Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Grand Designs - "Customised German Kit House" (SE04E02)


Walton on Thames (Surrey), 28 January 2004
David and Greta Iredale loved their home, a modernist structure in Surrey that they had built themselves almost 40 years ago. It was filled with things they'd chosen over the years – design classics, mementoes, David's paintings. But that house was falling apart and had to come down. Meanwhile, they had lost their hearts to a German post-and-beam house, designed by architect Peter Huf and available as a customised kit (Huf Haus).


Grand Designs - "The Curved House" (SE04E05)

Clapham South (London), 18 February 2004
David and Anjana Devoy's tiny coach house was proving too small for them and their two children. So they decided to build a new house in their own garden, which was big by London standards. But this particular grassy plot came with problems. It was overlooked by huge blocks of flats, and in the middle of it stood a chestnut tree they weren't allowed to cut down. They came up with an inspired solution: they would build a curving house along the borders of their plot. What's more, they would do a lot of the work themselves.

Grand Designs - "19th Century Sandstone House" (SE04E04)

Leith (Edinburgh), 11 February 2004
When Reuben Welch and April Marr came across a ruined 19th-century house amid the tower blocks of Leith, Edinburgh, they saw it as their future home. They had no clear idea of how to restore it, and precious little building experience. Still, they were young and fit (they had met on Reuben's climbing wall) and they liked a challenge. So they bought the crumbling shell and set about transforming it with their own hands.

Grand Designs - "The Glass & Timber House: Revisited" (from series 7) (S10E10)

Dulwich (London), 17 November 2010
Kevin returns to see whether Bill Bradley has completed the work on his two timber houses in south London.

Grand Designs - Loch House Glasgow (S06E01)

Killearn (Scotland), 5 April 2006
Jim Fairfull considers himself a very lucky guy. He was out fishing with a friend when he came across a beautiful, secluded loch. It's a magical place with stunning views over the nearby hills. He got chatting to the farmer who owned it and discovered the site was for sale. Within a week, he'd done a deal and bought the land. Jim runs a successful wholesale fruit and vegetable company in Glasgow and his wife, Simone, looks after their two girls, aged 11 and eight. Jim and Simone were not intending to self build. But they fell in love with this dramatic location and decided they wanted to live here.

Grand Designs - "The Brittany Groundhouse: Revisited" (from series 9) (S10E09)

Brittany (France), 10 November 2010
Kevin returns to see how Daren Howarth and Adi Nortje's project has fared four years after they decided to build an earth-sheltered home in Brittany.

Grand Designs - "The Radian House" (S10E05)

Ipswich, 13 October 2010
Lindsay and Jonathan Belsey hopes to build a house that aesthetically pleasing, cheap to run and ecologically sound.

Grand Designs - "The Violin Factory" (SE04E01)

Lambeth (London), 21 January 2004
Louise and Milko Ostendorf wanted to build the home of a lifetime. Milko's job as a well-paid City banker meant they could think big, so Louise set up her own architectural practice and they bought a disused violin factory in the heart of London's Waterloo. The crumbling building was hemmed in on all sides and had no views, but Louise had a vision of a spectacular loft-style home that would combine stunning design with utter luxury.

Grand Designs - "The Isolated Cottage" S02E04

Brecon Beacons (Wales), 7 August 2001
Kevin McCloud travels to Wales to visit Adrian and Corrina, who have decided that their first home will be a 300-year-old ruin. The cottage is set in the Brecon Beacons National Park, Corrina and Adrian have a very small budget and an enormous amount of work to do to return the ruin to its former glory but they are eager and seemingly undaunted by the scale of the project. But how will they cope when the elements suddenly turn on them?

Grand Designs - "The Joinery Workshop" (S12E08)

London, 7 November 2012
Architect Henning Stummel and his partner Alice Dawson plan to convert a dilapidated joinery workshop in north London into a contemporary family home and office. They want to preserve the building's original steel frame, but to restore it they will have to take it down, which means carefully extracting it from the neighbours' walls without causing damage to their property - and that's just the start of the couple's problems. Kevin McCloud follows their progress.

Grand Designs - "The Edwardian Artist's Studio" (S12E06)

London, 24 October 2012
Kevin McCloud meets Audrey and Jeff, who dream of living in one of west London's most exclusive areas. However, the only way they can afford it is to go underground. Their plan is to transform a listed Edwardian artist's studio - along with 5,000 sq ft of derelict basement - into a bespoke subterranean home, complete with supersize kitchen, mezzanine sitting room, four en-suite bedrooms, a gym, cinema, steam room and wine cellar. As if the task weren't tricky enough, they are doing it without proper architect's drawings and Audrey is project managing - and the difficulties begin almost from the start.

Grand Designs - 21st Century Roman Villa (S05E09)

Belfast (Northern Ireland), 2 November 2005
This is Belfast, one of the great cities of the industrial revolution, and home to Thomas and Dervla O'Hare. They've lived here for 18 years, and although they still love their tiny cottage for its compactness, they're about to build something much, much bigger. They're building a 21st century answer to the Roman villa, with a copper roof, glass and concrete walls and vast amounts of living space all arranged around a central courtyard. In order to cope with the incredibly steep slope the house was divided across three levels. At the base of the building there is a garage and all the utilities. Through the front door a double-width processional staircase leads up to the living and dining areas.

Grand Designs - "House from Straw: Revisited" (from Grand Designs Abroad) (S10E12)

Lot (France), 1 December 2010
Kevin McCloud returns to see the Sampson family in France.

Grand Designs - "The Modest Home" (S10E03)

Woodbridge, 29 September 2010
In Woodbridge, Lucie Fairweather and Nat McBride plan a responsible, low impact, ecologically sensitive home for their young family. Nat tragically succumbs to cancer early in the build, leaving Lucie to continue on her own with a downsized version of the original design.

Grand Designs - The Contemporary Cedar Clad Home

Stirling (Scotland), 19 April 2006
Theo and Elaine Leijser hoped to bring a bit of Dutch style to Scotland in the building of their first family home – a colourful, contemporary three storey house, with a striking cedar clad exterior. The couple stumbled across the perfect plot overlooking the beautiful Campsie Fells near Glasgow, bought it and began to plan their dream build.

Grand Designs - "The Stealth House" (S10E02)

The Cotswolds, 22 September 2010
Helen and Chris Seymour Smith get planning permission to build a house in open countryside.

Grand Designs - "Cloontykilla Castle" (S12E01)

Roscommon (Ireland), 12 September 2012
Kevin McCloud meets more people trying to build dream homes, beginning with Sean Simons, who bought the ruins of Cloontykilla Castle in the Irish county of Roscommon with a view to using them to create a spectacular mock-16th-century home. However, the outlandish plans - including jacuzzis in the battlements and water-spouting gargoyles - have Kevin worried the project could become a garish nightmare, and his scepticism increases when he realises Sean has not consulted an architect. Disaster seems to be looming as the contractors get frustrated and planning regulations are ignored, but somehow things begin to slowly take shape - until a national economic crisis plunges everything into chaos.

Grand Designs - "The Glass Cubes House" (S12E03)

Brixton (London), 26 September 2012
Mary Martin and Carl Turner want to build a home that resembles a giant stack of glass cubes in Brixton, south London. The couple are hoping the structure will become an instant landmark, while on the inside they are planning a Zen retreat. But to succeed, their finances must be pushed to their limit, so Carl takes on as many of the specialist jobs as he can to save money. Kevin McCloud follows their progress.

Grand Designs - "The Inverted-Roof House: Revisited" (from series 3) (SE04E03)

Buckinghamshire, 4 February 2004
Tom and Judy Perry wanted more than just a home for themselves and their two children. On a site of outstanding natural beauty in Buckinghamshire, they set out to build an ambitious house – a symphony of angles, glass walls and exposed steel, with a dramatic inverted roof. Tom made himself site manager and main contractor. He had no experience but he liked a challenge – and, after all, how difficult could it be?

Grand Designs - Finnish Log House (S05E01)

Kent, 27 April 2005
John Cadney and Marnie Moon have never had a permanent home. So John, a carpenter, has rolled up his sleeves and decided to build a house for his family with his bare hands. For 16 years, John, Marnie and their children have camped on land owned by Marnie's parents, because they could never afford to buy a house in the area where they live. So now they're building their own place. After much searching for the right kind of house they settled on an environmentally friendly four-bedroom log cabin. The whole thing was imported from Finland as hundreds of pre-cut bits of wood. All John had to do is figure out how this kit house fits together!

Grand Designs - "A 21st Century Answer to the Roman Villa: Revisited" (from series 5) (S10E11)

Belfast, Northen Ireland, 24 November 2010
Six years after his first visit, Kevin returns to see how the O'Hare's fared with their split-level home cascading down a practically vertical hillside in Belfast.

Grand Designs - "An Idiosyncratic Home" (SE04E08)

Avon Tyrell, Dorset, 10 March 2004
Amid 55 acres of organic farmland in the New Forest, Lizzie Vann and Mike Thrasher set out to build an idiosyncratic home. They wanted a house that would reflect their love of travel and eastern cultures, yet blend into the very English countryside around them. Their first proposal, for a wooden Japanese house, was refused planning permission, but after three years of adapting their ideas with architect David Underhill, they were finally ready to build. Their ingenious design was in three sections: a living wing, a bedroom wing and a romantic tower.

Grand Designs - "The Tree House" (S10E01)

Isle of Wight, 15 September 2010
Lincoln Miles and his wife Lisa Traxler modernise a stone-clad bungalow on the Isle of Wight.

Grand Designs - "The Modernist Villa: Revisited" (Revisited from Grand Designs Abroad" (S13E10)

Málaga, Spain, 6 November 2013
Around ten years ago Gil and Hillary Briffa retired to southern Spain. Instead of creating a home like the traditional old fincas in the area, their architect son designed them a confrontational, modernist glass box, surrounded by boldly colourful connected rooms, behind a giant citadel wall. A few years ago, Gil died, but now Kevin McCloud revisits Hillary to find out whether her home has settled into its landscape and how life is treating her as a British widow living abroad.

Grand Designs - "The Giant Farm Shed" (S13E03)

York, 18 September 2013
Commercial architect Martin Walker and his art-director wife Kae want to build the ultimate family home near York, inspired by a giant farm shed. However, her idea for a warm and cosy design conflicts dramatically with his penchant for building large square warehouses, and finding something they both agree on proves extremely challenging on their tight budget. Kevin McCloud follows the couple's progress.

Grand Designs - "The miniature Hollywood mansion" (S13E02)

North London, 11 September 2013
Jonathan Broom, one of the founders of Ecoigo, and his wife Deborah have put everything on hold while he pursues his dream of building a miniature Hollywood Hills-style mansion. They stumble across a scrap of land in north London, but it's fraught with problems and the only way they can complete the £1million home is by sinking half of it six metres below ground. Surrounded on all sides by their neighbours' back gardens, the couple have to dismantle walls and fences and promise to put them back together again, and that's just the start of their difficulties. Kevin McCloud follows their progress.

Grand Designs - "The Scandinavian House" (S10E06)

Lizard Peninsula, 20 October 2010
Following Kathryn Tyler as she designs and builds her Scandinavian-inspired eco house in Falmouth.

Grand Designs - "The Christmas Farm" (S13E09)

Newbury, 30 October 2013
Michael Butcher and Phil Palmer fell in love with Christmas Farm, near Newbury, and decided to give up their urban media jobs and move to the country. Michael Butcher and Phil Palmer want to bring a touch of urban glamour to their new home at Christmas Farm near Newbury by creating a modern farmhouse that combines an open-plan party pad with functional spaces below. As the builders set to work on the handcrafted flint exterior, complete with a vast trapezoid window, the pair juggle construction with farming the land, and in an attempt to make the project work financially, they set up a microbrewery in the barn.

Grand Designs - "The Modernist Masterpiece" (S13E07)


Brockwell Park, 16 October 2013
Ben and Rachel Hammond have spent a year searching London for somewhere exciting to live with their two daughters, and they have finally stumbled on a 1950s home on a unique plot, situated within the leafy depths of a park in the south of the city. The only problem is the house itself - an ugly, inefficient and uninspiring property - and their solution is to radically redesign it into a sleek, modernist masterpiece. But this is no easy task, as Kevin McCloud finds out.