A couple in Newhaven face a race against time as they build their dream home on windswept cliff-top site in time for the birth of their baby.

The Timber Frame Kit House, Newhaven

Kevin travels to Oxfordshire to meet the Randolphs, who built their first house 10 years ago and now, in their 70s, have decided to do it all again!

The English Barn, Berkshire

This project was a co-operative venture - 10 young families each put in 30 hours of construction work per week. 

Kevin travels to Brighton to meet a co-operative of ten young families, including ex-travellers and single parents, who are building both their own and each others homes.

A housing association bought the land from the council for £58,000. Paul then worked with the association to put the co-operative together. All the members were people on the council's housing list.

The Co-op, Walter Segal Houses, Brighton

Kevin McCloud travels to Amersham, where a couple plan to design an 'invisible' house, blending in with the earth banks of the surrounding reservoirs.

The Water Tower, Coleshill, Amersham

A Suffolk couple plan an environmentally friendly house with solar heating, grey water systems and reclaimed materials.

The Eco-House, Suffolk

Kevin McCloud travels to Cornwall to visit Gavin Allen and Jane Fitzsimons, who are trying to convert a chapel into a home and a teleworking office for Jane.

The Chapel, Cornwall

Kevin McCloud is in lslington where Jeremy Till and Sarah Wigglesworth have come up with a highly experimental design for a home/office.

The House of Straw, Islington

Kevin McCloud travels to Doncaster where Michael Hird and Lindsay Harwood are building a futuristic glass and steel house in a suburb of Doncaster.

The Glass-House, Doncaster

When Rupert and Julie bought a hilltop site in the Berkshire Downs, they were determined to build a house that would make the most of the countryside and stunning views. 

They turned to architecture firm Roderick James, which specialises in modern design and traditional timber craftsmanship. Together with architect Hugh McGann, they came up with a house of green oak and glass, built in an unusual cruciform (cross) shape.

The Regency Villa, Surrey

With a plot of land in Sussex overlooking the South Downs, newly-weds Jane and Willem wanted a house that would be atmospheric and open to the countryside. Inspired by memories of America, Jane planned a New England-style gabled house with large windows to make the most of the views.

Sussex: The New England House

A derelict woollen mill in a Yorkshire village may not say 'modernist' to everyone. But Chris and Gill - who, fortunately, run their own specialist joinery business - saw it as the perfect opportunity to create a visionary home. They liked the traditional brick of the building and opted to keep the exterior virtually untouched. Inside, they would strip everything out and make a home of fluid spaces, based around an open-plan ground floor, an atrium and a galleried upper floor.

The Wool Mill, Yorkshire

An isolated hilltop in the Brecon Beacons might seem an inhospitable place for a couple's first home. But Adrian and Corinna both grew up in the area, and the ruined farmhouse they chose to restore had been in Adrian's family for generations. The site's lack of mains water and electricity gave them no qualms. True, the track up the hill was often inaccessible in winter. But the landscape was beautiful and they both felt they belonged there

Wales: The Isolated Cottage

Helen and Mark had always dreamed of owning a Georgian house but knew they couldn't afford the genuine article. So they decided to build their own. They bought a large plot of land in Surrey, surrounded by trees, and commissioned an architect who specialised in conservation architecture to design it.

The Cruciform House, Berkshire

Kevin checks out an innovative housing scheme set up by a Birmingham Housing Association, which allows a group of people to build their own homes

The Self-Build, Birmingham

Kevin McCloud visits a couple who are looking to build their hi-tech modern house in a quiet north London street.

The Jewel Box, London

Kevin McCloud visits a couple in Devon who are hoping to convert a traditional barn complete with thatched roof.

The Derelict Barns, Devon

Kevin travels back to Doncaster to catch up with self-builders Michael Hird and Lindsay Harwood and their futuristic glass and steel house in a suburb of Doncaster.

Doncaster: Revisited

Kevin McCloud revisits an innovative housing scheme in Birmingham. Just over two years ago a group of 11 men and women agreed to build, not just their own, but each other's homes.

Birmingham: Revisited

Kevin McCloud revisits Adrian and Corrina, who decided their first home was to be a 300-year-old ruin. The former cottage is set in the inhospitable climate of the Brecon Beacons National Park.

Wales: Revisited

Kevin revisits Tony and Sharon, who fell in love with a completely dilapidated Georgian home in London and undertook the challenging task of restoring it to its former glory

London: Revisited

Kevin is in Amersham to update on a project taken on by Deborah and architect Andrew. Their venture involved designing an 'invisible' house that blended in with the surrounding reservoirs.

Amersham: Revisited

Kevin travels to the beautiful setting of south Devon to revisit Sue and Martin, whose dream was to create a family home using old English building techniques

Devon: Revisited

'Is it a bold contemporary design or a garden shed?' John and Terri found themselves asking, halfway into their build. They had knocked down a derelict house in a beautiful rural setting and commissioned commercial architects to build them a new one. But was it too small for them, their young son and the baby on the way?

Peterborough: The Wooden Box

The 1930s derelict water-works Chris and Leanne fell in love with was huge and its design had clearly been inspired by Gilbert Scott's Bankside power station, now better known as the Tate Modern. But nothing would deter the couple. 'We looked at it,' said Chris, 'and saw our home.'

The Water-Works, Derbyshire

For 10 years, Ben lived in tents and caravans in a wood in West Sussex. As a woodsman, he needed and wanted to live among the trees. But after a battle with planning he finally got permission to build himself a house with more creature comforts. He invited volunteers to help him build one by hand, from the materials growing around him.

The Woodsman's House, Sussex

For Philip and Angela, the build was part of a life change that had begun two years earlier. Just after their second daughter was born, Philip fell seriously ill, prompting the family to leave London and move back to his parents' village. Acquiring the site was easy, as Philip's parents owned it. Getting planning permission took longer, and a crucial factor in their success was that they would be restoring the outside of the barn and keeping the innovation hidden.

The Victorian Threshing Barn, Surrey

Tom and Judy 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?

Inverted V Roof, Buckinghamshire

After 10 years of living in a small house in east London, John and Eleni hankered after modern, open-plan living. They didn't want to move, so they decided to give their Victorian terrace home a radical redesign. The house was in a conservation area, so the outside had to remain unchanged. Inside, however, they decided to rip out everything including walls, ceilings, floors and start again.

The Terrace Conversion, Hackney

The old quarry stood on a slope of the Eden valley and commanded beautiful views. Local architect John Bodger designed a two-storey house that burrowed backwards into the rock and made maximum use of natural resources for light, warmth and power.

The Underground House, Cumbria

Merry's family have been Herefordshire builders for generations, so she knew that the county was rich in traditional building crafts. She and Ben decided to combine these with technology for a new house with a genuinely rural feel. Her father drew up a design that followed the traditional cottage layout while incorporating modern comforts.

The Traditional Cottage, Herefordshire

The Cruciform House: Revisited

Kevin McCloud revisits the improbable Islington home of two architects who built their avant-garde north-east London house out of straw bales, springs, nappy cladding and silver tin

The House of Straw: 2nd Revisiting

Kevin McCloud catches up with a couple he met some years when they set about the task of converting a disused electricity substation in Sunderland into a four-bed family home

The Former Electricity Sub-Station: Revisited

Kevin McCloud revisits retired couple Denys and Marjorie Randolph from Berkshire, who had decided to embark on their final building project, a brand new, green oak, barn-style house

The English Barn: Revisited

Louise and Milko 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

Waterloo: The Violin Factory

David and Greta 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.

Surrey: Customised German Kit House

In November 2001, Tom and Judy demolished a bungalow and started building an infinitely more ambitious house. Designed on different levels, with glass walls and exposed steelwork, it was to be a miraculous piece of engineering, giving the couple and their two young children a beautiful, technologically advanced home. Tom appointed himself project manager—a job that proved to be more challenging than he had expected. Grand Designs 3 followed the first 16 months of the build. As Grand Designs 4 goes on air, how close is it to completion?

Revisited - Buckinghamshire: The Inverted-Roof House

When Reuben and April 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.

Edinburgh: 19th Century Sandstone House

David and Anjana'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.

Clapham: The Curved House

Tom and Darron wanted to build a house that would be home to them, their art collection and their two large dogs. Darron's passion for surfing meant it would also have to be near a beach. They already shared a timber beach house in a hamlet on the Sussex coast, and when a neighbour's bungalow came up for sale, they decided to buy it, demolish it and build a dazzling white modernist house in its place.

Sussex: The Modernist Sugar Cube

Tony and Jo, musicians with Scottish Opera, had long dreamed of a home in the countryside. They found a perfect site on the Clyde estuary in Argyll and Bute. Located in a small village on a hillside, it had glorious views as far as the isle of Arran and was less than an hour's drive from Glasgow. Inspired by local oak-framed barns, they gave architect Andy McAvoy an open brief. In return, he gave them a design that fused medieval and modern and promised a beautifully simple interior. However, the construction was anything but simple...

Argyll: The Oak-Framed House

Amid 55 acres of organic farmland in the New Forest, Lizzie and Mike 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.

Dorset: An Idiosyncratic Home

Kevin returns to see whether the couple's solo attempts to transform a wreck of an old stone building in Leith, with no previous building experience, has been successful.

Revisited - Edinburgh: 19th Century Sandstone House

When Monty Ravenscroft and Clare Loewe began looking for a house to buy in London they soon realised that the only affordable option was to build one themselves. They snapped up a dirt cheap slither of land in Peckham at an auction only to be told it was too small to put a house on. Undeterred, three years ago, engineering whiz Monty began building an extraordinary experimental bungalow that filled the site to bursting point.

Peckham: The Sliding Glass Roof House

Kevin McCloud follows Jeremy and Louise Brown as they try to bring their Grade II Listed 16th-century Gloucestershire farmhouse into the 21st century.

Gloucester: The 16th Century Farmhouse

John Cadney and Marnie Moon have never had a permanent home. For 16 years they've camped on land owned by Marnie's parents because they could never afford to buy a house in the area where they live. So John, a carpenter, rolled his sleeves up and decided to build a house for his family with his bare hands.

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 it all fits together!

Kent: Finnish Log Cabin

Kevin takes a trip back to the home of John and Eleni Flood, who completely gutted their Victorian terraced house to create an open, light and modern space

Revisited - Hackney: The Terrace Conversion

Revisited - Waterloo: The Violin Factory

Kevin McCloud meets Pat Becker, who lives in a large Georgian house in Devon. But now that her family have flown the nest, she's building a new home at the bottom of the garden.

Devon: Shaped Like a Curvy Seashell

Kevin returns to see how Ben Law's woodsman's cottage has changed. The house has bedded down into its landscaped kitchen garden and his life has changed in unexpected ways.

Revisited - Sussex: The Woodsmans Cottage

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.

Belfast: A 21st Century Answer to the Roman Villa

Kevin McCloud meets Julie and Mark Veysey, whose Grand Design is a stunning Miami-style beach house on a beachfront plot overlooking the south Devon coast. Julie and Mark have had several holidays in Miami, and Julie wanted to recreate the outdoor beachfront lifestyle back in England, living in a house full of light and sun, within easy reach of the waves.

Devon: Miami Style Beach House

Andrew and Lowri Davies embark on a project to build an environmentally friendly farmhouse in rural Wales. Encouraged by their architect, they opt for some state-of-the-art experimental building materials; but do their builders know how to use them? 

As the budget spirals out of control, they find it increasingly difficult to balance the budget with their desire for a sustainable home.

Carmarthen: The Eco-House

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. 

The loch also gave them a fantastic opportunity to build a very unique house. They can control the water level of the loch which means they could actually build over the loch without worrying about flooding. So with the help of their architect, they designed an extravagant split level five bedroom house that actually hovers over the loch.

The Loch House, Killearn

Hillcott Barn looked more like a Tuscan monastery than an English barn. When the farmer put it up for sale, most people who viewed it walked away. It was dark and isolated and could only be reached by a half mile farm track with a steep 1:8 gradient. But furniture designer Robert Ellis (58) had had his eye on it for some time. For years he’d been jogging past the barn and always thought one day he’d like to live there. Against all advice, Rob and his wife Jane, (58) a textile designer, went ahead and bought the barn for £210,000 and proposed to convert at £250,000.

The Contemporary Barn Conversion, Ross-on-Wye

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.

Stirling: The Contemporary Cedar Clad Home

For six years Bruno and Denise Del Tufo stared at the large concrete water tower at the bottom of their garden trying to figure out what to do with it. It’s a very rare object – a square water tower on stilts designed by architect Edwin Lutyens, who built it to supply the manor house nearby.

The planners were open to persuasion so they approached an architect who came up with a bold, uncompromising extension in metal, glass and concrete. Denise and Bruno were keen to keep the original structure visible so the new house is threaded between the legs of the water tower.

Water Tower Conversion, Ashford

Christine Benjamin and her husband Peter currently live in an Edwardian manor house called Medland Manor. Both in their 60s, the manor is getting to be too large for them, so they’ve decided to build themselves something smaller. 

Despite the manor’s traditional style, Peter and Christine felt strongly that their new building should embrace modern design whilst remaining sensitive to its site. So they came up with a house that is part traditional timber frame cottage, part modern glass pavilion.

Revisited: 19th Century Manor House, Creuse

Kevin McCloud revisits Nicky and James Dobree. Nicky was raised in France, James in Beirut – both have fond memories of the mountains as children. It was natural for them to one day look to buy a place amongst France's tallest peaks, the Alps. The journey moving the family, including their two young sons, Fabian and Felix, from South London to a renovated 300-year-old farmhouse in Les Gets was to have its ups and downs. It was never meant to be a permanent move. The original plan was to develop the top two floors of the chalet so the family could spend the summer there, overseeing the completion of the bottom floors. They would then be able to rent out the whole chalet in the winter months. The family were only planning to use their new home for the summer seasons.

Revisited: 300 Year Old Chalet

Christine Benjamin and her husband Peter currently live in an Edwardian manor house called Medland Manor. Approaching their 60s, the manor is getting to be too large for them, so they’ve decided to build themselves something smaller. Despite the manor’s traditional style, Peter and Christine felt strongly that their new building should embrace modern design whilst remaining sensitive to its site. They came up with a house that is part traditional timber frame cottage, part modern glass pavilion.

Garden House aka Mies van der Rohe Inspired House

Anjana and David Devoy started building a contemporary home that curved around a protected chestnut tree in their garden. Kevin McCloud returns to see if their plan worked.

Revisited: The Curved House

Every Englishman’s home is his castle but for Francis Shaw this is quite literally true. He and his wife, Karen, and their two young daughters, bought the ruins of a 14th Century castle in Yorkshire and took on the remarkable challenge of turning a pile of stones into a beautiful home. Surrounded by rolling green fields, the location is idyllic; however, the castle itself was little more than four crumbling walls.

Yorkshire: The 14th Century Castle

Eight years ago Alex and Cheryl Reay left London for a new life in the New Forest. They bought a run down medieval thatched cottage and lovingly brought it back to life. Then just before Christmas, with Cheryl pregnant, disaster struck. A fault in the chimney caused a massive fire which destroyed the entire building. Overnight Alex and Cheryl had lost almost £400,000.

Whilst most people would have walked away from this, Alex and Cheryl couldn’t let go of their dream. Nine months after the fire, they decided to start all over again and rebuild the cottage, bigger and better than before.

Thatched Cottage, Hampshire

Chris Miller and his wife Sze Liu Lai lived in a tiny flat in East London with their two children Alexion and Tayszea. It was very tight for space and as the kids grew they really felt in need of more room. Chris and Sze are both social workers on low incomes and they have very little in the way of savings.

Eco-barge, Medway

James and Katrin Gray live in Bournemouth on the south coast. James runs his own book distribution business and Katrin works for an investment bank. They used to live in an apartment on the second floor of a former Victorian hotel. But three years ago, James bought the top floor flat. It was originally built as a solarium for the hotel in the 1920’s where holiday-makers could soak up the sun. Now James and Katrin plan to convert it into a modern, luxury penthouse

The Bournemouth Penthouse

Kevin revisits Andrew and Lowri Davies who embarked on a project to build an environmentally friendly farmhouse in rural Wales. Encouraged by their architect, they opt for some state-of-the-art experimental building materials; but do their builders know how to use them? As the budget spirals out of control, they find it increasingly difficult to balance the budget with their desire for a sustainable home.

The Eco-House: Revisited

Dean Marks has dreamt of living in a church for as long as he can remember. After searching for the right building for years, he came across St Martin’s near Birmingham, a huge 18th century grade II listed church which looks more like a mausoleum. The church wanted £25,000 for it but Dean knocked them down to £12,500. Now, after fighting for planning permission for four years, Dean and his wife, Hilary, are about to transform this derelict monstrosity into a family home.

Birmingham: The Birmingham Church

When Pilots Andrew Berry and his wife Helen bought their cottage near Guildford in Surrey 7 years ago they always planned to add a small extension. But over the last few years the modest extension has evolved so much that retaining any of the original cottage simply wasn’t practical. Now it’s being completely demolished to make way for a new five bedroom Art Deco style house.

Guildford: The Art Deco House

Monty Ravenscroft and Clare Loewe bought a plot of land in Peckham to build their own home - only to be told it was too small for a traditional house. Engineering expert Monty designed a space-age property with a sliding glass roof and mezzanine bedroom pods, and as they grapple with unexpected obstacles, Kevin McCloud visits them to discover how the ambitious project has progressed.

Revisited: The Sliding Glass Roof House, Peckham

Musicians Tony and Jo Moffat began building a spectacular modern home on a plot with a view to die for on the west coast of Scotland. They decided on a very experimental design which combined a medieval cruck oak frame with stainless steel and concrete, based on a Norwegian Longhouse. Kevin McCloud returns to find out if this remarkable avant garde house is a success and whether Tony and Jo can afford to keep it.

Revisited: The Oak-Framed House, Argyll

Kelly and Masoko Neville set about building not just a spectacular oak frame and straw bale house, but a whole new way of life in the Cambridgeshire Fens. Kelly is a carpenter by trade and has always dreamed of building an eco friendly home with his own hands. This highly sustainable house, sitting in harmony with nature and its surroundings, will become the base for Kelly and Masoko's new self-sufficient life where they will produce their own food and energy from the land.

Cambridge: The Cambridgeshire Eco Home

Janne and Howard planned to convert a ruin in the Tuscan hills into a luxurious home. Kevin returns a few years later to check on how it has gone.

Revisited: The Tuscany Castle, Tuscany, Italy

In this episode Kevin meets master carpenter Bill Bradley and his wife Sarah, whose plan is to build two identical timber houses in south London, selling one to finance the building of the other.

London: The Glass and Timber House

A couple who live in a Regency house in Cheltenham that is expensive to run decide to sell up and build a modern low maintenance house in their back garden. However, height restrictions mean they have to build 60 per cent of their new home underground and neighbours make 90 complaints about their planning application. Undeterred, the pair continue as planned, but the project encounters further problems including the departure of the builders.

Cheltenham: The Underground House

Henry Chopping finds his plans to build a new home in Oxford hampered by a listed wall and planning restrictions. With a budget of over three quarters of a million Henry is determined to make his dream home a reality.

Oxford: The Decagon House

An architect plans to build a new house for his family using only white materials. He ends up using stuff more commonly used in commercial buildings.

Bristol: The Modernist Sugar Cube

Jo and Shaun Bennett want to build an Addams Family style Gothic house with a £400,000 budget. With the challenge growing bigger than they ever imagined they face financial problems and struggle to stay within their budget.

The Gothic House

Pru and Richard make plans to build a bespoke family home on an industrial site in the middle of the Midlothian countryside.

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.

Midlothian: The Lime Kiln House

Kevin attempts to help Tiffany and Jonny with their dream of creating an ultra-modern, eco-friendly home in Bath in the west country.

Rather than go down the traditional building route, Tiffany and Jonny opted for a German pre-fabricated kit house with great green credentials.

The Bath Kit House

Kevin McCloud revisits artists David Westby and Leonie Whitton three years after they bought an olive farm in the Puglia region of Italy and planned to convert it into a home on a budget of £25,000.

Revisited - Masseria Impisi: An Artists' Retreat

Kevin McCloud drops in at John and Terri Westlake's self-built, contemporary wooden home, which has a wall made entirely of glass and great views across open countryside near Peterborough.

Revisited - Peterborough- The Wooden Box

Kevin revisits David and Greta Iredale, who replaced their original house which they designed and built themselves with a German built, precision engineered Huf Haus.

Revisited - German Kit House

Kevin McCloud revisits Philip Trail and his wife Angela who moved to stress-free Surrey and renovated a 150-year-old threshing barn after Philip was diagnosed with a brain tumour.

Revisited - Surrey- The Victorian Threshing Barn

Five years on, Kevin McCloud goes back to the wilds of Cumbria to see how the Reddy family have adapted to their ecologically sound earth-sheltered home.

Cumbria Underground House Revisited

In Maidstone, Jean and Bill Letley, a septuagenarian couple plan a highly contemporary bungalow complete with underfloor heating and prototype steel foundations. The project would test even the most accomplished workmen, but is left to their daughter and son-in-law, who have little building experience and have to make personal sacrifices.

Maidstone: The Hi Tech Bungalow

Ian and Sophie Cooper met at university and have since spent their time together enjoying life in London. Ian works as a marketing consultant in telecoms and Sophie is a sales manager for a fashion firm. Both are passionate about design. 

They’ve done the usual thing of renovating flats and moving on... but three years ago they realised they wanted a different kind of life in a different kind of building.

The Apprentice Store, Somerset

Inspired by an illustration on a yoghurt pot, Chris Ostwald decides to build a New England-style water mill in the Chilterns, on a hill and nowhere near any water.

The Chilterns Water Mill, Oxfordshire

Sarah and Dean Berry grew up on a council estate in Newport. Having moved away to London and made good, they have now returned home 17 years later and bought an 18th century folly - a castle perched on a hilltop. They not only plan to restore the folly to its former glory, but wrap a large modern extension around the original structure, with lots of glass to capitalise on the amazing views.

The Newport Folly, Newport

Kevin McCloud follows the progress of architect Richard Hawkes and wife Sophie, who are moving from London to the Kent countryside to build a hi-tech eco-friendly house with room to grow their own food. Richard also wants their new home to blend effortlessly into the surrounding countryside, concealed beneath a huge arch of clay tiles covered with earth and planted with grass

The Eco Arch, Kent

Daren Howarth and Adi Nortje are keen to build an earth-sheltered home from recycled materials in Brittany. The house is a very low tech one, mainly constructed from old car tyres.

The Brittany Groundhouse, Brittany

Dairy farmer Andrew Ainslie and his artist wife Meryl, who run a gallery on their farm,  build a modern barn-style farmhouse on their 700 acre farm in the rolling chalk hills of Wiltshire.

The Marlborough Farm house, Wiltshire

Mimi De Costa and her husband Andre, a doctor, had spent years looking for a plot of land when they came across a bungalow in Kent.

The original bungalow

They bought it for the site - 12 acres of organic pasture and woodland - and started to plan a new home for their sons, Sean and Tye, that would suit a lower impact way of living. 

But what they're building isn’t going to be a reproduction of the bungalow. It's a squarish, modular building, with glass walls from floor to ceiling. The outside of the building is clad in cedar that will go grey to match the surrounding oak trees.

The idea is that by prefabricating most of the house it should be quicker and easier to put together on site. But although it will be precision made, it isn’t a kit house.

The Prefabricated house, Kent

Revisited- Yorkshire: The 14th Century Castle

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.

Revisited: The Hexagonal Straw Baled House, Cambridgeshire

A Building Contractor and his wife who is a Nurse, build a large modern 6 bedroom house on a hill in Brighton. It has an amazing view and the owner has many ambitious design ideas including huge curved glass expansive windows. He lives next door and needs to renovate and sell the house on the other side of the plot. Everything starts out wonderfully, even though he has just had a double hip replacement. But other health problems loom, along with the housing market to deflate.

Brighton- The Modern Mansion

Eight years ago Alex and Cheryl Reay left London for a new life in the New Forest.

Revisted: The Thatched Cottage, Hampshire

Revisted: The Loch House, Killearn

Revisited: The Woodman's Cottage, Sussex

Kevin McCloud follows the progress of architectural designer Lincoln Miles and his wife, artist Lisa Traxler, who want to create their own home on the Isle of Wight. They have bought a property on a prime piece of land and set out to transform it into a creative structure that complements the unspoilt woodland setting.

Isle of Wight: The Tree House

Helen and Chris Seymour Smith are architects who are planning to build a subterranean, eco-friendly house underneath a ruined 300-year-old barn in the Cotswolds. Kevin McCloud follows their progress as they set out to create a building that is airtight and needs no heating, but whose spartan interior raises questions of habitability

Cotswold: The Stealth House

British television series which features unusual and often elaborate architectural homebuilding projects.

All Episodes of Grand Designs

All Episodes of Grand Designs

Season 1

The Timber Frame Kit House, Newhaven

Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 4/29/1999

The English Barn, Berkshire

Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 5/6/1999

The Co-op, Walter Segal Houses, Brighton

Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 5/13/1999

The Water Tower, Coleshill, Amersham

Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 5/20/1999

The Eco-House, Suffolk

Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 6/3/1999

The Chapel, Cornwall

Season 1 Episode 6 - Aired 6/10/1999

The House of Straw, Islington

Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 6/17/1999

The Glass-House, Doncaster

Season 1 Episode 8 - Aired 6/24/1999