This week on the popular TV program, ‘Grand Designs’ a beautiful house in Kent was featured. This house is near Staplehurst, Kent and is owned and built by architect Richard Hawkes and his wife Sophie. The house itself does not rely on anything like mains water or central heating. Instead the house is completely eco friendly and does not use an ounce of un-necessary energy. The environmentally-friendly house aims to mix into its surroundings and be self-sustaining. It was featured on a double bill on the popular Channel 4 program, ‘Grand Designs’ hosted by the legendary Kevin McCloud.

The house itself in Kent features completely economical and eco friendly materials such as wood and even earth. The house boasts a truly stunning architures, has over four guest bedroom for friends and family to stay over, and even has its own pool and spa treatment room. The design originally resembles what is known as an Anderson Shelter, the building eventually reveals a huge, Gaudi-esque vaulted ceiling. The whole thing is literally topped off with tons of soil and then grassed over to look almost like an ancient house of some sort. It is truly marvellous to look at and at the same time it is extremely bizarre.  The home is effectively a couple of timber-framed boxes resting under a huge, unsupported arch built from 26,000 handmade clay tiles. This is truly a magnificent acheivment for the architects and constructor’s as there is nothing else like this around the entire planet. They have built something special and very interesting. Although the house is meant to be quite old fashioned, it consists of modern fixtures and fittings, including wireless interconnected speaker systems and even ergonomic hand care door handles.

If you have never watched Grand Design before I would highly recommend it as it makes great viewing. The program makes excellent viewing and you can see all sorts of bizarre houses that have sprouted up around the UK and abroad. There are some great housing and design projects on there and I would strongly recommend watching it one evening.

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