Architecture and interior design thread

a swimming pool is £70k, which is more than I thought they were. But that may just be UK pricing

In Spain you wouldn’t typically pay more than €20k

Yeah. France is ~€20k depending on spec. Probably more like €25 now. But also the common spec there uses a rubberised liner, which isn't very GD. So maybe a tiled one would end up the same.

Thinking about it, there's also a self selecting factor. In the UK to have a house big enough for a pool and to afford the heating you've probably got a decent budget. Combined with being less common means the people building need better margins because they don't have volume.

A bit like how in the States you won't find a bog standard diesel 3 series like you would in Europe.

Liked the finished house on grand designs, but not the process.
Also why do people build such big fucking houses? Half the problems in grand designs would be eliminated if the house was half the size.
Find I like the houses which are more constrained by issues with the site and that have to come up with creative solutions to overcome them.

I thought the outside of the house was excellent. Some bits were a little over embellished but in general it was great. And the natural ponds were wonderful.

The guy looked wrecked though - aged at about 5 x over the 3 years!

McLean Quinlan are doing some really lovely work - this one in the Kent downs and their Harbour house are particular faves.

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Definitely enjoy those more too. That one where the kids were hyper allergic to everything was really interesting.

Got to say though, if I were building a house I'd go as big as my budget and space would allow. It's so nice when you go to countries where space isn't the issue it is here and you've just got room to move and breath.

You also leave scope for your kids to flog it to a developer to convert to "luxury" flats once they move you into a home because you didn't properly think though mobility issues before building.

I plan to self-build a pool at some point after watching this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2MYUSAwmVo

Where abouts?

I'm not sure that type of pool will be viable in the UK unless you're OK with very cold water. If you are you probably want to have a look at builds that incorporate insulation. Shallower pools are also easier to heat.

A conservation area in Exeter so I won't hold my breath! I spoke to a few manufacturers (Isotex, Thermomur, etc) about using insulated blocks for a pool and it's already a thing, but you need to use their wider products.

If there's space for it, then you'd really be a fool not to make the home bigger, but most of the big houses on grand designs have so much waste in them, so many tv rooms, and gyms, and spa rooms, and other extraneous bullshit, as if they're building a boutique hotel rather than a home to live in.
I think the house I've envied the most was this one, built by a woman in the bottom of her mum's garden, she was an interior designer or something like that, and it had so many nice touches, and used the limited space so well, and was really well planned and run, rather than some of the get the money gun out, or we can't afford builders so we're going to do it ourselves, even though we've got no building experience.

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/grand-designs/on-demand/46761-029

hello guys, do you know anything similar to USM system, but with a different price tag (lower ;) )
thx for the help

On a similar vein:
If I manage to shift a few things I'd quite like to manoeuvre this into the back garden:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/265269649340
This specific one- because I could not afford a new one.
Does anyone know what you need to do to connect it up? We have mains and water to the end of the garden and I assume its just a glorified Hot Tub- which I also have no experience of.

/#GCthread entry.

That natural pool was amazing not only for swimming in the summer but for the nature I brought to the garden. It was great

This is for the 200 and 500 but I expect the setup/connection to be similar:
https://hotspring.co.nz/assets/Uploads/2019-RecSport-Exercise-Syst-50Hz-Owners-Manual-Rev-A-English-305229.19B.pdf

Agreed, it was wonderful. Although I expect they introduced some of the creatures themselves.

Yeah I think a few starring Animas from central casting may have been used.

Any neighbours applying for planning themselves will be thrilled that they now have newts to contend with!

Completely torn on the last grand design. Adore the pool and house aesthetic it’s grotesquely large however and that god awful tennis court.

I’d move in a minute but it’s too large.

Watched the pool episode last night, love the pool but can't help thinking that natural ponds and lakes manage to have a balanced ecosystem without splurging £100k. It must be possible to do something similar for much less.

e.g. I went for a walk along the Grand Western Canal recently - crystal clear water, loads of lillies and reeds etc. I accept it's a much larger ecosystem so that probably helps, but man-made nonetheless.

You can build a natural pool (a pond) for the cost of the digger hire, liner, pipe, gravel and plants (if you have solid earth).

There's someone on YT with a teaser video to get you to buy their DIY how to. They used sleepers and sand bags.

When I looked into it (out of curiosity) about 15-20yrs ago size was one of the big factors. You basically need to at least double the area (½ for the pool ½ for the plants) and the there's a minimum size it needs to function properly as an ecosystem.

So even as a starter you need to basically double the cost of loads of stuff over a normal pool. Idk if you use the same pump and filtration systems, but if you don't I bet you get gouged on that due to the tiny market.

Also that expert he hired surely wouldn't have charged less than £5k +VAT. Although if he's an architect I assume all the figures he quoted were ex VAT anyway ;)

You can have a smaller total area if you go vertical with your filtration area, although it will require a better pump setup, this kind of thing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NSsORP4WFw

David Pagan Butler has built ~180m2 natural pools for ~£6k and ~50m2 pools for~£2k.

We used to have a a swimming pond at the farm. Summers were great, 3m diving platform and all. The family had to sell up because of a large scale infrastructure project and that was that. Some people get weirded out about the sand mind.

Cheers for that.