REVIEW: The Grand Designs UK build with the strong "Kiwi" connection has now screened here, but was it really a house such as we might build?

Because that's what the owners set out to do, having lived in New Zealand for four years and falling in love with our architecture.

Former RAF pilot Jon Flewers and his wife GP Gill Flewers bought their plot "site unseen" while living in New Zealand, and that quite possibly was their first mistake. Perhaps they weren't aware of just how steep it was, that piece of land in Malvern Hills, Worcestershire. Grand Designs host, architect Kevin McCloud says it's one of the steepest he has even seen.

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Right from the outset, this Grand Designs UK build set out to borrow from the Kiwi architectural vernacular, right down to the timber cladding. The deck is positioned to take in the best views.

Builder after builder turn them down – more than a dozen, because they're scared of the hill. So Flewers quits his job to become project manager and contracts out the work himself, despite having "zero building experience, apart from what I made with left-over Meccano as a child".

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Ex-RAF pilot Jon Flewers and wife Gill, a GP, bought their plot sight unseen while living in New Zealand for several years.

But looking at the plans for the multi-storey house that juts out from the hillside, it does look a little odd. McCloud picks it straight away – all the picture windows face back into the hill, not out to the view. No, truly, we don't do that in Godzone.

"Jon and Gill's upside-down house has been designed with the main living area on the top floor, to capitalise on those views," says McCloud. "This is magical, because this is like Hobbit land in the North Island. But at the curved corner of the building where there are even better views, there are just two narrow windows.

"Even more bizarrely, Jon and Gill are planning to wall these views off to form a guest bedroom."

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The couple has already established a garden on the hill behind the house.

And he has even more reservations. "The main sitting area isn't near the big views at the front – it's tucked away at the back of the house. The lounge faces the hill."

Architect Nick Carroll says most of the glazing is orientated to the sun for passive solar gain. "It's not a one-trick pony. You want to maximise that view, but you also want to be connected to your own private garden at the back."

But McCloud won't let that view go away. "These guys moved here, from New Zealand for the views. It's epic (the view), but it's a view that this building doesn't exactly grab."

The team did get one thing right though, and that was the importance of building to the sunlight. That is something we rarely see in a UK build; it is rare to even hear them talk about it. But it's second nature to Kiwis to turn a house to the sun.

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The curved entry hints at what lies beyond.

The house also does that very un-English thing of being open plan. And you only need to watch Location, Location, Location to know so many British people not only don't want it, but don't even seem understand just how well it could work for them. This couple know better, thank goodness. 



Jon and Gill Flewers with Kevin McCloud of Grand Designs UK outside their finished house.

Another Kiwi influence is the materials. The house is clad in timber, with some granite, so that's a big nod to down-under.

When the scaffolding comes off we see the massive exterior soaring up above the road. Gill Flewers tries to tell us it's "snuggling into the hill" and there's a wee argument with McCloud who thinks it's a more of a "crag". He's right. There's nothing snuggly about the exterior of this house, but that's not a bad thing.

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The living room opens up to a garden in the cliff face, not the expansive view.

More worrying is the fact that Jon Flewers falls out of love with the building. By the programme's end, we're not even sure he likes it any more. Which is pretty sad. They have done a sterling job, even if the layout is a little odd, and even if he did stuff up the utilities connection.

And of course, there have been huge sacrifices – an Air Force career put on hold, a move from the other side of the world. 

McCloud comes back to visit and pronounces the house "positively Antipodean, a powerful bruiser that commands the landscape".

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The family opted for an open-plan living space, just like most New Zealand homes.

We get to see the master suite, and it's true, the curved corner of the building where there are no windows, blocks the very best views. And the kitchen only takes in half the view, because the guest bedroom blocks the rest. Similarly, the living room doesn't take in the jaw-dropping views, but rather a pretty garden tucked into the cliff behind. Definitely frustrating.

But there are glimpses of that view as you move through the house; they're just not quite as you'd expect.

Let's leave the last word to Jon: "I have no doubt it's beautiful. But I'm not sure it has been worth the sacrifices that have happened up to this point, at this moment."

The house is described by Grand Designs UK host Kevin McCloud as 'positively Antipodean'.

 - Homed