:05,200 --> 00:16:06,440 SHE GASPS 315 00:16:07,600 --> 00:16:10,400 Oh! Hang on! Hang on! 316 00:16:10,400 --> 00:16:12,640 That's not at all what I thought it was going to be! 317 00:16:12,640 --> 00:16:14,520 That's amazing. It's green! 318 00:16:14,520 --> 00:16:16,720 - It is green. - It's green! - But I wonder whether that's... 319 00:16:16,720 --> 00:16:19,400 It is green, actually. Look at it! I mean, that is... 320 00:16:19,400 --> 00:16:21,880 Oh, look, there's yellow. There's yellow, there's yellow. 321 00:16:21,880 --> 00:16:23,320 It's got a yellow staircase. 322 00:16:23,320 --> 00:16:26,080 - Perfect. - Right, I'm having a look at. 323 00:16:30,240 --> 00:16:31,280 It's, um... 324 00:16:31,280 --> 00:16:32,800 It's, it's, it's... 325 00:16:32,800 --> 00:16:35,760 It's, God, it's not at all what I thought it was going to be like! 326 00:16:35,760 --> 00:16:37,720 I like buildings that are intrigue-y. 327 00:16:37,720 --> 00:16:40,160 And, actually, there's nothing worse than a pretty building 328 00:16:40,160 --> 00:16:41,640 that gives you everything in one hit. 329 00:16:41,640 --> 00:16:44,080 Well, this is not a pretty building, so you're all right there. 330 00:16:44,080 --> 00:16:46,800 Well, I'm not so sure. I think it's really good-looking, actually. 331 00:16:46,800 --> 00:16:50,080 It's really composed and quite pert. 332 00:16:50,080 --> 00:16:52,480 Mindful to conserve this woodland, 333 00:16:52,480 --> 00:16:55,080 Tom designed a house to fit on a small footprint 334 00:16:55,080 --> 00:16:58,280 the size of a static caravan. 335 00:16:58,280 --> 00:17:01,760 Instead of putting the three double bedrooms side by side, 336 00:17:01,760 --> 00:17:03,720 he's stacked them on top of each other 337 00:17:03,720 --> 00:17:06,400 and placed a large cantilevered living area 338 00:17:06,400 --> 00:17:08,080 30 feet above the ground. 339 00:17:09,600 --> 00:17:13,560 The living room is part supported by the stacked bedrooms underneath 340 00:17:13,560 --> 00:17:17,080 and a slender V shaped column picks up the additional load, 341 00:17:17,080 --> 00:17:19,960 allowing the building to teeter high into the canopy 342 00:17:19,960 --> 00:17:22,280 without toppling over. 343 00:17:22,280 --> 00:17:24,360 Do you know what it reminds me of, Piers? 344 00:17:24,360 --> 00:17:26,760 It reminds me of A, a comprehensive school 345 00:17:26,760 --> 00:17:29,080 and B, one of those fire towers 346 00:17:29,080 --> 00:17:31,400 that they build for firemen to practise on. 347 00:17:31,400 --> 00:17:34,520 It feels like a kid could have designed it. 348 00:17:34,520 --> 00:17:36,320 - It's almost made out of Lego, isn't it? - Yeah. 349 00:17:36,320 --> 00:17:39,160 And I don't know about your kids but if my kids built a tower, 350 00:17:39,160 --> 00:17:41,840 it was always balanced precariously with the biggest bit at the top! 351 00:17:41,840 --> 00:17:43,680 SHE LAUGHS Yeah! 352 00:17:46,080 --> 00:17:50,920 With ambition to create a living space with views high above the forest canopy, 353 00:17:50,920 --> 00:17:54,520 Tom has taken the layout of a conventional three-bedroom house 354 00:17:54,520 --> 00:17:56,800 and turned it on its head. 355 00:17:56,800 --> 00:17:59,800 Here they put the bedrooms at the bottom and the best bit, 356 00:17:59,800 --> 00:18:01,880 all the living space, at the top, 357 00:18:01,880 --> 00:18:05,160 which probably just peaks over those trees and gets the mountain view. 358 00:18:06,720 --> 00:18:09,720 To blend into this densely wooded habitat, 359 00:18:09,720 --> 00:18:14,080 Tower House was entirely clad in glass to reflect the forest, 360 00:18:14,080 --> 00:18:16,240 making it almost invisible at times. 361 00:18:20,000 --> 00:18:21,240 Oh, this is good. 362 00:18:21,240 --> 00:18:24,080 - This is good, cos you get the mountain reflected in this. - Yeah. 363 00:18:24,080 --> 00:18:26,800 And, actually, the colour makes sense here, doesn't it? 364 00:18:26,800 --> 00:18:28,400 Yeah, because it disappears. 365 00:18:28,400 --> 00:18:31,160 Here is a building that is defined by where it is. 366 00:18:31,160 --> 00:18:33,360 It does mimic the landscape and trees. 367 00:18:33,360 --> 00:18:36,640 - I quite like that, I think that's a good thing. - Yeah. 368 00:18:36,640 --> 00:18:39,160 And remember that all of the buildings that we love in the UK 369 00:18:39,160 --> 00:18:42,600 were all pretty radically modern buildings once, 370 00:18:42,600 --> 00:18:44,320 that stood out like a sore thumb. 371 00:18:44,320 --> 00:18:47,720 You know, I suspect that all of the manor houses, rectories, farmhouses, 372 00:18:47,720 --> 00:18:51,320 barns that were built hundreds of years ago were quite stark, 373 00:18:51,320 --> 00:18:53,640 alien things, a little bit like this. 374 00:18:53,640 --> 00:18:57,160 Do you know, Piers, I'm starting to really quite like this tower. 375 00:18:57,160 --> 00:18:59,480 It's like a princess's tower in the forest, 376 00:18:59,480 --> 00:19:01,520 and I'm starting to really love it. 377 00:19:01,520 --> 00:19:03,320 And here's something funny, look, see that? 378 00:19:03,320 --> 00:19:07,920 There's a door there, and round here, there's a door here, the same, 379 00:19:07,920 --> 00:19:10,960 so I love this sense that you don't quite know which is the front 380 00:19:10,960 --> 00:19:12,360 and which is the back. 381 00:19:12,360 --> 00:19:14,680 - OK, go on, then, you take that one. - OK. - Let's go. 382 00:19:14,680 --> 00:19:17,440 - I'll take the high road. - All right, then, and I'll take this...side. 383 00:19:17,440 --> 00:19:18,720 THEY LAUGH 384 00:19:20,640 --> 00:19:21,960 It's locked! 385 00:19:21,960 --> 00:19:24,400 Bit of time to myself. So important, I think. 386 00:19:24,400 --> 00:19:26,040 Oh, yes! 387 00:19:27,320 --> 00:19:28,960 It's like a proper home! 388 00:19:28,960 --> 00:19:31,480 It's like a proper home! It's like people live here. 389 00:19:31,480 --> 00:19:35,240 It's got stuff, and it's got places to put boots. 390 00:19:35,240 --> 00:19:38,400 I like the yellows, like the sun hitting you. I think it's fantastic. 391 00:19:38,400 --> 00:19:41,240 - Hi, Caroline, are you there? - Oh, he's back! Look out. - Here we are. 392 00:19:41,240 --> 00:19:42,640 What do you think? 393 00:19:42,640 --> 00:19:44,760 - I love it's informality. - Yeah. 394 00:19:44,760 --> 00:19:47,840 You know, you come in, there's dirt on the floor and logs. 395 00:19:47,840 --> 00:19:50,240 Really hadn't expected that, actually. 396 00:19:50,240 --> 00:19:52,680 This yellow is great isn't it? The underside of this. 397 00:19:52,680 --> 00:19:57,120 You're immediately, well if you're a kid, you want to run upstairs. 398 00:19:57,120 --> 00:19:58,800 - You do. - You can hear their voices. 399 00:19:58,800 --> 00:20:01,000 You can hear the thundering of their feet. 400 00:20:01,000 --> 00:20:02,200 "I'm going to do that, now." 401 00:20:02,200 --> 00:20:04,440 And you hear the thundering of their feet as they head up. 402 00:20:04,440 --> 00:20:08,040 - Can I hear the thundering of your feet? - Yeah! 403 00:20:08,040 --> 00:20:09,840 I'm going to go right to the top. 404 00:20:09,840 --> 00:20:11,840 I'm just going to linger down here a bit longer. 405 00:20:11,840 --> 00:20:13,600 - OK. - See you in a bit. 406 00:20:13,600 --> 00:20:15,720 I love it that Caroline's so excited. 407 00:20:15,720 --> 00:20:18,480 Because there's a kind of freedom this house is giving her. 408 00:20:18,480 --> 00:20:21,000 It's a kind of frivolous house in some ways. 409 00:20:21,000 --> 00:20:23,760 Because some buildings slow you down and are quite serious, 410 00:20:23,760 --> 00:20:26,080 like churches and cathedrals, 411 00:20:26,080 --> 00:20:28,240 but there's a real informality to this. 412 00:20:28,240 --> 00:20:30,480 I also like that this is a bit untidy, 413 00:20:30,480 --> 00:20:32,800 because it shows that the owners aren't precious 414 00:20:32,800 --> 00:20:35,400 because the architecture speaks for itself. 415 00:20:38,120 --> 00:20:40,200 Oh, follow me. 416 00:20:40,200 --> 00:20:42,720 Oh, yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! 417 00:20:42,720 --> 00:20:45,880 This is a proper house! This is a proper house! 418 00:20:47,000 --> 00:20:48,680 Oh! 419 00:20:48,680 --> 00:20:50,240 And look at the views! 420 00:20:51,320 --> 00:20:55,000 And on that side, you've got the most beautiful view of the forest. 421 00:20:55,000 --> 00:20:57,560 Absolutely beautiful. It's breathtaking. 422 00:20:58,880 --> 00:21:00,840 I could easily be a bird 423 00:21:00,840 --> 00:21:03,560 so I could live here quite happily 424 00:21:03,560 --> 00:21:05,160 with my kids and my husband, 425 00:21:05,160 --> 00:21:07,440 just looking at that beautiful view. 426 00:21:08,560 --> 00:21:10,880 Oh! It's just lovely. 427 00:21:14,600 --> 00:21:17,040 This is the most extraordinary experience, 428 00:21:17,040 --> 00:21:20,520 being up high and being able to see so far. 429 00:21:20,520 --> 00:21:22,280 But, also, this is a beautiful space. 430 00:21:22,280 --> 00:21:25,320 It's well structured. It's really informal. 431 00:21:25,320 --> 00:21:27,360 It's really lived in. 432 00:21:27,360 --> 00:21:29,760 But also this is really fun, too. 433 00:21:29,760 --> 00:21:31,520 Just this little bit of... 434 00:21:31,520 --> 00:21:34,560 Well, this glimpsed view up into the stairwell. 435 00:21:34,560 --> 00:21:37,120 - It's lovely, isn't it? - It's lovely, it's lovely. 436 00:21:37,120 --> 00:21:38,280 And you can go... 437 00:21:38,280 --> 00:21:41,600 - LOUDLY: "Supper's ready!" - Yeah! - "Come up!" - "Now!" 438 00:21:41,600 --> 00:21:43,120 "Off your iPad and Minecraft!" 439 00:21:43,120 --> 00:21:44,640 THEY LAUGH 440 00:21:44,640 --> 00:21:46,760 - Come thundering up those stairs! - Yeah. 441 00:21:46,760 --> 00:21:50,200 It's so brilliant that we are not talking about this 442 00:21:50,200 --> 00:21:53,520 as an architectural structure, or even as a thing of beauty, 443 00:21:53,520 --> 00:21:55,640 although I think it is a thing of beauty, 444 00:21:55,640 --> 00:21:59,560 - we're talking about it as parents and how we live. - Yeah. 445 00:21:59,560 --> 00:22:03,040 I love it that there's stuff on the floor, and kids' toys. 446 00:22:03,040 --> 00:22:04,360 And it shows, in a way, 447 00:22:04,360 --> 00:22:06,800 that architecture and home can really coexist. 448 00:22:10,360 --> 00:22:13,160 The owner and the principle architect of Tower House 449 00:22:13,160 --> 00:22:15,760 is from a famous family of American architects. 450 00:22:17,440 --> 00:22:20,600 Tom Gluck has travelled from their New York office 451 00:22:20,600 --> 00:22:22,960 to meet us in his family's woodland estate. 452 00:22:24,400 --> 00:22:27,720 - Tom. - Really good to meet you. - Nice to meet you. - Caroline. This is Piers. - Hi, I'm Piers. 453 00:22:27,720 --> 00:22:30,240 - Hi, great to meet you. - We've been loving your house, Tom. 454 00:22:30,240 --> 00:22:33,360 - It's fascinating. - Absolutely loving your house. It's like a playhouse. 455 00:22:33,360 --> 00:22:36,960 - It's like a treehouse for grown up boys, isn't it? - That's the way we think of it. 456 00:22:36,960 --> 00:22:39,400 - Is that what you thought of when you first came up with it? - It is. 457 00:22:39,400 --> 00:22:41,760 - Is it? - Well, I'm not sure it's what we thought of when we first 458 00:22:41,760 --> 00:22:43,720 came up with it, but it's the way we think of it now. 459 00:22:43,720 --> 00:22:45,600 You've known this wood all your life? 460 00:22:45,600 --> 00:22:46,640 We first came up here, 461 00:22:46,640 --> 00:22:48,760 my parents brought me here when I was six months old. 462 00:22:48,760 --> 00:22:51,560 - Does it feel like it's part of you, this ground? - It does. 463 00:22:51,560 --> 00:22:55,120 We've been building and playing architecturally on the property 464 00:22:55,120 --> 00:22:56,560 for 40 years. 465 00:22:56,560 --> 00:22:58,200 This is the most recent addition. 466 00:22:58,200 --> 00:23:00,720 We'd always known there was this plateau up here. 467 00:23:00,720 --> 00:23:02,760 We suspected there might be views. 468 00:23:02,760 --> 00:23:04,800 - But you didn't know? - We didn't know for sure, 469 00:23:04,800 --> 00:23:06,480 because it was heavily wooded, 470 00:23:06,480 --> 00:23:09,320 - and you can look through this way and you can't see very far. - Yeah. 471 00:23:09,320 --> 00:23:11,840 So we actually built a tower out of scaffolding, 472 00:23:11,840 --> 00:23:14,640 to get up about 40 feet, tied off the trees, 473 00:23:14,640 --> 00:23:17,200 and when we got up there and had a decent view, 474 00:23:17,200 --> 00:23:20,760 we committed to this kind of upside-down treehouse 475 00:23:20,760 --> 00:23:23,520 where all of the living space is on the top. 476 00:23:23,520 --> 00:23:26,480 'I'm intrigued to hear there's a whole wealth of buildings 477 00:23:26,480 --> 00:23:28,760 'hidden in these woods. 478 00:23:28,760 --> 00:23:32,640 'Exploring some of Gluck's other work is a temptation I can't resist.' 479 00:23:32,640 --> 00:23:35,920 So I'm going to leave you two to look at the house and I'm going look at your other ones. 480 00:23:35,920 --> 00:23:38,640 - Sounds good. Enjoy it. - See you later. - Take pictures. - I will. 481 00:23:38,640 --> 00:23:40,880 - Shall we look around? - Sure. - I don't know why I'm asking, 482 00:23:40,880 --> 00:23:42,960 cos I sort of imagine that I live here already. 483 00:23:42,960 --> 00:23:45,080 Yeah, no, that's great. What's for lunch?! 484 00:23:50,880 --> 00:23:54,040 We're going now to see something called the Scholar's House, 485 00:23:54,040 --> 00:23:55,840 that is Tom's mother's office. 486 00:23:59,080 --> 00:24:02,480 Actually, there are quite a lot of links between this little cabin 487 00:24:02,480 --> 00:24:04,120 and Tower House. 488 00:24:05,800 --> 00:24:07,280 Beautiful coming up. 489 00:24:07,280 --> 00:24:13,280 I really like this panorama that you get of the tree canopy. 490 00:24:13,280 --> 00:24:15,560 And of course so many parallels up here 491 00:24:15,560 --> 00:24:17,480 between this and the Tower House. 492 00:24:17,480 --> 00:24:20,560 The same round columns pulled away from the corners 493 00:24:20,560 --> 00:24:24,440 so you get very open corners of just glass meeting glass 494 00:24:24,440 --> 00:24:26,040 and also of course, 495 00:24:26,040 --> 00:24:30,320 the low sills and all around, there's built in storage. 496 00:24:30,320 --> 00:24:32,080 It's great. 497 00:24:32,080 --> 00:24:34,480 I think in many ways this feels a bit of a baby brother 498 00:24:34,480 --> 00:24:35,960 to the Tower House. 499 00:24:38,520 --> 00:24:40,440 This is just superb, Tom. 500 00:24:40,440 --> 00:24:42,960 - I mean, you must never get used to that. - That's the big reveal. 501 00:24:42,960 --> 00:24:45,120 It really is, isn't it? 502 00:24:45,120 --> 00:24:46,720 We live full-time in Manhattan. 503 00:24:46,720 --> 00:24:50,240 We have this roughly two-hour drive up from the city 504 00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:52,640 and you kind of leave all the stress 505 00:24:52,640 --> 00:24:55,200 of the crazy city lives that we live. 506 00:24:55,200 --> 00:24:57,920 And as you come, I come up the stair, I come up to this space. 507 00:24:57,920 --> 00:25:01,040 You really kind of feel... Feel the stress drop away. 508 00:25:01,040 --> 00:25:02,560 It's very rejuvenating. 509 00:25:02,560 --> 00:25:06,680 So when you first started thinking about putting the building together, 510 00:25:06,680 --> 00:25:08,760 tell me how it works? Do you draw? 511 00:25:08,760 --> 00:25:12,120 Do you get blocks? How does it go, that process? 512 00:25:12,120 --> 00:25:16,240 So we did a lot of initial work in model, in physical models. 513 00:25:16,240 --> 00:25:18,440 My oldest child, our son, was just born. 514 00:25:18,440 --> 00:25:21,720 I spent of lot the time designing the house with the baby on my lap 515 00:25:21,720 --> 00:25:24,320 while my wife would get some much-needed sleep. 516 00:25:24,320 --> 00:25:27,880 It was literally block, two blue foam blocks 517 00:25:27,880 --> 00:25:32,520 and it was about the composition of the elements 518 00:25:32,520 --> 00:25:33,880 and the small footprint, 519 00:25:33,880 --> 00:25:36,040 so it has a small impact on the forest floor. 520 00:25:36,040 --> 00:25:39,400 Then once we knew we wanted to get up high and see the view, 521 00:25:39,400 --> 00:25:41,560 then it was a question of, how do we pull this off? 522 00:25:41,560 --> 00:25:44,280 And so one way of thinking about this house is 523 00:25:44,280 --> 00:25:49,080 if you have a typical hallway with bedrooms that run off of it, 524 00:25:49,080 --> 00:25:52,800 we take this thing and we tilt it up, so instead of the hallway 525 00:25:52,800 --> 00:25:54,480 you have the yellow stairs, 526 00:25:54,480 --> 00:25:57,440 and then we have three bedrooms that help get the living room, 527 00:25:57,440 --> 00:25:59,040 which is on the top floor here, 528 00:25:59,040 --> 00:26:02,840 up high enough so that then you can really experience the big view. 529 00:26:02,840 --> 00:26:04,680 Was there ever a time when you thought, 530 00:26:04,680 --> 00:26:07,320 "I don't know quite what I've built here?" 531 00:26:07,320 --> 00:26:12,920 So before we put the glass on, the side of the house is massive. 532 00:26:12,920 --> 00:26:15,120 I mean, it is 40 feet tall, it's a massive surface. 533 00:26:15,120 --> 00:26:18,040 And when it was just covered in its waterproofing, 534 00:26:18,040 --> 00:26:20,600 it really was not invisible. 535 00:26:20,600 --> 00:26:22,760 But once the glass goes on it, and it just reflects, 536 00:26:22,760 --> 00:26:25,000 it's like camouflage, cos it reflects what's around it. 537 00:26:25,000 --> 00:26:29,680 And how close are you to what your initial dream was for this property? 538 00:26:29,680 --> 00:26:31,400 We, I have to say, we love it. 539 00:26:31,400 --> 00:26:32,920 One of the things we enjoy the most, 540 00:26:32,920 --> 00:26:35,000 is because we're always having people up, 541 00:26:35,000 --> 00:26:39,360 is having people who aren't used to being in capital A architecture. 542 00:26:39,360 --> 00:26:42,000 And they come up with their kids and they don't even know what 543 00:26:42,000 --> 00:26:46,040 architecture is, but their response is universally the same, 544 00:26:46,040 --> 00:26:48,720 which is, it's so easily understandable, 545 00:26:48,720 --> 00:26:52,280 and so successful in the way it makes you feel when you're here. 546 00:26:52,280 --> 00:26:55,680 So in fact, you've kind of achieved more than you ever expected to 547 00:26:55,680 --> 00:26:58,280 - with the build? - Yep. Yep. In this case. 548 00:26:58,280 --> 00:27:00,000 It's not always the case! 549 00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:01,240 I'm sure it isn't! 550 00:27:09,280 --> 00:27:12,200 - Hello! - There you are! - You great big butch architect! 551 00:27:12,200 --> 00:27:14,760 While you've been wafting around a big beautiful house, 552 00:27:14,760 --> 00:27:16,280 I've been chopping wood. 553 00:27:16,280 --> 00:27:17,680 Oops, sorry! 554 00:27:17,680 --> 00:27:18,840 So sorry. 555 00:27:18,840 --> 00:27:21,200 So, do you think this is a good house, Piers? 556 00:27:21,200 --> 00:27:22,880 I like this house more and more. 557 00:27:22,880 --> 00:27:25,640 I mean looking at it now in this evening light, 558 00:27:25,640 --> 00:27:27,720 it really is mesmeric, isn't it? 559 00:27:27,720 --> 00:27:29,080 It is. Because when I first saw it, 560 00:27:29,080 --> 00:27:31,640 I thought this is a sort of big glass thing, 561 00:27:31,640 --> 00:27:34,640 where there should be wood, but actually it works really well. 562 00:27:34,640 --> 00:27:37,280 I think nature is so beautiful and in a way, this stuff, 563 00:27:37,280 --> 00:27:38,720 this wood is so perfect, 564 00:27:38,720 --> 00:27:41,960 to try to build a building out of this doesn't always make sense, 565 00:27:41,960 --> 00:27:44,960 but this is subtle, and delicate, and appropriate. 566 00:27:44,960 --> 00:27:47,360 And it's really easy to be clumsy in this landscape, 567 00:27:47,360 --> 00:27:48,960 but this building isn't. 568 00:27:57,840 --> 00:28:00,200 The next stop on our forest adventure 569 00:28:00,200 --> 00:28:04,280 takes us across the Hudson River and to the hamlet of Shokan, 570 00:28:04,280 --> 00:28:07,360 deep in the heart of the Catskill Park. 571 00:28:07,360 --> 00:28:10,720 This area of upstate New York is a woodland playground 572 00:28:10,720 --> 00:28:13,320 for the rich and famous. 573 00:28:13,320 --> 00:28:16,920 Movie stars and musicians have all lived here. 574 00:28:18,640 --> 00:28:21,600 It's quite a famous place, actually, in cultural history. 575 00:28:21,600 --> 00:28:26,360 I think Hendrix and Bowie both were drawn to the Shokan area. 576 00:28:28,160 --> 00:28:31,200 We're heading to a hi-tech weekend forest home, 577 00:28:31,200 --> 00:28:34,800 owned and designed by New York architect Jay Bargmann. 578 00:28:36,000 --> 00:28:39,280 Jay's day job is for an acclaimed international firm 579 00:28:39,280 --> 00:28:41,600 responsible for designing iconic buildings - 580 00:28:41,600 --> 00:28:45,160 like the skyscraper in London now known as the Walkie Talkie. 581 00:28:47,080 --> 00:28:50,920 This is the first house Jay has designed for himself. 582 00:28:50,920 --> 00:28:55,000 But rather than building in the urban environment he's used to, 583 00:28:55,000 --> 00:28:58,840 Jay picked a wooded hillside plot with no infrastructure in place. 584 00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:04,440 So no roads, no running water, and no electricity. 585 00:29:04,440 --> 00:29:05,840 Jay's picking us up this morning. 586 00:29:05,840 --> 00:29:08,560 He's going to take us to the house which is nice, actually, 587 00:29:08,560 --> 00:29:09,840 in case it is difficult to find. 588 00:29:09,840 --> 00:29:12,320 Really nice. So I think he said out of town. And...here we are. 589 00:29:12,320 --> 00:29:14,320 Here, here, here, here. 590 00:29:14,320 --> 00:29:15,600 Airport? Hang on. 591 00:29:19,120 --> 00:29:22,480 There's a chopper over there, just landed. 592 00:29:22,480 --> 00:29:25,560 - You must be Jay? - How are you? - Good to see you, I'm Piers. 593 00:29:25,560 --> 00:29:29,240 - I'm Jay. - Caroline. - I'm Jay, how are you? - Very good to meet you. Lovely to meet you. 594 00:29:29,240 --> 00:29:31,840 Slightly nervous that we're meeting you at an airport? 595 00:29:31,840 --> 00:29:33,480 Yes, well we set up something. 596 00:29:33,480 --> 00:29:36,480 The house is not really remote, but at the top of a hill, 597 00:29:36,480 --> 00:29:39,120 and maybe the best way to see it is from the air. 598 00:29:39,120 --> 00:29:41,000 Are we going in this, are we? 599 00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:43,440 This is a friend of ours, and it's his helicopter. 600 00:29:43,440 --> 00:29:45,160 He's an aerobatic pilot. 601 00:29:45,160 --> 00:29:46,760 - Brilliant. - That's really exciting. 602 00:29:46,760 --> 00:29:50,080 - You need the keys, which I'll give you these. That gets you in the front door. - Great. 603 00:29:50,080 --> 00:29:53,680 We'll catch up with you later this afternoon. 604 00:29:53,680 --> 00:29:57,360 - Have a good flight. - Thank you very much, we'll see you at your house! 605 00:29:57,360 --> 00:29:59,120 See you there! 606 00:30:00,560 --> 00:30:02,600 Oh, lift-off! 607 00:30:09,480 --> 00:30:11,640 How high are we, Davie? 608 00:30:11,640 --> 00:30:13,880 We're 900ft above sea level. 609 00:30:13,880 --> 00:30:15,720 And travelling how fast? 610 00:30:15,720 --> 00:30:18,000 About 130mph. 611 00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:19,960 Oh, this is the way to see this place. 612 00:30:19,960 --> 00:30:23,160 Look at the Catskills, isn't it beautiful?! 613 00:30:23,160 --> 00:30:25,160 - Yeah. - Oh, wow, this is amazing. 614 00:30:25,160 --> 00:30:27,960 And here's the Hudson. 615 00:30:27,960 --> 00:30:30,040 So, I can see the house right now. 616 00:30:30,040 --> 00:30:33,000 - Oh, can you? - If you look at that peak in front of us... 617 00:30:33,000 --> 00:30:36,080 - It's, kind of, really dark. - There it is. There it is. 618 00:30:36,080 --> 00:30:37,960 - Can you see it, Caroline? - No, I don't, I'm... 619 00:30:37,960 --> 00:30:39,600 - Oh, yes, I've just seen it. - Yeah. 620 00:30:39,600 --> 00:30:41,760 It's quite dark, it's quite hard to see, isn't it? 621 00:30:41,760 --> 00:30:44,680 What a glamorous way in. You said an approach is important for a house. 622 00:30:44,680 --> 00:30:50,080 - It is SO important. - This is quite an approach, isn't it? 623 00:30:54,680 --> 00:30:56,320 CAROLINE LAUGHS 624 00:30:57,560 --> 00:30:59,200 'What an entrance! 625 00:30:59,200 --> 00:31:00,760 'I feel like a Bond villain, 626 00:31:00,760 --> 00:31:04,600 'flying into my villainous secret lair.' 627 00:31:04,600 --> 00:31:06,840 Oh, Piers, it's quite glamorous! 628 00:31:06,840 --> 00:31:08,160 Piers, Piers, Piers! 629 00:31:08,160 --> 00:31:10,640 Look at it here with the helicopter in front of it. 630 00:31:10,640 --> 00:31:13,200 "Oh, I've been expecting you, Mr Bond!" 631 00:31:13,200 --> 00:31:15,000 THEY LAUGH 632 00:31:21,400 --> 00:31:23,280 This imposing structure almost 633 00:31:23,280 --> 00:31:25,760 launches itself into the forest clearing. 634 00:31:27,040 --> 00:31:31,080 But when Jay bought this virgin plot it was covered in trees. 635 00:31:31,080 --> 00:31:33,160 It took a month just to clear the site 636 00:31:33,160 --> 00:31:35,160 before they could start building. 637 00:31:38,240 --> 00:31:41,640 Rather than create an oblong structure to sit across the view, 638 00:31:41,640 --> 00:31:44,360 Jay cleverly rotated the plan 90 degrees 639 00:31:44,360 --> 00:31:48,160 to maximise the forest views from three sides. 640 00:31:49,840 --> 00:31:53,760 Due to strong winds, the house was constructed much like a skyscraper. 641 00:31:54,760 --> 00:31:56,800 The foundations are exposed concrete, 642 00:31:56,800 --> 00:32:00,280 with a steel superstructure used to create the height and strength 643 00:32:00,280 --> 00:32:02,600 within the building. 644 00:32:02,600 --> 00:32:05,800 Jay used a series of internal trusses and tension rods 645 00:32:05,800 --> 00:32:09,480 to hold this aircraft-hanger sized building completely rigid, 646 00:32:09,480 --> 00:32:11,680 retaining its millimetric precision. 647 00:32:13,800 --> 00:32:17,280 Continuous bands of tinted glass wrap around the house, 648 00:32:17,280 --> 00:32:19,240 mirroring the surrounding woodland. 649 00:32:20,400 --> 00:32:22,840 Piers, this is nice. 650 00:32:22,840 --> 00:32:25,240 I do love that reflection of those trees. 651 00:32:25,240 --> 00:32:28,840 Yeah. And it is unusual to have a house pointing at the view, 652 00:32:28,840 --> 00:32:31,240 cos, typically, you'd orientate a house along the view... 653 00:32:31,240 --> 00:32:34,680 - Along the view, yes, absolutely. - ..and pointing out is unusual. 654 00:32:34,680 --> 00:32:36,800 - He deliberately chose to do that, didn't he? - Yeah. 655 00:32:36,800 --> 00:32:39,000 To focus the attention on the view. 656 00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:41,000 And also to get the view along that way. 657 00:32:41,000 --> 00:32:43,200 Listen, I've got the keys, do you want to go straight in? 658 00:32:43,200 --> 00:32:45,680 - I would love to go straight in. - Yeah? 659 00:32:45,680 --> 00:32:47,720 And the door works like a dream! 660 00:32:47,720 --> 00:32:49,360 And attention to detail. 661 00:32:49,360 --> 00:32:53,120 - Look at that. - Now, it's quite dark. 662 00:32:53,120 --> 00:32:55,040 Er... 663 00:32:55,040 --> 00:32:57,000 "System ready". 664 00:32:57,000 --> 00:33:00,000 "Room"? "Vestibule"? Hang on. Is this vestibule? 665 00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:02,280 - Yes! It is vestibule! - Look at that! wow! 666 00:33:04,720 --> 00:33:06,960 The interior of this state-of-the-art house 667 00:33:06,960 --> 00:33:08,760 exposes every detail of its 668 00:33:08,760 --> 00:33:10,800 highly engineered construction. 669 00:33:13,440 --> 00:33:15,640 A double-height open-plan living area 670 00:33:15,640 --> 00:33:18,440 provides panoramic views of the surrounding forest 671 00:33:18,440 --> 00:33:21,680 from every position inside this extraordinary home. 672 00:33:22,680 --> 00:33:27,400 AS BOND VILLAIN: So, do you like my home, Mr Taylor? 673 00:33:27,400 --> 00:33:30,520 The world will be mine! 674 00:33:30,520 --> 00:33:35,360 Mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha! 675 00:33:35,360 --> 00:33:38,080 I was suspicious, I have to say, when we arrived, 676 00:33:38,080 --> 00:33:40,920 because it's a big statement, let's face it, here. 677 00:33:40,920 --> 00:33:44,400 But the view is so dramatic, and then this room, 678 00:33:44,400 --> 00:33:47,320 I mean, this room is really majestic. 679 00:33:47,320 --> 00:33:49,920 - This is almost cathedral-like. - Sitting here and looking up, 680 00:33:49,920 --> 00:33:53,920 - I could be looking up at the roof of my local DIY superstore. - Yeah. 681 00:33:53,920 --> 00:33:56,080 - I mean, it's exactly like that. - Yeah. 682 00:33:56,080 --> 00:34:00,440 What is it that makes this so beautiful? 683 00:34:00,440 --> 00:34:03,360 There's real care, real consideration, 684 00:34:03,360 --> 00:34:07,360 and then you take off the shelf components like these little 685 00:34:07,360 --> 00:34:09,960 open Metsec trusses, we call them... 686 00:34:09,960 --> 00:34:12,520 - And you compose them... - Is that that one? That one that does that? 687 00:34:12,520 --> 00:34:14,600 - That's the ones that goes across. - The zig zaggy one. 688 00:34:14,600 --> 00:34:16,720 The zig zag ones. That's a really cheap, off the peg... 689 00:34:16,720 --> 00:34:19,120 - You see that everywhere. Normally it's orange... - Yeah. 690 00:34:19,120 --> 00:34:22,120 ..but just to see it black, suddenly becomes very beautiful, doesn't it? 691 00:34:22,120 --> 00:34:26,480 Yeah. And I think, also, there's real refinement where you need it. 692 00:34:26,480 --> 00:34:30,680 So here, that is a beautiful bit of truss, and that's in tension, 693 00:34:30,680 --> 00:34:34,240 that's pulling quite hard, stopping the sides from wobbling around. 694 00:34:34,240 --> 00:34:37,400 I mean, there is real precision, alongside the everyday. 695 00:34:40,080 --> 00:34:43,800 Stainless steel surfaces are featured throughout this house, 696 00:34:43,800 --> 00:34:47,520 capturing reflections of the surrounding environment. 697 00:34:47,520 --> 00:34:49,880 I like the staircase, the way it's... 698 00:34:49,880 --> 00:34:52,600 - It's beautiful. - Yeah. - I mean, look at this, Caroline. That... 699 00:34:52,600 --> 00:34:55,320 is a solid... You're aligning your chair. 700 00:34:55,320 --> 00:34:58,600 It's like a house that makes you be really neat. Do you do that at home? 701 00:34:58,600 --> 00:35:00,520 Do I hell. PIERS LAUGHS 702 00:35:00,520 --> 00:35:03,120 I mean, this is solid steel. 703 00:35:03,120 --> 00:35:05,360 It's so tactile. 704 00:35:05,360 --> 00:35:08,200 - Yeah. - All you want to do is stroke it 705 00:35:08,200 --> 00:35:11,640 all the way up the stairs. 706 00:35:11,640 --> 00:35:14,360 That is the most beautiful weld I've ever seen. 707 00:35:14,360 --> 00:35:17,880 - It's been made like a piece of jewellery. - It has. 708 00:35:17,880 --> 00:35:20,400 You know, it's really hard to impress me with this sort of stuff, 709 00:35:20,400 --> 00:35:25,080 but coming here and seeing the level of attention, the level of care, 710 00:35:25,080 --> 00:35:26,960 the level of passion... 711 00:35:26,960 --> 00:35:30,240 This is extraordinary because usually if we see this, 712 00:35:30,240 --> 00:35:33,200 it's in a building that has cost £150 million, 713 00:35:33,200 --> 00:35:36,440 the Gherkin or something, one of Foster's buildings, 714 00:35:36,440 --> 00:35:39,480 and to bring that level of thinking down to this scale 715 00:35:39,480 --> 00:35:43,120 is a real privilege and a delight to see. 716 00:35:43,120 --> 00:35:45,600 And, yes, I'm impressed by all of this. 717 00:35:45,600 --> 00:35:47,720 I am quite wowed by it, actually. 718 00:35:49,200 --> 00:35:52,440 Every single detail of this house is hi-tech. 719 00:35:53,560 --> 00:35:56,000 But I like my creature comforts, 720 00:35:56,000 --> 00:35:58,520 and there's no sign of a kettle anywhere. 721 00:35:59,680 --> 00:36:01,720 - I'm interested to see how it works, as well. - Yeah. 722 00:36:01,720 --> 00:36:05,920 So, I'd like you to make me a cup of tea. 723 00:36:05,920 --> 00:36:08,760 OK. So, this is the kitchen, and... 724 00:36:08,760 --> 00:36:11,360 Good test.... It has taps, it has sinks, 725 00:36:11,360 --> 00:36:13,720 there's a hob and an oven. 726 00:36:13,720 --> 00:36:16,560 - Oh, fridge, here we are. - SHE LAUGHS 727 00:36:16,560 --> 00:36:19,400 - Milk. - Milk, excellent. - Look! 728 00:36:19,400 --> 00:36:21,360 A cup of cha! Great. 729 00:36:21,360 --> 00:36:25,760 - So, tea... - Yeah. - ..cups. This can make hot water. 730 00:36:25,760 --> 00:36:28,200 So that says... "Alien"? 731 00:36:28,200 --> 00:36:30,600 Oh, "Align", I haven't got my glasses on. 732 00:36:30,600 --> 00:36:32,800 THEY LAUGH 733 00:36:32,800 --> 00:36:34,160 I need a power point now. 734 00:36:34,160 --> 00:36:36,560 - Here we are. Right, I'm going to bung a saucepan on. - Good idea. 735 00:36:36,560 --> 00:36:40,640 What's that, Piers? That little one? Is that soap? 736 00:36:40,640 --> 00:36:42,200 I think we've just blown up Russia(!) 737 00:36:42,200 --> 00:36:43,840 THEY LAUGH 738 00:36:43,840 --> 00:36:45,160 Oh, wave your hand about. 739 00:36:45,160 --> 00:36:47,760 - That one on. I think it's got a remote control. - Hang on. 740 00:36:47,760 --> 00:36:49,880 It's probably...turn it on with an app. 741 00:36:49,880 --> 00:36:52,760 - This isn't working. - Do you think it's voice activated? 742 00:36:52,760 --> 00:36:54,960 Make my tea - go! 743 00:36:54,960 --> 00:36:56,800 No, we're struggling here, aren't we? 744 00:36:56,800 --> 00:36:59,520 So, this is a house that is supposedly really easy to use, 745 00:36:59,520 --> 00:37:00,720 we know our way around, 746 00:37:00,720 --> 00:37:02,960 until we get to make a cup of tea. 747 00:37:02,960 --> 00:37:04,400 And it was going so well, 748 00:37:04,400 --> 00:37:06,520 until we tried to boil the water. 749 00:37:06,520 --> 00:37:09,080 - I'm going to persevere with this thing. - Izzy whizzy... 750 00:37:09,080 --> 00:37:11,960 SHE LAUGHS ..get busy! 751 00:37:11,960 --> 00:37:15,760 - This isn't on. This isn't on, Piers. This is not on. - It doesn't reach! 752 00:37:15,760 --> 00:37:19,400 - Are you serious? - I think I'm going for a lie-down. Do you mind? 753 00:37:19,400 --> 00:37:21,040 Hang on, hang on, hang on. 754 00:37:21,040 --> 00:37:23,040 How come I'm now making the cup of tea? 755 00:37:23,040 --> 00:37:24,680 You're making me a cup of tea. 756 00:37:24,680 --> 00:37:26,120 White, no sugar, thanks. 757 00:37:26,120 --> 00:37:28,040 I am going to go and have a lie down. 758 00:37:28,040 --> 00:37:30,600 - See you tomorrow. - See you later, Piers. 759 00:37:30,600 --> 00:37:35,200 I won't let this beat me. I'm a man, I know how to make things work. 760 00:37:35,200 --> 00:37:37,320 WHISPERS: Welcome to my library. 761 00:37:37,320 --> 00:37:40,920 Ah look, you can see where the ideas come from, here. 762 00:37:40,920 --> 00:37:44,280 All these load-bearing structures from Germany. 763 00:37:44,280 --> 00:37:48,080 Here we go. A bit of lukewarm water. She won't notice. 764 00:37:48,080 --> 00:37:50,440 Here's your lovely cup of tea. You like it weak, don't you? 765 00:37:50,440 --> 00:37:52,920 Oh, Piers, you didn't get it going, did you? 766 00:37:52,920 --> 00:37:55,160 It's impossible. I think that is one of the problems 767 00:37:55,160 --> 00:37:57,440 with very elaborate houses like this, 768 00:37:57,440 --> 00:37:59,920 that when you come to do anything, it's too complex. 769 00:37:59,920 --> 00:38:02,320 - Do you think we're just ill-informed? - Probably just stupid. 770 00:38:02,320 --> 00:38:03,560 THEY LAUGH 771 00:38:03,560 --> 00:38:05,800 And foreign! 772 00:38:14,240 --> 00:38:17,360 After letting us explore his home, Jay's back, 773 00:38:17,360 --> 00:38:20,600 and he's brought his airline-pilot wife Cindy with him. 774 00:38:23,520 --> 00:38:26,120 - This is the first house you've built for yourself, isn't it? - Yes. 775 00:38:26,120 --> 00:38:29,000 - Right, right. - And you've been an architect for how long? 776 00:38:29,000 --> 00:38:32,120 - 40 years. - Yeah. It feels to me like there's a lifetime's worth 777 00:38:32,120 --> 00:38:33,560 of experience in this house. 778 00:38:33,560 --> 00:38:37,480 So, what it is, I think, it's a lifetime of knowing what not to do. 779 00:38:37,480 --> 00:38:40,640 It's not trying to be complicated, not trying to be flashy, 780 00:38:40,640 --> 00:38:42,320 not trying to be nouveau, 781 00:38:42,320 --> 00:38:44,120 not trying to be anything but just... 782 00:38:44,120 --> 00:38:45,760 Build something that you can see 783 00:38:45,760 --> 00:38:47,800 every part of the construction. 784 00:38:47,800 --> 00:38:50,120 Were you involved in the early stage, Cindy? 785 00:38:50,120 --> 00:38:51,880 I found the lot. 786 00:38:51,880 --> 00:38:53,640 - Did you? - Yes. I came up here, 787 00:38:53,640 --> 00:38:57,000 it was just all woods and rock but it was just the view that... 788 00:38:57,000 --> 00:39:01,560 - was stunning. - So, the very second time we came up, this was the view. 789 00:39:01,560 --> 00:39:06,200 You're always sitting in the clouds or sitting in the colour red. 790 00:39:06,200 --> 00:39:10,720 - Yeah. - Or sunrise, that the objects take on a character. 791 00:39:10,720 --> 00:39:12,480 So, this is a typical sunrise. 792 00:39:13,880 --> 00:39:16,800 To achieve such incredible views of the forest, 793 00:39:16,800 --> 00:39:20,160 Jay's construction team had to fell a patch of woodland, 794 00:39:20,160 --> 00:39:24,080 build a road and install utilities from scratch. 795 00:39:24,080 --> 00:39:25,480 This is the road being built. 796 00:39:25,480 --> 00:39:28,320 We built the road three times. It kept washing away. 797 00:39:28,320 --> 00:39:30,600 That was the single... I learned how to engineer a road 798 00:39:30,600 --> 00:39:33,120 - from the guy that... - Right. - ..built this road. 799 00:39:33,120 --> 00:39:35,520 - That's the... - Even finding the contractor, 800 00:39:35,520 --> 00:39:38,800 when we were looking for the team, we said, you know, 801 00:39:38,800 --> 00:39:42,720 it's a residential house but we were looking at commercial contractors, 802 00:39:42,720 --> 00:39:45,040 and they wouldn't look at us, and we're like, "Can you just 803 00:39:45,040 --> 00:39:48,760 "look at the drawings, because it's not your typical residential house." 804 00:39:48,760 --> 00:39:53,480 Executing Jay's vision of perfection was a slow process. 805 00:39:53,480 --> 00:39:56,080 The project required a team of highly skilled 806 00:39:56,080 --> 00:39:58,040 and talented master builders, 807 00:39:58,040 --> 00:40:02,960 who took three years to produce such an immaculately detailed home. 808 00:40:02,960 --> 00:40:07,000 I was looking for the botched welds and the clumsy connections, 809 00:40:07,000 --> 00:40:08,240 and there aren't any. 810 00:40:08,240 --> 00:40:12,560 We really got very excited by the quality of the welding on your stairs. 811 00:40:12,560 --> 00:40:14,320 I mean, it's so finely made. 812 00:40:14,320 --> 00:40:16,920 The guys that made that stair made the fittings on 813 00:40:16,920 --> 00:40:19,600 - the Pyramid at the Louvre in Paris. - CAROLINE GASPS 814 00:40:19,600 --> 00:40:23,840 And these are friends of ours that worked with us 30 years ago. 815 00:40:23,840 --> 00:40:26,280 That makes perfect sense. 816 00:40:26,280 --> 00:40:28,560 You brought a sensibility that is 817 00:40:28,560 --> 00:40:31,520 from buildings that cost millions and millions and millions 818 00:40:31,520 --> 00:40:34,720 of pounds into something that's of a domestic scale. 819 00:40:34,720 --> 00:40:38,160 Do you think this is pretty close to 820 00:40:38,160 --> 00:40:40,840 a kind of perfection for you? 821 00:40:40,840 --> 00:40:43,960 No. I think this... I'd like to do it again. 822 00:40:43,960 --> 00:40:46,600 Yeah... I think this is just a step along the way! 823 00:40:46,600 --> 00:40:50,080 We'll do another house on the property or something, a guest house, something like that. 824 00:40:50,080 --> 00:40:52,720 - I don't know. - But you still feel you've got more to say...? - Oh, yeah. 825 00:40:52,720 --> 00:40:54,960 You'd do it again, but would you do it again, Cindy? 826 00:40:54,960 --> 00:40:56,520 I would have to think about it. 827 00:40:56,520 --> 00:40:58,200 THEY LAUGH 828 00:40:58,200 --> 00:41:00,160 It was a long three years! 829 00:41:02,240 --> 00:41:06,520 Jay has let us continue to roam free in his extraordinary home. 830 00:41:06,520 --> 00:41:09,800 And I'm noticing a distinct lack of doors or walls 831 00:41:09,800 --> 00:41:11,960 dividing up rooms! 832 00:41:11,960 --> 00:41:16,480 Not that that seems to bother Piers "Oh, I'm so unconventional" Taylor! 833 00:41:16,480 --> 00:41:20,120 I mean, rooms are a bit suburban, really, aren't they? 834 00:41:20,120 --> 00:41:21,440 SHE LAUGHS 835 00:41:21,440 --> 00:41:23,240 That's such a Piers thing to say. 836 00:41:23,240 --> 00:41:25,960 Well, I mean, you know, spaces are so much nicer. 837 00:41:25,960 --> 00:41:28,280 And, actually, this is a house that doesn't have any rooms, 838 00:41:28,280 --> 00:41:30,480 as far as I can see. I'm going to see if I can find some. 839 00:41:30,480 --> 00:41:31,800 Try and find me a door. 840 00:41:31,800 --> 00:41:35,200 Particularly, find one if it's on a lavatory, would you? 841 00:41:35,200 --> 00:41:38,920 Jay has taken open plan living to the extreme. 842 00:41:38,920 --> 00:41:43,400 He's used storage units to create a series of spaces with flexible uses. 843 00:41:43,400 --> 00:41:44,800 I hope this is a bed. 844 00:41:44,800 --> 00:41:48,640 Not just the wall collapsing on me! 845 00:41:48,640 --> 00:41:52,520 These storage partitions carve up this large space beautifully, 846 00:41:52,520 --> 00:41:55,040 without interrupting the forest views. 847 00:41:55,040 --> 00:41:58,720 It's a world away from the boxy rooms we're used to at home. 848 00:41:58,720 --> 00:41:59,920 Excuse me! 849 00:41:59,920 --> 00:42:02,320 I love the way that these aren't rooms. 850 00:42:02,320 --> 00:42:04,920 I think my least favourite two words, 851 00:42:04,920 --> 00:42:07,680 when you combine them in English, are "Master bedroom". 852 00:42:07,680 --> 00:42:09,760 I mean, it's just a ridiculous conceit, 853 00:42:09,760 --> 00:42:11,640 that you need a master bedroom. 854 00:42:11,640 --> 00:42:13,440 But I guess this is "The master bedroom". 855 00:42:13,440 --> 00:42:14,920 But actually, I mean... 856 00:42:14,920 --> 00:42:19,080 I love it, that's it's just part of a series and sequence of spaces. 857 00:42:24,120 --> 00:42:25,240 How interesting. 858 00:42:25,240 --> 00:42:29,440 - How interesting. - Just blown away by the craftsmanship, actually. 859 00:42:29,440 --> 00:42:31,320 The sheer brilliance of 860 00:42:31,320 --> 00:42:34,960 how he's executed his vision is mind-blowing. 861 00:42:34,960 --> 00:42:38,520 And really, I find what he's done extraordinary. 862 00:42:38,520 --> 00:42:39,800 This is a real one-off. 863 00:42:41,160 --> 00:42:44,000 You ordered the helicopter, didn't you? 864 00:42:44,000 --> 00:42:45,520 No. I thought you did. 865 00:42:46,760 --> 00:42:49,240 It's going to be a long walk back to the hotel. 866 00:42:49,240 --> 00:42:51,080 SHE SIGHS 867 00:42:52,160 --> 00:42:54,520 The last leg of our forest adventure 868 00:42:54,520 --> 00:42:56,240 takes us further afield. 869 00:43:00,520 --> 00:43:04,440 We've flown halfway around the world to New Zealand's North Island. 870 00:43:07,200 --> 00:43:09,880 We're about half an hour outside Auckland. 871 00:43:09,880 --> 00:43:13,240 - 45 minutes. - Yeah, I mean, if we were in London we'd be in Croydon now. 872 00:43:13,240 --> 00:43:16,160 And we're right on the edge of the world. 873 00:43:16,160 --> 00:43:19,560 We're heading to the village of Piha, on the west coast, 874 00:43:19,560 --> 00:43:22,600 home to the protected Waitakere Ranges Heritage Area. 875 00:43:24,560 --> 00:43:27,600 This is ancient virgin bushland, 876 00:43:27,600 --> 00:43:30,480 and you have to be so careful when you build here. 877 00:43:32,040 --> 00:43:34,400 We're off to see an extraordinary home, 878 00:43:34,400 --> 00:43:37,880 built on a plot of land covered in the native pohutukawa tree. 879 00:43:39,720 --> 00:43:41,800 The owners wanted a three-bedroom house 880 00:43:41,800 --> 00:43:44,480 that could function both indoors and out. 881 00:43:46,400 --> 00:43:49,000 The architect's biggest challenge was to find a way of 882 00:43:49,000 --> 00:43:51,400 bringing the forest right into the house 883 00:43:51,400 --> 00:43:54,560 whilst having to navigate strict conservation laws. 884 00:43:56,240 --> 00:43:59,720 This house that we're going to is called Under Pohutukawa, 885 00:43:59,720 --> 00:44:03,840 and I think they had to clear as few trees from the site as possible, 886 00:44:03,840 --> 00:44:06,640 and then nestle the house in among the trees. 887 00:44:06,640 --> 00:44:08,840 I like that sort of challenge offered to architects, 888 00:44:08,840 --> 00:44:10,520 I think it's really important to say, 889 00:44:10,520 --> 00:44:12,440 "No, you can't just have a clear site, 890 00:44:12,440 --> 00:44:14,000 "you have to work with what's here, 891 00:44:14,000 --> 00:44:16,520 "and nature comes first and the building comes second." 892 00:44:16,520 --> 00:44:18,600 Oh, Piers, Piers, Piers. Slow down. 893 00:44:18,600 --> 00:44:21,480 - Are we here? - I think that's... It's here. - Here we are. 894 00:44:21,480 --> 00:44:22,840 Wow. 895 00:44:24,080 --> 00:44:25,760 Is there a house there at all? 896 00:44:25,760 --> 00:44:28,120 Mostly you can see trees. 897 00:44:28,120 --> 00:44:31,240 And that must be a pohutukawa tree. 898 00:44:31,240 --> 00:44:32,880 Shall we have a look? 899 00:44:40,000 --> 00:44:42,120 Oh, look... 900 00:44:42,120 --> 00:44:43,840 Oh! 901 00:44:43,840 --> 00:44:47,240 It's like an enchanted forest in here. 902 00:44:47,240 --> 00:44:49,680 I love this. I love the sense of ducking down 903 00:44:49,680 --> 00:44:52,400 under these beautiful branches. 904 00:44:52,400 --> 00:44:55,600 There's something about coming into these gnarled, sort of, 905 00:44:55,600 --> 00:44:59,200 very textured...almost like arms, 906 00:44:59,200 --> 00:45:03,120 coming in to being embraced by the arms of the pohutukawa trees. 907 00:45:03,120 --> 00:45:05,080 A lot of people would want to be by the sea, 908 00:45:05,080 --> 00:45:06,920 or in the mountains with the view, 909 00:45:06,920 --> 00:45:09,960 but I like to be in the forest, and this feels like coming home. 910 00:45:11,440 --> 00:45:14,280 To make way for the house in this indigenous woodland, 911 00:45:14,280 --> 00:45:17,840 the planners agreed to the removal of four pohutukawa trees. 912 00:45:19,720 --> 00:45:22,680 A two-storey open-plan living and dining area 913 00:45:22,680 --> 00:45:24,680 nestles into the site. 914 00:45:25,960 --> 00:45:28,320 Placed to the rear and side of the house, 915 00:45:28,320 --> 00:45:31,120 two wooden-clad towers create private areas 916 00:45:31,120 --> 00:45:34,040 for bedrooms and bathrooms. 917 00:45:34,040 --> 00:45:37,880 The entire building is enclosed by a large glass roof, 918 00:45:37,880 --> 00:45:40,600 which is supported by steel and timber struts, 919 00:45:40,600 --> 00:45:44,000 mimicking the branches of the surrounding trees. 920 00:45:44,000 --> 00:45:46,880 The texture of this bark set against 921 00:45:46,880 --> 00:45:49,200 the textures of that cladding - 922 00:45:49,200 --> 00:45:50,840 it's wonderful, isn't it? 923 00:45:50,840 --> 00:45:53,000 And the cladding is a little bit like the bark, 924 00:45:53,000 --> 00:45:54,240 in that it has real depth. 925 00:45:54,240 --> 00:45:56,360 It's got bits of timber in three different layers. 926 00:45:56,360 --> 00:45:58,480 Yeah, it has, actually, hasn't it? 927 00:45:58,480 --> 00:46:00,600 Often contemporary buildings are really flat 928 00:46:00,600 --> 00:46:02,560 but this feels textured, 929 00:46:02,560 --> 00:46:05,880 layered and rich. And I love the way you can see through the building 930 00:46:05,880 --> 00:46:07,880 to the canopy the other side. 931 00:46:07,880 --> 00:46:10,680 Cos this house just sort of snuggles into the trees. 932 00:46:10,680 --> 00:46:12,640 - It does. It really does. - The trees snuggle it up. 933 00:46:12,640 --> 00:46:15,160 And then... What are...? They're like trees, aren't they? 934 00:46:15,160 --> 00:46:17,040 They are. They are called structural trees... 935 00:46:17,040 --> 00:46:19,520 Which is really a way of supporting the roof. 936 00:46:19,520 --> 00:46:21,000 So, when it goes up to the sky, 937 00:46:21,000 --> 00:46:23,720 you're not looking at huge bits of structure, but you're looking at 938 00:46:23,720 --> 00:46:25,280 delicate limbs. 939 00:46:25,280 --> 00:46:27,320 So, I think we need to find our way in. 940 00:46:27,320 --> 00:46:31,080 - I know, but it's hard to leave these trees, isn't it? - I know! 941 00:46:31,080 --> 00:46:34,520 Inside, the textures, tones and colours of this house 942 00:46:34,520 --> 00:46:37,560 are inspired by the trees that surround it. 943 00:46:37,560 --> 00:46:38,960 Wow. 944 00:46:38,960 --> 00:46:41,200 - I love this. - Ohh. 945 00:46:41,200 --> 00:46:42,560 It's quite special, actually. 946 00:46:42,560 --> 00:46:45,360 - It's really special. - It is. It is special. - It's really special. 947 00:46:46,560 --> 00:46:51,080 The glass roof and walls make the house seem almost transparent, 948 00:46:51,080 --> 00:46:55,440 allowing the surrounding forest to be viewed from every direction. 949 00:46:55,440 --> 00:46:57,160 - Check out this, Caroline. - Mmm. 950 00:46:57,160 --> 00:47:01,560 Look at this beautiful view back into the forest, here. 951 00:47:01,560 --> 00:47:03,640 - How exotic is that? - Yes. 952 00:47:03,640 --> 00:47:06,040 And, again, you're in the trees again! 953 00:47:06,040 --> 00:47:07,560 Totally in the trees. 954 00:47:07,560 --> 00:47:10,880 I love the fact that everything has a slightly, sort of, 955 00:47:10,880 --> 00:47:14,920 filigree notion to it, so you can see through everything. 956 00:47:14,920 --> 00:47:18,240 - It's great from here, actually. - That's extraordinary, isn't it? - Yeah, love that. 957 00:47:18,240 --> 00:47:22,200 Seeing through the lamp shade, through the structural trees, 958 00:47:22,200 --> 00:47:23,880 through the actual trees to the sky. 959 00:47:23,880 --> 00:47:26,120 Through the roof to the sky to the real trees. 960 00:47:26,120 --> 00:47:28,040 And I'm in love with this cladding. 961 00:47:28,040 --> 00:47:30,440 - It's great, isn't it? - I've not seen anything quite like it. 962 00:47:30,440 --> 00:47:33,200 - I really like this. And what are those holes for? - Don't know. 963 00:47:33,200 --> 00:47:35,880 - Ventilation holes... - Oh, is it a speaker? 964 00:47:35,880 --> 00:47:38,480 - Maybe it is. - Maybe it's... 965 00:47:38,480 --> 00:47:42,080 - Oops! - Look at that! - You've broken it?! 966 00:47:42,080 --> 00:47:45,080 - There's the TV and everything. - Oh, very cool. 967 00:47:45,080 --> 00:47:47,760 This is just plywood with bits of timber stuck on. 968 00:47:47,760 --> 00:47:50,520 So, that's quite an inexpensive way to do it, isn't it? 969 00:47:50,520 --> 00:47:53,680 - Totally. - And because they've used different widths, 970 00:47:53,680 --> 00:47:56,680 it looks expensive and interesting and architectural 971 00:47:56,680 --> 00:47:58,360 and sculptural, doesn't it? 972 00:47:58,360 --> 00:48:02,040 What's lovely is that it doesn't act as a block for your eye 973 00:48:02,040 --> 00:48:04,680 because it has depth, and your eye keeps travelling. 974 00:48:04,680 --> 00:48:06,760 - A little bit like the canopy again. - Yeah. 975 00:48:06,760 --> 00:48:09,720 And the building gets much more delicate 976 00:48:09,720 --> 00:48:12,480 - as it goes up... - Yeah. - ..like trees, and then it 977 00:48:12,480 --> 00:48:15,680 completely dematerialises against the sky, which is lovely. 978 00:48:15,680 --> 00:48:19,680 So, it feels like we're immersed in canopy all the time. 979 00:48:19,680 --> 00:48:21,440 Do you think this all opens up, Piers? 980 00:48:21,440 --> 00:48:23,840 Yeah, it does. These doors are all stacked down there. 981 00:48:23,840 --> 00:48:25,840 Do you think we should have a go at opening it all up, 982 00:48:25,840 --> 00:48:28,120 - and actually getting the full experience? - I do. 983 00:48:28,120 --> 00:48:30,080 - I do. - So, just the structure remaining. 984 00:48:30,080 --> 00:48:33,360 Yeah, we will just have, kind of, the trunks of the building. 985 00:48:33,360 --> 00:48:34,960 Here we are. 986 00:48:34,960 --> 00:48:37,240 - Get your fingers out of the way. - Yep! 987 00:48:37,240 --> 00:48:39,200 - OK, I'm going all the way down. - Great. 988 00:48:40,240 --> 00:48:42,560 Beautiful bits of glass, aren't they? 989 00:48:42,560 --> 00:48:44,760 Massive. This is what we use on stage 990 00:48:44,760 --> 00:48:47,000 - when we move trucks on and off stage. - Yeah. 991 00:48:47,000 --> 00:48:50,280 You have a track in the floor to take bits of scenery 992 00:48:50,280 --> 00:48:52,920 on and off in exactly the same way. 993 00:48:52,920 --> 00:48:55,600 I love buildings that move, or bits of buildings that move. 994 00:48:55,600 --> 00:48:58,160 Why don't we do it more? We don't do enough of this, do we? 995 00:48:58,160 --> 00:49:01,600 You can muck about and change it, like a magic box, or something. 996 00:49:01,600 --> 00:49:04,920 Yeah. I think by law all houses should have to do this. 997 00:49:04,920 --> 00:49:07,720 And look, this suddenly creates a really good space, doesn't it? 998 00:49:07,720 --> 00:49:11,240 What's wonderful is that I don't know whether I'm inside or outside now, 999 00:49:11,240 --> 00:49:14,040 I'm just in a beautiful environment. 1000 00:49:14,040 --> 00:49:16,280 Why don't architects do this more often? 1001 00:49:16,280 --> 00:49:19,400 Cos I think this is one of the most valuable things that architects 1002 00:49:19,400 --> 00:49:20,960 could be doing for us, really. 1003 00:49:20,960 --> 00:49:23,760 People will tell you that we don't have the climate for it 1004 00:49:23,760 --> 00:49:25,600 in the UK but, actually, we do. 1005 00:49:25,600 --> 00:49:29,120 Because this isn't a warm day, this is 12, 13 degrees 1006 00:49:29,120 --> 00:49:32,640 but because it faces the right way, and it's protected from the cold winds, 1007 00:49:32,640 --> 00:49:34,760 it makes it a really usable space. 1008 00:49:34,760 --> 00:49:37,920 - Because people want to be outside. - But historically, they didn't. 1009 00:49:37,920 --> 00:49:41,520 Historically we were fearful of natural landscape, 1010 00:49:41,520 --> 00:49:43,680 particularly quite wild landscapes like this. 1011 00:49:43,680 --> 00:49:47,800 So, we retreated in, and we looked at it through a pair of doors 1012 00:49:47,800 --> 00:49:50,760 or a little pair of windows. 1013 00:49:50,760 --> 00:49:53,000 The owners of this house, Gary and Sherry, 1014 00:49:53,000 --> 00:49:55,320 are property developers from Auckland. 1015 00:49:56,800 --> 00:50:00,400 Challenged with building on a plot covered with pohutukawa trees, 1016 00:50:00,400 --> 00:50:02,360 they enlisted award-winning architects, 1017 00:50:02,360 --> 00:50:04,320 Lance and Nicola Herbst, 1018 00:50:04,320 --> 00:50:08,600 to navigate the sacred trees and design their perfect holiday home. 1019 00:50:09,720 --> 00:50:12,480 What was your brief to them? What were you after? 1020 00:50:12,480 --> 00:50:15,120 Our brief was not a lot, actually. 1021 00:50:15,120 --> 00:50:18,400 We wanted light, good indoor-outdoor flow 1022 00:50:18,400 --> 00:50:21,440 - because we loved the outside a lot. - Yeah. - Three bedrooms... 1023 00:50:21,440 --> 00:50:22,800 And that was about it, really. 1024 00:50:22,800 --> 00:50:26,720 We had no concept of what sort of look we wanted. 1025 00:50:26,720 --> 00:50:29,000 And what was the first thing that they gave to you? 1026 00:50:29,000 --> 00:50:31,120 What was the first drawing like? 1027 00:50:31,120 --> 00:50:32,760 - It was this. - It was this already? 1028 00:50:32,760 --> 00:50:34,600 - Yes, it was. - Pretty much, yes. 1029 00:50:34,600 --> 00:50:38,080 - When we saw it... - They were nervous, we were nervous! - We were nervous. 1030 00:50:38,080 --> 00:50:39,960 I saw dollar signs in front of my eyes, 1031 00:50:39,960 --> 00:50:42,160 thinking, "This is going to cost a lot of money." 1032 00:50:42,160 --> 00:50:43,680 THEY LAUGH Yeah, yeah. 1033 00:50:43,680 --> 00:50:47,320 So, we took it away for two to three weeks, and we mulled it over. 1034 00:50:47,320 --> 00:50:49,640 - Did you make any changes to those initial drawings? - No. 1035 00:50:49,640 --> 00:50:51,720 - No. - No? 1036 00:50:51,720 --> 00:50:54,760 Well, it captured exactly what we wanted. 1037 00:50:54,760 --> 00:50:56,600 We didn't know what we wanted until we saw it. 1038 00:50:56,600 --> 00:50:59,160 When we saw it, it... 1039 00:50:59,160 --> 00:51:01,400 We thought, "Yeah, that's what we want." 1040 00:51:01,400 --> 00:51:04,360 We did put our utmost trust in the architects, 1041 00:51:04,360 --> 00:51:07,840 and believed in them and their work and what they were capable of. 1042 00:51:07,840 --> 00:51:09,680 They've got a skill you don't have, 1043 00:51:09,680 --> 00:51:13,080 and they can see things we can't see, so we thought, 1044 00:51:13,080 --> 00:51:14,480 "Let them go for it." 1045 00:51:14,480 --> 00:51:18,160 I think that the design that the architects came up with 1046 00:51:18,160 --> 00:51:22,520 made it easier to get through the council for consent. 1047 00:51:22,520 --> 00:51:24,280 Cos they're really strict, aren't they? 1048 00:51:24,280 --> 00:51:27,200 - They have preservation orders on all the trees. - Pretty much. - Very strict. 1049 00:51:27,200 --> 00:51:31,760 When the trees came out, we had to have our arborist on site, 1050 00:51:31,760 --> 00:51:34,880 the council had an arborist on site to make sure that 1051 00:51:34,880 --> 00:51:37,440 they took out exactly...just these four, 1052 00:51:37,440 --> 00:51:40,360 and that nothing else was damaged. 1053 00:51:40,360 --> 00:51:42,720 Once the trees had been carefully removed, 1054 00:51:42,720 --> 00:51:46,120 the house took 15 months to construct. 1055 00:51:46,120 --> 00:51:48,240 Gary acted as project manager, 1056 00:51:48,240 --> 00:51:52,560 keeping the workers on schedule and their budget on track. 1057 00:51:52,560 --> 00:51:54,760 - I was here every day. - Worked alongside the builder. 1058 00:51:54,760 --> 00:51:57,760 - I was the catch-it and fetch-it man. - Were you? 1059 00:51:57,760 --> 00:51:59,320 All the labouring work. 1060 00:51:59,320 --> 00:52:02,000 All the labouring stuff that the others didn't want to do! 1061 00:52:02,000 --> 00:52:04,320 So, do you know every inch of this building? 1062 00:52:04,320 --> 00:52:06,600 Every little bit of it. Yeah. 1063 00:52:06,600 --> 00:52:09,640 - Do you love the house? - We do. - Very much. - Yeah. 1064 00:52:09,640 --> 00:52:14,080 How close to it is your dream house? 1065 00:52:14,080 --> 00:52:15,840 Oh, for me, I think it's there. 1066 00:52:15,840 --> 00:52:17,560 We're not looking for anything else. 1067 00:52:17,560 --> 00:52:19,280 Probably feet first out of here! 1068 00:52:19,280 --> 00:52:20,880 THEY LAUGH 1069 00:52:22,520 --> 00:52:26,080 Gary has told me that there is more to this place than meets the eye. 1070 00:52:26,080 --> 00:52:29,400 Apparently, there are some secret spaces to discover! 1071 00:52:31,160 --> 00:52:33,280 I don't know what this bit is. 1072 00:52:33,280 --> 00:52:35,000 It's like a sort of... 1073 00:52:35,000 --> 00:52:37,400 I don't know... Reading area, or...? 1074 00:52:37,400 --> 00:52:40,520 There's somewhere to lie down and sleep for the guests, or something, 1075 00:52:40,520 --> 00:52:43,720 down there. What it does give you is a brilliant view 1076 00:52:43,720 --> 00:52:45,360 of both sets of trees, 1077 00:52:45,360 --> 00:52:48,560 the real trees and the architectural trees, 1078 00:52:48,560 --> 00:52:50,360 which look wonderful from up here. 1079 00:52:50,360 --> 00:52:53,960 And it gives you a very, very nice view of Piers Taylor. 1080 00:52:53,960 --> 00:52:55,920 What do you think this is up here? 1081 00:52:55,920 --> 00:52:57,440 It's anything you want it to be. 1082 00:52:57,440 --> 00:52:58,720 And isn't that great? 1083 00:52:58,720 --> 00:53:01,920 Because rooms, you know, that's so 20th century, 1084 00:53:01,920 --> 00:53:03,560 so 19th century. 1085 00:53:03,560 --> 00:53:06,800 It's a beautiful space to do whatever you want, and, critically, 1086 00:53:06,800 --> 00:53:08,400 look at the trees. 1087 00:53:08,400 --> 00:53:11,680 Mmm, see, I'm going to translate for those of you at home that aren't architects, 1088 00:53:11,680 --> 00:53:14,320 It means, "It's a little corridor we didn't know what to do with." 1089 00:53:14,320 --> 00:53:16,720 PIERS LAUGHS It's a waste of space... 1090 00:53:16,720 --> 00:53:19,440 unlike anybody else here! 1091 00:53:19,440 --> 00:53:22,320 There's something kind of wonderful about the... Oops! 1092 00:53:22,320 --> 00:53:23,760 - Where have you gone? - THEY LAUGH 1093 00:53:23,760 --> 00:53:26,520 - Are you still alive? - I've just found... 1094 00:53:26,520 --> 00:53:27,960 I found a secret door! 1095 00:53:27,960 --> 00:53:29,680 SHE LAUGHS 1096 00:53:29,680 --> 00:53:32,480 And there's a bedroom behind me! 1097 00:53:32,480 --> 00:53:34,920 You're lucky you didn't fall down a big hole. 1098 00:53:34,920 --> 00:53:39,400 Mmm, it's a very, very nice bedroom. 1099 00:53:39,400 --> 00:53:41,280 Quite woody. 1100 00:53:41,280 --> 00:53:44,520 But very simple because it's not about being inside, 1101 00:53:44,520 --> 00:53:47,680 cos this place is all about the trees. 1102 00:53:53,120 --> 00:53:55,520 I can hear the sea, 1103 00:53:55,520 --> 00:53:57,800 I can smell the trees... 1104 00:53:59,560 --> 00:54:01,960 ..and there's nothing there! 1105 00:54:01,960 --> 00:54:04,840 I think that's really brilliant. 1106 00:54:08,760 --> 00:54:12,000 Many people think of buildings in terms of what shape they are 1107 00:54:12,000 --> 00:54:13,480 and what colour they are, 1108 00:54:13,480 --> 00:54:17,080 but this house is so much about transparency and breaking down 1109 00:54:17,080 --> 00:54:18,920 the mass of the building. 1110 00:54:18,920 --> 00:54:21,880 If you cut a section through this house, 1111 00:54:21,880 --> 00:54:25,760 a solid bedroom block like this 1112 00:54:25,760 --> 00:54:28,920 and a series of decks that move up and down 1113 00:54:28,920 --> 00:54:31,360 to get you into the house, but in theory, 1114 00:54:31,360 --> 00:54:34,320 these bedroom pods would be a very big block, 1115 00:54:34,320 --> 00:54:36,720 so what this architect has cleverly done 1116 00:54:36,720 --> 00:54:39,440 is provide a solid roof there, 1117 00:54:39,440 --> 00:54:41,720 then a transparent roof, 1118 00:54:41,720 --> 00:54:44,920 and then he's held up that transparent roof 1119 00:54:44,920 --> 00:54:47,720 on the series of structural trees 1120 00:54:47,720 --> 00:54:50,320 that allow you to see 1121 00:54:50,320 --> 00:54:53,680 right the way through the house. 1122 00:54:53,680 --> 00:54:55,800 And I think what happens ultimately, 1123 00:54:55,800 --> 00:54:58,120 is that you forget the building's there 1124 00:54:58,120 --> 00:55:00,720 and you really feel like you're in the canopy. 1125 00:55:02,920 --> 00:55:06,080 To dig further into the challenges this house presented, 1126 00:55:06,080 --> 00:55:10,720 I'm meeting one half of the architect duo, Lance Herbst. 1127 00:55:10,720 --> 00:55:12,560 This is an extraordinary site. 1128 00:55:12,560 --> 00:55:15,120 Tell me what it was like for you first coming here? 1129 00:55:15,120 --> 00:55:17,000 So, coming to the site, was one of those things, 1130 00:55:17,000 --> 00:55:19,400 you looked at the site and it was essentially 1131 00:55:19,400 --> 00:55:22,560 99% covered in a mature pohutukawa forest 1132 00:55:22,560 --> 00:55:24,320 and you're first feeling is, 1133 00:55:24,320 --> 00:55:26,160 "We're never going to get a consent for this." 1134 00:55:26,160 --> 00:55:28,400 It was one of those that was so difficult 1135 00:55:28,400 --> 00:55:30,680 that we knew that the only way we knew we'd be able to 1136 00:55:30,680 --> 00:55:33,800 even get a consent was to come in with something very poetic. 1137 00:55:33,800 --> 00:55:36,520 And your first diagram for a building that nestled 1138 00:55:36,520 --> 00:55:39,960 - under these trees, what was that? - It was trees. 1139 00:55:39,960 --> 00:55:41,520 Yeah. It was one of those. 1140 00:55:41,520 --> 00:55:43,840 It's an old... I mean, it's not a brand-new way of thinking. 1141 00:55:43,840 --> 00:55:46,160 Like, throughout the history of modernism, 1142 00:55:46,160 --> 00:55:48,720 there had been people who had tried to do buildings that are that, 1143 00:55:48,720 --> 00:55:52,360 kind of, reference to trees, so it literally was a case of, 1144 00:55:52,360 --> 00:55:54,800 "OK, we've got to have a go at this". And I mean, as you know, 1145 00:55:54,800 --> 00:55:56,920 as an architect, it's an incredibly... 1146 00:55:56,920 --> 00:55:59,680 It's tight rope you walk. It can go spectacularly wrong. 1147 00:56:02,240 --> 00:56:05,600 Building on this site involved sacrificing four ancient 1148 00:56:05,600 --> 00:56:07,320 pohutukawa trees, 1149 00:56:07,320 --> 00:56:10,720 and fuelled a passionate response from the architects. 1150 00:56:10,720 --> 00:56:13,000 We just felt that we needed to do something 1151 00:56:13,000 --> 00:56:16,120 that was a kind of... A memory of the trees that we had cut down. 1152 00:56:16,120 --> 00:56:18,680 So, we started using a number of metaphors 1153 00:56:18,680 --> 00:56:20,320 inside of that tree language. 1154 00:56:20,320 --> 00:56:23,280 You will notice, that even though these are very much tree structures, 1155 00:56:23,280 --> 00:56:25,560 they are also very geometrically rigorous. 1156 00:56:25,560 --> 00:56:28,920 It's an element which is neither man-made nor neither organic. 1157 00:56:28,920 --> 00:56:31,960 Because of course, when you try to mimic a tree, it looks ridiculous, 1158 00:56:31,960 --> 00:56:34,520 but here there is a tautness and a crispness. 1159 00:56:35,520 --> 00:56:38,880 The branches and trunks of these load-bearing structural trees 1160 00:56:38,880 --> 00:56:42,000 not only support the glass roof but also had to withstand 1161 00:56:42,000 --> 00:56:45,040 the rigours of the New Zealand's seismic terrain. 1162 00:56:45,040 --> 00:56:46,480 In New Zealand, we have a... 1163 00:56:46,480 --> 00:56:49,560 You know, it's a country of earthquakes. We have a seismic code, 1164 00:56:49,560 --> 00:56:53,080 so this structure needs to resist forces that actually aren't present 1165 00:56:53,080 --> 00:56:56,760 until they happen. So, structurally, there are massive, you know, 1166 00:56:56,760 --> 00:56:58,160 steel beams going through the roof 1167 00:56:58,160 --> 00:57:00,560 and tying back, and tying back, into that roof 1168 00:57:00,560 --> 00:57:05,000 to give the building resistance in the event of an earthquake. 1169 00:57:05,000 --> 00:57:08,400 Architects design and build a lot of buildings in their careers, 1170 00:57:08,400 --> 00:57:10,360 but only a few are really special. 1171 00:57:10,360 --> 00:57:12,800 Tell me whether this building is one of those for you? 1172 00:57:12,800 --> 00:57:14,680 - Oh, yes. - HE LAUGHS 1173 00:57:14,680 --> 00:57:16,160 Yeah, this one will be hard to beat. 1174 00:57:16,160 --> 00:57:18,560 It was one of those moments where everything came together. 1175 00:57:18,560 --> 00:57:20,880 You know Gary and Sherry aren't clients, they're patrons, 1176 00:57:20,880 --> 00:57:23,640 and it's a completely different approach that someone takes 1177 00:57:23,640 --> 00:57:26,160 when they set about to make a building that is a piece of art, 1178 00:57:26,160 --> 00:57:28,160 compared to making shelter. 1179 00:57:30,640 --> 00:57:34,360 When we arrived, just being here amongst these trees, 1180 00:57:34,360 --> 00:57:36,720 I knew it was going to be special, but I don't think I realised 1181 00:57:36,720 --> 00:57:38,720 quite how special it was going to be. 1182 00:57:38,720 --> 00:57:41,760 A building like this happens maybe three or four times 1183 00:57:41,760 --> 00:57:43,240 in an architect's career, 1184 00:57:43,240 --> 00:57:46,040 and this reminds me of why I became an architect. 1185 00:57:46,040 --> 00:57:49,920 You're always looking for this opportunity, that is so rare, 1186 00:57:49,920 --> 00:57:53,720 when everything comes together - perfect site, perfect client, 1187 00:57:53,720 --> 00:57:54,960 perfect brief. 1188 00:57:54,960 --> 00:57:57,240 It's perfection in the pohutukawas. 1189 00:58:01,120 --> 00:58:04,280 'Next time, Piers and I will be exploring some of the most 1190 00:58:04,280 --> 00:58:07,360 'extraordinary coastal homes in the world...' 1191 00:58:07,360 --> 00:58:09,720 Oh! It's so beautiful! 1192 00:58:09,720 --> 00:58:13,200 '..to discover how architects have overcome the challenges of building 1193 00:58:13,200 --> 00:58:15,480 'incredible homes by the water.' 1194 00:58:15,480 --> 00:58:19,440 This is the pile that's stopping the whole house tipping into the sea.