A GRAND Designs homeowner has defended his £8million fortress after angry villagers compared it to a “car park”.
When Piers Daniell set out to build his dream home, a six-storey concrete and glass “castle”, he knew it wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea.
What he didn’t expect was to become public enemy number one in his own village, with locals gathering in the town hall to watch his episode air.
The 43-year-old appeared on Grand Designs this week, insisting his creation is a “monument” and that it was “not meant to be pretty,” as reported by the Telegraph.
Neighbours have slammed the project, with some dubbing it a “multi-storey car park,” a “Soviet bunker,” and even a “prison.”
One branded it “the most disgusting, vainglorious thing” they’d ever seen.
But Piers insisted that the project was not about aesthetics, in fact it was about “legacy”.
He said: “I don’t really care what people think of me.
“Comparing it to Auschwitz was a bit harsh,” he admits. “But the criticism was expected.”
Piers and his wife Emma, a deputy crime commissioner, spent four years creating their modernist home in Wixford, Warwickshire.
The couple poured an eye-watering £7.5million into the project, sending them £5.5million over budget.
The tech entrepreneur and his wife ripped down an 18th Century folly, an old decorative building, in order to build the new development on the site.
Piers said he wanted to stop developers from putting up a bland building on the countryside around him.
After buying the site for £1.4million, they set out to build something bold and contemporary, using recycled materials.
“I didn’t want to build a pretend Tudor thing for my daughters to grow up in,” he said.
The iconic local landmark was originally constructed on the advice of the Prince Regent to Lord and Lady Hertford at the end of the 17th century.
Speaking on the show, one neighbour said: “I’m absolutely aghast. I can’t believe that they would demolish such a lovely building.”
On the show, the couple told host Kevin McCloud they dreamed of living there with their two children.
The duo’s ambitions baffled the host, who has been presenting the show for 25 years.
He told the pair: “You’d have to be out of your mind to build something like this.”
The design uses recycled materials and includes a wind turbine, aiming to make the home near net zero.
The couple faced setbacks including asbestos contamination, bad weather, Covid delays and the collapse of their brick supplier.
Bills reached up to £100,000 a month, and Piers had to sell properties and remortgage to keep the project going.
By 2023, they were £1million over budget and struggling to secure extra funding.
He also had to dip into his mother’s pension in order to keep the project alive.
They sold a smaller “test house” on the site for £2.5million, but the sale did not cover the full cost of the build.
After four years of construction and hundreds of unpaid invoices, the unfinished castle was put up for sale.
If the couple finish the project the structure will become the first castle built in the UK for 100 years.
Despite the criticism and financial strain, Piers said the project was about building something lasting for his family.
