Kevin viaja a Brighton para conocer una cooperativa de diez familias jóvenes, incluidos ex viajeros y padres solteros, que están construyendo sus propias casas y las de los demás.
Kevin travels to Brighton to meet a co-operative of ten young families, including ex-travellers and single parents, who are building both their own and each others homes.
#architecture #art #desing
Kevin travels to Brighton to meet a co-operative of ten young families, including ex-travellers and single parents, who are building both their own and each others homes.
#architecture #art #desing
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TVTranscripción
00:00Building your own house is an enormously personal project.
00:05It's the ultimate in self-expression, if you like.
00:08But this week we're looking at a group of families
00:11who are building not only their own, but also each other's houses.
00:16It's May 1998, and the Hedgehog self-build co-op
00:20has been up and running for six months already.
00:23It's a long build, over two years,
00:25because the families involved are building with their bare hands.
00:28Ten houses, six of which are already parked there.
00:32It's hard labour, and they won't even own these houses at the end.
00:36They'll belong to their landlords, a housing association.
00:40This is an exciting alternative
00:42to the run-of-the-mill social housing in Britain.
00:46The families involved didn't want to settle
00:48for the usual boring brick and concrete buildings on offer.
00:52Instead, what they wanted was something designed with their needs in mind,
00:55somewhere where they can live and flourish.
00:58They don't want to build just houses, they want to build a community.
01:05Although many of the people on the scheme have some sort of part-time work,
01:09each family must commit to 30 hours' labour on-site each week.
01:13It's as much as people could possibly do, I think,
01:16and it's very hard to fulfil those commitments
01:21unless you're very lucky with extra childcare
01:25and, you know, don't get ill, basically, or, you know, which is...
01:30Seriously?
01:31So, yes, we're very paired right down to the bone as far as time management.
01:35Yes, we have to be very fit.
01:37It's really hard work.
01:39It's not...
01:40It's hard work juggling the hours.
01:41We're left at that ladder now.
01:43It's hard work getting there, you know, juggling the children in the hours
01:46and having the life as well and all that.
01:49There are ten families consisting of 17 adults,
01:54none of whom have built before.
01:57The houses are going up just on the edge of the seaside resort of Brighton
02:01and the project is the brainchild of Paul Crouch and his partner Jenny.
02:07After several years on the road living in caravans,
02:10they decided they wanted a permanent home for themselves and their daughter.
02:13Paul, what motivated you in the first place to get involved with SelfBuild?
02:21Well, I think originally it was the realisation that the way that I'd been living
02:27was quite insecure, you know, I'd been living on the road as a traveller
02:31and I had a two-year-old daughter
02:34and the gradual realisation that as she grew up
02:38she was going to have a lot less opportunity, I think, in life
02:41because of the way that I was living.
02:44As a model for their self-built scheme,
02:47Paul and Jenny discovered a project in Brighton called the Diggers Cooperative.
02:51It was a revelation for them,
02:54a community of ordinary families like themselves with little or no money
02:58who were building homes not to own but to rent.
03:02The whole thing was being managed and financed by a housing association.
03:06Why didn't you just get a mortgage?
03:08You don't tend to get wage slips when you're picking potatoes in West Wales.
03:12So it's quite hard to go to a mortgage company and go,
03:17here's my life, it's a bit unorthodox, but I'm a good risk anyway.
03:22Getting the project started was hard work.
03:25After a lot of research, Paul found some land which had been set aside for council housing.
03:30It's on the edge of the South Downs, one mile in from the sea.
03:33The site is so steep that it had already been rejected by two commercial developers.
03:40Paul then had to get the backing of a sympathetic housing association.
03:44They purchased the land from Brighton Council for £58,000.
03:48He then worked with the association to put the cooperative together
03:52with people who were in housing need like himself.
03:55They all came from the council's housing list.
03:58People like Tony, who's a single parent struggling on a low income
04:02with seven-year-old daughter Poppy.
04:04It's a wonderful chance to have a house.
04:10I kind of have this vision of Poppy and all the other kids in the Southville
04:15having somewhere nice to grow up in and that drives us all on, I think.
04:20Well, we were being evicted because the person who owned our house was selling it
04:27and that happened again for us.
04:31Really soon after that, we ended up moving three times in about, I don't know, 18 months.
04:36We've lived in many places. We've had lots of insecure rental situations.
04:42I don't know, I've always just felt like it would be really nice to put down roots
04:46and it's never happened yet and this was the best one of all the options
04:50that we've had in the past because we're sorting our own housing out.
04:54The design of these houses perfectly suits the steep sloping site
04:59because they rest on stilts and you don't need deep foundations.
05:03The system was invented in the 1960s by the architect Walter Siegel
05:10and was specifically designed with self-builders in mind.
05:18Walter Siegel's method of self-build is very ecologically sensitive and very simple.
05:25Wall panels are made on the ground and erected side by side.
05:28Like a house of cards, the structure is then braced diagonally and then the roof goes on.
05:35The roofs will eventually be topped with grass so the development will blur into the surrounding environment.
05:42Apart from the concrete plinths, the entire construction is of softwood which is sustainable.
05:48The Hedgehog Co-op have also opted to clad their buildings with native timber,
05:52allowing them to individualise their homes with paint and stain.
05:56Although the Siegel method allows for two or more floors,
06:00the Hedgehogs have been restricted by the planners to one storey,
06:04which simplifies construction.
06:06The windows and doors are timber and double glazed.
06:09And the houses are finally dressed with a projecting deck
06:13that offers the occupant some private outdoor space, as well as a small garden.
06:18And there's also some communal land.
06:21Each house will cost £60,000 to build, about the cost of a comparable brick and mortar house.
06:27But the difference is that these unusual homes will offer their occupants a quality of life
06:33unparalleled on any housing estate.
06:35Six of the houses are up, and the frames are now being made for the last four homes.
06:45They've got to be finished and clad before the onset of winter.
06:48But there are no shortcuts on this site.
06:50No flatbacks, no kit houses.
06:53Every inch of the frame is being made by hand on site.
06:56And because they're learning as they go, it's painfully slow.
07:00After seven months working on the other houses,
07:09Michael and Donna are finally getting to make the frame for their own home.
07:14Donna is three months pregnant, but that's not going to keep her away from the build.
07:19She's determined to make her own mistakes.
07:25This is my favourite job on the whole building site.
07:28I really like doing it, so I was very pleased to be able to do my own.
07:33I have messed up one of the joints,
07:37but maybe it's better that I messed it up than somebody else.
07:42Yeah, it's very good. It's very relaxing.
07:49You know, for the last six, seven months, we've been working on everyone else's house,
07:52and all of a sudden you realise you're going to put up your own house fairly shortly.
07:55That's quite exciting.
07:56Learning on the job is a slow and often frustrating business.
08:01On a project as complicated as a house, you need a guiding hand.
08:05So the Housing Association have provided a site manager to oversee the build.
08:10For three days a week, the co-op have the expertise of veteran self-builder Jeff Stowe.
08:15How are your motley crew?
08:17They're doing really well. They're doing well.
08:20They're doing as well as you can say.
08:21It's a very big commitment to expect from people, and they're doing 30 hours a week.
08:25I mean, they've got families to bring up, and they're often in quite bad housing anyway,
08:30so that puts quite a strain on their lives.
08:32So they're doing really well in terms of that.
08:37It's July, and the frames are now ready.
08:40With the limited funds they have, the co-op can only afford a crane for one day to put them up,
08:46so they must get it right.
08:48These are the last frames to go up in the hedgehog build,
08:53so, not surprisingly, there's a feeling of anticipation and excitement on site.
08:59Today, everyone who can has turned up on site to help,
09:03but despite the relaxed atmosphere, this is still a building site, not a picnic.
09:07Putting up the frames is a serious and dangerous business.
09:13The frames simply rest on the concrete beds.
09:15There are no fixings. It all seems so simple.
09:18Temporary battens are diagonally nailed to the frame to brace it in place.
09:24Are you all right in the corner there, Jeff?
09:28I'm pretty good on the line. I'm a little bit out of level.
09:31If they're not secured properly, there could be fatal consequences.
09:48Accuracy is vital. It may be a simple design, but these frames will form the backbone of the houses.
10:04They're also very heavy and unwieldy. It needs brains and brawn to get it right.
10:12But in all that heavy physical work, and in the sharing of something productive,
10:17I can begin to see how these people are forging their community spirit.
10:21It's a momentous occasion, and even the children are on site to see the frames of their future homes put into place.
10:28We started at 7 o'clock this morning.
10:36The crane came about an hour later.
10:38I'm standing now on frame two of my house.
10:41This is my house. This is a grand moment.
10:43I stayed on site overnight, slept in my car, just so I'd be here this morning.
10:48Debbie's has gone up, this one, and then next comes Michael and Donna's,
10:52and then Paul and Jenny's. That's the last frame to go up.
10:54Top of the world. Fantastic.
10:57All right.
11:07This is mine and Donna's house. Very exciting.
11:11We've been waiting for about six, seven months to put this house up,
11:16so it's a very exciting day for us all.
11:18All that effort and camaraderie reminds me of those American Quaker and Amish communities
11:23who build each other's houses.
11:25Put like that, I can imagine Paul playing the part of one of their elders,
11:29but his house is the last to go up.
11:32Today we've been putting up the last four houses' worth of frames,
11:37so the site will be at the same level of completion before the winter comes,
11:43so all the work will be being done inside.
11:45It also means that plot one is now with frame, which is good.
11:51It means that's my house, so it's nice to be able to see my house going up a little bit.
11:55Well, I've waited about five years,
11:58and I'm fairly pleased that my house has been started now.
12:03It's got rid of any lingering doubts I might have had about it not happening.
12:06Yeah, it's a good feeling.
12:11I think we can look forward to the next stage now
12:14where we've got a few weeks' hard work getting the other four houses enclosed,
12:19and then we've got a winter of inside work,
12:22and I think we're doing pretty well to be on schedule with that.
12:25It's been a hard day, but they can now get on with these four houses.
12:30Still, they've got a long haul ahead of them,
12:33but for Donna, her dream house is finally becoming reality.
12:43The Walter Siegel design of house is the ultimate in building democracy.
12:48Anyone who can lift a hammer can build a Siegel house.
12:51It's cheap and accessible to the most novice of builders.
12:56I've never worked with wood before in my life,
13:00apart from cutting it up to burn.
13:02You know, I'm a welder, and I can work with metal well,
13:07but the idea that it was deliberately designed
13:11for people with no existing carpentry skills
13:13is very attractive, really, on a practical level.
13:16People tend to think that it's something that they wouldn't be able to do,
13:21and a friend of mine built her own house,
13:23so I used to think I could never do that.
13:25But actually, you know, anything's possible, really.
13:32This philosophy that anyone could do it
13:37was developed by Walter Siegel when building this little house
13:41at the bottom of his overgrown garden in Highgate, North London.
13:45Now, this house may not look like much, but it was the start of a small revolution.
13:56It was built by the architect Walter Siegel as temporary accommodation for his family
14:00while their new six-bedroom house was being built.
14:03Siegel designed both of the buildings, but it was this little house that really captured his imagination.
14:10So much so that, in fact, it led him to completely rethink the way that houses are built.
14:15This is really just like a wartime prefab.
14:22The other really weird impression is, because of these recessed panels
14:26and all this exposed timber and the low ceiling and the curve of it having sunk,
14:31it's just like a little medieval cottage.
14:33All the materials used for this house, like those at Hedgehog,
14:39were bought off the shelf and assembled on site by Siegel himself.
14:44The windows are just sliding pieces of glass.
14:47There's no hinges, no frames, nothing.
14:49Just as you'd expect from a house designed to last just a year or two.
14:52From Highgate to Forest Hill in South London,
15:01where Siegel explored the idea that if he could build his own home so easily,
15:05then why couldn't others?
15:07It was here that he was invited to work with Lewisham Council
15:09on an experimental self-build scheme.
15:13Just as in Brighton, the people who were building these houses
15:17were also the people who were going to be living in them.
15:18Sadly, Walter Siegel died halfway through building in 1985,
15:23but all those ideas that he was working on
15:25in that little house at the bottom of his garden,
15:27all those ideas, albeit on a larger scale,
15:30were developed in these buildings.
15:36Once inside, you get a real sense of light and space
15:40thanks to all these windows that are here.
15:41And what makes that possible
15:42is the way that the building is put together.
15:45In an ordinary conventional house,
15:46it's the walls that are doing all the work.
15:48They're supporting the weight.
15:49But in a Walter Siegel house,
15:51it's these great corner posts that are doing it,
15:53which means that you can move them about.
15:54You can swap them, put windows in here, take doors out there.
15:57You can even remove entire sections of the wall
15:59and build extensions like this one,
16:01which was put in only, what, a year ago?
16:05Since 1980, more than 200 houses in the social housing sector
16:09have been built using Walter Siegel's method.
16:12It's a method which gives people skills and it gives them purpose.
16:17But 200 houses is just a drop in the ocean
16:20compared to all those houses built out of brick and concrete
16:23and high-rise buildings used for social housing.
16:27One of the joys of Siegel's method
16:30is that it's quite easy to make adjustments to the build
16:33as you go along.
16:34Some of the new frames for the four houses
16:37that are now up on site need to be tweaked
16:39so the floor joists can be put in place.
16:42We all make mistakes.
16:44I don't know, it's just stuff, isn't it?
16:45And it's very, very heavy, but it's only bits of wood, isn't it?
16:47So, actually, you can move it and you can whack it around.
16:51There's something about the...
16:53I don't know.
16:54It's like when you're little and you first realise
16:55you can break things, I suppose, or you can knock a chair over,
16:58do you know what I mean?
16:59And before you've always been able to lean up against them or whatever.
17:01It's a bit like that, you know?
17:03You kind of expect there's a house, isn't it?
17:04It's going to be really, really solid,
17:05but, you know, at the moment it isn't.
17:07So, yeah, if you hit it with a big bit of wood, it moves.
17:11Great.
17:14I hope he knows what he's doing.
17:16In fact, the joists will not only support the floor,
17:19they'll also brace the frames together,
17:22making the whole structure more solid.
17:25Small pieces of wood, noggins,
17:27are then fitted between the joists
17:29to further stabilise the whole structure.
17:31There are more than 100 noggins in each house,
17:35maybe 1,200 on the whole site.
17:38It's laborious, repetitive work
17:40and demonstrates that you need more than vision to build a house.
17:43You need stamina.
17:45This is a real slog.
17:48The next rather dangerous job is putting the roof on.
17:52The roof joists are made out of recycled wood.
17:55They're light, but also extremely strong.
17:57That's important because they have to support
18:00the weight of tonnes of soil and turf,
18:03which will eventually top the building.
18:07Building this way is laborious,
18:10but it's supposed to be so easy.
18:12Surely even I should be able to do it.
18:15Have you had to learn many skills?
18:18Yeah, pretty much all of them.
18:20I still struggle with that, must have been.
18:22Are you?
18:22Yeah.
18:23Where does this one go?
18:25Put that one here.
18:28OK.
18:29You're doing all this by eye?
18:30Kind of.
18:31Kind of.
18:33This is the wall stud work,
18:35which will hold the windows and wall panels in place.
18:38So that's every sort of...
18:40What's that?
18:41Every metre, really, isn't it, more or less?
18:43Yeah.
18:46What about builders' vocabulary, things like...
18:48I think that would pick up as we're going along.
18:50Things like, we'll be back after lunch.
18:53Oh, yeah.
18:55I just don't understand why the hedgehogs
18:57are building in this bitty way.
19:00Why not make the sidewalls as whole frames
19:02and then lift them into place?
19:05There's two or three already here.
19:07These are ones you've made earlier.
19:08Yeah, and they're in place.
19:09This one is...
19:11Right, and there are pencil marks here.
19:12Yeah, so I marked them up earlier.
19:14Yeah, right.
19:14So I want to put this one...
19:16Slide up there.
19:16...next to this one over this side.
19:18Right, OK.
19:20Now, I'm going on the line
19:25that's on the bottom rail here,
19:27not on the joist, yeah?
19:28Because the...
19:29Yeah.
19:29The left on the...
19:30Same principle.
19:32Yeah.
19:32OK, well, that measurement, then,
19:34is three, seven, one, five.
19:37Well, we'll soon find out
19:38if it's wrong, won't we?
19:39No, it is right.
19:41Now, do we offer it up?
19:43Let's go for it.
19:44This way a bit.
19:48Well, what do you think?
19:50Er...
19:51I think that's pretty good, actually.
19:53What do you reckon?
19:54Not bad.
19:55It's a mirror too short, isn't it?
19:57Yeah.
19:59I'll go for another look.
19:59Like about five more short.
20:02I think it'll be all right.
20:03Is that lined up?
20:04That is, I'm afraid,
20:05to your left slightly.
20:07That is lined up.
20:08Yes, and...
20:12I think that'll be all right.
20:14You think that's tolerable?
20:15I think that'll be all right.
20:16As long as we make sure
20:17the other one's fit.
20:18Oh, for God's sake!
20:20Exactly.
20:23That was so barbed.
20:25OK, no, if we leave it there...
20:27Yeah?
20:28I'll just stand here, then.
20:29Yeah, we rest it there.
20:30I'll just stand here.
20:31No, but...
20:31Be a useless apprentice.
20:33You can just rest it.
20:35How do you manage on days like today
20:36when it's so windy?
20:37Yeah.
20:39I've got to...
20:39I've just realised something.
20:41What?
20:41Look, because this is bent downwards,
20:43OK?
20:44Oh, I see.
20:44Right, it's back down,
20:45it's slipped down,
20:46so if we push it up...
20:47Oh!
20:48Oh, that was right after all.
20:49Where it'll fit that,
20:50it will fit.
20:53To relieve the boredom
20:54of all that repetitive work,
20:56there's always an opportunity
20:57to switch tasks for a day or two.
21:00As the more developed houses progress,
21:02those acres of timber need protecting,
21:05and windows that have already been put in
21:07need to be painted while the weather's dry.
21:10In keeping with the whole build,
21:11the co-op are using an eco-friendly product.
21:14Each member of the co-op has chosen their own colour.
21:17The paint's brushed on
21:18and then wiped off to reveal the grain.
21:20This one, I think, is called Natural Spruce,
21:24and it's supposed to be about
21:25the most transparent one, really.
21:28This is Gina's.
21:29She's not too keen on the colour now she's chosen it.
21:31LAUGHTER
21:32But she'll grow to love it!
21:37It's the stain of things,
21:38it's like, you know...
21:39LAUGHTER
21:40It's great that we're going to be living next door to each other.
21:48What's even greater is that
21:50all the other women from up here are just amazing.
21:53Yeah.
21:53So it's not like it's just...
21:55It's just a unique thing.
21:56I'm moving into my next door, you know, best friend.
21:59It's more that they're all our best friends now.
22:02We go out on our hedge birds night out.
22:04LAUGHTER
22:05And have a few shants.
22:06And it's, uh...
22:08It's not a case of me just knowing her, you know,
22:10like we thought it might be.
22:11Oh, I'll do it, you know, we'll do it together.
22:14It's just turned into an enormous great family.
22:16It's fantastic.
22:17Couldn't have been more perfect, really.
22:20Oh, no, I'm great. It's growing on me now.
22:23You like it? I'm...
22:23Oh, yeah, I'm glad you like it,
22:25cos I didn't like it when I first thought...
22:26LAUGHTER
22:27I thought, oh, no, Gina!
22:29What are you doing now?
22:30But actually, I like it now.
22:32LAUGHTER
22:35I would say that most of us have come to this scheme
22:39as a way of providing ourselves with affordable, secure housing.
22:45But the fact that in order to do that,
22:47we have to work cohesively as a co-operative,
22:51I think, has also appealed to people
22:53because you can start to build a community of people
22:57not based on any sort of particularly complex set of understandings,
23:01but just the fact that you know that you've built your own house
23:04or, well, actually, you've built a tenth of ten houses together.
23:09You've been through the same experience.
23:12Because each household has to put in 30 hours' work a week,
23:16rain or shine,
23:18childcare has become a major issue.
23:20The creative solution has been to set up a creche on site.
23:23We had to set up the creche because we're all working
23:27and none of us have got very much money.
23:30Most of us are having to work part-time
23:33in order to be able to keep up the hours on the build.
23:38So it was just essential that we could organise some free childcare
23:42and this is the way that we thought best to do it.
23:44We know that the children are safe, they're on site,
23:47and we've got the building to do it in,
23:49so it works quite well.
23:50Well, it's really good for all the children
23:52to be getting to know each other before they move up on site.
23:55Some of them are really young,
23:57and if they weren't coming up here regularly,
23:59I don't think they'd quite understand what was going on
24:01because it's such a long-term project.
24:04But because they speak to their hedgehog piglet friends,
24:08as the club is called,
24:09they're getting much more of an understanding
24:11of what's going on up here
24:12and why their mums and dads are doing lots of building.
24:15Go on, go on, go on, go on a bit.
24:18That's the shape of your lips.
24:20I don't want that.
24:22Would you want to go and wipe it off then?
24:24The creche is also used for the more serious business
24:28of meetings held by the group.
24:30This is co-op democracy at work.
24:33Tony, have we heard that from the beautiful roofers?
24:36No, they were supposed to come last Wednesday.
24:39They're supposed to drop something off today,
24:41the membrane, I believe,
24:42and they're supposed to be working tomorrow
24:44because they need chasing up.
24:45The Christmas holidays,
24:47we need to decide how much time we're having off
24:49and how many hours we're allowed to have for free.
24:54What we're going to do is put a sheet up on the board
24:56with a list of different options
24:59and we can choose whatever gets the highest vote we do,
25:02whether it be a week off or just some hours off,
25:05depending on production.
25:07It was decided to open up the steps going down out of the creche,
25:12the dodgy, steep, nasty, slippery, horrible...
25:16I was meant to be rebuilding them at some point.
25:18Well, that could happen,
25:19but it seems to me it's quite a lot of investment of energy
25:22to get you to rebuild those steps
25:24when it's not actually essential.
25:25You're building your houses than sorting out your creche steps.
25:28Yeah, exactly.
25:29Exactly, and I think that's a better use of you.
25:31Just one other point,
25:33which is the wood and the bits of nails, etc., on the site.
25:36We agreed ages ago that we'd clear up all around our houses
25:39and it, you know, it has been done a bit, but not enough.
25:42I mean, if you fell through the joists,
25:44there's quite a few bits of wood with nails poking upwards.
25:46It could be nasty.
25:47The co-op is a legally incorporated body,
25:51not some woolly hippie commune.
25:53Many of the builders are ex-travellers
25:54or have pursued alternative lifestyles,
25:57but this is no freebie.
25:58It's their only hope for a decent, secure home.
26:02It's very important to have a Land Rover to tow my caravan.
26:06So I spent all my time and effort and money and love
26:09and all sorts of things on this vehicle.
26:13And time has come to sell it,
26:15through being extremely broke,
26:19which is a bit of a problem,
26:21mostly to do with the fact that
26:23you can't really have a full-time job
26:25and build a house for 30 hours a week.
26:28So as a family, we've become very poor
26:30over the last year and a half.
26:33And that's where it's come to now,
26:36selling your possessions to keep yourself going
26:39until the end of the build.
26:40It's important that everybody realises
26:43that you do have to make sacrifices to do this kind of thing.
26:46And keeping to 30 hours work a week
26:48is proving almost impossible for single-parent Tony
26:51because there's no-one to share the work with.
26:53If he can't catch up,
26:55he could even lose his house
26:56and all the investment of time he's put in.
26:59Have you fulfilled your quota so far?
27:01I got very badly behind at one stage
27:03and I'm catching up.
27:04I was 100 hours behind and now I'm only 50.
27:06That's quite a lot.
27:08Yeah, yeah.
27:09It's about 3% of the sum of the build hours that you put in.
27:12I got in that situation
27:13because it was so difficult to attain 30 hours a week
27:16in the first place.
27:17And so it's very hard to make them up.
27:20So are you working as well at the moment?
27:22It wouldn't be possible to.
27:23There's no time in the day
27:25in between working here and looking after a kid.
27:27And everybody finds it very tight.
27:30I mean, the people that are working, the couples,
27:31they can just about manage it.
27:33But the single parents just find it impossible.
27:35Yeah, it just wouldn't be possible.
27:37So you end up being entirely wedded to this project.
27:40It'd be all right if you got paid for it
27:41like a normal builder does, I suppose.
27:43And the winter's coming as well.
27:45I mean, the girls said that last winter was quite easy
27:47because you were all enthusiastic and new to the project,
27:49but this one's going to be hard.
27:51Yeah, the novelty's wearing off now a little bit.
27:54The Housing Association have sent their clerk
27:57of works to inspect the site.
27:59The co-op have to meet weekly targets set for them,
28:03but they're falling woefully behind
28:05as the project loses more and more momentum.
28:10Well, the construction is very good.
28:13We've got no problems whatsoever.
28:15And I'm very impressed with the way it's been constructed
28:19because there is no-one basically trained
28:23in the building industry.
28:25So it's... I'm very impressed.
28:27My only concern is the speed of construction.
28:31I think we ought to be far more advanced than we are at the moment.
28:35The speed of the build is further hampered by the fact
28:39that some co-op members keep changing their minds
28:42about how the houses should be laid out.
28:44The design does allow this,
28:46but they ought to have made their minds up after one year.
28:49Are you changing the design of this?
28:52We're considering it, yes.
28:54My main concern is that it might mean going back to the planners.
28:58So this design, I think, gives you the opportunity
28:59to fiddle around with the...
29:02Yeah, but also because of the self-builders
29:04that are building the houses,
29:05it's very hard for them to fully understand
29:06what the place is going to be like just from the plans.
29:08And so they kind of agree at the planning stage,
29:10but then when they actually see the layout,
29:11they say, I don't really want that, could we do that?
29:14And then, you know, if the option's there,
29:16some things they definitely can't do,
29:17but some things have to remain possibilities.
29:19Right, so what are you going to do?
29:20You're going to enclose this...
29:21That's what they want to know if it's possible to do,
29:23to give them that space as a living room space rather than a road.
29:27It's November.
29:32Winter approaches,
29:33and this cladding should have been on in the summer.
29:35It looks flimsy, but like every part of the building,
29:38it's designed to further brace and stabilise the existing structure,
29:42like a drum skin.
29:43More nails are banged in, and a few more.
29:48It's awkward and uncomfortable work,
29:50and not very popular with the builders.
29:52By this stage, the glamour has certainly worn off.
29:55They're all working slowly,
29:56and are now up against their own lack of experience.
30:00They're also hampered by the changing weather,
30:02up against a tight schedule,
30:04and in desperate need of funds,
30:05which need to be released by the Housing Association,
30:08to pay for subcontractors.
30:10There's come a point now where we have to start spending a lot of the money
30:17that we have allocated for subcontraction,
30:20which is a little bit of a scary thought,
30:24because we haven't got enough money for subcontraction as yet,
30:27and if we start spending it now, it won't be there later.
30:31But if we don't spend it now, then there won't be a later.
30:34The Housing Association have agreed to release just enough money
30:39to pay for a carpenter.
30:41Matty has now joined as a contract worker on the build.
30:45Personally, I think having him is something of a drop in the ocean.
30:49It's December,
30:51and the co-op members are hoping that Matty will help give the build new momentum.
30:56So he's got his work cut out for him.
30:59Whatever happens, they've got a tough winter ahead.
31:01The co-op have allowed themselves some hours off over Christmas
31:11and have organised a party to take their minds off the build.
31:16But there's little Christmas cheer for Tony.
31:18He's under huge pressure, making up the hours he's missed.
31:22As the knights are drawing in,
31:23they're all having to work in the dark and cold
31:26for the build to remain on schedule.
31:28It just doesn't let up.
31:31With temperatures below zero,
31:33it's just the weather for hitting a frozen finger with a hammer.
31:37The build is now taking on the challenge of an Arctic trek.
31:40Arduous, slow and cold.
31:43This is not an easy way of getting a house.
31:46All over, feeling.
31:49All over, feeling.
31:51With so much work to do on site,
31:54no pair of hands are ever left idle.
31:58You all right there, Matty?
31:59Hey, mate?
32:00Yeah, give us a hand with this window, will you?
32:02Carry it down the bottom of the site.
32:04Haven't you got enough labour here?
32:06Well, they're all busy, aren't they, up the other end?
32:08They're all busy in plot.
32:09How heavy is it?
32:10It's not heavy.
32:11Is it not?
32:12Oh, it's heavy enough.
32:13You can do it.
32:14Which way?
32:15This way?
32:16This way.
32:18It's only certain temperatures that it gets like this.
32:20This is one of the last windows to be fitted in Debbie's house,
32:24and is going into her daughter's bedroom.
32:26Look what we brought you, look.
32:29Hey, my window.
32:31Nice and shiny and new.
32:33Debbie's a single parent,
32:34whose house was one of the last to go up.
32:37Well, it's good at the bottom.
32:39There's about two or three mil here on this
32:43that I didn't notice before.
32:44It's catching.
32:47It's still a long way to go at the top.
32:49Catching just here.
32:52Might just bounce it with this.
32:56It's at times like this
32:57that Matty's expertise becomes invaluable.
33:05Maybe.
33:06Yeah, that's it.
33:06You're in.
33:07You're in.
33:11Just hit it down the bottom.
33:13Yeah.
33:14It's February,
33:16and inside number 10,
33:18the wall cavities are being filled with insulation
33:20made from recycled paper.
33:23All-year-old newspapers are taken to a factory in Wales
33:25where they're shredded
33:26and have a fire retardant added.
33:29New homes in the UK
33:31are the worst insulated in Northern Europe,
33:34but here at Hedgehog,
33:35the builders are addressing this
33:37with up to 300 millimetres of insulation.
33:40Once it's in, the rooms are ready for plasterboarding.
33:45The project's been underway for 14 months,
33:48but there's nearly a year of hard work ahead
33:50before any of the families can move in.
33:53Spirits are flagging,
33:55so I've decided to try and give the Hedgehog Co-op a boost.
33:58This is number 10, Hedgehog Terrace.
34:03That's Hedgehog Build,
34:05which is ironic, really,
34:06because it's actually going to be the first one to be finished.
34:09Now, since these houses are taking two and a half years to build,
34:13all told,
34:14we thought it would be a very good idea
34:16if we could see one entirely finished,
34:18which means decorating it on the inside,
34:20which is down to me.
34:21But before I can start decorating,
34:28the house has to be finished,
34:30so it's all hands on deck
34:31to get the internal walls in place
34:33and ready for my scheme.
34:40While everyone's left working on the house,
34:42I'm off furniture hunting.
34:44Now, if you've spent two years
34:47putting your life on hold
34:49with no earning potential while you build your house,
34:52you're going to be pretty strapped for cash
34:54by the time it's built.
34:56So it's clear that our Hedgehog Show Home
34:59is going to need to be decorated on a very tight budget.
35:03I've come to this furniture warehouse
35:05just outside Brighton that belongs to Emmaus.
35:07It's a charity run by people who were formerly homeless.
35:11It's just the kind of place
35:12to find some Hedgehog Household Gems.
35:19Well, that's more like it.
35:21That's a rather nice,
35:23sort of Swedish-looking design, this.
35:26What we're going to try and do with this house
35:28is instead of, as you would normally,
35:30designing the whole space
35:32and then finding the furniture to fit in it,
35:34what we're going to try and do
35:35is start with the furniture,
35:37assemble a small number of pieces
35:39that have a look about them
35:41and then design the room around them.
35:43Now, this is the kind of thing I'm looking for.
35:48This is straight out of Harold Wilson's 1960s.
35:51It's a sideboard, very unfashionable now,
35:54but actually a beautifully made piece of furniture.
35:56It's got ash veneer,
35:58rather retracted wooden handles,
36:00a bit of marquetry,
36:00and if it's cleaned up,
36:02it could be a very beautiful piece of furniture.
36:04Oh, look.
36:12Icons of the Sixes cocktail sets.
36:14These are soda streams.
36:17Great things, great shapes.
36:20I think I can put these to good use.
36:22Just watch.
36:24With the furniture chosen,
36:25I really ought to turn my attention
36:27to the overall design.
36:29I'm not a fan of TV decorating makeovers.
36:32I was hoping I'd never have to do one, in fact.
36:36But here I found myself about to embark on one,
36:39although I suppose it's not really a makeover, is it?
36:41It's a startover.
36:44This is assuming they've finished putting in the walls.
36:54Shop!
36:58Oh, I think there's a hole.
37:00Hello, Paul. Ben, how are you?
37:02All right.
37:03Good.
37:04There's a notice out there that says,
37:05tape joint is well done.
37:08Yeah.
37:08This looks great.
37:09That cost a lot of money.
37:11Well, now that you're all gifted amateurs,
37:13isn't there a danger that, you know,
37:16because you're not professional plasterers
37:17and prepared just to come in and just tosh it out,
37:19that, you know, that you're just putting too,
37:21you're just being too perfect about it?
37:23You're being too, you know what I mean?
37:24Well, yeah, I do.
37:24Too loving and too caring.
37:25I mean, I think that's been,
37:26that's part of the problem that we've had all the way along
37:30in every aspect of the build is, you know,
37:32not so much that we're kind of insanely perfectionist about it,
37:36but not having a background in building,
37:39we don't really know what success,
37:40do you know what I mean?
37:41Yeah, we don't know what the parameters are.
37:43You don't know when it stops being merely acceptable
37:45and just starts being rough.
37:46Yeah, exactly.
37:47So I think we've ended up spending,
37:49spending more time doing a better job than needed to be done,
37:54you know what I mean?
37:55Yeah.
37:59Well, apart from this one frame,
38:01it's all boarded out now.
38:04Floorboards are down.
38:05They look very nice.
38:05They're plain.
38:06It looks smaller than when I saw it last
38:11because this wall has gone in,
38:12but nevertheless, it's still a sizeable house.
38:21The first thing I want to do
38:23is sketch out the dimensions of the room
38:25and see where the furniture can fit in.
38:28A necessary step
38:29because I'm having to make do with what I've found
38:31and design around it.
38:33The object isn't to decorate and accessorise the room
38:37as if it were someone's home.
38:39Rather, I want to make a kind of template,
38:42a simply decorated structure,
38:44including paint, lighting and a few furnishings
38:47that could inspire their hedgehogs
38:49and help them imagine what their own,
38:51no doubt highly individual homes, will look like.
38:55As I sort out the interior of the house,
38:58the co-op are pulling together
38:59to get the exterior of the show home looking good.
39:02Now that means getting a turf roof.
39:06Because the lorry's been unable to make it up the hill,
39:08the turf is having to be unloaded into Tony's car
39:11to be transported to the house.
39:13Well, that's the idea, anyway.
39:24The grass roof gives everyone an idea
39:27of how the house will look in the end.
39:32But I don't have time to watch the grass grow.
39:35I've got to get decorating inside.
39:40Now, the walls.
39:42I did think of papering them,
39:43but we discounted that on grounds of cost
39:45more than anything else.
39:46And so we've opted for paint.
39:49And in keeping with the hedgehog co-op philosophy,
39:51I've got green paint.
39:53That is sustainable paint.
39:55Not green in colour.
39:55It's actually a sort of pale mauve in colour.
39:58This is a paint which is made out of the usual things,
40:01pigments like china clay and chalk
40:04and iron oxide, which give it the colour.
40:09But what's specifically green about it
40:10is the binder, which is made out of latex.
40:12That's from a rubber tree.
40:13But the point about it really is
40:14that it goes on like a dream.
40:20The colour scheme is simple.
40:22Two shades of pale, slightly muddy mauve
40:25that are almost off-white.
40:27I'm painting alternate walls in the two shades
40:30to subtly emphasise those interesting changes
40:32of planes in the room.
40:34But I'm not going to paint the furniture.
40:38The wood is far too beautiful to hide.
40:41Just a quick scrub up with wire wool,
40:44a wash down,
40:46and a wax will do the trick.
40:57If there's one idea that this scheme embodies,
41:00it's that you can decorate
41:02on a ridiculously cheap budget.
41:04We've got second-hand furniture from Emmaus,
41:07which we've lovingly polished and revivified
41:11back to its original condition.
41:13And that looks fantastic in this setting.
41:15It looks very appropriate.
41:16It's very minimal.
41:17It looks very Swedish.
41:18It looks very, you know, 1960s, retro,
41:20whatever you want to call it.
41:21But it looks good.
41:22We've also got just great sheets of rice paper here,
41:26which I've just literally stuck onto a baton,
41:29and they hung on the wall in place of pictures.
41:32They cost just a pound or so.
41:34We've got light fittings which cost £2.50 from an agricultural supplier
41:39that we've sprayed with car paint.
41:41We've got table lamps that I've adapted from the siphons that I bought at Emmaus
41:46and stuck some shades on the top and sprayed those down.
41:48I think they look very funky and contemporary.
41:53And for decoration, for accessories,
41:55instead of expensive accoutrements from high street shops,
41:58we've got stuff that we've picked up off the beach.
42:00Things like this great lump of driftwood
42:03that's still damp from this morning.
42:06And pebbles.
42:18There you are.
42:19What do you think?
42:20Sort of east meets west beachcomber eco-retro soft-minimalism look-ish?
42:26The hedgehog philosophy is that no-one can move in
42:35before all the houses are finished.
42:36Besides, this is just a show-home for hedgehog living.
42:44The small bedroom has one sunshine-yellow wall.
42:50The large bedroom has one lavender wall.
42:53It's a way of introducing a strong colour to a room.
42:56By painting each wall a different shade,
43:01I emphasise the interesting shape of the living room.
43:05A few homely touches.
43:08The 50s kitchen table gave me the blue wall colour.
43:12And I found an office cupboard
43:14that looks as though it could be a designer label wardrobe.
43:17Almost.
43:19Excluding the kitchen, the furnishings cost 580 pounds.
43:23This house may still be short of a veranda,
43:28but it is, as architects say,
43:30well-mannered and entirely appropriate for a coastal setting.
43:34But not many people would be prepared
43:36to spend two years building their home.
43:39This project might seem an extraordinary thing to do to get a secured tenancy,
43:44and going to rather extreme lengths to get to know your neighbours.
43:48These people feel it's their only option.
43:51But I can't help wondering if they still feel it's worth it.
43:56So what do you think, then?
43:57I think it's pretty good.
43:59It's very different to your house, isn't it, at the moment?
44:03Yeah, yeah.
44:03Have you got the floor in yet?
44:04No, ours is a shell at the moment, isn't it?
44:07I haven't even got a floor down.
44:08It's just joists everywhere, so.
44:10It's inspiring to see it like this, isn't it?
44:12Because it just makes you really want to get on and get it finished.
44:16Yeah.
44:16Well, that doesn't impress you.
44:18Not at all, not at all.
44:19Sometimes you lose track of what you're doing, really.
44:21You come up here every day and hammering nails in and stuff,
44:25and you sort of lose track of it.
44:26It's actually going to be somewhere to live and to spend your days.
44:29How has it been the past year, two years, whatever it is?
44:32I mean, you've got your hands full, haven't you, you two?
44:34We have.
44:35With this lot, haven't you?
44:36With this lot.
44:37It's been totally manic, and we're completely exhausted almost all the time
44:41because we're trying to fit so much in.
44:44Yeah.
44:44I mean, it's worth it.
44:46You know, you can see it's a beautiful place, you know, it's gorgeous.
44:48This is, I mean, probably the biggest thing I've ever done in my life,
44:51most commitment I've ever had to anything,
44:54and it should have a payoff, a house,
44:57a permanent house for Poppy to grow up in.
45:02What have you got out of this build?
45:05Well, I'd like to continue with carpentry, actually.
45:07I want to carry on.
45:08You do?
45:09Yeah.
45:10So now you've got the body of your skills together,
45:11you want to take it somewhere and...
45:13Because you've got builder's hands there.
45:16I do, yeah.
45:17Look at them.
45:18That's one of the consequences, actually, of building a house.
45:22Eventually, when it's done,
45:24I can look towards maybe more education and a job at the end of it
45:28and some money.
45:29Wow.
45:30I remember that stuff.
45:32So would you do it again?
45:34Build a house.
45:36I'd, er...
45:37I'd have to have a really, really good reason for doing it again.
45:41Yeah.
45:41Actually.
45:42I wouldn't want to do it again.
45:43I don't want to see a saw,
45:44I don't want to see a hammer or a set square
45:46or a carpeted pencil, do you know what I mean?
45:48We feel like we've built now.
45:50We've done that one.
45:51Do something else.
45:52There's lots more to do, isn't there?
45:54I think we'd do it again, wouldn't we?
45:55Oh, yeah.
45:56Really?
45:57Yeah, but not for ages now.
45:58Not for years.
45:59When we're really old, yeah.
46:00Yeah, yeah.
46:01As long as we can pick up a hammer.
46:03Yeah.
46:03Yeah.
46:04So what happens to this amazing cooperative, this group?
46:07What happens to all these relationships when you move in?
46:11Because everything's going to change.
46:12I mean, you'll be neighbours there, not a working party.
46:15Yeah, it's going to be really interesting.
46:17I can't help but think that we could probably all deserve a break
46:22from each other a little bit when we've finished,
46:23and obviously the fact that we're not going to be involved
46:25in what is essentially a building firm together anymore
46:29will be good for our sense of distance and our sense of individuality.
46:33It has been a tremendous amount of hard work,
46:35and we'll continue to be until all the houses are finished
46:37and the site's landscaped, and we've got to move in,
46:41and there's a lot of hard work to come.
46:42But I'm sure it will have been worthwhile at the very end of it
46:47because the things that I've gained from it,
46:52I don't know how you'd actually go out and...
46:55You couldn't buy them.
46:57You know, it's a tremendous experience.
47:04This is one of the most exciting self-builds I've seen.
47:09It's not the most groundbreaking of designs,
47:12but in environmental terms, it's sustainable,
47:15and it is a method of build that anyone can do.
47:19But, of course, it requires a fantastic commitment
47:22over years, not weeks or even months.
47:26And I keep having to remind myself
47:28that these people are not the owners of these buildings.
47:31They're just renting.
47:33If the words grand design suggest anything,
47:40it's that a house isn't just a building,
47:42it represents an ideal, a dream.
47:46These people got together just to put a roof over their heads,
47:50and in doing that, they're managing to build houses,
47:53build a community, and build a future.
47:56Thank you.
47:57Thank you.
48:16Thank you.