Battling the elements: Grand Designs East Yorkshire build
One couple build a landmark home on a scenic headland in East Yorkshire
Construction projects are all in a day’s work for shopping-arcade developers Ferzana and Zahid, but building their own home was far trickier.
Leeds-based Ferzana, 55, and Zahid, 60, wanted a bolthole by the sea where they could relax with their three adult children – Yusuf, Sana and Ayesha – and their four grandchildren.

Homeowners Ferzana and Zahid in the living room, which has corner glazing providing panoramic views
“We needed somewhere to just switch off,” says Zahid.
In 2017 they saw the coastguard station at Flamborough Head, East Yorkshire, was being sold at auction with a guide price of £20,000.
The crumbling 1960s structure, which sat at the end of a terrace of Edwardian houses, had been uninhabited since its closure in 2010.
The auction whipped up so much interest they ended up buying the site for £175,000.
“Ferzana and I never thought about it as a commercial venture,” says Zahid. “We were always buying it for ourselves.”
With a tiny footprint of around 3x4m, the tower had a store on the ground floor, a small kitchen on the level above and an observation deck and WC at the top.

Curved living room furniture includes a Sense sofa and a Remi sideboard from Heal’s
IN BRIEF
LOCATION: Flamborough Head, East Yorkshire
TYPE OF PROPERTY: Three-storey self-build
BEDROOMS: 3
PROJECT STARTED: January 2020
PROJECT FINISHED: August 2024
SIZE: around 165sqm
PROPERTY COST: £175,000
BUILD COST: around £375,000
It appealed to the couple because, apart from two lighthouses, it’s taller than anything else in the area.
“Its height set a precedent that made the site very tempting,” he says. “We wanted to replace it with a three-storey glass house looking out to sea.”
Yusuf, who has a degree in architecture, helped Zahid with the initial concept, which was then developed by architect David Cook.
“The scheme reflects some elements inspired by the original building, such as reinterpreting the tower’s railings in the pattern of the new glazing,” he explains.
They planned to demolish all but the party wall between the coastguard tower and the terrace, and to build the house with a steel frame and rendered block walls.
There are two bedrooms on the ground floor, with a third for Ferzana and Zahid on the level above and a glass-walled living room with sweeping views out to sea at the top.

A second- hand kitchen from The Used Kitchen Company features steel worksurfaces, sintered stone-faced cabinets and built-in appliances
All are linked by a staircase on the side wall that’s enclosed in an aluminium-frame glass box.
To triple the family’s living space, the upper two storeys cantilever 5 metres over the ground floor, extending to the property’s boundary on the sea-facing side.
Zahid decided against using concrete pillars, opting instead for a dramatically unsupported overhang, even though it needed to be counterbalanced by huge concrete raft foundations reinforced with metal driven deep into the ground.
Another challenge was that the building stands on a windswept headland so is at the mercy of the elements.
“The house is effectively five miles out to sea, with water on three sides,” says Zahid.
Planning consent came through in November 2018 and anticipating that the work would take ten months, Ferzana and Zahid went ahead with demolition in January 2020.
But soon afterwards the council shut down the site because the couple had planning permission for a renovation yet only the party wall was left standing.
Zahid instructed David to resubmit the same design as a new-build and got the go-ahead in June.

The upside-down layout includes two guest bedrooms at ground-floor level
“We were very lucky the planners realised it was a genuine error, otherwise we’d have owned the most expensive hole in England,” says Zahid.
The construction was beset by delays. First, the concrete floor slab didn’t extend far enough to support the glazing, then Zahid decided to swap the sliding doors on the top floor for one big window giving an uninterrupted view.
He contacted multiple specialist companies, only to be told it was impossible because the wind would crack a single piece of glass or even make it pop out of its frame.
Eventually he had to concede defeat.

In Ferzana and Zahid’s bedroom on the first floor, the bespoke headboard was made by Hyder Living
“It was frustrating because we wasted two years, then had to go back to the original design,” he says.
The couple had to wait another year for delivery of special anti-collision glass required to safeguard local seabirds.
But once that was done it was plain sailing, with Sana helping to choose paint colours and furniture when the project neared completion.
“I think I’m a bit too headstrong, so I overruled her on some aspects of the interior decoration,” says Zahid. “We wanted the house to be comfortable and reflect our personalities.”

A panel of textured tiles from Porcelanosa features behind the vanity unit in one of the ground-floor guest room en suites
Despite taking much longer than expected the project cost just £50,000 more than the original £325,000 budget.
“The most expensive element was the steel structure, but luckily that was completed before the price of materials rose following the pandemic,” says Zahid.
The family are looking forward to a slower pace of life by the coast, and though there are TV sockets in every room, they have no plans to install many screens.
“I want to look out to the horizon,’ says Zahid. ‘The scenery is like a piece of art that’s always changing.”
SUPPLIERS
PROJECT TEAM
Architect: CRL Architects (crlarchitects.co.uk) Block paving and garden: Daniel McDonald (07855 552246)
Electrical work Xpress: Electrical Contractors (07887 481815) Groundworks: Glynn Featherstone (07754 600908) Main contractor: Scott Midgley (07884 477651) Plumbing: HiPro Heating (hiproheating.co.uk) Structural engineer: Holdgate Consulting (holdgateconsulting.com)
STRUCTURE
Air conditioning: Glide Air Conditioning (01924 944830) Building materials: West Building Supplies (westbs.co.uk) Glazing: Quatrain Architectural Glazing Systems (quatrainags.co.uk) Rendering: Hodgson (hodgsonrenderingspecialist.co.uk) Roof cappings: D&P Projects (07444 950285) Stairs and doors: 123Stairs (123stairs.co.uk)
FIXTURE AND FITTINGS
Bathrooms: Sanctuary Bathrooms (sanctuary-bathrooms.co.uk) Flooring: RHL Flooring (07399 245733) Front door: Express Bi-Folding Doors (expressbifolds.co.uk) Kitchen: The Used Kitchen Company (theusedkitchencompany.com) Lighting: Tom Dixon (tomdixon.net) Tiles: Porcelanosa (porcelanosa.com)
FURNITURE AND ACCESSORIES
Bedroom furniture: Furniture 123 (furniture123.co.uk) Beds and headboards: Hyder Living (hyderliving.com) Bedside lights and bedroom chair: Made (made.com) Coffee table: Roche Bobois (roche-bobois.com) Dining chairs and table: Calligaris (calligaris.com) Plants: Eastfield Garden Centre (eastfield-gardencentre.co.uk) Rugs: RugsDirect (rugsdirect.co.uk) Sideboard: Heal’s (heals.com) Sofa: Roche Bobois
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