Grand Designs 2017: a look back through the highlights
Grand Designs 2017: a look back through the highlights
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1/49 Grand Designs: The ultimate shed in County Down
Architect Micah Jones and wife Elaine decide to build their own home in County Down as property prices in Belfast mean their dream home is out of reach...
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2/49 Grand Designs: The ultimate shed in County Down
Micah is a shed fanatic on a tight budget, and so it makes perfect sense to build the family home based on a shed-like design...
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3/49 Grand Designs: The ultimate shed in County Down
The new build is based on the footprint of the agricultural buildings that were on the site before...
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4/49 Grand Designs: The ultimate shed in County Down
...and the bottom half of the house is clad in the stone reclaimed from their demolition.
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5/49 Grand Designs: The ultimate shed in County Down
It is an upside down house, with the bedrooms on the ground floor in the concrete half of the house...
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6/49 Grand Designs: The ultimate shed in County Down
The semi open-plan living area upstairs is made from cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels that took a matter of days to construct, while a stone-clad interior wall links the upstairs and down, and serves as a reminder of what came before.
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7/49 Grand Designs: The ultimate shed in County Down
The staircase is constructed from the offcuts of CLT - the large pieces of wood popped out for windows.
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8/49 Grand Designs: Blackdown Hills
Kevin McCloud outside the entrance to the house that Stephen and Elizabeth Tetlow built.
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9/49 Grand Designs: Blackdown Hills
The skin of the house is broken to provide light and even an outdoor terrace.
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10/49 Grand Designs: Blackdown Hills
The house snakes around the meadow, hugging the ornamental garden that forms a centrepiece.
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11/49 Grand Designs: Blackdown Hills
The double height atrium is unlike the hallway of any house ever seen on the show.
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12/49 Grand Designs: Blackdown Hills
The roof timbers on display inside highlight the structure of the house even in the kitchen.
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13/49 Grand Designs: Blackdown Hills
The sinuous curves stretch seemingly on forever in the upstairs corridor.
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14/49 Grand Designs: Blackdown Hills
McCloud and the couple inside the conservatory that hugs the side of the house.
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15/49 Grand Designs: Blackdown Hills
Every piece of timber on the roof is different - all 4,600 of them!
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16/49 Grand Designs: Herefordshire
Thhis house sits in the couple's eight-acre smallholding in Herefordshire where Rowena manages the goats, sheep and chickens.
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17/49 Grand Designs: Herefordshire
The huge curved window is the eye of the house, providing breathtaking views.
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18/49 Grand Designs: Herefordshire
The huge Hobbit-style door is overlooked by an equally Middle Earth curved window.
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19/49 Grand Designs: Herefordshire
Ed admits that the house is sparsely furnished at the moment, but that designing and making his own furniture is his next step: "I can't wait."
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20/49 Grand Designs: Herefordshire
Kevin McCloud and Ed and Rowena Waghorn admire the view of the surrounding hills from the great hall's first-floor balcony.
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21/49 Grand Designs: East London
The trio outside the front door of the house which was hand timber clad by Joe.
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22/49 Grand Designs: East London
Kevin McCloud on the roof terrace of the house built by Joe Stuart and Lina Nilsson.
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23/49 Grand Designs: East London
Joe and Lina found a tiny plot of land in east London, three miles from Canary Wharf.
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24/49 Grand Designs: East London
The land is on the site of a former coffin workshop and cost £73,000.
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25/49 Grand Designs: East London
At just 83 square metres (893sq ft) the couple had to work to squeeze in as much as they could to the space, with no inch wasted.
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26/49 Grand Designs: East London
The plans included a vast top floor kitchen-living area...
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27/49 Grand Designs: East London
two bathrooms
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28/49 Grand Designs: East London
and outside space on the bijou roof terrace.
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29/49 Grand Designs: East London
McCloud says the property is a "tiny house with a view to infinity".
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30/49 Grand Designs: East London
McCloud perches on the open staircase which brings light down to the lower levels.
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31/49 Grand Designs: Peak District earth house
A hole in the ground with a ‘car park aesthetic’ is how Grand Designs presenter Kevin McCloud describes this property in the Peak District.
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32/49 Grand Designs: Peak District
Ecologist Fred Baker grew up in a Peak District village near Bakewell in Derbyshire and, despite many of his childhood friends deserting it for work and careers, was determined to stay there with wife Saffron and children Billy and Grace.
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33/49 Grand Designs: Peak District
Construction ran months over deadline thanks largely to the lack of a mortgage - and no budget in mind - when the owners started and bad weather added to the delays.
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34/49 Grand Designs: Peak District
Deep underground will lie three bedrooms and two bathrooms, while a sun-drenched middle floor will house a living room and kitchen that during the day will draw heat into the house through the south facing row of windows, while at night rubber-sealed, massively thick wooden shutters will seal off the home from the outside world, keeping in the heat.
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35/49 Grand Designs: Peak District
Surveying the “mesmerising” stonework cladding the finished house, McCloud hails it as a “buried concrete fortress wrapped in stone and timber” in a “heroic and momentous landscape”.
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36/49 Grand Designs: Peak District
Fred admits: “I couldn’t have done this without her. Saffron has taken my dream and turned it into our dream.”
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37/49 Grand Designs: Peak District
Surveying the “mesmerising” stonework cladding the finished house, McCloud hails it as a “buried concrete fortress wrapped in stone and timber” in a “heroic and momentous landscape”.
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38/49 Grand Designs: Herne Hill
Kevin McCloud with Beth Dadswell and Andrew Wilbourne in the courtyard of the former dairy.
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39/49 Grand Designs: Herne Hill
Floor to ceiling steel-framed windows bring in plenty of light to the living room.
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40/49 Grand Designs: Herne Hill
A latticework of rusting girders perches over the courtyard that McCloud calls "a little Eden".
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41/49 Grand Designs: Herne Hill
A skylight illuminates the former dark and dank dairy, and the newly created rear courtyard brings in even more light to the house.
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42/49 Grand Designs: Herne Hill
The bespoke, deliberately imperfectly made tiles in the kitchen were used throughout the house.
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43/49 Grand Designs: Haringey home
Couple Penny Talelli and Mark Edwards are determined to mix their love of period and contemporary design when building a home for their family of four.
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44/49 Grand Designs: Haringey home
They find a plot of land with a gate house that dates back to 1854 on a steep hill in north London, which they aim to restore and build a huge zinc-clad modern black box behind.
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45/49 Grand Designs: Haringey home
Penny and Mark decide to blend old and new with the interior design, too.
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46/49 Grand Designs: Haringey home
This steel staircase provides instant wow-factor when you walk into the home. But is the overall result the impressive fusion architecture this couple were hoping for?
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47/49 Grand Designs: Malvern Hills
The ambitious build started with a difficult excavation into fractured granite with risk of landslip.
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48/49 Grand Designs: Malvern Hills
Wooden homes are common in New Zealand, but how does this unusual structure fit into Worcestershire's Malvern Hills?
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49/49 Grand Designs: Malvern Hills
Inside, floor-to-ceiling doors and windows maximise the views and light
There are just days to go until Grand Designs returns to our tellies for another series following ambitious, often reckless, people as they endeavour to build their dream homes in the face of adversity.
Seven new episodes will make up the self-build show's 18th series, but despite it being a staple in many a household's TV schedule, there are a lot of things you still won't know.
So if you want to guarantee a correct answer to any Grand Designs-themed pub quiz question, it's about time you get up to speed with this surprising trivia about presenter Kevin McCloud, how it's filmed, and the Oscar-winning actress who claims to be a megafan:
1. Each episode of Grand Designs takes at least a year to film. However, one build took as long as ten years.
2. Presenter Kevin McCloud has never seen a fully finished episode as he refuses to watch himself on TV.
3. Kevin often improvises his famous monologues on the day of filming.
4. He was a member of the famous Cambridge Footlights society alongside Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry.
5. Today, he is a trained building historian and works part-time for the Society of the Protection of Ancient Buildings. He founded his own architectural consultancy HAB in 2007 (the initials stand for Happiness, Architecture, Beauty).
6. Spring 2019 will see the 20th anniversary of the inaugural episode of Grand Designs!
7. The new series will see the show's first ever 'healthy house'. This is close to Kevin's heart as he was diagnosed with asthma at 16.
8. In Germany, the show is called Der Weg Zum Traumhaus, which translates to The Road To A Dream House.
9. Kevin has only ever visited Ikea once. He bought a rug. He also once had his own home range in Debenhams.
10. Hollywood legend Meryl Streep is a self-confessed Grand Designs 'addict'.
Grand Designs starts on 19 September at 9pm on Channel 4.
