Long Melford building company's eco-friendly home set to be featured on Grand Designs
A building company from Long Melford is involved in a project being featured on Channel 4’s Grand Designs next month.
Managing director Darren Howard said his company’s modern, eco-friendly home firm called Mbloc is the focus of the design being screened on the programme on October 2.
Mr Howard has run Mbloc for three-and-a-half years and is also a director of the family-run building firm Maple Building Services, also based in Long Melford.
Mbloc is a design concept for eco buildings, a range of one, two and three-bedroom designs built over one or two storeys, and the company works with Suffolk firms to manufacture them.
“A lot of self-build homes are constructed in factories before being delivered,” he said. “Our homes can be constructed completely on site, and can be put together extremely quickly.
“We built a two-bedroom bungalow for a client in Long Melford that took just 37 days to complete.
“That was a couple of years ago and the client it still delighted with it, and continues to be very pleased with its eco credentials.”
Mr Howard said he was delighted to have been approached by the client commissioning the build for the programme.
“This was a tremendous opportunity and an exciting challenge to expand our design to fulfil the requirements of the client and has provided us with the perfect opportunity to showcase our unique new company. We’re very much looking forward to viewing the completed programme.”
He added: “The Mbloc design is a steel-framed and timber-panelled building that utilises sustainable materials to meet modern day demands.”
The Grand Designs programme covers the building of a new home near Bury St Edmunds, which took eight months to complete.
Presenter Kevin McCloud interviewed the owner of the Mbloc bungalow in Long Melford for the show, said Carol Baxter from Mbloc.
She added: “By researching a new and unique building concept, we are now able to build faster, simpler and in a smart way.”
