Throughout Grand Designs Live, Kevin McCloud and a team of builders, celebrities, and TV crew built a house in the Grand Village, with ModCell’s straw bales panels and vertical thatch on the ground floor, and the Facit building system used for the first floor and roof. Although I missed the very first stages of building, I kept as much of an eye on the house as possible.
The original brief was pretty simple:
To design and build a sustainable house, using traditional materials and techniques alongside cutting-edge 21st century technology which underpins [Kevin's] green principles.
When I arrived, on the morning of Day 4, the bottom storey, built by ModCell, was already complete and work had started on Facit’s half. The straw bales panels were all in place, but had not all been lime rendered. The glazing and window/door frames were also absent, but you could already get a sense of how the house was doing to look.
One panel was clad in vertical thatch. I heard that this was the first time that vertical thatch had ever been used in the UK, and whilst it looks kinda cool I have my doubts about it. Firstly, the individual stalks of thatch come out really easy, and are very tempting to pull at for the fidgety-fingered. This leads me to believe that the thatch would thin out very quickly, and the more thatch is pulled out, the less tightly packed the remaining straw or reed is, and the easier that comes out… Secondly, it would be a haven for small insects and spiders, which is fine on the outside, but less keen on that internally.
The other side of the house, showing rendered ModCell panels and one left open for later glazing.
The second storey, supplied by Facit goes up really quickly.
The Accoya wood doors and windows, from Westgate Joinery, go in. Accoya is basically softwood that has been treated with acetic anhydride at temperature and under pressure to give it the properties of hardwood. This means that it can be sustainably sourced, and the treatment makes it incredibly durable. I had a chat with a chap who was a real Accoya fan, and he told me that the manufacturer’s guarantee is 30 years, with the importer adding another 10 onto that – that’s showing a fair amount of confidence! This build was the first time he’d seen Accoya in the flesh, as it were, and he was getting really quite excited about it.
I have to say, the idea of a sustainable hardwood substitute really is quite exciting because it would reduce the need to cut down slow-growing hardwoods or use environmentally unkind treatments for softwoods, all of which is much better for the planet. Even the by-product of the hardening process is recyclable – it’s acetic acid, or as we usually call it, vinegar. Not that you’d want to put this vinegar on your chips…
The build progresses, and the roof goes on.
The holes at the top are for piping in insulation.
Work goes on inside, hidden away from nosey bloggers, sadly.
The Facit panels for the apex of the roof are so light that they could actually be carried by one person.
Kevin McCloud setting up for recording.
Kevin indulges in a bit of pole dancing.
Kevin does his piece to camera. I wasn’t close enough to be able to hear what he was saying, but I asked Finlay White from Modcell about the panel that he’s standing in front of, as I really couldn’t figure out what it was supposed to be. Apparently, it’s a silica aerogel window which soaks up solar heat during the day and releases it during the night. According to the Channel 4 site, this particular panel was of Cabot Nanogel.
More photos in the next post!
