West Suffolk

Building his own home was always a pipe dream for musician Toby. But that all changed after he survived the trauma of leukaemia. During his recovery, ideas for a radical new home came thick and fast – a place to re-invent his life, improve his health and provide for actress wife Libby and their infant daughter. Once cancer-free, despite still suffering from a compromised immune system, there was no stopping Toby. His dream, to create a new house from a series of interlinked offset black-barn inspired structures in a horseshoe around an ancient oak tree. Set in beautiful rural Suffolk, the design for Toby’s five building home contains six bedrooms, six bathrooms, a music studio and an annexe - a vast project more like a village than a house. Toby’s leukaemia has also left him vulnerable to skin cancer, so one feature of his new home has to be perfect - a shaded walkway that not only joins the different buildings together but crucially shades him from the sun when outside.

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But creating this life changing vision on a £530k budget, and in only 8 months, is not going to be easy. Building up close to an ancient oak, without destroying its roots, involves embracing a new low impact foundation construction system. The buildings must be raised and the floating shell will be slotted together in super-fast time. But Toby has high architectural ambitions and doesn’t want to rush. Libby is also concerned that her need for a comfortable family home could be forgotten. Add to this Toby’s ongoing health concerns, and the pressure on this project is immense.