24 October, 2025

We were excited to see friends of our Managing Partner, Marcus and Abi, on Grand Designs this month with their stunning and ingenious eco-home project, built within (and out of!) beautiful Pembrokeshire woodland. Apart from the seemly crazy idea to build such an innovative home with no detailed architectural drawings, their off-grid location meant that they needed to gain planning permission using the Welsh One Planet Development scheme. 

The scheme aims to ensure minimum disruption to open countryside, meaning not only are there strict requirements of the building, but also its inhabitants. Among the requirements, Marcus and Abi will need to prove a low family carbon footprint over the next 5 years, fulfil community, waste and transport requirements, as well as growing a significant proportion of their own food. 

The couple seem undaunted by the task. In fact, Abi told us that “We’re delighted to have had the opportunity to build here, and in this way. We learned so much from this process. We hope that anyone watching the show will be inspired to make sustainable choices when undertaking any kind of renovation project, big or small”. 

Although we won’t all build an off-grid eco home, we can all be inspired by their example to explore other ways of living. There’s more many of us could do to lower our carbon footprints, contribute to our local community and become excited by bringing a sustainability lens to our everyday decisions. And – crucially – by realising that, as Abi and Marcus’s build shows, sustainable can also mean functional and very very beautiful.  

By Anna Heis