1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:04,160 I've been picked up from airports in taxis before, 2 00:00:04,160 --> 00:00:06,320 but never had to go to a jetty to be picked up by boat. 3 00:00:10,240 --> 00:00:14,080 He's Piers Taylor, an award-winning architect. 4 00:00:14,080 --> 00:00:19,000 This building is so tactile and just rich materially. 5 00:00:19,000 --> 00:00:20,360 Woo-hoo-hoo! 6 00:00:20,360 --> 00:00:22,280 And she's Caroline Quentin, 7 00:00:22,280 --> 00:00:25,120 acclaimed actress and passionate property developer. 8 00:00:25,120 --> 00:00:27,440 Oh, I've been expecting you, Mr Bond! 9 00:00:27,440 --> 00:00:29,640 THEY LAUGH 10 00:00:29,640 --> 00:00:31,240 We've been given the keys 11 00:00:31,240 --> 00:00:34,400 to some of the most incredible houses in the world. 12 00:00:34,400 --> 00:00:36,880 It's chock full of surprises, isn't it? 13 00:00:36,880 --> 00:00:38,640 Ooh! 14 00:00:38,640 --> 00:00:40,520 To discover the design, innovation, 15 00:00:40,520 --> 00:00:44,680 passion and endurance needed to transform architectural vision 16 00:00:44,680 --> 00:00:46,560 into an extraordinary home. 17 00:00:46,560 --> 00:00:49,840 If this was Hollywood, I'd be snogging you now. 18 00:00:49,840 --> 00:00:53,000 Together, we'll be travelling the globe. 19 00:00:53,000 --> 00:00:55,800 - Oh, look down there! - I would, but I'm trying not to kill us. 20 00:00:55,800 --> 00:00:57,600 No. You look ahead! 21 00:00:57,600 --> 00:01:00,880 Meeting the architects and owners who have taken on the challenge of 22 00:01:00,880 --> 00:01:04,600 building unconventional homes in demanding locations. 23 00:01:04,600 --> 00:01:07,640 Just another day on the wing of a 747. 24 00:01:07,640 --> 00:01:11,640 Whether it's navigating the logistics of constructing a house 25 00:01:11,640 --> 00:01:13,320 on top of a remote mountain... 26 00:01:13,320 --> 00:01:18,280 Why would you build a house where you can only get there by cable car? 27 00:01:18,280 --> 00:01:21,760 ..negotiating the ancient trees of a fragile forest... 28 00:01:21,760 --> 00:01:23,680 You never see a building this close to the trees. 29 00:01:23,680 --> 00:01:25,200 I mean, that's six inches away. 30 00:01:25,200 --> 00:01:30,160 ..having a sea view whilst perched on the edge of a dramatic coastal shoreline... 31 00:01:30,160 --> 00:01:32,360 I'd love to know how you actually built this 32 00:01:32,360 --> 00:01:34,920 on what appears to be a sort of vertical cliff face. 33 00:01:35,920 --> 00:01:39,440 ..or excavating the earth to build a home deep underground. 34 00:01:39,440 --> 00:01:41,760 There is always a moment when you feel fear. 35 00:01:41,760 --> 00:01:43,960 Nature is never to come back the same way. 36 00:01:43,960 --> 00:01:46,480 No-one had ever built something like this before. 37 00:01:46,480 --> 00:01:49,400 It's a tightrope you walk. It can go spectacularly wrong. 38 00:01:58,960 --> 00:02:01,680 Coastal living promises pure sea air, 39 00:02:01,680 --> 00:02:05,640 the constant sound of waves and ever-changing views of the sea. 40 00:02:08,680 --> 00:02:12,360 But building houses so close to the shore in remote locations can be 41 00:02:12,360 --> 00:02:14,960 fraught with challenges. 42 00:02:14,960 --> 00:02:16,960 When we were building this house, 43 00:02:16,960 --> 00:02:19,680 the two winters we hit was really, really bad. 44 00:02:19,680 --> 00:02:22,000 And they were building in these conditions? 45 00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:24,400 They tried to. 46 00:02:24,400 --> 00:02:28,080 Piers and I will be travelling from the windswept islands of Norway 47 00:02:28,080 --> 00:02:32,080 to the steep Mediterranean cliffs of southern Spain. 48 00:02:32,080 --> 00:02:34,440 This earth is basically scree, isn't it? 49 00:02:34,440 --> 00:02:37,400 - Exactly what it is. - There's nothing solid. 50 00:02:37,400 --> 00:02:40,720 And from the wild Atlantic Ocean of south-east Canada 51 00:02:40,720 --> 00:02:43,000 to the flooded coastal valleys of New Zealand. 52 00:02:44,680 --> 00:02:46,840 Discovering what it takes to design, 53 00:02:46,840 --> 00:02:52,040 build and live in some of the world's most extraordinary coastal homes. 54 00:02:52,040 --> 00:02:54,160 - So we'll see you in, what, six months? - Yeah. 55 00:02:54,160 --> 00:02:56,360 When the winter comes, come and get your keys! 56 00:02:56,360 --> 00:02:58,160 THEY LAUGH 57 00:03:02,040 --> 00:03:05,480 The first stop on our coastal adventure takes us to Norway 58 00:03:05,480 --> 00:03:10,800 and to a group of remote islands 200 miles south-west of the capital, Oslo. 59 00:03:18,280 --> 00:03:20,000 Although it's early summer now, 60 00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:25,400 temperatures in winter can drop as low as minus 20 in this Nordic archipelago. 61 00:03:25,400 --> 00:03:27,600 Any house built on this windswept shoreline 62 00:03:27,600 --> 00:03:31,160 needs to be able to withstand everything Mother Nature can throw at it. 63 00:03:33,920 --> 00:03:34,960 Let's go. 64 00:03:39,960 --> 00:03:44,320 Our first extraordinary coastal home is a remote island retreat, 65 00:03:44,320 --> 00:03:48,080 camouflaged to blend into the surrounding landscape and designed 66 00:03:48,080 --> 00:03:51,160 as an antidote to the stresses of the owners' busy work schedules. 67 00:03:54,240 --> 00:03:57,160 The biggest challenge for the architect was how to create 68 00:03:57,160 --> 00:04:00,920 a four-bedroom home within the size restrictions of a pre-existing 69 00:04:00,920 --> 00:04:04,160 property, which had a footprint of just 100 square metres. 70 00:04:07,640 --> 00:04:09,800 Can you hear something? 71 00:04:09,800 --> 00:04:12,440 We're being picked up by owner Dag, 72 00:04:12,440 --> 00:04:16,080 who's the CEO of a large Norwegian shipping firm. 73 00:04:16,080 --> 00:04:20,840 He's invited Piers and I to spend the night in his family's remote holiday home. 74 00:04:22,560 --> 00:04:24,600 - Dag? - Dag? - Dag? 75 00:04:24,600 --> 00:04:27,440 He's not handsome at all, is he? 76 00:04:27,440 --> 00:04:29,240 Hello, how lovely to meet you! 77 00:04:29,240 --> 00:04:30,880 Caroline, lovely to meet you. 78 00:04:30,880 --> 00:04:34,000 - Great to meet you. - Shall I just hop straight on? Ooh, OK! 79 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:35,840 Sure? Thank you. Wow! 80 00:04:35,840 --> 00:04:38,000 Ooh! That was taller than I thought! 81 00:04:39,160 --> 00:04:40,560 So exciting! 82 00:04:53,880 --> 00:04:56,440 Just in case you were wondering, as I was, 83 00:04:56,440 --> 00:04:58,560 Dag is married with three children. 84 00:04:58,560 --> 00:05:03,840 # Like I just got caught in a dream... # 85 00:05:03,840 --> 00:05:06,200 Although they live in the city of Kristiansand, 86 00:05:06,200 --> 00:05:10,280 the family escape on a 30-minute boat ride to their very own remote 87 00:05:10,280 --> 00:05:13,840 paradise island every weekend and throughout the summer. 88 00:05:15,080 --> 00:05:19,320 Dag, tell us how you even came to think about building a house on an island. 89 00:05:19,320 --> 00:05:24,560 As a kid, the parents of a friend of mine, they had a house on an island, 90 00:05:24,560 --> 00:05:26,080 so I'm kind of used to it. 91 00:05:26,080 --> 00:05:28,080 I enjoyed it a lot as a kid. 92 00:05:28,080 --> 00:05:31,240 And when we wanted a place for ourselves, 93 00:05:31,240 --> 00:05:37,360 we were looking for a place to have some privacy and enjoy the nature and scenery. 94 00:05:37,360 --> 00:05:39,840 And we also wanted a place where... 95 00:05:39,840 --> 00:05:42,200 that's sheltered from the wind. 96 00:05:42,200 --> 00:05:45,400 I have a sense also that the Norwegians celebrate summer 97 00:05:45,400 --> 00:05:47,400 because your winters are so harsh. 98 00:05:47,400 --> 00:05:50,960 Yeah, that's true. We appreciate the good weather and the sun. 99 00:05:50,960 --> 00:05:54,240 - We do, too! - Yeah, yeah! We're with you on that one. 100 00:05:54,240 --> 00:05:56,880 Are we nearly there? Cos I'm getting really excited. 101 00:05:56,880 --> 00:05:59,400 It's like five more minutes and we are there. 102 00:06:03,640 --> 00:06:05,000 There it is, there it is! 103 00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:09,240 Look! I love the way the roof is almost like part of the rock. 104 00:06:09,240 --> 00:06:10,280 It's so lovely. 105 00:06:14,040 --> 00:06:16,200 - The colours are great, aren't they? - They are. 106 00:06:17,480 --> 00:06:18,800 It's so discreet. 107 00:06:18,800 --> 00:06:21,200 Really discreet. I really like the way it's hunkered down. 108 00:06:21,200 --> 00:06:23,240 Yeah, you can barely see it, actually. 109 00:06:30,480 --> 00:06:33,320 Oh! It's so beautiful. 110 00:06:33,320 --> 00:06:37,160 Dag is leaving us marooned on this island for the next two days, 111 00:06:37,160 --> 00:06:42,720 so we can find out what it's really like to live in this secluded coastal home. 112 00:06:42,720 --> 00:06:44,720 You sure you don't want to stay this evening, Dag? 113 00:06:44,720 --> 00:06:48,360 It seems such a shame. We could open a bottle of wine and have a bit of a fish barbie. 114 00:06:48,360 --> 00:06:50,320 Thank you. 115 00:06:50,320 --> 00:06:52,320 Are you sure you don't want to stay, Dag? 116 00:06:52,320 --> 00:06:54,680 It seems a shame for you to go. 117 00:06:54,680 --> 00:06:57,680 OK, I'm going to pass you the key and I hope you enjoy it. 118 00:06:57,680 --> 00:07:00,440 - Really? - Thank you very much indeed. 119 00:07:00,440 --> 00:07:02,320 So we'll see you in, what, six months? 120 00:07:02,320 --> 00:07:05,480 - Yeah! - Something like that. - We'll go native. 121 00:07:05,480 --> 00:07:08,120 When the winter comes, come and get your keys! 122 00:07:08,120 --> 00:07:11,080 - Cheers. Bye. - Bye. - Bye. 123 00:07:13,680 --> 00:07:14,720 Bye! 124 00:07:16,320 --> 00:07:17,720 Right. 125 00:07:17,720 --> 00:07:19,280 You're off! 126 00:07:19,280 --> 00:07:20,600 SHE LAUGHS 127 00:07:20,600 --> 00:07:22,400 I've got the keys to this house! 128 00:07:32,960 --> 00:07:36,520 Already, I want to come in here and I want to take off my shoes, 129 00:07:36,520 --> 00:07:38,720 not because I have to - just because I want to 130 00:07:38,720 --> 00:07:42,120 cos I feel immediately at home here, which is fantastic. 131 00:07:42,120 --> 00:07:46,560 And what a relief to have a building that has such a difference in inside, 132 00:07:46,560 --> 00:07:48,880 inside but undercover, and then out here. 133 00:07:48,880 --> 00:07:50,960 Everything is about relating to the rocks. 134 00:07:50,960 --> 00:07:53,680 It really is. It really is. These spaces are delightful. 135 00:07:53,680 --> 00:07:58,200 And what's interesting is that it's a building that has been designed without an elevation as such. 136 00:07:58,200 --> 00:08:02,840 This is just a set of spaces that allow you to be next to the landscape 137 00:08:02,840 --> 00:08:04,120 and I love that, actually. 138 00:08:04,120 --> 00:08:06,120 It feels very special. 139 00:08:06,120 --> 00:08:07,680 It does. But this is still the house. 140 00:08:07,680 --> 00:08:10,240 And, actually, in England we think of the house as something 141 00:08:10,240 --> 00:08:13,480 that has walls and doors and windows, and you're either inside or outside. 142 00:08:13,480 --> 00:08:16,600 But here, this is still the house, really, isn't it? 143 00:08:16,600 --> 00:08:20,560 - Absolutely. - I think what's great about this is that this guy 144 00:08:20,560 --> 00:08:22,760 has clearly just looked at where the rocks are, 145 00:08:22,760 --> 00:08:24,680 where the spaces between the rocks are, 146 00:08:24,680 --> 00:08:27,800 and then he's covered bits of that, rather than thinking, 147 00:08:27,800 --> 00:08:30,760 "What's my house going to look like and where can I plonk it down?" 148 00:08:30,760 --> 00:08:32,840 Yeah. "I must get rid of things to make my house!" 149 00:08:32,840 --> 00:08:34,640 He's actually respected the landscape 150 00:08:34,640 --> 00:08:36,880 and built the house to fit in with the landscape. 151 00:08:36,880 --> 00:08:38,480 I love it from here, for instance. 152 00:08:38,480 --> 00:08:40,920 It's almost imperceptible. 153 00:08:43,040 --> 00:08:47,360 Building a house so close to the water on this protected rocky shoreline 154 00:08:47,360 --> 00:08:50,640 meant the architect had to abide by strict planning laws. 155 00:08:52,600 --> 00:08:56,480 The challenge was to create a four-bedroom home to fit within 156 00:08:56,480 --> 00:09:02,040 the 100-square-metre footprint of a 1960s cottage that previously stood on the site. 157 00:09:03,480 --> 00:09:07,880 This architect designed a low-lying one-storey building with an interior 158 00:09:07,880 --> 00:09:11,400 floor plan smaller than the size of a tennis court. 159 00:09:11,400 --> 00:09:13,960 To maximise the usable floor area, 160 00:09:13,960 --> 00:09:17,640 the internal living spaces of the house were split into two wings, 161 00:09:17,640 --> 00:09:20,640 connected by external corridors. 162 00:09:20,640 --> 00:09:25,240 A thick white concrete canopy stretches over both wings of the house 163 00:09:25,240 --> 00:09:27,240 and is bolted into the rocks, 164 00:09:27,240 --> 00:09:30,120 securely anchoring the house to this windswept site. 165 00:09:31,600 --> 00:09:35,640 Concrete was used as it can withstand the salty coastal atmosphere 166 00:09:35,640 --> 00:09:40,200 and weather over time to blend in with the surrounding rocky landscape. 167 00:09:40,200 --> 00:09:44,240 - The house and the rock, I mean, they are sort of as one, aren't they, really? - They really are. 168 00:09:44,240 --> 00:09:47,400 And even though those bits of timber are very vertical, 169 00:09:47,400 --> 00:09:51,440 they still feel like a bit of landscape. 170 00:09:51,440 --> 00:09:53,560 With limited internal floor space, 171 00:09:53,560 --> 00:09:56,800 the architect made clever use of the outside space. 172 00:09:59,880 --> 00:10:02,360 This is the bedroom bit. 173 00:10:02,360 --> 00:10:07,960 And what's brilliant about this is that, because there is no wall here, 174 00:10:07,960 --> 00:10:11,040 this corridor - ostensibly, this corridor space - 175 00:10:11,040 --> 00:10:13,920 isn't counted in the overall metreage of the house, 176 00:10:13,920 --> 00:10:17,360 so you can use that space inside the house where it's needed, 177 00:10:17,360 --> 00:10:21,200 and this is open to this beautiful vista. 178 00:10:22,720 --> 00:10:25,000 There is one main bedroom downstairs. 179 00:10:25,000 --> 00:10:28,080 One here. Two here? 180 00:10:28,080 --> 00:10:31,880 Yeah, another one. You've got a double bunk bed down the bottom here 181 00:10:31,880 --> 00:10:33,360 and then a single up here. 182 00:10:34,560 --> 00:10:37,880 There is a discretion about all these bedrooms. 183 00:10:37,880 --> 00:10:40,520 They look the same but they're not, 184 00:10:40,520 --> 00:10:43,360 because this is the nicest one... 185 00:10:43,360 --> 00:10:46,920 and it's mine! You snooze, you lose. 186 00:10:51,480 --> 00:10:56,280 What's extraordinary about this house is that what you have 187 00:10:56,280 --> 00:10:59,200 is a cross-section of a rock formation like this, 188 00:10:59,200 --> 00:11:02,080 and many people would level that and put a big building down there. 189 00:11:02,080 --> 00:11:06,840 But what this guy has done is just carve this as delicately as possible, 190 00:11:06,840 --> 00:11:11,840 and then delicately fill in a little bit of that with a bit of a building, 191 00:11:11,840 --> 00:11:16,520 and leave one bit completely open, so that you get views through that. 192 00:11:16,520 --> 00:11:20,680 And I think that's a really beautiful way to make a building. 193 00:11:20,680 --> 00:11:23,640 And it's a building that doesn't try and compete with landscape, 194 00:11:23,640 --> 00:11:26,240 it doesn't apologise for landscape. 195 00:11:26,240 --> 00:11:32,120 But, at the same time, it's a beautiful, delicate thing that sits there. 196 00:11:32,120 --> 00:11:34,040 And, really, that's the building. 197 00:11:38,120 --> 00:11:41,880 The man responsible for this coastal home is Sven Lund, 198 00:11:41,880 --> 00:11:45,040 an award-winning Norwegian architect based in Oslo. 199 00:11:47,320 --> 00:11:51,160 Tell me what Dag and Rine's brief to you was initially. 200 00:11:51,160 --> 00:11:55,240 They wanted a house which fitted into landscape. 201 00:11:55,240 --> 00:11:58,640 That's our main goal. We had to be very careful. 202 00:11:58,640 --> 00:12:04,280 Careful in the way that it was a part of the terrain rather than sticking out. 203 00:12:04,280 --> 00:12:10,040 This is a really harsh climate and it's also on a remote island. 204 00:12:10,040 --> 00:12:13,520 Tell me about building this house. 205 00:12:13,520 --> 00:12:15,680 Exactly when we were building this house, 206 00:12:15,680 --> 00:12:19,520 the two winters we hit was really, really bad. 207 00:12:19,520 --> 00:12:22,160 - They were very, very cold. - This looks pretty extreme. 208 00:12:22,160 --> 00:12:24,640 This looks like pack ice, sea ice. 209 00:12:24,640 --> 00:12:29,160 Yeah. The island was almost impossible to get to, or get away from. 210 00:12:29,160 --> 00:12:31,240 And if you see, this picture in front of you - 211 00:12:31,240 --> 00:12:34,120 it says something about the conditions. 212 00:12:34,120 --> 00:12:37,480 As well as battling one of the worst winters on record, 213 00:12:37,480 --> 00:12:41,160 the builders were limited to just seven hours of daylight. 214 00:12:41,160 --> 00:12:43,200 And they were building in these conditions? 215 00:12:43,200 --> 00:12:46,640 - They tried to. - But what about getting materials to this site? 216 00:12:46,640 --> 00:12:52,480 - The concrete arrived here on a truck on a barge. - Really? 217 00:12:52,480 --> 00:12:54,600 It was towed by a boat, yeah. 218 00:12:54,600 --> 00:12:57,560 How long did it take to build, given the extreme weather? 219 00:12:57,560 --> 00:13:00,240 A bit more than one and a half years. 220 00:13:00,240 --> 00:13:03,320 It's quite a long time for a house that is about 100 square metres. 221 00:13:03,320 --> 00:13:06,760 Yeah. I think we started at the wrong time of the year, in the winter! 222 00:13:09,120 --> 00:13:12,680 Building through the winter is challenging even in the UK, 223 00:13:12,680 --> 00:13:14,600 but Sven was determined to finish the house 224 00:13:14,600 --> 00:13:18,800 so that the family could make the most of the precious summer months. 225 00:13:18,800 --> 00:13:19,960 That's pretty good. 226 00:13:25,720 --> 00:13:27,760 Oh, look at that! 227 00:13:27,760 --> 00:13:31,000 Even though the water temperature is a chilly eight degrees, 228 00:13:31,000 --> 00:13:34,600 Piers and I can't resist a quick dip while the barbecue heats up. 229 00:13:39,680 --> 00:13:42,640 You know, it's one of the first houses I've been that doesn't just 230 00:13:42,640 --> 00:13:45,240 complement the landscape, it actually makes it better. 231 00:13:45,240 --> 00:13:47,680 - Yeah! - Do you know what I mean? - I absolutely do. 232 00:13:47,680 --> 00:13:48,800 And how rare is that? 233 00:13:54,200 --> 00:13:57,920 Increasingly, I'm starting to realise that what's important about 234 00:13:57,920 --> 00:14:01,000 a good house is the atmosphere - about how it functions. 235 00:14:01,000 --> 00:14:06,120 A house like this, the minute you're here, you start to relax 236 00:14:06,120 --> 00:14:08,200 and enjoy spending time here 237 00:14:08,200 --> 00:14:14,320 and, of course, it doesn't hurt that the scenery is absolutely beautiful... 238 00:14:14,320 --> 00:14:15,920 even without Dag. 239 00:14:18,440 --> 00:14:21,760 Piers, come and get this! It's ready! 240 00:14:21,760 --> 00:14:23,280 He's not Norwegian, is he? 241 00:14:26,760 --> 00:14:29,000 - Ah, yes. That's good. - Oh, look at that! 242 00:14:32,320 --> 00:14:34,560 This house obviously cost a lot of money, 243 00:14:34,560 --> 00:14:39,040 but what it gives you is something that's completely priceless, 244 00:14:39,040 --> 00:14:41,000 that's beyond style. 245 00:14:41,000 --> 00:14:44,840 It's just about this way that we can live in this extraordinary landscape 246 00:14:44,840 --> 00:14:47,720 with these rocks right here coming into the house, 247 00:14:47,720 --> 00:14:51,160 and the sea lapping at the rocks just there. 248 00:14:51,160 --> 00:14:52,800 I mean, it's extraordinary. 249 00:14:52,800 --> 00:14:54,720 And it wouldn't do you any harm, would it, 250 00:14:54,720 --> 00:14:56,920 to wake up every day to such a beautiful building? 251 00:14:56,920 --> 00:15:00,240 It would do you a lot of good to wake up to such a beautiful building. 252 00:15:00,240 --> 00:15:02,880 In a way, I'm selling the building short because I'm talking about 253 00:15:02,880 --> 00:15:05,160 the landscape and the rocks and the light and the water, 254 00:15:05,160 --> 00:15:10,840 but actually it's the building that has judged perfectly 255 00:15:10,840 --> 00:15:15,040 how much architecture to do and how little, 256 00:15:15,040 --> 00:15:17,120 and where to make a move and where not. 257 00:15:27,760 --> 00:15:29,720 After a peaceful night's sleep, 258 00:15:29,720 --> 00:15:33,680 Piers and I are making the most of outdoor living on this remote island. 259 00:15:44,720 --> 00:15:49,440 Usually we're just locked away in a horrible little sealed cubicle, 260 00:15:49,440 --> 00:15:50,560 away from the elements. 261 00:15:50,560 --> 00:15:52,120 But being out here IN the elements, 262 00:15:52,120 --> 00:15:58,040 it feels like I'm just standing under the most beautiful warm waterfall out in these rocks. 263 00:15:58,040 --> 00:16:00,440 And this is just an everyday experience in this house. 264 00:16:03,240 --> 00:16:06,920 Dashing Dag is tied up with business on the mainland, 265 00:16:06,920 --> 00:16:09,600 but his wife, clothes shop owner Renee, 266 00:16:09,600 --> 00:16:12,440 is popping by to see how we're getting on. 267 00:16:12,440 --> 00:16:13,880 It's a stylish entrance! 268 00:16:14,920 --> 00:16:16,600 Hi! 269 00:16:16,600 --> 00:16:18,240 - Hello! - Hi, Caroline. 270 00:16:18,240 --> 00:16:20,560 - Lovely to meet you. - Nice to meet you, too. 271 00:16:20,560 --> 00:16:22,240 Lovely to meet you. 272 00:16:22,240 --> 00:16:25,560 - Shall we sit slightly out of the wind? - Yeah. - Cos it's quite breezy, isn't it? 273 00:16:26,840 --> 00:16:30,600 It's such a beautiful place. How on earth did you find it? 274 00:16:30,600 --> 00:16:32,760 It was winter and we were just out in the boat, 275 00:16:32,760 --> 00:16:36,960 and then, when we came around in here to have a look at this place, 276 00:16:36,960 --> 00:16:40,680 it was like, I think January, and it was really cold. 277 00:16:40,680 --> 00:16:44,240 But it was totally clear, it was no wind. 278 00:16:44,240 --> 00:16:46,120 The water was like completely still. 279 00:16:46,120 --> 00:16:49,720 - Even in the winter? - Yes. It was amazing. 280 00:16:49,720 --> 00:16:54,320 We just fell - I think we fell in love with the place immediately. 281 00:16:54,320 --> 00:16:57,920 Any moments when you thought, "We've taken on too much"? 282 00:16:57,920 --> 00:17:01,360 Cos although it's very discreet, it's quite a big ask, this, 283 00:17:01,360 --> 00:17:04,080 isn't it, not to interfere with the landscape? 284 00:17:04,080 --> 00:17:09,400 No, I feel very comfortable about the whole process, yeah, 285 00:17:09,400 --> 00:17:10,960 and the building and everything. 286 00:17:10,960 --> 00:17:12,720 Do you spend a lot of time here? 287 00:17:12,720 --> 00:17:14,560 Yeah, we live here all summer. 288 00:17:14,560 --> 00:17:17,000 So is this an escape for you to come here? 289 00:17:17,000 --> 00:17:20,080 Yeah. It's very, like, relaxing. 290 00:17:20,080 --> 00:17:23,200 It sort of gives you some time off 291 00:17:23,200 --> 00:17:26,200 because both my husband and I work quite a bit. 292 00:17:26,200 --> 00:17:29,120 And it just gives you that, 293 00:17:29,120 --> 00:17:34,000 you know, quality time with the kids and as a family. 294 00:17:34,000 --> 00:17:38,240 You've actually created something perfect for your family. 295 00:17:38,240 --> 00:17:40,320 Yeah. 296 00:17:49,800 --> 00:17:54,160 Some houses are really good, Caroline, but this one was extraordinary. 297 00:17:54,160 --> 00:17:58,120 And I think, well, I don't really want to go, actually. 298 00:17:58,120 --> 00:18:00,600 It's certainly one of the best houses we've seen, isn't it? 299 00:18:00,600 --> 00:18:02,640 Definitely. 300 00:18:02,640 --> 00:18:05,640 I think it was...extraordinary 301 00:18:05,640 --> 00:18:10,720 in that it just felt so much part of this landscape. 302 00:18:10,720 --> 00:18:14,160 And I think...I think what surprised me is that when I got here... 303 00:18:14,160 --> 00:18:17,280 I really don't want to go, Piers! I really don't want to go. 304 00:18:17,280 --> 00:18:19,480 I just wasn't so sure. 305 00:18:19,480 --> 00:18:22,640 And then, as soon as I really experienced it... 306 00:18:22,640 --> 00:18:24,560 Now...where's Dag? 307 00:18:26,080 --> 00:18:27,840 Oh, Dag! 308 00:18:27,840 --> 00:18:29,360 I think we should stay, actually. 309 00:18:29,360 --> 00:18:31,200 What about you, Caroline? 310 00:18:39,640 --> 00:18:42,600 The next leg of our journey to discover some of the world's most 311 00:18:42,600 --> 00:18:46,520 extraordinary coastal homes takes us to southern Spain. 312 00:18:55,600 --> 00:19:00,400 We're heading to an unconventional home built into a steep cliff face 313 00:19:00,400 --> 00:19:05,560 on a 42-degree incline overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. 314 00:19:05,560 --> 00:19:08,240 SHE SPEAKS SPANISH 315 00:19:08,240 --> 00:19:11,800 - ..cliff house! - I think this is the road to the cliff house. 316 00:19:11,800 --> 00:19:13,640 - This is the road. - Let's hope it is. 317 00:19:13,640 --> 00:19:17,080 The plot is just the face of a cliff. 318 00:19:17,080 --> 00:19:18,560 That's right. 319 00:19:18,560 --> 00:19:22,000 But building a house on a cliff of crumbling rock and soil 320 00:19:22,000 --> 00:19:25,200 was no mean feat and required clever engineering 321 00:19:25,200 --> 00:19:28,240 to prevent it from falling into the sea below. 322 00:19:30,360 --> 00:19:33,600 We shouldn't tell each other what we think about this house. 323 00:19:33,600 --> 00:19:36,120 We should look separately and then we should meet up, 324 00:19:36,120 --> 00:19:39,480 cos I don't want to be influenced by you and I don't want you to be 325 00:19:39,480 --> 00:19:42,640 influenced by me because I think this is going to be a rather weird one. 326 00:19:42,640 --> 00:19:45,520 - You're just not interested in what I've got to say, are you? - Yeah! 327 00:19:45,520 --> 00:19:47,200 Just go off and look at it by yourself! 328 00:19:47,200 --> 00:19:50,800 - All right, OK! - I thought I'd got away with that! 329 00:19:50,800 --> 00:19:55,160 - Are you sure this is right? - No, I'm not actually, darling. - I'm sure it is. - Oh! 330 00:19:58,160 --> 00:20:00,600 Don't say anything! Don't speak! 331 00:20:00,600 --> 00:20:02,280 I know you are dying to say something! 332 00:20:02,280 --> 00:20:04,800 Don't speak! Don't speak. 333 00:20:04,800 --> 00:20:10,320 - Don't speak, don't speak. - Not a single adjective? - No. 334 00:20:10,320 --> 00:20:13,920 THEY LAUGH 335 00:20:15,280 --> 00:20:18,800 The challenge facing the architects was to build a house on this steep 336 00:20:18,800 --> 00:20:22,120 slope, which would integrate with the surrounding landscape, 337 00:20:22,120 --> 00:20:26,720 yet at the same time direct all the liveable spaces towards the sea. 338 00:20:38,880 --> 00:20:40,880 Look at it and don't say anything. 339 00:20:46,200 --> 00:20:49,800 SHE LAUGHS 340 00:20:49,800 --> 00:20:54,000 This unusual three-bedroom holiday home buried deep into the cliff face 341 00:20:54,000 --> 00:20:55,680 consists of two floors. 342 00:20:57,200 --> 00:21:03,600 On the ground floor, a large open plan living area follows the angle of the steep slope 343 00:21:03,600 --> 00:21:06,400 and is connected to a cantilever terrace with a swimming pool. 344 00:21:08,560 --> 00:21:09,720 On the second floor, 345 00:21:09,720 --> 00:21:12,960 all the bedrooms have uninterrupted views above the roof, 346 00:21:12,960 --> 00:21:14,280 looking out to the sea. 347 00:21:16,600 --> 00:21:23,240 The 150-square-metre living space is covered by a curved double shell roof of reinforced concrete, 348 00:21:23,240 --> 00:21:27,360 which frames the view and orientates the airflow that comes from the sea 349 00:21:27,360 --> 00:21:29,120 into the interior spaces. 350 00:21:30,800 --> 00:21:33,840 SHE CHUCKLES 351 00:21:33,840 --> 00:21:35,160 If you were a little boy, 352 00:21:35,160 --> 00:21:38,720 what would you put at the top of the stairs if you were hot? 353 00:21:38,720 --> 00:21:40,160 You'd put a pool, wouldn't you? 354 00:21:40,160 --> 00:21:43,000 And that's exactly what they've done, and then it opens out 355 00:21:43,000 --> 00:21:44,640 into this extraordinary thing! 356 00:21:44,640 --> 00:21:49,800 SHE LAUGHS 357 00:21:49,800 --> 00:21:53,800 It's unbelievable. What is going on? What are these? 358 00:21:53,800 --> 00:21:56,720 What the...? What are these? 359 00:21:56,720 --> 00:21:58,880 Oh, my Lord! 360 00:21:58,880 --> 00:22:00,920 SHE LAUGHS 361 00:22:00,920 --> 00:22:05,440 This is comedy. It's like an Austin Powers movie set. 362 00:22:05,440 --> 00:22:07,360 God, what a view, though. 363 00:22:07,360 --> 00:22:09,160 What a view! 364 00:22:14,960 --> 00:22:19,000 The couple who own this house found the challenging cliff-side plot 365 00:22:19,000 --> 00:22:22,360 and fell in love with it immediately. 366 00:22:22,360 --> 00:22:26,440 Aware of both the difficulties of the location and its potential, 367 00:22:26,440 --> 00:22:31,360 they asked several architect companies to come up with a contemporary design. 368 00:22:31,360 --> 00:22:35,120 The winning pitch was from two young Spanish architects, 369 00:22:35,120 --> 00:22:38,720 who embraced the challenge of building a house on such a tricky site. 370 00:22:40,280 --> 00:22:44,080 They came up with a design, which promised a large column-free 371 00:22:44,080 --> 00:22:49,480 living space, which would provide uninterrupted views of the sea. 372 00:22:49,480 --> 00:22:52,640 I wonder what my serious architect chum is making of it. 373 00:22:54,120 --> 00:22:55,600 Looking at the cliff-side 374 00:22:55,600 --> 00:23:00,920 and looking at how ordinary most things are here, the sheer ambition, 375 00:23:00,920 --> 00:23:04,520 the sheer creative ambition to want to do something that is unlike 376 00:23:04,520 --> 00:23:07,960 anything else here, I think is brilliant. 377 00:23:20,160 --> 00:23:23,240 I think it's really playful and funny 378 00:23:23,240 --> 00:23:26,240 and, you know... And it's extraordinary. 379 00:23:26,240 --> 00:23:28,240 You know, I love all this. This is great. 380 00:23:28,240 --> 00:23:30,680 I mean, what a great space to move around in and, you know... 381 00:23:30,680 --> 00:23:32,960 I mean, have you been up here? This is extraordinary. 382 00:23:32,960 --> 00:23:36,200 Why wouldn't you...? I think I'd put a slide right down there 383 00:23:36,200 --> 00:23:38,200 into a massive pool, if you're going to go mad. 384 00:23:38,200 --> 00:23:39,760 And it feels so young. 385 00:23:39,760 --> 00:23:42,880 I mean, really, only a young architect can do this with the floors 386 00:23:42,880 --> 00:23:46,040 and be prepared to push everything as far as it can go. 387 00:23:46,040 --> 00:23:48,840 The only thing that I think anyone would say, 388 00:23:48,840 --> 00:23:51,960 "Ah, yeah, that's a little bit like my home," is the kitchen space. 389 00:23:53,960 --> 00:23:57,960 This open plan living area has a Gaudiesque ceiling 390 00:23:57,960 --> 00:24:00,280 and unusual bespoke features. 391 00:24:01,800 --> 00:24:04,920 THEY LAUGH 392 00:24:04,920 --> 00:24:08,240 We look like the king and queen of the oyster house. 393 00:24:08,240 --> 00:24:13,000 The layout of the living space has been precisely dictated by the design. 394 00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:15,520 The kitchen has a defined dining area, 395 00:24:15,520 --> 00:24:20,120 where the table legs have been fixed rigid into position on the floor. 396 00:24:20,120 --> 00:24:22,840 It's about the architect controlling their vision at all costs. 397 00:24:22,840 --> 00:24:24,560 Does that ever happen with architects? 398 00:24:24,560 --> 00:24:26,960 - Oh, absolutely. Completely. - Oh, I didn't know that. - Completely. 399 00:24:26,960 --> 00:24:29,640 - I mean, it's all about protecting... - Controlling architect? 400 00:24:29,640 --> 00:24:32,960 ..protecting your vision from a client that wants to meddle and interfere. 401 00:24:32,960 --> 00:24:35,800 Yet, ultimately, this open plan living area 402 00:24:35,800 --> 00:24:39,840 has been cleverly designed to make the most of main attraction. 403 00:24:41,720 --> 00:24:45,040 - Let's go see upstairs. - Looking forward to it! 404 00:24:51,200 --> 00:24:56,160 So this is the pile that's stopping the whole house tipping into the sea 405 00:24:56,160 --> 00:24:59,600 because what happens is the other end of this is anchored somewhere 406 00:24:59,600 --> 00:25:02,800 in the cliff face, and then the wall is built, 407 00:25:02,800 --> 00:25:08,200 and then this plate is screwed down to stop it moving. 408 00:25:08,200 --> 00:25:10,080 It's kind beautiful, actually. 409 00:25:12,840 --> 00:25:15,000 Ooh! Look at that. 410 00:25:17,200 --> 00:25:19,280 I bet Piers has talked about that. 411 00:25:19,280 --> 00:25:21,800 Whatever he says, it's probably right. 412 00:25:21,800 --> 00:25:24,040 It's actually really nice being up here, 413 00:25:24,040 --> 00:25:26,120 right under the back part of the roof, 414 00:25:26,120 --> 00:25:29,800 and seeing through that tiny little window up there, 415 00:25:29,800 --> 00:25:31,560 the top bit of landscape. 416 00:25:31,560 --> 00:25:37,280 And, from here, you can read the way the cliff goes all the way down to the sea. 417 00:25:38,560 --> 00:25:41,960 - Hi, Caroline. - Hi. It's lovely, isn't it? - It is. 418 00:25:41,960 --> 00:25:44,120 You very rarely get a view of a roof... 419 00:25:45,240 --> 00:25:46,640 - ..of your own house. - Yeah. 420 00:25:46,640 --> 00:25:48,120 It's like an animal skin. 421 00:25:48,120 --> 00:25:52,160 It is. It's very prehistoric - a slumbering dinosaur. 422 00:25:52,160 --> 00:25:54,160 - Yeah. - It's lovely from up here, 423 00:25:54,160 --> 00:25:56,360 looking all the way along this bit of the coast 424 00:25:56,360 --> 00:26:01,120 and really understanding why people have been drawn here for thousands of years. 425 00:26:01,120 --> 00:26:04,640 Because I think everything's better by the water, isn't it? 426 00:26:04,640 --> 00:26:08,280 - This house just celebrates it, really, doesn't it? - Yeah. 427 00:26:08,280 --> 00:26:14,800 The architects responsible for this coastal home are Jaime Bartolome and Pablo Gil. 428 00:26:14,800 --> 00:26:17,840 So you won this at competition, didn't you? 429 00:26:17,840 --> 00:26:22,880 Yeah. Well, the client asked a number of architects to do, like, 430 00:26:22,880 --> 00:26:25,240 a preliminary design of the house. 431 00:26:25,240 --> 00:26:28,880 Were you taking a bit of a risk to get yourselves noticed in this competition? 432 00:26:28,880 --> 00:26:32,680 Well, definitely noticed for the client so we could get the commission. 433 00:26:32,680 --> 00:26:36,440 But basically, I think what he really liked was that, from the interior, 434 00:26:36,440 --> 00:26:37,920 he could have all these views, 435 00:26:37,920 --> 00:26:41,200 and it was so open and the roof would play with that as well. 436 00:26:41,200 --> 00:26:45,520 And, you know, like, these kind of different spaces. 437 00:26:45,520 --> 00:26:49,040 The roof was the most complex element of the design. 438 00:26:49,040 --> 00:26:53,760 The handcrafted metal framework was built by a local blacksmith. 439 00:26:53,760 --> 00:26:56,640 This malleable material is what supports the concrete 440 00:26:56,640 --> 00:26:58,240 and gives it its unique shape. 441 00:26:59,560 --> 00:27:03,600 It's structurally supported by thick retaining external walls, 442 00:27:03,600 --> 00:27:06,320 so there's no need for pillars to interrupt the views. 443 00:27:07,600 --> 00:27:08,960 I'm fascinated by the structure 444 00:27:08,960 --> 00:27:12,600 and I'd love to know a bit more about how you actually built this, 445 00:27:12,600 --> 00:27:15,400 on what appears to me to be a sort of vertical cliff face, 446 00:27:15,400 --> 00:27:18,440 so can we go and have a look outside and show me how you did it? 447 00:27:18,440 --> 00:27:20,240 - Sure. Yeah. - We'll see you in a minute. 448 00:27:20,240 --> 00:27:25,200 A large portion of the building budget was spent on the foundations for this house. 449 00:27:25,200 --> 00:27:27,720 And looking at the poor condition of the soil here, 450 00:27:27,720 --> 00:27:29,040 it's easy to see why. 451 00:27:33,400 --> 00:27:36,560 Because this earth is basically, it's, I mean, it's... 452 00:27:36,560 --> 00:27:38,960 - Yeah, it's the same. - It's just scree, isn't it? 453 00:27:38,960 --> 00:27:40,120 Exactly what it is, yeah. 454 00:27:40,120 --> 00:27:41,840 - That's all it is, isn't it? - Yeah. 455 00:27:41,840 --> 00:27:45,040 There's nothing here, there's nothing solid underneath. 456 00:27:45,040 --> 00:27:47,920 How do you go about building? 457 00:27:47,920 --> 00:27:49,280 Do you have to dig it out? 458 00:27:49,280 --> 00:27:54,160 Yeah, you basically start digging and start building at the same time. 459 00:27:54,160 --> 00:28:00,320 It was also difficult because you couldn't build the whole thing like a house is done, 460 00:28:00,320 --> 00:28:01,640 from the bottom to the top. 461 00:28:01,640 --> 00:28:05,600 You had to build it from the top to the bottom because, otherwise, 462 00:28:05,600 --> 00:28:07,560 the whole thing would fall into you, 463 00:28:07,560 --> 00:28:10,080 onto the workers, while the site was being built. 464 00:28:10,080 --> 00:28:11,280 Yeah, massive problem. 465 00:28:11,280 --> 00:28:12,680 So that was the main issue, so... 466 00:28:12,680 --> 00:28:15,560 You go in steps, and then through that way, 467 00:28:15,560 --> 00:28:19,000 you end up with what I can show you on the photograph, like a... 468 00:28:19,000 --> 00:28:21,520 - Oh, yeah, please. - ..a huge void. 469 00:28:21,520 --> 00:28:23,280 This is the site as it was before. 470 00:28:23,280 --> 00:28:27,360 And then here, what happens is that you have already built the upper part. 471 00:28:27,360 --> 00:28:29,880 - I see! - And then you have taken a bit off it. 472 00:28:29,880 --> 00:28:32,520 And then you keep building down. 473 00:28:32,520 --> 00:28:35,680 So, and then you put another wall here, and then make another... 474 00:28:35,680 --> 00:28:38,360 - Yeah. - ..inroad into that bit. - Yeah. 475 00:28:38,360 --> 00:28:40,280 Alongside the giant anchors, 476 00:28:40,280 --> 00:28:43,920 the house was secured to the cliff face using a micropile system. 477 00:28:45,200 --> 00:28:49,280 This involves driving steel rods 16 metres deep into the ground 478 00:28:49,280 --> 00:28:51,320 to give it a secure foundation. 479 00:28:52,720 --> 00:28:57,000 For a first major project for two relatively young architects, 480 00:28:57,000 --> 00:29:00,360 did you learn a lot about that client-architect relationship? 481 00:29:00,360 --> 00:29:02,720 Having the client have that vision 482 00:29:02,720 --> 00:29:04,880 and making sure that the rest of the team, 483 00:29:04,880 --> 00:29:08,320 the architects and then on the building site etc, 484 00:29:08,320 --> 00:29:10,480 everybody has the vision and goes for it. 485 00:29:10,480 --> 00:29:13,560 I think, in that sense, the client was really helpful. 486 00:29:13,560 --> 00:29:17,760 This intricate roof is made up of handmade zinc tiles, 487 00:29:17,760 --> 00:29:21,640 which give it a unique texture and appearance. 488 00:29:21,640 --> 00:29:25,400 We bought the raw material from Asturias in the north of Spain, 489 00:29:25,400 --> 00:29:28,040 - a tonne of zinc, very cheap because it's not... - Not processed. 490 00:29:28,040 --> 00:29:29,560 It's just a raw material. 491 00:29:29,560 --> 00:29:32,760 We transported it to a small town in Spain, 492 00:29:32,760 --> 00:29:35,040 people who worked the metal very well. 493 00:29:35,040 --> 00:29:39,000 We have worked with them many times and they cut it and made the scales. 494 00:29:39,000 --> 00:29:40,840 - Yeah. - They brought it here. 495 00:29:40,840 --> 00:29:44,000 - Yeah. - At that time, we had trained the construction workers 496 00:29:44,000 --> 00:29:48,040 and then this whole thing was built in three weeks. 497 00:29:48,040 --> 00:29:49,280 - Wow. - So... 498 00:29:49,280 --> 00:29:51,360 Just like the roof's structure, 499 00:29:51,360 --> 00:29:55,560 the story behind these tiles is one of craftsmanship, using local labour. 500 00:29:56,640 --> 00:30:02,880 Manual labour, which has been thought of as something that makes the building more expensive, 501 00:30:02,880 --> 00:30:05,040 we have found that it's not necessarily like that. 502 00:30:05,040 --> 00:30:08,160 It was kind of a huge surprise for us as well. 503 00:30:08,160 --> 00:30:12,600 With local labour, using methods of construction of this area, 504 00:30:12,600 --> 00:30:17,480 we have demonstrated that it's able to...we are able to produce 505 00:30:17,480 --> 00:30:20,600 a great piece of architecture, I think, for the same cost, 506 00:30:20,600 --> 00:30:22,800 and with much better value for the user. 507 00:30:22,800 --> 00:30:27,840 And it's a pity that this doesn't happen in every mile of the coast of Spain, which is a disaster! 508 00:30:27,840 --> 00:30:29,720 Do you think, next time we come back, 509 00:30:29,720 --> 00:30:33,400 will we see this whole hillside littered with amazing buildings? 510 00:30:33,400 --> 00:30:36,480 We could say goodbye to the square boxes of the Costa Del Sol. 511 00:30:36,480 --> 00:30:40,800 - Hopefully. I'm sure people are going to be interested in doing something else. - Challenging it. 512 00:30:40,800 --> 00:30:43,160 Yeah. When they know it's feasible, 513 00:30:43,160 --> 00:30:45,640 it's durable and it can be done, so... 514 00:30:45,640 --> 00:30:47,520 - Well, you've done it. Thank you. - We've done it! 515 00:30:47,520 --> 00:30:49,000 THEY LAUGH 516 00:30:53,680 --> 00:30:56,520 What's great about it this is that it really could set a precedent 517 00:30:56,520 --> 00:31:00,080 about how to build beautifully and appropriately along this coast. 518 00:31:00,080 --> 00:31:03,280 - Hope it changes things. - It should do, shouldn't it? - Yeah, definitely. 519 00:31:05,360 --> 00:31:07,560 - Not a bad life, is it? - Not bad at all. 520 00:31:07,560 --> 00:31:09,000 - We are lucky, aren't we? - Yeah. 521 00:31:11,880 --> 00:31:15,040 - It's bloody freezing, isn't it? Let's get out. - It is freezing! 522 00:31:15,040 --> 00:31:18,760 HE LAUGHS 523 00:31:27,440 --> 00:31:31,000 Our next coastal home takes us to the other side of the world. 524 00:31:41,480 --> 00:31:46,760 We're in Marlborough Sounds at the northern tip of New Zealand's South Island. 525 00:31:46,760 --> 00:31:50,200 This ancient waterway was formed when sea levels rose 526 00:31:50,200 --> 00:31:55,520 and drowned a series of deep valleys after the last ice age, around 10,000 years ago. 527 00:31:57,040 --> 00:32:00,720 The result is an abundance of remote bays and coves, 528 00:32:00,720 --> 00:32:05,400 and it was this coastal scenery that inspired the owner of our next house 529 00:32:05,400 --> 00:32:09,600 to build a secluded retreat as an escape from his busy working life. 530 00:32:11,680 --> 00:32:16,440 What an incredible thing to build a house at the end of this sea journey. 531 00:32:18,800 --> 00:32:22,440 The challenge for the architect was to design a house which would sit on 532 00:32:22,440 --> 00:32:26,400 a narrow strip of land between the shore and protected bushland. 533 00:32:28,720 --> 00:32:31,560 The easiest way to access this house is by boat. 534 00:32:33,400 --> 00:32:36,680 It's extraordinary. I'm blown away by how beautiful this is. 535 00:32:36,680 --> 00:32:40,280 But the house has to be as good as this boat ride. 536 00:32:41,600 --> 00:32:43,520 It's got a lot to live up to, hasn't it? 537 00:32:48,240 --> 00:32:51,000 But it's quite a dramatic entrance, isn't it? 538 00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:54,840 Waterfall just there, which you can probably hear all the time, actually. 539 00:33:05,560 --> 00:33:09,400 It's just idyllic for me, this. 540 00:33:09,400 --> 00:33:12,640 Right in the middle of a forest, right on the water. 541 00:33:12,640 --> 00:33:14,720 Probably the cleanest sea water in the world. 542 00:33:17,360 --> 00:33:18,400 Oh, thank you. 543 00:33:20,560 --> 00:33:26,520 What I love is this sensory experience of being in landscape 544 00:33:26,520 --> 00:33:28,320 and not seeing a big house anywhere. 545 00:33:28,320 --> 00:33:32,400 There's something very delicate, almost hiding, behind these trees. 546 00:33:32,400 --> 00:33:35,000 We could be walking through a garden in the 18th century. 547 00:33:35,000 --> 00:33:39,600 Everything's so beautiful and mysterious and scented and voluptuous. 548 00:33:39,600 --> 00:33:42,200 - And that's just me! - THEY LAUGH 549 00:33:42,200 --> 00:33:45,320 I like this entrance very much. Do you? 550 00:33:45,320 --> 00:33:49,480 It's lovely being in the trees and looking down at the water. 551 00:33:49,480 --> 00:33:53,240 This entire house was built out of recycled reclaimed hardwoods. 552 00:33:53,240 --> 00:33:54,720 And there they are. 553 00:33:54,720 --> 00:33:59,520 Jarrah, in fact, which is very red and incredibly dense. 554 00:33:59,520 --> 00:34:02,680 Is that the wood that's so hard you can't drill it with a wood drill, 555 00:34:02,680 --> 00:34:04,080 you have to use a metal drill? 556 00:34:04,080 --> 00:34:07,040 - That's right. - Is it that one? - Yeah. Ironbark, or something, they call it. 557 00:34:07,040 --> 00:34:10,640 - Oh, brilliant. - What makes me so suspicious of so much contemporary 558 00:34:10,640 --> 00:34:14,200 architecture is that the architecture dominates and life is banished, 559 00:34:14,200 --> 00:34:16,040 but here it's the other way round. 560 00:34:17,200 --> 00:34:19,840 - It's all about living here, isn't it? - It's all about living. 561 00:34:19,840 --> 00:34:21,480 Living in the beautiful space. 562 00:34:25,720 --> 00:34:29,880 This three-bedroom house has been carefully designed over two floors 563 00:34:29,880 --> 00:34:33,720 to fit on a narrow strip of land between the hillside and the sea. 564 00:34:35,640 --> 00:34:40,160 Two separate wooden-clad structures divide the house into different zones. 565 00:34:41,440 --> 00:34:45,400 One is a living space, with a large dining room and kitchen area, 566 00:34:45,400 --> 00:34:46,840 with guest rooms below. 567 00:34:48,080 --> 00:34:49,720 The other is the master bedroom, 568 00:34:49,720 --> 00:34:53,400 which is held aloft by a series of hardwood timbers that give 569 00:34:53,400 --> 00:34:55,680 a sense of floating above the trees and water. 570 00:34:58,200 --> 00:35:02,200 A glazed bridge corridor through the trees links the main bedroom 571 00:35:02,200 --> 00:35:03,720 to the rest of the house. 572 00:35:06,800 --> 00:35:09,520 Oh! SHE LAUGHS 573 00:35:26,720 --> 00:35:28,400 Piers! 574 00:35:28,400 --> 00:35:30,280 Isn't that water beautiful? 575 00:35:30,280 --> 00:35:34,200 This takes me back about 30 years, to when I was a student in Sydney, 576 00:35:34,200 --> 00:35:36,560 because it's so Antipodean, 577 00:35:36,560 --> 00:35:40,160 this bluey green water with the light on it 578 00:35:40,160 --> 00:35:43,360 and untouched bushland around it. 579 00:35:43,360 --> 00:35:48,120 And for all the abstract pleasures of landscape and place and beauty, 580 00:35:48,120 --> 00:35:52,440 actually, this is a really rich and interesting home, 581 00:35:52,440 --> 00:35:54,160 where someone really lives here! 582 00:35:54,160 --> 00:35:59,240 They do, and with so many beautiful things and with all this wonderful, rich wood. 583 00:35:59,240 --> 00:36:02,800 And then, as you say, that peacock-blue water. 584 00:36:02,800 --> 00:36:06,000 While the weather's good, I'm going to just explore outside, 585 00:36:06,000 --> 00:36:08,800 get my bearings and just see how it all fits together 586 00:36:08,800 --> 00:36:11,560 and leave you in here to explore. There's lots to explore! 587 00:36:11,560 --> 00:36:15,760 There certainly is. I'm going to have a little beak. 588 00:36:15,760 --> 00:36:20,080 Nearly all of the hardwood timbers that support this house are reclaimed, 589 00:36:20,080 --> 00:36:23,880 including the ironbark columns which prop up the master bedroom. 590 00:36:25,160 --> 00:36:27,640 They were rescued from old railway bridges 591 00:36:27,640 --> 00:36:31,040 and transported to this remote location by barge, 592 00:36:31,040 --> 00:36:33,840 along with the glass windows and cedar cladding 593 00:36:33,840 --> 00:36:36,920 which nestle this building into the landscape. 594 00:36:36,920 --> 00:36:40,840 I really wanted to come back down to the boat to see the house from where 595 00:36:40,840 --> 00:36:43,040 I first arrived, to make sense of it again, 596 00:36:43,040 --> 00:36:44,600 because, when you're up close, 597 00:36:44,600 --> 00:36:49,160 it's a building that doesn't really tell you how it's organised. 598 00:36:49,160 --> 00:36:53,280 Because you're so immersed in just that experience of being in the trees 599 00:36:53,280 --> 00:36:55,600 with that incredible view of the water. 600 00:36:55,600 --> 00:36:57,920 But from here, it is a very simple building. 601 00:36:57,920 --> 00:37:01,520 Constructionally, this house is really just like one of these piers. 602 00:37:02,760 --> 00:37:05,160 What there are, these uprights, 603 00:37:05,160 --> 00:37:08,360 there are some big, chunky bits of timber 604 00:37:08,360 --> 00:37:14,960 and then everything else is a simple bit of beam with some tension wire 605 00:37:14,960 --> 00:37:18,800 and then it's filled in and, really, that's it. 606 00:37:18,800 --> 00:37:21,720 What's wonderful about this house is it's very unshowy, 607 00:37:21,720 --> 00:37:24,400 very straightforward and it's done brilliantly. 608 00:37:26,120 --> 00:37:30,200 Once you leave the entertaining space of the kitchen and the dining area, 609 00:37:30,200 --> 00:37:33,640 you go to the bedroom via this green corridor, 610 00:37:33,640 --> 00:37:39,440 so there's glass and pushing up against the glass is the forest canopy. 611 00:37:39,440 --> 00:37:44,320 It's rainforest here. It's like being in a terrarium. 612 00:37:44,320 --> 00:37:45,440 Oh! 613 00:37:46,960 --> 00:37:50,160 This is one sexy... 614 00:37:51,600 --> 00:37:53,880 ..sexy bathroom. 615 00:37:53,880 --> 00:37:56,560 Look at this tub. Oh! 616 00:37:56,560 --> 00:37:59,480 This guy's working life is... 617 00:37:59,480 --> 00:38:01,800 To say high-powered doesn't really cover it - 618 00:38:01,800 --> 00:38:04,400 he is a world famous cinematographer. 619 00:38:04,400 --> 00:38:09,120 He's worked on some of the best films ever made. 620 00:38:09,120 --> 00:38:12,640 I don't know if you know Midnight Express. 621 00:38:12,640 --> 00:38:15,400 Ring any bells? Bugsy Malone? 622 00:38:15,400 --> 00:38:16,680 Ring any bells? 623 00:38:16,680 --> 00:38:19,800 Gravity? Planet Of The Apes? 624 00:38:19,800 --> 00:38:23,040 Harry Potter? Heard of him at all? 625 00:38:23,040 --> 00:38:24,560 This guy shot that. 626 00:38:24,560 --> 00:38:28,600 And with all that comes a huge amount of stress, 627 00:38:28,600 --> 00:38:33,920 so where better to come and unwind and get back in touch with nature? 628 00:38:35,640 --> 00:38:40,640 And the real things in life - wood and greenery... 629 00:38:40,640 --> 00:38:41,920 and the water! 630 00:38:43,440 --> 00:38:45,640 - Piers? - Yeah! - Are you there? 631 00:38:45,640 --> 00:38:47,400 Hello, love! 632 00:38:47,400 --> 00:38:51,760 I drifted off. I was in a dreamlike state of just sensory bliss. 633 00:38:51,760 --> 00:38:55,320 It is! That's exactly what it's like. It's dreamlike. 634 00:38:55,320 --> 00:38:58,200 What's great about the architecture is that it's taken a back seat. 635 00:38:58,200 --> 00:39:01,040 It doesn't disappear completely - there is still a building here, 636 00:39:01,040 --> 00:39:05,680 but actually, what the building never does is stop you being 637 00:39:05,680 --> 00:39:11,680 immersed in this place, immersed in the dappled light, immersed in that turquoise water. 638 00:39:11,680 --> 00:39:16,000 I'm not sure I've ever been somewhere that's so intertwined 639 00:39:16,000 --> 00:39:18,920 with nature and that verdant bushland. 640 00:39:18,920 --> 00:39:21,360 It's about living in the moment, this house, isn't it? 641 00:39:21,360 --> 00:39:22,720 Yeah. And it changes. 642 00:39:22,720 --> 00:39:27,520 The light changes faster than anywhere I've been as it moves 643 00:39:27,520 --> 00:39:29,320 through this canopy. 644 00:39:29,320 --> 00:39:32,600 And, of course, the light would have been incredibly important 645 00:39:32,600 --> 00:39:34,200 for him as a cinematographer. 646 00:39:34,200 --> 00:39:39,160 Homeowner Michael Saracen was closely involved with the design of this house 647 00:39:39,160 --> 00:39:44,720 and entrusted local builder David Keeps to execute his precise vision. 648 00:39:44,720 --> 00:39:47,160 I never built a house, I didn't have a clue about how to do it. 649 00:39:47,160 --> 00:39:49,480 You know, film sets is all I know about. 650 00:39:49,480 --> 00:39:52,480 I go on there and say, "When's it going to be ready? When can I light it?" 651 00:39:52,480 --> 00:39:55,480 But I think your visual sense, I mean, 652 00:39:55,480 --> 00:39:57,760 I know you're kind of making light of it, 653 00:39:57,760 --> 00:40:00,280 but actually your visual sense is... 654 00:40:00,280 --> 00:40:02,800 it's deeply rooted in this property. 655 00:40:02,800 --> 00:40:05,520 I mean, the use of light - it delivers. 656 00:40:05,520 --> 00:40:09,960 Why did you look for this incredible piece of land in the first place? 657 00:40:09,960 --> 00:40:11,680 I came out once from the States, 658 00:40:11,680 --> 00:40:14,160 looked at something which was further up the Sounds 659 00:40:14,160 --> 00:40:17,560 and then I heard about this one, which is 75 acres, the light was nice, 660 00:40:17,560 --> 00:40:20,720 and faces north so we had sun most of the day. 661 00:40:20,720 --> 00:40:24,120 I also loved that we could build close to the water. 662 00:40:24,120 --> 00:40:26,160 I also love that we have a waterfall. 663 00:40:26,160 --> 00:40:28,680 - Yeah. - So you've sort of got it in front of you and behind you. 664 00:40:28,680 --> 00:40:30,680 And just stuff fell into place. 665 00:40:30,680 --> 00:40:34,760 There was something quite organic, I guess. 666 00:40:34,760 --> 00:40:37,840 So it was an immediate sort of response to the land and the light, was it? 667 00:40:37,840 --> 00:40:39,800 Yeah. Yeah. 668 00:40:39,800 --> 00:40:47,960 Michael is dogmatic about beauty, so, as the builder, you either say, 669 00:40:47,960 --> 00:40:55,120 "I'm going to bust my gut to try and interpret what this guy means by beauty." 670 00:40:55,120 --> 00:40:59,160 I came to the conclusion that I was better to ignore that 671 00:40:59,160 --> 00:41:03,480 and fortuitously, I think, our tastes coalesce somewhat. 672 00:41:03,480 --> 00:41:04,640 Yeah, no, absolutely. 673 00:41:04,640 --> 00:41:08,920 This house is all about reclaimed wood and the use of wood 674 00:41:08,920 --> 00:41:11,920 and, actually, I have seen lots of reclaimed things around here. 675 00:41:11,920 --> 00:41:13,360 All the hardwood is recycled. 676 00:41:13,360 --> 00:41:15,000 I'm reclaimed! 677 00:41:16,400 --> 00:41:18,840 I also like the sort of...its age. 678 00:41:18,840 --> 00:41:22,800 I thought, "Why not have the house sort of constructed with old stuff which has some history?" 679 00:41:22,800 --> 00:41:25,040 Well, I think that's what, I mean, 680 00:41:25,040 --> 00:41:27,920 you get a real sense of that when you walk in. 681 00:41:27,920 --> 00:41:29,920 It's a contemporary house, 682 00:41:29,920 --> 00:41:32,720 but it already has personality and life 683 00:41:32,720 --> 00:41:37,400 and you feel that it's had lots of areas and had lots of life before. 684 00:41:37,400 --> 00:41:40,240 The thing is, you throw away the spirit level on a job like this. 685 00:41:40,240 --> 00:41:42,280 The house is like a work of art. 686 00:41:42,280 --> 00:41:44,440 It's like an installation in an art gallery. 687 00:41:44,440 --> 00:41:49,240 The workings of the house are secondary to that primary goal 688 00:41:49,240 --> 00:41:52,280 of surrounding oneself with beauty. 689 00:41:53,680 --> 00:41:57,120 This aesthetic was extended to the relationship the house 690 00:41:57,120 --> 00:41:59,040 has to the natural environment. 691 00:41:59,040 --> 00:42:02,920 Preserving the beauty of the landscape that surrounded his waterside home 692 00:42:02,920 --> 00:42:04,400 was paramount to Michael. 693 00:42:05,880 --> 00:42:07,920 This came with its own problems, 694 00:42:07,920 --> 00:42:11,960 especially when David began building the house on this tricky site 695 00:42:11,960 --> 00:42:15,000 so close to the shoreline and surrounded by trees. 696 00:42:15,000 --> 00:42:19,040 The soil here is extremely unstable... 697 00:42:19,040 --> 00:42:22,120 All of this area is referred to 698 00:42:22,120 --> 00:42:25,320 by local authority as a natural hazard area. 699 00:42:25,320 --> 00:42:30,480 - Gosh. - So what we had to do here to support the house was drive railway 700 00:42:30,480 --> 00:42:35,080 iron six metres into the ground before we could pour any concrete. 701 00:42:36,040 --> 00:42:39,280 So we needed to bring in a pile-driving break and, 702 00:42:39,280 --> 00:42:42,880 along the way, there were a number of old beech trees. 703 00:42:42,880 --> 00:42:48,240 So I heroically climb onto the digger, with a little pruning saw, 704 00:42:48,240 --> 00:42:51,120 up to the top of one of the beech trees 705 00:42:51,120 --> 00:42:54,320 and surgically remove a little branch. 706 00:42:54,320 --> 00:42:57,520 And then I hear a bellowing scream from the building platform. 707 00:42:57,520 --> 00:43:00,360 - Who could that possibly be? - That's the client. 708 00:43:00,360 --> 00:43:02,600 - You're joking. - No. - Yeah. - Really? 709 00:43:02,600 --> 00:43:03,920 Sounds like an ask, doesn't it? 710 00:43:03,920 --> 00:43:08,520 What I learned very quickly was that the trees on this site were sacrosanct. 711 00:43:08,520 --> 00:43:10,320 - Right. - He wanted to take the stuff out. 712 00:43:10,320 --> 00:43:14,680 I said to him very politely and kindly, "For every tree you take down, I cut off a finger." 713 00:43:14,680 --> 00:43:16,120 He said, "Oh, fair enough." So... 714 00:43:16,120 --> 00:43:18,120 But look at it now. Isn't it incredible? 715 00:43:18,120 --> 00:43:22,240 If they'd taken them all down, I just...the house feels settled in the landscape. 716 00:43:22,240 --> 00:43:23,640 Which is just thrilling. 717 00:43:23,640 --> 00:43:26,880 I think that is...that must be about your sense of composition and light 718 00:43:26,880 --> 00:43:29,400 - and space. - I guess, yeah. I mean, that's for other people to say. 719 00:43:29,400 --> 00:43:31,600 I'm not aware of it because this is how I like living. 720 00:43:31,600 --> 00:43:34,120 It's me, I'm saying it, it's up to me to say it! 721 00:43:34,120 --> 00:43:36,400 I mean, it is a very peaceful place. 722 00:43:36,400 --> 00:43:40,720 The only sounds are birdsong, wind and water - 723 00:43:40,720 --> 00:43:42,840 that's it - and I love that. 724 00:43:42,840 --> 00:43:45,160 The essence of, like, naturalness. 725 00:43:45,160 --> 00:43:47,680 I think it's also manifested in the building, to a degree, 726 00:43:47,680 --> 00:43:53,120 the quality of the light, the quality of the design, the quality of the building - special. 727 00:43:54,960 --> 00:43:58,200 For what it's worth, I think it's... 728 00:43:59,400 --> 00:44:00,840 ..perfect. 729 00:44:00,840 --> 00:44:02,080 - Thank you. - Thank you. - Oh! 730 00:44:15,440 --> 00:44:18,120 - Thank you. - Thanks, Scotty. 731 00:44:18,120 --> 00:44:19,920 It feels a bit sad to be leaving. 732 00:44:22,320 --> 00:44:23,920 When we arrived here today, 733 00:44:23,920 --> 00:44:27,440 I honestly thought this was one of the most beautiful places I'd ever been. 734 00:44:27,440 --> 00:44:31,520 And we were concerned, weren't we, that the house wouldn't live up to the environment? 735 00:44:31,520 --> 00:44:32,560 But it has, hasn't it? 736 00:44:32,560 --> 00:44:35,640 It has because it doesn't try and compete with the environment. 737 00:44:35,640 --> 00:44:37,560 It doesn't try and add anything. 738 00:44:37,560 --> 00:44:42,360 It just subtly weaves itself into this place, so it's inseparable. 739 00:44:42,360 --> 00:44:45,320 And it's sexy, too, Piers. Very, very sexy. 740 00:45:02,440 --> 00:45:07,640 Our last extraordinary house takes us to the very tip of south-east Canada 741 00:45:07,640 --> 00:45:09,480 and to the province of Nova Scotia. 742 00:45:14,120 --> 00:45:17,600 We are heading to a three-bedroom holiday home set on the edge of this 743 00:45:17,600 --> 00:45:22,120 wild coastline, which is prone to extreme swings in temperature and 744 00:45:22,120 --> 00:45:23,440 the threat of rough storms. 745 00:45:24,720 --> 00:45:26,760 There's a real sense of mystery about Nova Scotia, 746 00:45:26,760 --> 00:45:29,760 all those Canadian writers and actually singer-songwriters and things. 747 00:45:29,760 --> 00:45:33,360 This is like some of those landscapes you see on those Swedish mysteries. 748 00:45:34,560 --> 00:45:38,680 The owners of our next home are both busy physicians and wanted to build 749 00:45:38,680 --> 00:45:42,360 themselves a secluded retreat on the edge of the Atlantic coast 750 00:45:42,360 --> 00:45:44,120 as close to the water as possible. 751 00:45:45,320 --> 00:45:49,320 So they bought a plot of land with no infrastructure in place - 752 00:45:49,320 --> 00:45:51,840 so remote it didn't even have a road. 753 00:45:55,960 --> 00:45:59,600 They employed an award-winning local architect to take on the challenge 754 00:45:59,600 --> 00:46:02,240 of designing them a waterfront home. 755 00:46:02,240 --> 00:46:05,120 The house needed to face the Atlantic Ocean head-on 756 00:46:05,120 --> 00:46:09,360 and withstand all that Mother Nature has to throw at it. 757 00:46:09,360 --> 00:46:12,240 We're going to see a house that I know Piers is very excited about. 758 00:46:12,240 --> 00:46:14,280 I am excited. I feel like I'm on a pilgrimage 759 00:46:14,280 --> 00:46:17,680 because this architect I've thought about for about 20 years, 760 00:46:17,680 --> 00:46:21,040 and he's one of three or four architects in the world 761 00:46:21,040 --> 00:46:25,480 who work at a really regional level doing quite modest things, 762 00:46:25,480 --> 00:46:28,400 but their work is known internationally. 763 00:46:28,400 --> 00:46:33,240 This is a Nova Scotian architect who's got a world-famous reputation? 764 00:46:33,240 --> 00:46:34,840 - Completely. - How exciting! 765 00:46:34,840 --> 00:46:36,800 Really exciting. Really excited, actually. 766 00:46:36,800 --> 00:46:38,840 I just hope it's not going to be a let down. 767 00:46:38,840 --> 00:46:40,840 They say don't meet your heroes. 768 00:46:40,840 --> 00:46:43,240 - What's his name? - Brian MacKay-Lyons. 769 00:46:43,240 --> 00:46:45,520 You look a little bit scared. 770 00:46:45,520 --> 00:46:47,680 Is it like meeting an old girlfriend or something, 771 00:46:47,680 --> 00:46:50,160 or a woman that you've always really fancied off the telly? 772 00:46:50,160 --> 00:46:53,120 - I think so. Yeah. Absolutely. - You don't want her to be a disappointment? 773 00:46:53,120 --> 00:46:55,200 I don't want her to be a big disappointment, no. 774 00:46:55,200 --> 00:46:57,200 Is this your Joanna Lumley, Piers? 775 00:46:58,240 --> 00:46:59,640 - Here we are. - OK! 776 00:47:24,440 --> 00:47:25,600 It's quite formal, isn't it? 777 00:47:25,600 --> 00:47:29,040 You arrive up a staircase between two buildings. 778 00:47:30,160 --> 00:47:34,200 It's very sort of ordered and neat, isn't it? 779 00:47:34,200 --> 00:47:36,720 And it doesn't give much away, does it? Very closed. 780 00:47:36,720 --> 00:47:38,840 It's not announcing itself, is it, at all? 781 00:47:38,840 --> 00:47:41,360 No. No, and a secret door almost to go in. 782 00:47:41,360 --> 00:47:43,600 Very hidden, isn't it? 783 00:47:43,600 --> 00:47:44,920 Are you a bit disappointed? 784 00:47:44,920 --> 00:47:47,760 I am a bit. I think I'm a bit underwhelmed. 785 00:47:47,760 --> 00:47:50,920 - An entrance is important, isn't it? - Really important. Really important. 786 00:47:50,920 --> 00:47:55,440 I like the way it's perched delicately on this very rocky base, though, 787 00:47:55,440 --> 00:47:57,160 because this is a rocky place. 788 00:47:57,160 --> 00:47:59,280 I mean, it's a beautiful bit of landscape. 789 00:47:59,280 --> 00:48:01,960 And, at the moment, there's two or three, really, 790 00:48:01,960 --> 00:48:05,240 very simple boxes just perched on top. 791 00:48:05,240 --> 00:48:07,080 It's quite sort of intriguing, though. 792 00:48:07,080 --> 00:48:11,960 I suspect that it's all closed this side, but open the other, 793 00:48:11,960 --> 00:48:14,080 - or at least that's what I'm hoping. - Yeah. 794 00:48:16,440 --> 00:48:20,440 In keeping with the maritime theme of its coastal environment, 795 00:48:20,440 --> 00:48:25,280 Two Hulls was designed to resemble the bodies of two ships in dry dock. 796 00:48:27,640 --> 00:48:32,920 Each separate hull of this building is designated for individual sleeping and living areas, 797 00:48:32,920 --> 00:48:35,360 both connected by a large entrance hall. 798 00:48:37,840 --> 00:48:40,240 Built on a solid concrete foundation, 799 00:48:40,240 --> 00:48:43,480 the steel structure is clad with a cedar wooden shell 800 00:48:43,480 --> 00:48:45,680 and has glass windows throughout. 801 00:48:47,360 --> 00:48:50,640 Both cantilever trusses were cleverly designed to jut out 802 00:48:50,640 --> 00:48:54,040 over the coastline, inviting the sea to pass under the house 803 00:48:54,040 --> 00:48:57,040 without damaging the building during rough storms. 804 00:49:01,440 --> 00:49:04,240 I want to watch you open the door because I want to see whether my 805 00:49:04,240 --> 00:49:07,200 theory is right - that you could hurtle backwards down those stairs. 806 00:49:07,200 --> 00:49:09,560 I've got a feeling that's a design fault. 807 00:49:09,560 --> 00:49:11,560 That would be really weird! 808 00:49:11,560 --> 00:49:14,400 - It would. - But I'm hoping it opens in! 809 00:49:14,400 --> 00:49:18,800 THEY LAUGH 810 00:49:18,800 --> 00:49:22,480 - You knew that was going to happen! - I did. - You're so bad! 811 00:49:26,800 --> 00:49:28,680 I think it's sort of growing on me, 812 00:49:28,680 --> 00:49:32,000 but it's like a person, having to really probe them 813 00:49:32,000 --> 00:49:35,320 and work quite hard to get some response. 814 00:49:35,320 --> 00:49:36,920 It's like meeting your heroines. 815 00:49:36,920 --> 00:49:41,600 - It's like dreaming of meeting Betty Davis and ending up with Sue Pollard. - Yes! 816 00:49:41,600 --> 00:49:45,480 Not that there's anything wrong with you, Sue, you're adorable, but you know what I mean! 817 00:49:48,240 --> 00:49:50,040 Entering the master bedroom, 818 00:49:50,040 --> 00:49:54,840 the cleverness of this cantilever design is exposed in all its glory. 819 00:49:56,000 --> 00:49:59,320 That, to me, looks like an architectural dream. 820 00:49:59,320 --> 00:50:04,480 This is interesting construction - big steel frame, big stiff truss. 821 00:50:04,480 --> 00:50:06,360 And by the sea. 822 00:50:06,360 --> 00:50:08,720 This room stretches out over the rocks below, 823 00:50:08,720 --> 00:50:10,360 as if it's suspended in midair, 824 00:50:10,360 --> 00:50:13,200 and gives the impression of floating above the water. 825 00:50:14,440 --> 00:50:17,640 I must say, this is, so far, this is my favourite space. 826 00:50:17,640 --> 00:50:19,800 - Me, too. - I like these. 827 00:50:19,800 --> 00:50:23,000 - I think it's quite dynamic, quite exciting. - Yeah, yeah. 828 00:50:23,000 --> 00:50:29,040 - And also I feel if it was a really awful day, a kind of really... - Howling gale. - Howling gale, yeah. 829 00:50:29,040 --> 00:50:31,080 I could feel quite safe up here. I could witness it, 830 00:50:31,080 --> 00:50:32,680 but I wouldn't feel like I was in it. 831 00:50:32,680 --> 00:50:34,760 And this is a just beautiful view. 832 00:50:34,760 --> 00:50:39,320 - It's beautiful. - You feel you can breathe and you suddenly get the expanse of the view. - Yeah. 833 00:50:40,840 --> 00:50:45,560 The hull to the right contains a compact but practical galley kitchen 834 00:50:45,560 --> 00:50:48,480 and a 32-foot-high living room. 835 00:50:49,520 --> 00:50:52,200 - I like seeing the silver birches. - That's beautiful, isn't it, this? 836 00:50:52,200 --> 00:50:55,880 - Yeah. - I mean, looking down into this is really beautiful, 837 00:50:55,880 --> 00:50:58,640 really beautiful. Really mysterious and magical. 838 00:50:58,640 --> 00:51:03,320 This, by anyone's standards, is a really interesting, 839 00:51:03,320 --> 00:51:05,480 - quite beautiful space. - I like the wood. 840 00:51:05,480 --> 00:51:08,040 I actually like the sort of neutral palette in here - 841 00:51:08,040 --> 00:51:10,960 I think it works really well with the silver birches. 842 00:51:10,960 --> 00:51:14,040 - Have they got a telly? Is it behind those white things? - I don't know. 843 00:51:14,040 --> 00:51:16,480 - I hope they haven't got one. - You hope they haven't? 844 00:51:16,480 --> 00:51:20,920 - You don't need a telly here, do you? - Well, you might want to watch us! 845 00:51:20,920 --> 00:51:23,360 HE LAUGHS 846 00:51:30,800 --> 00:51:34,560 This is almost the first thing I've seen that is a little bit playful, 847 00:51:34,560 --> 00:51:38,840 you know, this is like going up in a ship's sort of galley, isn't it? 848 00:51:38,840 --> 00:51:41,200 - Nice arse, by the way. - This is... 849 00:51:41,200 --> 00:51:43,720 I don't know, it's a funny kind of chill-out space. 850 00:51:43,720 --> 00:51:46,440 - Oh? - A sort of...dunno, really. 851 00:51:46,440 --> 00:51:49,240 HE WHISTLES 852 00:51:49,240 --> 00:51:51,800 SHE LAUGHS 853 00:51:51,800 --> 00:51:53,160 Is that the messy quarter? 854 00:51:53,160 --> 00:51:55,360 This is the messy quarter. I'm going to stay up here. 855 00:51:55,360 --> 00:51:58,000 It's where all the clobber is, all the games and all the stuff. 856 00:51:58,000 --> 00:52:00,080 It's quite nice. It's a beautiful space. 857 00:52:00,080 --> 00:52:01,400 It's an interesting building. 858 00:52:01,400 --> 00:52:03,640 It's a clever building. It's an extraordinary view. 859 00:52:03,640 --> 00:52:05,920 I mean, there's lots of good stuff here. 860 00:52:11,120 --> 00:52:15,880 This house is fairly sophisticated and it's a big bit of engineering, 861 00:52:15,880 --> 00:52:18,880 and there are two big trusses. 862 00:52:18,880 --> 00:52:20,000 And a truss, really, 863 00:52:20,000 --> 00:52:24,000 is something that is very stiff but made up out of small pieces. 864 00:52:24,000 --> 00:52:26,080 Because that's a box, that will skew. 865 00:52:26,080 --> 00:52:29,040 You know, if you push there, the whole thing would skew around. 866 00:52:29,040 --> 00:52:31,920 So what you then need to do is make it very stiff and, 867 00:52:31,920 --> 00:52:37,880 by triangulating it, you make it very stiff because triangles are inherently really stiff things. 868 00:52:37,880 --> 00:52:41,320 This is now a really simple twig truss 869 00:52:41,320 --> 00:52:44,920 and this is a box, much like the house. 870 00:52:44,920 --> 00:52:48,360 You hold it down with a big bit of foundation, 871 00:52:48,360 --> 00:52:52,960 big bit of concrete in the ground, and then there's a pivot or a prop. 872 00:52:52,960 --> 00:52:56,920 And what the prop is doing is allowing this piece to cantilever, 873 00:52:56,920 --> 00:52:58,880 and this is stopping it tipping. 874 00:52:58,880 --> 00:53:02,000 This big bit of foundation is stopping it tipping in the ground. 875 00:53:02,000 --> 00:53:04,720 Architects often get really excited by cantilevers 876 00:53:04,720 --> 00:53:09,440 because they're an opportunity to do a piece of non-domestic construction 877 00:53:09,440 --> 00:53:11,560 and they look great. 878 00:53:13,080 --> 00:53:17,280 Owners Marcelo and Sylvia fell in love with this rugged Canadian 879 00:53:17,280 --> 00:53:20,640 coastline after moving to Nova Scotia from Brazil. 880 00:53:23,280 --> 00:53:25,920 We started exploring the province 881 00:53:25,920 --> 00:53:29,360 and really fell in love with this coast here. 882 00:53:29,360 --> 00:53:31,200 It's a beautiful coast. 883 00:53:31,200 --> 00:53:34,840 It's very natural, small fishing villages and really beautiful, 884 00:53:34,840 --> 00:53:39,200 beautiful beaches, which kind of reminded us of our beaches in Brazil. 885 00:53:39,200 --> 00:53:41,840 - Do they? - They do, yeah. - Why is that? 886 00:53:41,840 --> 00:53:43,680 A little colder, but they do. 887 00:53:43,680 --> 00:53:47,080 Yes, quite a lot colder. How did you go about choosing your architect? 888 00:53:47,080 --> 00:53:48,960 We knew of Brian's works, 889 00:53:48,960 --> 00:53:52,400 particularly around Halifax area, you know. 890 00:53:52,400 --> 00:53:55,520 One of our neighbours has a house that was built by him. 891 00:53:55,520 --> 00:53:59,000 And they are very, I mean, he has very strong style. 892 00:53:59,000 --> 00:54:02,720 His houses, you recognise them when you look at them. 893 00:54:02,720 --> 00:54:04,040 And we, you know, 894 00:54:04,040 --> 00:54:08,760 we enjoy that style and we thought it would actually fit here nicely. 895 00:54:08,760 --> 00:54:11,680 - Hey, Brian. - Hey, Piers. - How are you doing? - Good. 896 00:54:11,680 --> 00:54:13,400 - Good to meet you. - Good to meet you. 897 00:54:13,400 --> 00:54:16,280 - Finally. Been looking forward to meeting you. - Yeah, likewise. 898 00:54:16,280 --> 00:54:21,040 Award-winning architect Brian MacKay-Lyons is one of my architectural heroes. 899 00:54:21,040 --> 00:54:26,040 He's the man responsible for designing Marcelo and Sylvia's extraordinary coastal home. 900 00:54:26,040 --> 00:54:30,160 My partner and I grew up in and around shipyards, wooden shipbuilding, 901 00:54:30,160 --> 00:54:32,600 and so we would play in the shavings underneath the hulls. 902 00:54:32,600 --> 00:54:35,960 - OK, yeah. - There is something archetypal about being in those boat 903 00:54:35,960 --> 00:54:38,800 sheds, underneath the boats, in the bellies of the boats. 904 00:54:38,800 --> 00:54:40,920 So this is what it's all about, then? 905 00:54:40,920 --> 00:54:43,680 I mean this, you know, the underside of a boat. 906 00:54:43,680 --> 00:54:47,880 I mean, it's not something that us landlubbers get to see very often. 907 00:54:47,880 --> 00:54:50,840 - Also it's a way of framing the landscape. - Yes, yes. 908 00:54:50,840 --> 00:54:52,880 Like, right now, I don't see much sky 909 00:54:52,880 --> 00:54:54,920 and I see water and beach and rocks. 910 00:54:54,920 --> 00:54:59,560 And so it frames the world and makes it a very different thing when it's, 911 00:54:59,560 --> 00:55:01,600 like, cropped by the building. 912 00:55:01,600 --> 00:55:03,960 So this is really the experience that the building 913 00:55:03,960 --> 00:55:07,560 - is supposed to be about, is the under, the between. - Yeah. 914 00:55:07,560 --> 00:55:12,120 You know, I always think the places between the buildings and the land is really the object. 915 00:55:12,120 --> 00:55:16,440 - Like in music, you know, the rests in music are as important as the notes. - Yeah. Absolutely. 916 00:55:16,440 --> 00:55:19,440 Tell me a little about the conversation you had with the clients - 917 00:55:19,440 --> 00:55:22,360 - or the ongoing conversation. - Well, the first day on the site - 918 00:55:22,360 --> 00:55:25,960 Frank Lloyd Wright said, "If you don't get an idea the first day on the site with the client, 919 00:55:25,960 --> 00:55:27,200 "you're not going to get one." 920 00:55:27,200 --> 00:55:29,680 So first day we came here, we were climbing on the rocks, 921 00:55:29,680 --> 00:55:33,600 we all felt that this was the place where the landscape was most dramatic, 922 00:55:33,600 --> 00:55:34,800 closest to the water. 923 00:55:34,800 --> 00:55:37,800 You conceived of a building. 924 00:55:37,800 --> 00:55:39,200 Was it this building? 925 00:55:39,200 --> 00:55:40,560 I think fundamentally it was. 926 00:55:40,560 --> 00:55:43,840 It was the scheme that we did together with the client first day. 927 00:55:47,080 --> 00:55:52,880 But building a house with spectacular ocean views in this wilderness didn't come easy. 928 00:55:52,880 --> 00:55:57,480 With no infrastructure, creating a road to access this remote plot 929 00:55:57,480 --> 00:56:01,680 took an entire year of planning and careful construction. 930 00:56:01,680 --> 00:56:05,000 That's a major road you've had to build there, isn't it? 931 00:56:05,000 --> 00:56:08,120 Because was there nothing there before, maybe a walking track or nothing? 932 00:56:08,120 --> 00:56:13,000 - Nothing at all? - That road had to go through rocks. - How did they do it? 933 00:56:13,000 --> 00:56:16,360 They had to dynamite a lot of... 934 00:56:16,360 --> 00:56:21,080 And we wanted to destroy the least amount possible trees, 935 00:56:21,080 --> 00:56:23,760 and so that's why it's a bit... 936 00:56:23,760 --> 00:56:28,520 You have to see where it will be better not to destroy the trees. 937 00:56:30,680 --> 00:56:32,880 These people were very gentle clients. 938 00:56:32,880 --> 00:56:35,560 You know, they weren't pushy, but they were very curious. 939 00:56:35,560 --> 00:56:37,440 Intellectually curious people. 940 00:56:37,440 --> 00:56:43,840 And actually interested in art for its own value, 941 00:56:43,840 --> 00:56:46,080 - which makes the best kind of client. - Totally. 942 00:56:46,080 --> 00:56:49,200 Coming back now, a couple of years later, 943 00:56:49,200 --> 00:56:53,600 are you as in love with the building as you were when you finished it? 944 00:56:53,600 --> 00:56:57,320 You know, I know it sounds terrible to say, but, yes, I am, actually. 945 00:57:00,000 --> 00:57:03,000 Are you happy? I mean, do you love this house? 946 00:57:03,000 --> 00:57:04,640 - Oh, yes. - Yeah, I love it. 947 00:57:04,640 --> 00:57:08,800 Being surrounded by nature and almost being part of nature, 948 00:57:08,800 --> 00:57:13,160 even though we are in a steel structure that's quite huge! 949 00:57:13,160 --> 00:57:17,280 But we are with nature and it's a beautiful...you know, we love it. Yeah. 950 00:57:22,040 --> 00:57:24,560 It's a beautiful piece of land, isn't it, Piers? 951 00:57:24,560 --> 00:57:26,120 It is beautiful, actually. 952 00:57:26,120 --> 00:57:29,240 You know, now when I look back, I mean, 953 00:57:29,240 --> 00:57:32,480 it is a dramatic building and actually very beautiful, 954 00:57:32,480 --> 00:57:36,040 sitting in the silver birches in the mist brooding there. 955 00:57:37,520 --> 00:57:39,840 Marcelo and Sylvia love their building. 956 00:57:39,840 --> 00:57:41,320 - They do. - They love their house. 957 00:57:41,320 --> 00:57:44,480 They've got their beautiful beach and all their lovely wildlife, 958 00:57:44,480 --> 00:57:46,760 and that's what matters at the end of the day. 959 00:57:46,760 --> 00:57:48,920 - And that's a happy ending. - It is. 960 00:57:56,240 --> 00:57:58,800 Next time, Piers and I will be exploring 961 00:57:58,800 --> 00:58:03,040 some of the most extraordinary subterranean homes in the world. 962 00:58:03,040 --> 00:58:04,920 It's a hobbit house! 963 00:58:04,920 --> 00:58:09,640 Discovering how architects have overcome the challenges of building underground. 964 00:58:09,640 --> 00:58:11,360 It's stressful, it's tiring. 965 00:58:11,360 --> 00:58:14,800 'It was beyond what we had hoped and imagined.' 966 00:58:14,800 --> 00:58:16,120 It's really exciting!