Good evening! I've just got home from a trip to Copenhagen so I am having to rush this weeks newsletter, as a compromise here's a picture of Nyhavn! Apparently the buildings were coloured differently because the fishermen were illiterate so it helped inform them of where to deliver their cargo and where to report to. The colours then stuck as it formed part of the character of the district. I thought that was quite a simple but creative way to get around a problem. Nyhavn, Copenhagen I'll...

Good evening! Last week I wrote about not knowing where to start with a self-build. My conclusion was deliberately simple: do something, do anything. Take one small action, because movement creates information and that information makes the next step easier to see. I still think that is the right place to begin, but the idea needs to be expanded because it creates another problem almost immediately. Once you start, how much do you actually need to know before moving on? The Just Enough...

Good evening! This week I am going to begin the Weekly Build Brief with one core idea I have been developing around self-build, then keep the most useful news underneath. The first idea is what to do when you want to self-build but do not know where to start. Not Knowing Where to Start One of the hardest parts of self-build is not always finding information. It is knowing what to do first. There are so many possible starting points that even a simple first step can feel difficult. You could...

Good evening! Have You Considered Water Use as a Planning Constraint? Half of England is now reported to be in an exceptionally serious drought following a very dry July. Water restrictions are already affecting a large share of the population, while reservoir levels and river flows have continued to fall. The Guardian reported the latest Environment Agency position on 29 July. After receiving our latest water bill, I was surprised to see much water we actually use as a household daily, it...

Good evening! Planning applications in England are about to become more expensive. The government says the additional income should improve council planning services, although self-builders will begin paying the higher fees before there is evidence that decisions are becoming faster or more reliable. Planning Fees Are Rising Before the Service Improves The government confirmed its new approach to planning application fees on 16 July. National fees will be set at around 90% of the estimated...

Hi Reader, I’ve just published a new Right to Build maps page that makes it easy to see what is happening in your local planning authority, without needing to wrestle spreadsheets. You can click your council and across all years see things like how many people are on the register how supply is stacking up against demand where the biggest shortfalls are how policy choices differ place to place If you have ever heard of the Right To Build Register, maybe (hopefully) even joined it but have...

Hi, As a kid my favourite superhero was (and still is) Batman. There was something about the Batcave in particular that really stuck with me. The hidden, self-made, full of tools and secrets. A place to retreat to and be safe. The idea of a Bolthole still interests me today. This was in the Michael Keaton Batman Returns era of the early 1990’s. With Danny DeVito's antagonist Penguin and Michel Pfeiffer's deuteragonist Catwoman. Around that time, when I was about 4 years old, my dad built a...

Hi, 5 Why’s in Engineering Since the inception of powered flight in the early 1900’s, learning from mistakes has been a revolutionary tool in understanding how to improve on ideas and evolve quickly. While investigating manufacturing issues on wing spars in 2017, I often used a Root Cause Analysis Model called the Five Why’s to understand what could have caused a particular issue on the build line. The Five Why’s was a model developed by Toyota in the 1930’s that encouraged engineers to ask...

Hi, Some people build because they want more space. Some because they’re tired of renting or compromising. But for others, it goes deeper, it feels like something they have to do. Ikigai is a Japanese word meaning “a reason for being.” And today, I want to show you how to use it to figure out why building your own home might not just be a good idea… …but the right idea for you. What is Ikigai? In essence, ikigai is what brings you joy, meaning, and fulfilment in daily life, often without...

Hi, Let’s get a bit weird today. I want you to imagine there are 1,000 versions of you living across 1,000 parallel universes. In one, you’re a musician in a cliffside cabin. In another, you run a vineyard in Italy. In a third, you never left your hometown — but you built the perfect home from scratch with your bare hands. Each of these versions of you made different choices. Took different risks. Chased different wants. But across all those timelines, I’d bet some things are always there....