Inside a leaf-shaped house tucked away in the Cotswold countryside

Our architecture actually follows nature

and creates structures that allow nature to grow.

[bright music] [birds twitter]

You know, I remember designing something

in the office that was basically two big leaves

with the stalks coming off it.

Because it's fusing nature with architecture,

it's gonna be the shape of a leaf.

The concept of the house was to make it

as sustainable and as self-sufficient as possible.

Also, to use very natural materials,

so the walls around the building

are made from the stone from the quarry.

We've dug a borehole, which means we have

water from our own water supply.

The whole barn has got this

sort of specially designed solar integrated roof

on both sides, and that does all the electricity

for the hot water, the heating,

the lighting, electric cars.

The whole idea with the planting

becoming part of the building,

creating something that sort of angled

towards the view, and it was a start

of a new journey of doing architecture

that is really inspired by nature.

When you arrive, this might look

like a quite complicated structure,

but it's actually really, really simple.

It's basically got a spine through the middle.

It's the entrance hall on double height level,

and that carries on outside to the door to the barn,

and then there's just a space either side of that,

one, we're in the living room,

the other, the kitchen, dining room,

and then you go upstairs,

and you have one bedroom, one side

and two bedrooms, the other side.

Just keep it simple, because in the end, it'll be better.

The details will come in and just fall

into place that will make it interesting.

It's shaped like a leaf,

which is quirky and interesting,

but, actually, it's very, very simple.

We were quite careful in working out

what we wanted to use as a palette

and the textures and creating warmth in the house.

So we have oak from Dinesen on the flooring.

We have clay from Clayworks on the walls,

which is incredibly acoustically calming.

We have de Le Cuona materials on the sofas

and a Moroso armchair,

and then this amazing fireplace,

which is a Gyrofocus fireplace, which I've always wanted,

and we have Jimi Hendrix,

which is one of our favorite photos,

which was given to us as a wedding present,

and it's by Terrance Donovan.

A piano that was owned by my great-grandfather

that is still played by everyone apart from me. [laughs]

[bright music continues]

The kitchen was, you know, very collaborative exercise

between Susanna and I, and it faces west,

and then this curved glass doors here

that framed this amazing view.

The kitchen itself is by Kitchen Architecture

and is a bolt out kitchen.

We have this giant natural edge timber worktop

in ash that was made by Forest to Home.

You've got a little pantry area there.

We have a lot of storage there.

We've got storage underneath here.

We've got storage on the other side.

This island is very deep,

and then this beautiful banquette

that was made by Craftwood, and then a table

that I designed that's on a curved table

that has this sort of tapered edge.

Again, that is the same as the roofs of the leaf house.

[bright music continues]

Corbusier was the one of the original people who said,

When you take a building, try and put

the land back on top of where you've taken

the footprint of the building.

Top floor is a little bit smaller than the floor below.

So you then have a plate of vantage roof

all the way around the edge of the top floor.

So from the first floor, you are looking out

at planting that actually fuses with the landscape

beyond it, so you don't really feel

like you're on the first floor,

and again, very, very simple palette.

It's oak floors, clays, and then de Le Cuona curtains,

and David Chipperfield lights and pinch tables

on the side, and that's it.

It was all about the view, and behind us

is the dressing room and bathroom.

In here, we've got an open plan,

two basins that are an open plan area.

They're a beautiful marble made by Cocoon,

actually designed by John Paulson,

some VOLA natural brass taps

that they're gonna just age on their own,

and then a bath and a double shower here,

and that has this amazing view.

Actually, walkers can walk by

and look at us if they want to.

So I'm growing some planting that's slowly growing there,

and these tiles, they're called Emenem Mosaics,

were made by children with down syndrome in Italy.

So it's quite a sweet story there,

very difficult to lay, but very, very beautiful.

Wherever we can, we've got these round roof lights

that bring light into this slightly darker area here,

and portholes is a theme of a lot of things I do.

[bright music continues] [birds twitter]

We are now in what was an existing barn

on the site that is next to the leaf house,

and there's a path that connects the two.

This is an existing barn that's been reclad in timber.

So it's got Dinesen Douglas fir on the outside

and Douglas fir on the inside,

and, also, the whole roof

is a newly designed integrated solar roof.

So it doesn't look like solar panels

have been stuck on the roof.

They're actually the roof,

which makes it look very beautiful,

and it's, also, very effective.

Again, very calming, very simple palette

with these big glass screens.

It's a work office for me,

and here's a yoga studio work office there.

We've also got mezzanines.

So there's a work space mezzanine above here

that's ancillary office space

that has these fantastic portholes.

So we've got one porthole inside

and one outside that look out onto the view,

then we've also got mezzanines

in the two places people can stay, the two bedrooms,

and I love this sort of Scandinavian Norwegian look

where you have sort of just timber everywhere.

It's very warm, very, very cocooning.

You feel very sort of safe within it, and it's feels...

And it's got the fantastic smell as well of wood.

It's really nice.

You read from every space you read

that there's a whole roof space above you.

You sense the space, and you feel

the light coming through, and the hallway

in the leaf house is, it's like a little

sort of glass box that connects the two buildings,

and it's lovely that you have the glass roof,

and you get all the seasonal...

Now, we've got the sun, but, you know,

when it's pouring with the rain,

it's pretty amazing as well.

[bright music continues]

And then you've got these little greenhouses

effectively on this floor, where you have

lemon trees, fern trees, winter jasmine.

You feel these plants sort of creeping around the edges

of these little planted pockets in the building.

It was really a very simple, simple idea,

and it's more and more what I'm sort of proposing anyways,

that architecture actually follows nature,

number one, and, two, create structures

that allow nature to grow outside

and inside of buildings, you know?

And I think that's the future.

[bright music continues]