The course: Living on site, the trainees learned how to manage a house-build, and the basics of timber-frame building, groundworks, plumbing and electrics. By the end of the course, 1st fix plumbing and 2nd fix electrics were complete and tiling of the roof was well advanced. The course was televised for the 'Discovery Home & Leisure' channel and serialised in 'Build It' magazine.

Design: Planners rejected early proposals for a contemporary design and insisted on the 'dormer' style of the house as built. Within that envelope, a radical and spacious layout makes maximum use of the building envelope and provides a dramatic open plan at ground floor and a flexible first floor that can adapt to two to 4 bedrooms.

Construction: The house is a 'platform' timber frame of prefabricated panels. The ground floor is of precast beams and polystyrene pots. Walls are of 'EVT' technology and the roof structure of 300mm deep engineered timber 'I' beams. Insulation is cellulose fibre, 140mm thick in walls and 300mm thick in the roof. Cladding is of softwood and pure lime render on oak lath. A condensing combi boiler feeds underfloor heating and radiators at the upper floors. Unconverted softwood log columns and a slate floor make the interior an experience of nature as much as one of architecture.