Hidealoo’s founder takes to the stage at two major design shows

October has been a busy month for the Hidealoo team, with founder Monty Ravenscroft heading to the Midlands to appear as a guest speaker at two major design and engineering shows.

Grand Designs Live 2024 – Birmingham

First up was Grand Designs Live, which this year coincided with a milestone 25 years of the popular Channel 4 television series.

Monty first wowed audiences with his ‘Peckham House’ project when it appeared on the programme back in 2005. With very little space or budget to play with and only a tiny ‘sliver’ of land in south east London to build on, Monty needed to get creative with a range of space-saving inventions.

He went on to design various moving elements within the property that would help optimise the use of the space available; from a bath hidden beneath a sliding bed to a foldaway sink and a sliding glass roof that opens to transform the main living space into an open air courtyard.

The innovation continued in the years following the initial filming, as Monty looked for even more ways to optimise the space. One such idea being a unique foldaway toilet mechanism, he named the Hidealoo, which inspired him to launch his new award-winning business.

Having created one of the most popular and unusual new builds to appear on the TV show, Monty and his son Flint (who was conceieved during the house build, and is now at University), were invited to join presenter Kevin McCloud live on stage at the show, for several ‘Meet the Grand Designers’ sessions, hosted across two days of the show.

They shared their personal experiences of taking on a self-build project and the challenge of creating architectural solutions for smaller spaces. Flint becoming the first ever Grand Designs baby to join a talk, with a 17 year interval between when he was first filmed in the “Grand Designs Re-visit” and the 25th Anniversary Show filmed in July 2024.

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the show, a time capsule was also buried by Kevin McCloud beside the entrance of the Grand Designs Live NEC venue, as a tribute to all the builds that have made the show so special. It will be dug up in another 25 years’ time to see what changes and innovations have been made in that time.

The capsule features items from some of the most memorable properties to have appeared on the show, including a mini replica of Peckham House, created by Monty, which was complete with sliding roof and foldaway toilet.

The Engineering Design Show 2024 – Coventry

Next up was a visit to the UK’s only event entirely dedicated to mechanical, electronics, and embedded design – The Engineering Design Show in Coventry.

Monty was invited to headline the Eureka Stage, where he gave a 45 minute presentation and hosted a Q&A on the topic of ‘An engineering approach to problem solving’.

Where others might falter, engineers simply roll up their sleeves and say challenge accepted. Which is exactly what architectural engineer Monty has spent his life doing. He provided an expert insight into the process – one that’s seen him invent the world’s first foldaway toilet bracket, design the largest single pane of moving glass in Europe, and create a space-saving home filled with moving elements that captured global attention on Ch4’s Grand Designs programme.

Monty’s presentation was very well received, with visitors being inspired by his ability to think outside the box and approach problems in an innovative way. Seeing a problem, thinking of a potential solution, prototyping, testing, evaluating and redesigning, until the optimal solution is found. Hidealoo being a perfect example.

Meet Hidealoo

With the creation of Hidealoo, Monty hopes to help others make the optimal use of the space their have available, just like he has done with his Grand Designs project.

The Hidealoo frame allows a toilet to be rotated through 90 degrees, meaning it can be hidden within a cupboard or wall recess when not in use. For households who are short on space, this offers a clever solution for moving a toilet out of the way for the 99% of the time it is not in use, adding valuable space and opening up new opportunities for installing extra facilities.

Since officially launching as a business last year, Hidealoo has won multiple industry awards and orders have been flooding in from homeowners and property developers across the world.

To find out more about Hidealoo, including to discuss trade partnerships, please email contact@hidealoo.com or call +44 (0)1420 557564

Grand Designs: 25 Years & Counting featuring Peckham House is available to watch on catchup on the Channel4 iPlayer.