Robin van der Bij – Managing Director
I love buildings. Architecture and property has been a passion of mine for over 20 years.
An engineer, born in Holland, I moved to Cornwall in 1998. In 2005 my wife and I had the opportunity to build our own home in St Agnes. Ecologically minded, we were determined our new house would be as sustainable as we could afford. At that time there was very little guidance around, and even less products readily available, so I did a lot of my own research soon building up a unique wealth of knowledge and expertise.
I realised that many like-minded people could benefit from this expertise. I was right. With my trusted team of architects, planning consultants, property and quantity surveyors, trades people and subcontractors, I have successfully helped 15 self-builders create their own eco homes and built 6 houses myself across Cornwall. They are all unique, high quality, highly energy efficient and valued at between £300,000 and £2m.
These homes have been featured in the Daily Telegraph, Coast magazine, Grand Designs magazine, Ecoliving magazine, and Cornwall Today magazine.
Some of these projects, as well as myself, have also featured on television on Grand Designs, The Truth about Property and BBC Spotlight.
I am an obsessed waterman. At weekends you can find me on the north coast catching waves, surfing and windsurfing, or on the creeks and rivers of the south coast on my paddleboard.
My family and I have just completed our third self-build home in Cornwall. It’s an energy efficient carbon negative home, generating enough energy to power itself and an electric car. It’s bright, healthy and an amazingly comfortable space to come home to.