Built Properly: A Conversation with Jonathan Fish, WJF Developments

Why WJF builds one or two homes a year

"It is the point. When you build at volume, you make decisions at scale. Every choice about a material, a finish, a detail gets multiplied across fifty homes or a hundred. The pressure to standardise and find the cheapest acceptable option is enormous. We do not work that way. One home means one set of decisions, made properly, for one family. That changes everything about how you approach the build." "Boutique developer is a phrase that gets used a lot. For us it has a specific meaning. It means each home is a project in itself, not a line item in a portfolio. I know every supplier, every contractor, every detail of the spec. If something needs to be done properly rather than quickly, we do it properly. That is the trade. We will never build the volume a national house builder builds. That is the entire point."

On choosing Thornton

"People hear Leicestershire countryside and expect a compromise. They have not been to Thornton. The village has been here since before the Norman Conquest. It was recorded in the Domesday Book as Torinton, which is where the home takes its name. St Peter's Church has stood since the twelfth century. The reservoir is five minutes on foot. The M1 is ten minutes by car. Leicester is twenty minutes, Birmingham fifty. That is the kind of location people spend years looking for and rarely find, because villages like this almost never have land come up for the right kind of project." "What I noticed about Thornton is that it has grown through gradual build up, by ones and twos, not estate development. Stone cottages, Victorian terraces, the church, the school, the shops. There is a centre to it. People know each other. The character is not designed. It is what the village has become over a thousand years of people choosing to live there. That is not something you can replicate by putting up a sign that says Manor Park or Willow Reach."

Working with Base Architects

"Working with architects of that calibre costs more and takes longer than the alternative. It is the right trade for the kind of home we wanted to build. If you treat an architect as a draftsman, you have wasted them. You bring them a site, a brief, a budget, and you trust them to design something that responds to the location." "What that looked like at Torinton was a series of long conversations about what the home needed to do. Five bedrooms, but not five identical bedrooms. A principal suite that earns its name, with a vaulted ceiling and a feature window that frames the view. An open kitchen and dining space that runs the length of the house, with doors out to the garden. A separate sitting room, because families need somewhere to retreat. None of that came out of a pattern book. It came out of looking at the plot, looking at the village, and asking what would still feel right in twenty years."

On specification, and what is not negotiable

"Cabinetry, sanitaryware, brick. Those three are the bones of how a home reads when you walk into it, and they are the three that volume builders compromise on hardest. Häcker is German engineered cabinetry. It is more expensive than the kitchen ranges most developers fit, and it is built to a standard that means it does not move, warp, or fail over the lifetime of the home. Porcelanosa is the same logic in the bathrooms. The brick is Ibstock Ivanhoe Cottage Blend, laid in standard stretcher bond on blue engineering brick to DPC. It is a brick that ages well and both looks and feels right for the location." The other thing I refused to compromise on was choice, within reason. Because we are still off-plan, buyers reserving now have the opportunity to work with us on the finishes that matter. Kitchen door colour, worktop, tiles, carpets, tap fittings. It is not unlimited and it is not an upgrade programme bolted onto a base spec. It is the standard offer for buyers who get in early enough to be part of those conversations. A bespoke home you cannot have any input into is not bespoke. "Smart home integration runs through the whole property. Underfloor heating on the ground floor, radiators above, programmable thermostat control, pressurised hot water. Ten-year warranty. The buyer should not need to spend the first year of ownership upgrading anything, because nothing has been left to upgrade."

Who Torinton is for

"Families who have outgrown what they have but are not ready to take on a project. People who want the considered design of an architectural one-off without the timeline, the planning risk, or the build management of a self-build. Buyers who recognise that a home in a village with this kind of weight to it is not something that comes onto the market often." "There is a particular kind of buyer who walks through Torinton and immediately understands the offer. They have lived in larger urban or suburban homes. They have seen the inside of a thousand new builds. They know what is missing. When they walk through Torinton they recognise what has gone into it, because they have spent years living without it."

What it should feel like to walk in

"Settled. Not impressed. Settled. I know that might sound counterintuitive, the home has got all the wow factor that anyone could want but Torinton, as a homeshould feel like it has been waiting for them. The proportions should make sense, the light should fall properly, they should be able to imagine the kitchen as the place where bustling breakfasts happen or lazy sunday coffee mornings too. The garden should feel like an extension of the house. The bedrooms should feel calm. If a home is built properly, the family stops noticing the house and starts living in it. That is the test. That is what we are building Torinton to be."

Frequently asked questions about Torinton and WJF Developments

Who is the developer of Torinton?

What is a boutique property developer?

Where is Torinton located?

Who designed Torinton?

Is Torinton available off-plan?

What is the specification at Torinton?