{"id":222460,"date":"2026-01-05T23:33:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T23:33:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/222460\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T23:33:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T23:33:20","slug":"the-rare-grand-design-built-on-time-and-on-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/222460\/","title":{"rendered":"The rare grand design built on time and on budget"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pete and Aey Aspdin have built the rarest of grand designs. On a show that for more than a quarter-century has featured house builds overrunning, the Aspdins\u2019 home was not only on schedule but also on budget. When Kevin McCloud, the host of Grand Design, saw it complete he said: \u201cThey landed it on time. It cost what it was going to cost . . . And the quality is beautiful. I\u2019ve never really seen a building where you can get all three.\u201d To the grizzled Channel 4 presenter it sounded \u201clike sort of building heaven\u201d. <\/p>\n

If you are planning a project, you might wonder whether you too could reach construction nirvana. On a bright winter\u2019s day, shortly after the episode broadcast in October, I visit the Aspdins to find out exactly how they achieved it.<\/p>\n

Pete and Aey left Hackney, east London, for the countryside 12 years ago after they had their second child. Alice was a baby and Jo a toddler when they bought a small 500-year-old cottage in the village of Shipley, West Sussex. By 2020, with Jo in his tweens, the Aspdins needed more space. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe couldn\u2019t find anything around here,\u201d says Aey, a ceramicist. \u201cSo we thought, let\u2019s look for a piece of land.\u201d But on every bit of land with planning permission they were \u201cgazumped by developers\u201d. <\/p>\n

In 2022 they found a dilapidated three-bedroom bungalow in a nearby village and correctly surmised that they were more likely to get planning permission for a new home in its place than on a virgin field. <\/p>\n

\"Aerial<\/p>\n

The completed home in Southwater, West Sussex \u2014 a Z-shaped modular masterpiece clad in scorched Scottish larch that blends seamlessly into the rural landscape<\/p>\n

CIARAN MCCRICKARD FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The original 1960s bungalow, nicknamed the \u2018fungalow\u2019 due to its recurring issues with damp and mould<\/p>\n

The Aspdins bought the plot for \u00a3650,000 and moved into their \u201cfungalow\u201d while they planned the project. \u201cWe thought, it\u2019s fun,\u201d Aey says. \u201cThen we went camping [at the end of summer] and came back and it\u2019s like, \u2018Oh, the tent was better.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

With winter came mould, she adds. \u201cThe fungalow became a bit fungilow.\u201d <\/p>\n

Pete, who oversees supply chain strategy for a global healthcare company, says he wanted to \u201cremove all of the risk that we could\u201d from the build. \u201cWe\u2019re working, we\u2019ve got young kids. What we really didn\u2019t want is a massive rollercoaster.\u201d He knew little about building but his job meant he understood factories. That nudged them to have their home built in a factory.<\/p>\n

\"Prime<\/p>\n

Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng at Berkeley\u2019s modular plant in 2022<\/p>\n

DYLAN MARTINEZ\/PA<\/p>\n

Doing so is not free of risk. Off-site construction has long been hailed as the future of building in Britain. Yet as the Aspdins started looking for a modular house factory, the biggest ones in the UK were closing down. L&G amassed \u00a3359 million in pre-tax losses and is shutting its giant modular factory in Yorkshire. The big housebuilder Berkeley pulled out of its modular plant in Kent, which Liz Truss, then prime minister, had visited on the day of her infamous mini-budget in 2022. Other leading players such as Ilke Homes and TopHat collapsed too. <\/p>\n

\u2022 Kevin McCloud: \u2018Britain has had a housing crisis since the 1980s\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Planning delays, construction errors with foundations and increased delivery costs had hit them. The boss of Britain\u2019s biggest housebuilder, David Thomas of Barratt Redrow, recently told The Times that modular houses mean \u201cyou\u2019re just shipping a lot of air around the country. It doesn\u2019t make sense. It\u2019s very, very expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

The home has a \u00a342,000 bespoke oak kitchen by Kenton Jones, topped with vibrant ceramic pendant lights handmade by Aey herself<\/p>\n

CIARAN MCCRICKARD FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES<\/p>\n

However, Pete and Aey turned to Koto, which creates bespoke modular homes and cabins. Theo Dales, an architect who co-founded Koto, thinks modular construction failed when it \u201ctried to do mass market at low cost\u201d, whereas Koto creates \u201chandcrafted one-off homes. We think that\u2019s where modular construction has a lot of advantages, because it\u2019s less stressful for the client. It\u2019s all done off-site. It\u2019s a much more managed and controlled process. It takes that jeopardy out of self-build.\u201d<\/p>\n

At first the Aspdins thought they wanted a double-storey house to take in the country views. Koto came up with a single-storey home raised up 3ft to see over the hedges. \u201cIt meant you don\u2019t just have some rooms with long views, you have that from all of the rooms,\u201d Dale says.<\/p>\n

It has a Z-shaped layout around a central living space and kitchen. At each end are two bedrooms and a bathroom. Alice, 12, and Jo, 15, live on one side; their parents are on the other, alongside Pete\u2019s office and a guest bedroom. <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Glideline slim-profile triple-glazed sliding doors act as floor-to-ceiling frames for the countryside<\/p>\n

It would be manufactured as five pods in Wales, driven 220 miles on trucks and craned into place. <\/p>\n

The Aspdins won planning permission on their first attempt, in February 2024. Construction started in January 2025 at the Unnos Systems factory in Welshpool, where Kenton Jones\u2019s team fitted a timber frame from locally cut Douglas fir with recycled newspaper insulation. <\/p>\n

Then the Aspdins got a taste of modular challenges. Before any work could start on-site, they had to wait for a bat licence from Natural England. That could not be issued until last winter\u2019s freezing weather warmed up. <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The master bedroom is on one end of the house, with Aey\u2019s pottery studio in the garden<\/p>\n

CIARAN MCCRICKARD FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES<\/p>\n

This complicated payments because their arrears self-build mortgage released funds after each construction stage completed. The factory was already fitting their bathrooms while they waited for foundations to be finished on-site. For a few weeks Pete says he \u201ccouldn\u2019t get any money out of the mortgage [to pay the factory]\u201d. <\/p>\n

His advice? \u201cYou really need to understand what information you\u2019re going to need [to release funds for each stage]. It can leave you reliant on the goodwill of suppliers building a house for you because you can\u2019t raise any cash to pay them.\u201d In such a bind, it helps to work with people you get on with, he adds. \u201cIf those relationships had been difficult it would have been really painful.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The house is made up of five separate pods, joined together on site and clad in burnt Scottish larch<\/p>\n

CIARAN MCCRICKARD FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES<\/p>\n

In the end there were no bats. The only sign of a bat living in the old bungalow was bat droppings on one of the last roof tiles they took off, Aey says. \u201cThe ecologist stood on scaffolding and he was like, \u2018Hold on a minute.\u2019 But was there a bat? No.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aey cried when she first saw their house on the factory floor. \u201cIt\u2019s all been on paper for a long time. When you actually walk into it it\u2019s almost overwhelming,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Hand-built Hebridean home beats rivals for Grand Designs award<\/a><\/p>\n

Work progressed so smoothly that the Grand Designs team realised \u201chalfway through that there wasn\u2019t going to be this big dramatic arc\u201d, Pete says. Contrary to other builds, which take so long that children grow up on camera, the crew filmed the Aspdins over just six months.<\/p>\n

Craning the five pods into place took less than five hours, during which they heard \u201ca big clunk\u201d, Pete recalls. The Daily Mail subsequently published footage of the couple watching, it said, \u201cin horror\u201d. \u201cThe headline\u2019s so different [to reality],\u201d Aey says. \u201cI was just, like, \u2018What was that?\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Living<\/p>\n

Aey\u2019s ceramic collection is on display above their Muuto sofa<\/p>\n

Their house had not been dropped. One 20-tonne pod, suspended from a crane, bumped the lorry that had been carrying it. Nothing was damaged \u2014 not even the meticulous herringbone bathroom tiling. It all slotted perfectly into the foundation of Techno Metal Post ground screws (chosen so \u201cwe\u2019re not pouring tons of concrete into the ground\u201d, Dales says). Five weeks later the family moved in, a day ahead of schedule. <\/p>\n

As I visit, it is impossible to see where the five pods were joined. They now read as one seamless house, clad in scorched Scottish larch (IRO by BSW Timber), with an angular metal roof. The house\u2019s zigzag footprint subtly divides the rectangular plot into public and private zones. <\/p>\n

\"Dining<\/p>\n

The table, by Another Country, is paired with Carl Hansen elbow chairs<\/p>\n

Tucked away at the far end, between a hammock pergola and a veg patch, is Aey\u2019s pottery studio, where she makes vibrant tableware and lighting, including the pendants above their kitchen island (aeyglom.com<\/a>). The handmade oak kitchen, which cost \u00a342,000, is by Kenton Jones.<\/p>\n

The Glideline slim sliding doors are triple-glazed and the MVHR freshens the air and prevents mould in the airtight house. A rainwater harvesting system feeds the lavatories, while an air source heat pump supplies hot water and heating. <\/p>\n

On social media the odd detractor accused the couple of \u201cshocking eco-washing\u201d for \u201cdemolishing an existing house to build an eco house\u201d. To this Aey says: \u201cI don\u2019t think we could save the bungalow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Illustration<\/p>\n

Before the broadcast Grand Designs\u2019 welfare team warned the family not to look at comments and to contact them if gawkers turned up on their doorstep. But their phones pinged with warmth, Pete says. \u201cWe had people in the supermarket going, \u2018Congratulations on your house.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

The build cost, including planning, professional fees and full fit-out, totalled \u201cjust over \u00a3800,000\u201d, Pete says. \u201cIt worked out. And it was largely stress free.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an unexpected downside, the lack of jeopardy made their episode rather boring. As a relative who works in TV told Dales: \u201cReally cool project, but it\u2019s awful television.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pete and Aey Aspdin have built the rarest of grand designs. On a show that for more than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[437,434,435,436,438,146,85,46],"class_list":{"0":"post-222460","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-il","15":"tag-israel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}