Self-build house (EVA Lanxmeer, Nederland)

"Self-build" is the practice of creating an individual home for yourself through a variety of different methods. The term 'self build' is specifically used in the UK and Ireland when an individual obtains a building plot and then builds their own home on that plot. The self builder's input into this process varies from doing undertaking the actual building work to contracting out all the work to an architect or building package company.

Motivation[link]

People build individual homes for all sorts of reasons, but mainly because they want to create something tailored to their family's unique requirements; or something architecturally appealing in all manner of styles; or because they want to live in a home that they might not be able to afford on the open market.

Methods[link]

Self-builders create their homes through a variety of methods - and very few actually build it entirely themselves. The majority employ an architect to come up with the design of the new home and contract a builder to construct it; others use so-called 'package' companies to provide a one-stop solution. Many others find themselves managing building sites and dealing directly with planners, tradespeople and materials suppliers.

Extent[link]

The number of new homes built by this method each year in the United Kingdom is not known because of the difficulties in defining self build and the lack of official statistics. However it is estimated that there are between 10,000 and 20,000 self builds in the UK every year. This is less than 10% of all the homes built annually but may constitute as much as 1 in 3 new detached homes built in the UK.^[1] Over the years, self-builders have been at the forefront of advances in house design and technology, being responsible for the dramatic uptake in recent years in eco-features such as solar power and heat pumps; underfloor heating; open plan design and smart home technology. These are features that take many years to filter through to commercial housing developments. There is also an increasing drive for people to self-build overseas, either as investments, holiday homes, retirement homes or relocation.

Individual houses can take all forms from the traditional to the radically modern, and the term is also used to refer to people who create individual homes out of old buildings.

Current Issues[link]

The main impediment to the UK self build market is the shortage of building plots available to the self builder, high land prices and the restrictive planning regime. in 2008 the National Self Build Association (NaSBA) was established to order to put pressure on relevant bodies, including the Government, to remedy this situation. The founding members of NaSBA are Bath and District Self Build Association, Build It magazine, BuildStore, Potton/Kingspan, Architecture Verte and Ecomotive.^[2]

See also[link]

• Green building
• Walter Segal

Books[link]

• Broome, Jon (2007). The Green Self-Build Book. Foxhole, Dartington, Totnes, Devon: Green Books. ISBN 978-1-903998-73-1. 
• Pollan, Michael (1997). Place of My Own: The Education of an Amateur Builder. New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0-679-41532-9. 

References[link]

1. ^ http://www.ebuild.co.uk/self_build.htm
2. ^ http://www.nasba.org.uk/content/campaign.aspx

External links[link]

• Build It magazine, advice for UK self-builders at self-build.co.uk
• Directory of self-build products and services from homebuilding.co.uk
• selfbuild.com - International Self Build forum
• Info for the Self-Builder in Ireland
• Self Building Resources in America
• How do I self build?
• 1 in 3 would Self Build
• A self-build diary
• Self-building project in the Netherlands
• Info for the Self-Builder in Australia
• UK Self Build Mortgages
• UK sustainable selfbuild information
• The Self Build Guide
• U.K Self Build Timber Frame Guide
• ebuild: Self Build Guide (UK)
• National Self Build Association (UK)
• BuildStore (UK)

Kevin McCloud
McCloud pictured at the 2009 Goodwood Festival of Speed
Born	(1958-05-08) 8 May 1958 (age 54) Bedfordshire, England
Residence	Frome, Somerset
Nationality	British
Education	Dunstable Grammar School, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
Occupation	Television presenter, journalist, designer
Known for	Presenting Grand Designs
Spouse	Suzanna McCloud
Children	4

Kevin McCloud (born 8 May 1958) is a British designer, writer and television presenter best known for his work on the Channel 4 series Grand Designs.

Personal Life[link]

He lives in a 15th-century farmhouse in Frome, Somerset,^[1] with his wife (childhood sweetheart) Anna-Charlotte McFadyen ("Char", who runs an online interior decoration business) and their two children, Milo (b. 1998) and Elsie (b. 2001), plus Hugo (b. 1988) and Grace (b. 1991) from McCloud's previous relationship.^[2][3]

Born in Bedfordshire, McCloud and his two brothers, Terence and Graham, were raised in a house his parents had built.^[4] McCloud attended Dunstable Grammar School, which became Manshead Upper School, and then studied the history of art and architecture at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He is conversant in French and Italian.

Designer[link]

After graduating, McCloud trained and worked as a theatre designer, then set up his own lighting design practice and manufacturing business 'McCloud Lighting' - at one point employing 26 people.^[4] His work includes the carved and painted rococo-style vegetable ceiling in the food halls at Harrods, many projects in conjunction with J.J. Desmond Interiors and lighting installations at Ely Cathedral, Edinburgh Castle, the Savoy Hotel and the Dorchester Hotel.^[5] Today he concentrates on television work, journalism and product design, including work for British manufacturers.

McCloud's first book, Kevin McCloud's Decorating Book, was published in 1990, and remains in print in five languages. The Techniques of Decorating and Kevin McCloud's Lighting Book were published in 1995, and The Complete Decorator in 1996. In 2005 he was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Design from both Oxford Brookes and Plymouth University. He was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 2006 and of the Society of Light & Lighting (SLL) in 2009. He is patron of Somerset Arts, the Carymoor Environmental Centre and the Genesis Project and he is an ambassador for the World Wide Fund for Nature, actively campaigning to promote One Planet Living, the WWF's sustainability initiative. He is also the frontman for the home energy refurbishment campaign the Great British Refurb.^[6]

Television[link]

McCloud's first appearance on television was as a guest presenter on Homefront on BBC Two. In 1999, he then went on to write and present Grand Designs, a programme covering unusual and elaborate architectural homebuilding projects, produced by Talkback Thames, which is now in its eleventh series. In the series McCloud always remains critical of the designs, continuously hoping for a house to be designed that follows the schedule properly and does not go over the estimated budget.

He also wrote and presented Grand Designs Indoors and Grand Designs Abroad. In the course of the latter series, McCloud demonstrated his fluency in French and Italian, occasionally acting as a translator for people who have houses built abroad in places where they don't know the language. He is also editor-at-large for Grand Designs magazine, and sat on the steering committee for the associated exhibition "Grand Designs Live" in 2005 and 2006.

In May 2008, McCloud took the Grand Designs series of programmes to a new level with Grand Designs Live, in which he demonstrated environmentally-sensitive construction methods on a site in the East End of London, as well as presenting a "Grand Design of the Year" competition. His co-presenters included Dave Gorman, Janet Street-Porter, Naomi Cleaver, Diarmuid Gavin and Bill Bailey.

Other TV work has included Don't Look Down, in which McCloud examined the construction of tall buildings while climbing them, on BBC Two in 2000, Demolition on Channel 4 in 2005, The Stirling Prize: Building of the Year (in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008), and Kevin McCloud and the Big Town Plan on Channel 4 in August 2008. His recent publications include Choosing Colours in 2003, and "Grand Designs Handbook: The Blueprint" in 2006. He is currently writing a consumer guide to sustainability and culture change to be published by Collins.

On 30 November 2008, he appeared as the Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car on Top Gear. He finished with a time of 1:45.87, second on the leaderboard behind Jay Kay, who finished with 1:45.83.^[7]

In January 2010, McCloud fronted a two part documentary detailing a two week stay in Mumbai's Dharavi slum.^[8]

In 2011, McCloud appeared on an episode of Carpool.

McCloud presented Kevin McCloud's Grand Tour on Channel 4 during the late summer and early autumn of 2009. The four part series saw McCloud retracing the popular tour of European cities and sites of classical antiquity undertaken over the last four centuries by upper class, primarily British, young men of means, and describing their subsequent impact on British customs and architecture.

Developer[link]

In early 2007, McCloud led a consortium to purchase two plots of land to develop Hab housing (happiness, architecture and beauty) development on the outskirts of Swindon, Wiltshire.^[9] Design work for the highly sustainable buildings was underway, with a planning application scheduled for May 2008. Anthony Peet the civil engineering lead the build However along with the architects Wright & Wright, they were dropped over disagreements over fees, pushing the project back, with the possibility of being forced to start from scratch with new architect, Glen Howells. McCloud has stated about the project's setbacks that "I'm not going to pull out now..." reiterating his support for the project.^[10] Hab was accused of being in chaos after the exit of Wright & Wright.^[11] McCloud replied that there was no chaos and that he was "absolutely delighted with the way the project is progressing".^[12] In October 2009, it was announced that Hab Oakus, a joint venture between Hab and housing group GreenSquare, had won planning permission for its first housing scheme in Swindon designed by Glenn Howells. The 42-home scheme, called The Triangle, will occupy the site of a former caravan park.^[13] Housing will be "environmentally sustainable, affordable". The Homes And Communities Agency, a UK national housing and regeneration agency, had already announced in April 2010 that it would back the plans by contributing £2.5m.^[14]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Kevin McCloud at the Internet Movie Database
• Grand Designs at Channel4
• HAB Housing
• The Castleford Project