Room to improve - Dermott the architect

Horehound · 2021-08-02T11:00:14+00:00

This show annoys me so much. I know it's old but it's on when I take my lunch and I just find the architect so infuriating. He seems to want to change things part way through builds, argues with builders and the owners. Denies mistakes he's made etc I feel like he gets by just winging things!

PearlFriday · 02/08/2021 12:02

Dermot Bannon?

It annoys me that he will only work with people who have a budget of 800,000 euro.

I preferred the earlier episodes where he worked with people outgrowing their terraced houses. Those episodes were more relatable.

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Horehound · 02/08/2021 12:06

Yes that's him.

He just seems utterly useless and I can imagine I'd be furious with him the whole way through a build! My stress levels increase whilst watching it. I don't know why I torture myself!

To me, every person he works with I can relate to, but I can't relate to him.

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PearlFriday · 02/08/2021 13:28

I'd watch ANY house programme so I don't find it too annoying, but I think he's a good architect but he's kind of smug and inflexible.

There was one episode where this couple bought a house by the sea. A very ordinary cottage overlooking tramore bay and the woman wanted to feng shui it, he was really dismissive of what she wanted even though it was her house, and it was only when her husband said to dermot ''we're spending a lot of money here, i want her to get what she wants and be happy'' did he back down with the mocking of feng shui

MargeGoesBowling · 02/08/2021 13:30

I’ve only ever seen a few episodes but I always wonder why he makes himself look so incompetent. Surely it can’t be good for business?

And the designs seem to be the same every time- big glass box extension.

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Horehound · 02/08/2021 13:36

This is the thing, he doesn't listen to what the people actually want. And if anyone suggests an idea he dismissed straight away.
Then later he might suggest the same thing! He did today with a window and the other guy was like 'wtf, we suggested this to you and you poo-pooed it!" Dermotts like "no I didn't"

Also, stop changing stuff half way through, that costs money. He doesn't think ahead.

Today at the end he asked the couple if they got everything they wanted and the guy was like mmmm no..
The woman said "at times the relationship with Dermot has been difficult"

He just seems like an absolute dope
:D

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PearlFriday · 02/08/2021 13:42

Oh yeh, that criticism of him has been made. He went through a phase of making everybody's house look like a car sales ahowroom.

He needs to go back to the beginning for a few series. How to eke a bit more space out of a 800sq foot terrace

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Horehound · 02/08/2021 13:47

I looked at his Twitter and it seems like there is a new show about small houses

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stayathomer · 02/08/2021 13:48

I actually really enjoy it!! The only one that made me want to grab him and shake him was when he converted a 60 year old house, that was being given to them by their granny, chuckling away at how things used to be done IN FRONT OF THE GRANNY WHO HAD BUILT IT WITH HER NOW DEAD HUSBAND. Oh how funny they all found it, all of them moaning how it didn't have this or that. I think at one point she said 'it was fine for us' when they marvelled about the cold. Didn't stop at all to ask her was she okay and at the reveal they basically went 'isn't it so much better' while she just nodded. So sad.

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Horehound · 02/08/2021 13:50

Oh god that's horrendous!

Yes he doesn't seem to have great people skills

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Mamette · 02/08/2021 13:54

And the designs seem to be the same every time- big glass box extension.

Don’t forget the sunken living area.

EarringsandLipstick · 02/08/2021 13:57

Sorry I love Dermot! Yes, I'd say he is a nightmare to work with, loses the run of himself with budgets, and can be impossible to get hold of

But ... I love his style. I think he has amazing vision. I know the criticism of him he big glass box tacked on to the house but truthfully he has done some amazing innovative projects that have much more to them than this.

I love his passion. Think he's v good looking too.

EarringsandLipstick · 02/08/2021 14:00

Not sure how many of you are in Ireland but he is always being stopped & asked questions about house renovations & design. He's really good about it.

I saw him on a train a few years ago. God he'd a queue of people coming up to him the whole journey (Dublin to Cork train!). He was sketching designs on napkins!

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Horehound · 02/08/2021 14:10

Lol well that's nice he is so accommodating then.
And to be fair I have liked the houses but he's argues with owners about stuff that's so insignificant to him he needs to remember these people are living there 24/7.

And one major fuck up about drainage and walls costing the owners I think an extra 40k+ to fix. Argh lol

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PearlFriday · 02/08/2021 14:13

@Horehound

I looked at his Twitter and it seems like there is a new show about small houses

oh good! He listened to me

LavenderAskew · 02/08/2021 14:18

@Horehound

I looked at his Twitter and it seems like there is a new show about small houses

For the most of them, they really aren't small houses.

Think of things like a "man cave" with fully stocked bar and outdoor shower away from main (big) house or a beach hut on a man made beach built on the river Bank on the land they owned

Haven't come across an artictiect that doesn't dislike Dermott Bannon.

PearlFriday · 02/08/2021 14:20

@stayathomer

I actually really enjoy it!! The only one that made me want to grab him and shake him was when he converted a 60 year old house, that was being given to them by their granny, chuckling away at how things used to be done IN FRONT OF THE GRANNY WHO HAD BUILT IT WITH HER NOW DEAD HUSBAND. Oh how funny they all found it, all of them moaning how it didn't have this or that. I think at one point she said 'it was fine for us' when they marvelled about the cold. Didn't stop at all to ask her was she okay and at the reveal they basically went 'isn't it so much better' while she just nodded. So sad.

Oh I think I saw that one. I had to have a glass of wine and it wasn't my house or my Grandma or my stuff. It was really handled very insensitively but we're all supposed to shrug and think the master has arrived.

There was an episode where he saw a house designed by an architect that had left Ireland and gone to somewhere in the USA, he'd become really successful in the uSA. Dermot was trying to dial down his obsequiousness in front of this architect who he went to visit, out of respect, in a kind of ''i'm rearranging the house you designed, the one everybody thought was so great, you think you're so great but i'm going to take what you did and make it better'' so he had to get around that awkwardness by love bombing the more successful architect. It was actually such good tv but not for the reasons spelled out on the player!

EarringsandLipstick · 02/08/2021 14:20

It was on earlier this year - Super-small places, it was called.

Just 2 episodes. I only watched bits, wasn't great. It was people converting things like double-decker buses & DB looking alternately dubious about their plans before being delighted. It was kinda gimmicky.

PearlFriday · 02/08/2021 14:22

oh no, that sounds like covering ground that george clarke has covered.

I love george clarke. He's six foot four, did he mention that.

EarringsandLipstick · 02/08/2021 14:25

DB can be a bit infuriating I grant you BUT the bloody clients sometimes ... I mean if makes great TV but they can be arses & h feel for Dermo.

In rewatching one from series 12 where they are working on an amazing house in Tramore with fabulous sea views but needing a lot of work before even doing new design. The wife keeps wittering on about Feng Shui & they get irate when they can't change the design midway without needing pp.

Some people sign up for it & seem amazed at what DB proposes, even tho his style is well-known now. Good TV but annoying

EarringsandLipstick · 02/08/2021 14:25

@PearlFriday

oh no, that sounds like covering ground that george clarke has covered.

I love george clarke. He's six foot four, did he mention that.

Yes! George Clarke does is much better. This was a bit rubbishy RTE rip off IMO

PearlFriday · 02/08/2021 14:27

oh yes @earringsandlipstick that is the episode I was referring to. I am not in to feng shui either but it was their house, their dream, their money and the husband was obviously one of those relaxed characters who just wanted to see his wife happy at the end of the project. The husband was not invested in to Dermot's happiness particularly and I think in the end, they put him in his box a bit.

LavenderAskew · 02/08/2021 14:28

@PearlFriday

oh no, that sounds like covering ground that george clarke has covered.

I love george clarke. He's six foot four, did he mention that.

Does he say that a lot?

😄 not seen s lot of programmes with him in.

I do watching a Dermit Bannon throw a piss fit because a couple wanted more storage in the kitchen - he thought it would ruin the look (or whatever bollocks terminology he used) whereas the couple wanted a functional kitchen in the extension that had now cost them double their budget.

Pegasusmail · 02/08/2021 14:30

We live near one of the houses he designed. It's just a big black box attached to a lovely cottage.

But I do love Demot.

PearlFriday · 02/08/2021 14:30

He does say that a lot! You'll notice it now!

EarringsandLipstick · 02/08/2021 14:31

@PearlFriday

oh yes *@earringsandlipstick that is the episode I was referring to. I am not in to feng shui either but it was their house, their dream, their money* and the husband was obviously one of those relaxed characters who just wanted to see his wife happy at the end of the project. The husband was not invested in to Dermot's happiness particularly and I think in the end, they put him in his box a bit.

I must watch the rest later, I had just got to the point of the next big cost that been identified, after they'd switched the layout.

Funny we both picked the same one!

Also, one thing that annoys me is their shifting budgets. In earlier series they had x amount & were able to go a v small amount over. Patricia the QS did amazing work keeping Dermot in check & sticking to a budget.

Latterly tho, the QS role is gone, and the budgets seem endless eg we have €250k, then ultimately they are spending €380k. How do people extend their already-massive budgets so much?