According to architectural designer and BBC Wales' Home of the Year judge Glen Thomas, you can have a Grand Designs style home, bespoke and beautiful, without the Grand Designs level of budget if you think less traditional and look more to the future. Glen's talking flat pack - but if you're having visions of struggling to put together a Billy bookcase from a well-known Scandinavian shop but on a super-sized level then put you worries away, because engineered timber structure homes can offer you luxury on a budget and Glen promises you don't have to find an allen key and put it together yourself. But it is Scandinavia where the inspiration and subsequent technology for this type of home has come from for Glen and he is passionate to see it considered as an alternative to bricks, cement and masses of steel - to construct a building that saves time, build costs and blasts energy bills.
For more property stories sent to your inbox twice a week sign up to the property newsletter here . READ MORE: This gorgeous farmhouse in one of the most majestic landscapes in Wales LATEST: 'I went to a fairytale castle in the woods and couldn't believe the changes' Glen says: " During covid we faced huge price rises in building materials - steel, concrete, everything, and as we were coming out of covid those prices still kept going up and they were never going to come down again, so we faced a decision to look for a more sustainable alternative. "Timber framed houses use far less carbon, far qu.