Grand Designs 2018: episode five preview and series highlights
Grand Designs 2018: episode five preview and series highlights
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1/68 Identical everything – episode five, Sheffield
Identical twins, “adventurous” Nik and “pragmatic” Jon Daughtrey from Sheffield, live identical lives in many ways.
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2/68 Brothers and colleagues – episode five, Sheffield
They run a design company and gallery space together, drive identical cars...
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3/68 Soon to be neighbours – episode five, Sheffield
...keep identical dogs and now, they’ve decided to build two identical modern-industrial homes – on stilts – next to each other.
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4/68 Building on a site full of history – episode five, Sheffield
The site is tucked away behind the two houses Nik and Jon are currently renting. Home to a corn mill 200 years ago and two Fifties buildings until recently, it has a beautifully flat concrete yard. They buy the whole site for £173,000.
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5/68 Kevin's not buying that budget – episode five, Sheffield
Their aim to keep to a finite budget of £850 per square metre shocks Kevin, who describes the project as “dead cheap…an incredibly, unrealistically low sum”, which translates to £345,000 for both houses.
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6/68 But they still impress – episode five, Sheffield
After long delays, unexpected extensions and additional loans, the cost for both homes reaches £610,000 which, for the urban oasis they conjure from a rundown industrial yard, is still very impressive.
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7/68 Industrial modernity at its finest – episode five, Sheffield
When Kevin returns to see the finished products after a three-year journey, it is clear that the siblings’ Sheffield spirit has produced two proud industrial statements, that look like one building on the approach.
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8/68 Let's step inside – episode five, Sheffield
“It’s like walking into a very luxurious power station…fabulous”, says Kevin upon entering Jon’s abode, which boasts the scale of an old Victorian pump house.
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9/68 Contemporary on-trend detailing – episode five, Sheffield
The blocks have been finished as crisply as stonework and exposed copper pipes proclaims it a magnificently detailed, fully functioning building.
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10/68 Homage to steel – episode five, Sheffield
The living space looks fresh and the extension has been clad entirely in plywood sheets. Jon's girlfriend Ali admits she struggled to accept his heavy usage of raw materials, but quickly fell in love with the result.
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11/68 Ready to welcome the family – episode five, Sheffield
There is plenty of space for Jon's two kids and Ali's two kids to come and stay - including a spacious playroom in the eaves.
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12/68 Heads together – episode five, Sheffield
“This is an exercise in getting stuff right and proving two minds are better than one,” says Kevin. “I like that very much.”
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13/68 Gorgeous glass – episode five, Sheffield
The entrance to Nik’s property is through a huge, imposing glazed wall.
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14/68 Warming things up – episode five, Sheffield
Nik’s rooms are more defined and cosier, with everything oriented to make the most of the countryside views outside.
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15/68 The countryside contrast – episode five, Sheffield
Bucolic pond views from both houses soften the harsh modernity of their interiors.
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16/68 More Grand Designs projects – episode four, Leominster
Childhood memories fuel nostalgia in many of us, but for Steph her dream of bringing up her kids on her beloved late grandad's West Midlands farm has been impossible to ignore.
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17/68 Starting from scratch – episode four, Leominster
Steph and Jessica Barker, an award-winning architect, design a modular-style black barn-house that will emerge from an old gravel pit on the farm.
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18/68 Thoughtful design – episode four, Leominster
Built economically from timber rather than concrete, the cladding is affordable black agricultural steel punctuated with standard-sized, triple-glazed windows.
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19/68 Barn-house – episode four, Leominster
A spacious open-plan living space leads outside through bi-folding doors. There are three bedrooms with vaulted ceilings and a clever, generous diagonal balcony that overhangs the kitchen below.
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20/68 Chaos – episode four, Leominster
Fully committed despite the odds being firmly against them, the family sold their comfortable bungalow and moved into a cramped, leaky, draughty caravan while they got planning permission and completed the build.
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21/68 Silver linings – episode four, Leominster
Jessica helps Steph choose materials that have "the look" without the price tag — "Rolls Royce finish, Morris Minor budget" — and Alex assumes the role of "teaboy".
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22/68 Balcony views – episode four, Leominster
There's a fantastic balcony overlooking the hay bales, Steph's "favourite part". Inside, it doesn't look like it's been built on a shoestring.
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23/68 Mission complete – episode four, Leominster
It's sizeable, contemporary, stylish and a far cry from the caravan.
> Scroll right for more Grand Designs projects from this series...
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24/68 More Grand Designs projects – episode three, Richmond
Born and Elinor's young sons Pascal, 5, and Avery, 7, suffer from a smorgasbord of life-threatening allergies, from dust and pollen to the chemicals in certain cleaning products, forcing them to spend a lot of time in hospital.
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25/68 Putting all they have into it – episode three, Richmond
Unable to move out of London due to job commitments, this inspiring couple plan to channel their savings into building a "hypoallergenic home" in Richmond where the boys - and their little girl - can grow up literally breathing easy.
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26/68 Tight budget for a high-spec home – episode three, Richmond
But sourcing low-toxin materials and installing a mechanical ventilation system to filter the air will cost money, and ideally they'd like their new family residence to reflect their personalities, too.
Having bought a plot in Richmond for £765,000, their budget is now limited to half a million pounds, which is tight for a project with such high-spec demands. -
27/68 Calling in the specialists – episode three, Richmond
Born and Elinor have enlisted the help of a team of 'healthy building specialists', who are adapting their original architect's design to meet their bespoke needs.
Because theirs is a garden plot, the council has limited them to "a single-storey house with basement dwelling".
The four bedrooms will be housed in a large concrete basement overlooking a sunken garden, while above ground, huge, pre-formed, pre-insulated timber panels from Latvia will give the appearance of "a beautiful back garden shed". -
28/68 The low-toxin shop – episode three, Richmond
Clad in larch and white render with a modest, grey zinc roof, the entire building will be skimmed with an airtight membrane before being fitted with the aforementioned mechanical ventilation system, which costs £10,000.
Hours are spent searching for solvent-free paints, MDF free of formaldehyde (a chemical commonly used for embalming dead bodies) and flooring low in VOCs (volatile organic compounds) which slowly 'off-gas' and produce a charming cloud of toxicity that ends up in our lungs. -
29/68 Pedal to the metal – episode three, Richmond
Ten months later and with just weeks to go until Christmas, crack of dawn starts become the norm. Everyone is working flat out to put the finishing touches on what looks like a humble scouts' house from the front...
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30/68 The iceberg effect – episode three, Richmond
...but triples in size to reveal a sleek, contemporary family home as you walk around the corner.
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31/68 Going the extra mile – episode three, Richmond
"I've watched hundreds of people build a home to try and improve their lives. But for a building to actually have a physical effect on our health is something else," says Kevin, as he returns after the family have been living here for six months.
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32/68 Instantly surprising – episode three, Richmond
Immediately, he feels suspended in mid-air by a glass walkway in the entrance hall...
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33/68 Clever design – episode three, Richmond
...which leads into a fabulous open-plan living space that feels bigger than it is thanks to the bolted ceiling and three huge windows that draw the outside in.
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34/68 Looks can be deceiving – episode three, Richmond
"It's a shed on the outside, but sheer joy and luxury on the inside," says Kevin.
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35/68 Saving pennies and being healthier too – episode three, Richmond
Elegant decorations complement the sturdy masculinity of the polished floor and black exposed beams.
Finding a suitably 'healthy' sofa proved a struggle as brand new ones off-gas terribly due to foam and glue. Instead, they opted for a second-hand one which has already off-gassed elsewhere, and have cosied things up with knotted and woven rugs. -
36/68 Calming kitchen – episode three, Richmond
As the glazing increases, the light gets softer, and the colour scheme darker. The kitchen is a trendy, moody blue, while downstairs, the bedrooms are bathed in a wonderful golden glow come evening courtesy of the biodynamic lighting.
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37/68 Peaceful retreat – episode three, Richmond
The tranquil master suite enjoys a view of a South of France style courtyard filled with air-purifying plants and the family bathroom is spa-like and serene.
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38/68 Spa style – episode three, Richmond
"I'm not normally jealous of people’s bathrooms but that is very special," says Kevin.
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39/68 A real wake-up call for all of us – episode three, Richmond
This is an imaginative piece of architecture brimming with colourful surprises, but it is when Born pulls out of one of the air filters to show Kevin how much dirt, dust, spores, mould, insects and exhaust particulates it is trapping, that we're reminded of the driving force behind it.
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40/68 Fantastic result – episode three, Richmond
Since moving into their new home, the boys have had "only one or two" allergic reactions, as opposed to a minimum of one attack every other week.
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41/68 Proof it was all worth it – episode three, Richmond
The University of York has lent Born and Elinor a VOC monitor to assess their air quality. It shows that their home is performing over 70 per cent better than the average new-build.
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42/68 Enjoying the fruits of their labour – episode three, Richmond
"It's been a rollercoaster ride but we feel really proud," says Elinor, explaining that they only went over budget by £60,000.
"The moments that we get to sit down, reflect on what we've done and enjoy the house, and see the children enjoying the house, are priceless." -
43/68 More Grand Designs projects from this series – episode two, Padstow
London leavers Harry and Briony have relocated their young family to Padstow, Cornwall with the aim of building a modernist steel and glass house like the one made famous in cult Eighties teen movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
Channel 4
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44/68 Big plans – episode two, Padstow
The "sexy" centrepiece will be a massive 220sq metre open-plan living space made from 40 chunky Speyer-style steel beams and four-metre high glass walls, creating the impression of "a structure floating out over the valley", as seen in the real-life Speyer house above.
Wikipedia/ Carmen B
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45/68 Inspired by Ferris – episode two, Padstow
The Ben Rose House designed by James Speyer featured in the cult Eighties film Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Wikipedia/ Carmen B
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46/68 Too late to back out – episode two, Padstow
When we meet them for episode two of the latest series of the hit self-build show, they've bought the eight-acre site of a former dairy farm for £490,000.
Channel 4
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47/68 Ferris Bueller fanboy – episode two, Padstow
Harry has taken on the role of project manager after developing an "obsession" with James Speyer's Ben Rose House, whichinspired the classic pavilion seen in the hit comedy. Despite never visiting it himself, he seems sure that he can honour it – in just eight months.
Channel 4
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48/68 Too ambitious? – episode two, Padstow
Optimistic timing aside, the problem, as Kevin quickly points out, is that a high-spec replica of the Speyer house would cost around £800,000 to build. Harry and Briony's "Speyer on steroids" will be a third bigger – and their budget extends to £400,000 tops.
Channel 4
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49/68 Forced to reassess his dream – episode two, Padstow
When a measurement mistake by Harry halts progress by several weeks, all hope of moving in by Christmas slips away and anxiety levels start rising.
"Maybe ego got the better of us, of me," he says, as he's forced to take gamble after gamble and painfully veer away from the Speyer model to do the best job he can on a shoestring.Channel 4
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50/68 Presenting their own fabulous take – episode two, Padstow
But come June, 14 months after starting, it's finally ready, and it's fabulous. "Speyer was pure glass and perhaps a bit impractical, but it inspired us and this is our version," says Harry proudly.
Channel 4
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51/68 Mad for ply – episode two, Padstow
The walls of the vast kitchen/dining/living space have been covered in ply to cool, industrial effect.
Channel 4
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52/68 Super-size style – episode two, Padstow
Everything is super-sized, from the huge sofa area...
Channel 4
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53/68 The coolest room divider ever? – episode two, Padstow
...to the ceiling-high custom-built bookcase on wheels that serves as a movable wall.
Channel 4
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54/68 Retreat to the bedrooms – episode two, Padstow
A 20-metre long hallway leads through a five-bedroom wing also made of steel but hidden behind more modest timber cladding. The peaceful master suite is at the end, with huge picture windows.
Channel 4
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55/68 Part of the landscape – episode two, Padstow
The house is accessed via a walkway leading down from the hillside above.
Channel 4
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56/68 £100k over budget – episode two, Padstow
Overall, the couple have smashed through £510,000, some £100,000 over budget, but the extra time and expenditure have proven worth it, thanks largely to Harry's skill at spotting talent and accepting his own limits early on.
Channel 4
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57/68 More timber than glass, but still gorgeous – episode two, Padstow
The house blends in seamlessly with its surroundings, despite not having as much glass as Harry and Briony initially wanted due to budget limitations.
Channel 4
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58/68 Remembering Ken Pearce – episode two, Padstow
"Great buildings are only great because of the work and love that people put into them," says Kevin, as Harry tears up remembering head builder Ken Pearce, who sadly died suddenly at home mid-way through the project.
Channel 4
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59/68 More Grand Designs projects from this series – episode one, Aylesbury Vale
Spanish architect Jimmy Fernandez and his wife Mimi’s miniature castle in Aylesbury Vale, Buckinghamshire, may look like an old Tudor tower, but it wasn't built for defence. Purely decorative, it was erected 250 years ago to house a gentleman’s fossil collection, and is something of a relic itself, with crumbling stonework and insides gutted by fire.
Kevin sums it up best: "It’s a building that doesn't want to stand up anymore."Channel 4
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60/68 Brave or reckless? – episode one, Aylesbury Vale
The couple were drawn to the folly after Mimi remembered passing it all the time while living locally as a child. They paid £100,000 for it, with no planning permission, in a move some may call brave, others reckless.
Getting approval to start work took a year, but they had to agree not to add to the original, tiny footprint.
Jimmy has a budget of just £200,000 and insists it will be ready to move Mimi and his two children (George, 2, and Luke, born during filming) into in just six months. -
61/68 Inexperienced builders and a leaky roof – episode one, Aylesbury Vale
Jimmy, it emerges, is not an easy boss to work with, insisting on being on site every day to micromanage an inexperienced team of contractors after his trusted Spanish stonemasons let him down.
"This is a big learning curve for us" is not something you want to hear your builders say, especially when a mistake with the roof means they have to rip the whole thing off and start again. -
62/68 Reaping the rewards – episode one, Aylesbury Vale
Finally, six months later than planned and £100,000 over budget, after excavating Anglo Saxon skeletons, securing a loan from family, they get there – and it's beautiful.
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63/68 Making best use of original features – episode one, Aylesbury Vale
Downstairs is a compact yet functional kitchen with a stove slotted into the gap left by the original fireplace.
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64/68 Surprisingly spacious – episode one, Aylesbury Vale
An octagonal lounge with views from all windows fills the first floor...
Channel 4
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65/68 Clever, compact design – episode one, Aylesbury Vale
... and two bedrooms, both with ensuites, take over the second with its lofty ceilings.
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66/68 Treehouse delight – episode one, Aylesbury Vale
Jimmy's pride and joy, a spiral staircase made from giant chunks of plywood, leads up the east turret to a roof terrace, giving them the feeling of "being in a treehouse" and playing into the building's sense of magic and romance.
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67/68 Endless obstacles to overcome – episode one, Aylesbury Vale
"A project like this really tests a relationship to its boundaries but we've made it so, well done,” says Jimmy, hugging Mimi, before admitting that while he will consider restoring an ancient property for someone else, he will not put his family through that stress again.
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68/68 From folly to family home – episode one, Aylesbury Vale
Presenter Kevin McCloud concludes by rhetorically asking: "Was this fossil of a building a folly to take on?"
Maybe, but for the first time in its long history, it now has a meaningful purpose.Channel 4
Identical 48-year-old twins, “adventurous” Nik and “pragmatic” Jon Daughtrey from Sheffield, live identical lives in many ways.
They run a design company and gallery space together, drive identical cars, keep identical dogs and now, they’ve decided to build two identical modern-industrial homes on stilts next to each other.
The ambition to build was instilled into the brothers by their parents Barbara and David, who self-built two houses while their children were young, moving the family into a caravan by the construction site for three years like last week’s Grand Designs couple.
Nik and his wife Emma have four children and need more space, while for Jon, the project represents a whole new start after splitting from his wife. His two children are still regular visitors, however, so he’ll need space for three.
THE PLOT
The site for this exciting family venture is tucked away behind the two houses Nik and Jon are currently renting. Home to a corn mill 200 years ago and two Fifties buildings until recently, it has a beautifully flat concrete yard. By the time the programme starts, they’ve bought it together, fully cleared, for £173,000.
The spooky underground water wheel they plan to uncover and one-acre pond once used to drive the mill hint at the land’s history, bringing a characterful dimension to this project.
Steel frames will sketch the outlines of two sizeable buildings, in a nod to the steel-making heritage of their South Yorkshire city, before the voids are dressed out with pre-sized concrete slabs and blockwork walls, then clad in sleek black corrugated steel.
Jon’s house will be much more compact than Nik’s, with concrete stairs leading up and into a large single space living area with a heavy blockwork chimney set into a glazed gable end. The kids’ bedrooms will be on the ground floor with the master suite tucked behind a kitchen, above which will sit Jon’s study on a mezzanine.
Nik’s house will feature a snug and two teenage bedrooms on the ground floor, with two further bedrooms above. A staircase in an atrium will divide this sleeping quarter from the main living area, leading you up into a large kitchen, then up again into an open dining and living space separated by a free-standing wall. The master suite will be found in their mezzanine with views out to the pond.
Exposed bare plywood, steel and blockwork will become design features.
While the brothers will be sharing the site and attempting to bag ‘buy one, get one free’ style deals with contractors, they will not be sharing a bank account. Their aim to keep to a finite budget of £850 per square metre shocks Kevin, who describes the projection as “dead cheap…an incredibly, unrealistically low sum”, which translates to £345,000 for both houses.
THE BUILD
Unsurprisingly, given the challenge they’ve set themselves, construction is yet to start nearly a year after Kevin’s first visit. The stress has caused strain between the brothers, who have fallen out for the first time in 40 years, with Jon contemplating abandoning ship.
Fortunately, he has a change of heart, they up their budget by 25 per cent after securing more money from the bank, and ground works tentatively begin 14 months late.
The brothers employ a local family steel-making business to fabricate the frames, and it is only when the steel skeletons start rising up from their concrete footings a month after the foundations are laid that the huge scale of this ambitious project becomes clear.
“They’re going to be covered in black, corrugated, grab-you-by-the-balls Sheffield steel!” says an animated Kevin. “They’re going to look big.”
Shortly after the two timber roofs are installed and the blockwork gets underway, there’s a shake-up. Jon has asked his girlfriend of a year, Ali, and her two children to move in with him, meaning he’s going to rework his plans.
He promptly asks the council for permission to do “a bit of a cut and paste” on top of the two existing bedrooms, which will cost an extra £40,000. Thankfully, given his tight purse strings, Ali will be chipping in. Even more thankfully, the neighbours embrace it, and he gets the go-ahead.
THE UNFORESEEN CHALLENGES
But this is Grand Designs, and there are more hiccups to come. Jon discovers problems with a sloping wall, which needs ripping out and building again, eating into the rapidly eroding money pot. The blockwork fails to finish on time or budget, forcing the twins to help out with the labour themselves, and the arrival of the Beast from the East makes installing the glazing a heart-in-the-mouth job amid a snow-filled winter sky.
It quickly becomes clear that even the revised joint budget of £435,000 will not be enough to finish, so they head back to the bank to beg for an extra £140,000 which, remarkably, they bag.
Nik’s house starts racing ahead, with a brick-effect plywood ceiling inspired by legendary British designer David Mellor. Jon, meanwhile, is building a massive statement chimney from 800 blocks.
Both brothers have joined forces to design their own bespoke lighting and kitchens – Jon’s will be dark grey and Nik’s, black. They set to work helping to dig trenches for their heating systems and grinding concrete for their kitchen floors. By this point, the long three-year journey is inching to completion.
WILL THEY GET THE MCCLOUD SEAL OF APPROVAL?
When Kevin returns to see the finished products, it is clear that the siblings’ Sheffield spirit has produced two proud industrial statements, that look like one building on the approach.
“It’s like walking into a very luxurious power station…fabulous”, says Kevin upon entering Jon’s abode, which boasts the scale of an old Victorian pump house.
The blocks have been finished as crisply as stonework and exposed copper pipes proclaims it a magnificently detailed, fully functioning building. The high ceilings give the place an awesome, almost ecclesiastical vibe.
The living space looks fresh and the extension has been clad entirely in plywood sheets. Ali admits she struggled to accept Jon’s vision for such heavy usage of raw materials, such as a steel staircase, but quickly fell in love with the result. Bucolic pond views from the galley kitchen soften the harsh modernity of the interiors.
The entrance to Nik’s property is through a huge glazed wall. A big tree framed by a large window draws you up the staircase to the kids’ wing.
Stairs divide these from the living area along with a wall of lattice steelwork, beyond which is a kitchen overlooking the pond, with powder-coated stainless steel worktops and precision-cut cabinets.
Nik’s rooms are more defined and cosier, with everything oriented to make the most of the countryside views outside. Cleverly, the kitchen ceiling forms part of the sitting room’s wall, with this suspended plywood box also housing the master suite – a soft sanctuary for Nik and Emma to retreat to.
It’s the unique decorative touches that set the two houses apart. “This is an exercise in getting stuff right and proving two minds are better than one,” says Kevin. “I like that very much.”
Overall, the cost for both homes reached £610,000 which, for the urban oasis they’ve conjured from a rundown industrial yard, is still very impressive. The endearing fist pump Jon and Nik share as we bid them farewell feels justified.
