Grand Designs

You may be familiar with the TV programme which follows people building weird and wacky houses and it occurred to me that this project on number 23 Oberon Wood has some similarities.

It isn't just the unconventional design of these properties but more that a recurring narrative theme of the programme is the conflict between what the architect has dreamt up and the struggle of the people on the ground trying to bring it to three dimensional reality.

In my case I came across a discrepancy between the Artistic Director's plans the research photographs we have of the house.

My concern was with the southern half of the building - the bit with the overhang at the front - and the height of the roof.

The photographs showed a very considerable step between the different roof sections on the building but the plans not so much.

Closer examination showed the plans had the eaves of the overhanging section positioned lower down than the opposite side of the building with the dormer window - whereas the in the photos they appeared to be more on the same level.

Reluctant as I am to doubt the Artistic Director, who spent many hours researching the buildings and scaling them down, I decided to take an executive decision to alter the design to make it look more like the photograph.

I've written before that I have never been what's known as a rivet counter. My modelling credo is that if it looks right it is right.

So now all the walls of the house are complete and I'll move onto fitting the roof sections and making the dormer windows next.

The shot from above shows just how complicated the shape of these buildings is.