Grand Designs

Tuesday, 16 September 2008
8.30pm

When you are settled down in your 70s, building a brand new house might not be at the top of your agenda. But Bill and Jean Letley are not only building a new bungalow in their back garden, but are embracing cutting edge technologies to create a super efficient, highly contemporary, easy to live in single storey home. This is especially important for Bill, who is disabled and wants to maintain as much independence as possible.

Bill and Jean aren't hiring a builder, instead they're entrusting the whole project to their daughter Jo, and son-in-law Paul, who with little building experience, have to get to grips with numerous technologies that would faze the most experienced of builders.

Tuesday, 09 September 2008
8.30pm

Bath may be famous for its Georgian architecture, but Tiffany Wood and her husband Jonny have chosen it as the location to build themselves a striking Modernist home, not far from the city centre.

Rather than go down the traditional building route, they opt for a German pre-fabricated bespoke house with great green credentials. However, before they can even think about building their house they have to prepare their site - a fiercely steep hillside.

Tiffany and Jonny embark on their project with ground works alone costing £300,000, the biggest that Grand Designs has ever seen. And, just when they are about to complete these mammoth works, the weather turns bad and disaster strikes. Their neighbour's wall collapses in a storm. The resulting damage could cost Tiffany and Jonny nearly £100,000 to repair.

Tuesday, 02 September 2008
8.35pm

When Pru and Richard Irvine come across a plot of land in the middle of the breathtakingly beautiful Midlothian countryside, they seize the opportunity to build a bespoke family home. However, the plot of land, an old industrial site complete with lime kilns, comes with a condition. They can build on it only if they become custodians of the kilns and, more importantly, that the house they build blends in with the landscape. It's a huge challenge and Pru and Richard want to build an uncompromisingly modern and moreover, large box of a house. It's just as likely to be a blot on the landscape as it is an enhancement.

Tuesday, 26 August
8.35pm

Inspired by their love of the past, gothic architecture and horror movies, Jo and Shaun Bennett decide to build an Addams Family-style house, complete with stained glass window, huge stone fireplace and a massive oak staircase adorned with gargoyles. They plan to do all of this on just £400,000 including buying their block of land.

Despite her lack of experience, Jo, a working mother of two, not only designs the house, but decides to project manage the build as well. With a limited budget and grandiose ideas, Jo soon discovers that building a five bedroom house is going to be a much bigger challenge than she could ever have imagined. She and Shaun remain determined to get the bespoke detailing right, but good craftsmanship doesn't come cheap and they hit serious financial problems that threaten the build and their marriage.

Tuesday, 19 August 2008
8.35pm

Martin Pease is a successful commercial architect, used to designing large scale prestigious offices and high profile projects including Los Angeles' Getty Centre. However, he's about to embark on a much more personal project - a one-off customised house for his family.

Kevin and his wife Katherine discovered their plot of land after a five-year search - situated in one of the most exclusive and expensive parts of Bristol, it's a rare find.

The design Martin has come up with is not the obvious choice for a family - a giant sugar cube-like construction where everything in it is white and open plan.

Determined to keep on schedule and budget, Martin uses his experience of designing commercial buildings to build his own home. He uses materials and systems more commonly seen in office builds. Everything is thought through, pared down, and designed to maximise efficiency and light.

Tuesday, 12 August
8.35pm

When Henry Chopping, a commercial surveyor, comes across a plot of land in the heart of Oxford, he seizes the opportunity to build a unique home, specially designed to his own tastes. But there's a problem - the plot is tucked away behind a listed wall and strict planning conditions mean that Henry is only allowed to build a house one storey high. Undeterred, he and his architect come up with a bizarre design that makes the most of the plot and available light - a series of glass-fronted decagons.

With a healthy budget of £800,000, Henry is determined to use only the very best of materials. The huge copper roof is inspired by Oxford colleges, the walls, both inside and out, are made from local limestone and the ceilings are supported by giant glued laminated timber beams. It's altogether an eclectic mix of architectural styles.

Tuesday, 05 August
8.30pm

NEW SERIES, NEW NIGHT, NEW TIMESLOT

Grand Designs moves to a new night in a new timeslot. Presented by design expert Kevin McCloud, series six premieres on Tuesday August 5 at 8.30pm.

In this episode Kevin meets Tim and Zoe Bawtree who live in an elegant Regency house in Cheltenham, UK. But lovely as it is, the four storey house is expensive to run. With the aim of becoming mortgage free, Tim and Zoe decide to sell their house and build an ultra modern, low maintenance house in their large back garden.

However, the garden is surrounded by grade two listed houses and, because of height restrictions, Tim and Zoe are forced to build 60 per cent of their new home underground. This doesn't deter them, neither do the 90 objections to their planning application from the neighbours.

This episode follows a couple from Oxfordshire, the Randolphs, who build a new home in the style of an old barn.

Their plan is to use traditional materials, in particular green oak, in a contemporary design and incorporate a central glass atrium.

The couple have built their own home before so they know some of the perils and are very involved in the construction process.

The project finishes two months late, mainly due to a disagreement with the architect over the addition of a terrace, but the Randolphs are very happy with the final result.

Thursday, 21 February 2008 06:10PM

In this episode, an architect and his family convert a Victorian water tower near Amersham (UK). Andrew designs and builds commercial buildings for a living and is using some of these techniques in his own house.

The water tower will be made up of bedroom space, one on top of the other, and the main living space will be a very modern single storey building, to the side of the tower.

The roof of the living quarters will be covered in turf so as not to detract from the surrounding green belt. Andrew's commercial experience means the construction goes very smoothly and the family moves into the main space before the water tower conversion begins.

Thursday, 06 March at 06:05PM on ABC

This episode features a co-operative that is building 10 homes in Brighton (UK). The co-operative is made up of 10 families who have been travellers or living in temporary accommodation. The project is giving them the opportunity to build a community and a stable home environment for the future.

The council has bought them some land and provided money to build the houses. The houses will take two years to build and when the project is completed each family will be given a secured tenancy in the house they've built.

The co-operative does all the work and everyone has to do a set amount of hours which means they all struggle financially as they don't have much time to find work.

Thursday, 28 February at 06:05PM on ABC

06:10PM
GRAND DESIGNS: NEWHAVEN
New Series Thursday, 14 February 2008

Grand Designs is an eight-part series presented by British designer and author Kevin McCloud. Grand Designs tells the stories of eight new homes and the people who built them. Discover how ambitious design concepts are worked out in practice. Follow the progress of houses with unforeseen complications and no stretch in the budget. Explore the design detail, and chart the changes and compromises that happened along the way.