We present here the worst complaints made by holiday makers to their travel agents in a recent survey:
"The beach was too sandy."
A woman threatened to call police after claiming that she’d been locked
in by staff. When in fact, she had mistaken the “do not disturb” sign on the
back of the door as a warning to remain in the room.
A guest at a Novotel in Australia complained his soup was too thick and
strong. He was inadvertently slurping the gravy at the time.
"Topless sunbathing on the beach should be banned. The holiday was
ruined as my husband spent all day looking at other women."
"No-one told us there would be fish in the sea. The children were
startled."
"It took us nine hours to fly home from Jamaica to England it only took
the Americans three hours to get home."
"My fiancé and I booked a twin-bedded room but we were placed in a
double-bedded room. We now hold you responsible for the fact that I find myself
pregnant. This would not have happened if you had put us in the room that we
booked."
"I compared the size of our one-bedroom apartment to our friends'
three-bedroom apartment and ours was significantly smaller."
"The brochure stated: 'No hairdressers at the accommodation'. We're
trainee hairdressers - will we be OK staying here?"
"We had to queue outside with no air conditioning."
"I was bitten by a mosquito - no-one said they could bite."
"I think it should be explained in the brochure that the local store
does not sell proper biscuits like custard creams or ginger nuts."
"On my holiday to Goa in India, I was disgusted to find that almost
every restaurant served curry. I don't like spicy food at all."
Chablis, Beaune and Nuits-Saint-Georges trip off the tongue so readily as
familiar names on wine labels that it can be easy to forget that they are also
living villages, not just quaffable vintages.
It was this appealing combination of the great renown of Burgundy wines, and
the traditional, untouched charm of the villages that produce them, that
inspired Su and David Bishop to move to the Côte de Beaune to convert derelict
old buildings into stylish second homes.
They left behind their property development businesses in London and started
with their own home, in the heart of the wine villages.
“We used to stop off in
Burgundy on our way to Southern France as it’s about half way from Calais. Then
nine years ago, we bought an old wine storage barn in Cissey for £150,000 and
turned it into a holiday home – and now our permanent home,” says Su, 52.
They realised the potential for a business and set up their development
company Arena Park. “Lots of people come to these Burgundy villages interested
in wine, but it’s hard to find property,” says Su. “Vineyards are far more
valuable than land turned into building plots, so these villages aren’t
expanding.” The couple have another renovated village cottage for sale.
While they keep a hold of their vineyards, the French with properties to
spare are selling off old buildings such as barns. This is how Su found an ideal
opportunity in Pommade, home to many a premier cru. There, she and David turned
a derelict 17th-century coaching inn into seven loft-style apartments. There are
two left, priced from £257,000 for a three-bed duplex.
They also take on one-off renovation projects for clients and have renovated
old properties for sale in famous wine villages such as Meursault, including a
converted town house for £442,000, and Demigny, where there are four cottages in
a stone barn, starting at £196,000.
“These villages, typically clustered on hillsides, are thriving and wealthy,”
says Su. “Architecturally, they resemble Cotwolds villages. They are well looked
after, there is huge civic pride and there are plenty of old ladies who like to
watch over us to check we are doing things properly.”
Graham Jones, 51, vice president of furniture design company Knoll, and his
wife Tracy, 43, a magazine distribution director, visit their three-bedroom
duplex in Le Clos de Pommade, which they bought from Arena Park for £250,000,
every few weeks.
“It’s perfectly comfortable for a weekend break … We can catch the 1.30pm
train from St Pancras and be in our favourite restaurant in Burgundy by 7.45pm.
We step instantly into a more peaceful environment and clear our heads,” says
Graham.
“We wanted to be in Burgundy for the wine villages, which have kept their
charm and integrity, and we wanted to wake up hearing birds and church bells,”
he says. “A lot of the properties we’d seen over the years had small, dark
rooms, but Le Clos stood out with its spacious, open-plan and bright interiors
and the way the properties retain the natural materials.”
Further south in the Languedoc, in Quarante, a lively village on the Canal du
Midi near Beziers, Karl O’Hanlon, director of development company Domaine &
Demeure, is turning the neglected 19th-century chateau Domaine de la Bastide
Neuve back into a wine-producing estate, with property owners benefiting from
the fruits of his labour.
The grand but faded old turreted chateau and its outbuildings – which include
the old winery, blacksmith’s house, grape picker’s lodge and hay lofts – are
being converted into 27 properties, ranging from one-bedroom apartments at
£170,000 to a large four-bedroom house with a private pool for £572,000.
“The estate has been in the same family from the 1880s until recently, but
they sold off their vineyard 20 years ago,” says O’Hanlon. “I’m going to buy
vines, modernise the old winemaking facility and bring in several independent
winemakers to produce wine that we can sell internationally,” he says. “The
winemakers will pay their rent in wine and each property will get about 50 cases
a year.”
Wine estates, along with churches, says O’Hanlon, lend themselves to the most
attractive developments in the Languedoc. “I hear constantly that people want
old properties with character near lively villages near the coast and an
airport. They want properties that are fully managed but which give them the
freedom to use them whenever they want and to rent them out, so that is what we
are providing.
“This is a post-crisis project, with the whole deal put together since the
banking crisis broke,” O’Hanlon adds of Domaine de la Bastide Neuve. “Prices are
30 per cent cheaper than similar boutique wine-based developments which were
selling a few years ago.”
This month we look back at the most popular Grand Designs so far:
1. Newport Folly
The Cost: Unknown, estimated at £1,950,000
The listed Newport Folly had fallen into a sad state of disrepair. Sarah & Dean bought the site, with views across the Welsh hills and into nine different counties, for £1million.
They renovated the cavernous folly to contain a cinema, huge master suite and rooftop patio with views to die for.
This was just the start, as the couple went on to add an enormous glass extension that maximises the amazing views. This addition houses some top quality fixtures, fittings and hi tech systems. To top it all off, the couple's names are forever carved into the building's stonework.
The Story
After 17 years living away from home, banker Dean Berry and his wife, PR consultant Sarah, decided it was time to return to Newport in South Wales with their son Ruben.
In 2005 they saw that a folly, 800ft above Newport, was for sale and they jumped at it. The 18th century building, with magnificent views, was built by local squire George Kemey in the mid 1700s as an extravagant hunting lodge and was then rebuilt in 1912, when a lightning bolt set it on fire.
In the 1960s it briefly became a family home but for the last four years it has been left to fall in to disrepair.
It’s taken Dean and Sarah a year and a half of planning and wrangling but finally, the permissions are in place and they’re back ready to start their new lives. Their ambitious plans for the folly go way beyond restoration, however.
They’re building a 270 sqm extension which will provide the bulk of their living space. The challenge for Dean, Sarah and their architect will be successfully combining restoration with brand spanking new.
The Plan
Work on the folly will be the longer, more delicate process involving a new roof, repaired and re-pointed stonework and the loving resuscitation of the early Crittal windows.
Then Dean and Sarah plan to wrap a low lying ultra modern wing around the old folly.
Built out of block work to resist the winds on this steep hill, it will sail out along the ridge in a seductive curve.
On the ground floor there will be a home cinema in the folly and a very big open plan kitchen, dining and living area in the new extension. The existing staircase will lead up to the master bedroom suite, complete with the usual en suite bathroom and dressing room, in a small first floor extension.
The full length bedroom windows will open onto a first floor terrace with expansive views across to the Brecon Beacons.
Above, on the top floor, there will be two further bedrooms with en suites. Meanwhile the extension will also house a boot room, two guest bedrooms with en suite bathrooms and an office, all leading off the long curved corridor.
The Finished House
Two years from the time that Kevin first met Dean and Sarah, the couple move in.
Reviving an old building whilst retaining its fragile sense of history isn’t easy but Sarah has managed this with great sensitivity. She has even furnished the rooms in the old tower in an old traditional way.
2. Oxford Decagon House
The Cost: £800,000 - £1.1million
When Henry Chopping set out to build a house mostly comprising decagonal rooms, inspired by Morocco and with a copper roof to match the local Oxford colleges, I for one thought he was completely crackers.
This has to be one of the most unusual houses in Grand Designs history; a complex layout of spaces, designed to fit an awkward plot nestled behind a listed stone wall.
The house features an entrance walkway, hi tech basement cinema, four large bedrooms, a beautiful bespoke kitchen, acres of living room and a cosy study.
There are glazed walls (typically three sides of each decagon are glazed) and a glass atrium to maximise natural light.
Oxford is an architecturally inspiring place to live, but building plots are rare. So when a prime site came up, surveyor Henry Chopping jumped at the chance to build something special. And for once, it's just for himself.
The Project
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, specifically 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 glulam beams.
It's altogether an eclectic mix of architectural styles.
Henry is a perfectionist, and his determination to get things spot on means the schedule starts to seriously slide. With so much money at stake, and a demanding job to contend with, the build becomes a bigger challenge than Henry had first bargained for.
Moreover, with such a mix of styles and materials, nobody's quite sure whether his house will emerge an ugly duckling or a graceful swan.
The Build
First, the listed wall next to the road was rebuilt using local limestone and red brick. It completely hides this complex house.
In the hole, Henry's built a voluminous basement with a hi-tech lounge, a cinema and a utility room. Above it, at ground floor level, behind the wall, sit an unusual arrangement of interlocking rooms, based mainly on the ten sided decagon.
You enter the house over a walkway. On one side there are four bedrooms, including the master suite at the end.
Although these rooms are not decagons, they're not completely square either.
Off the other side of the hall are the kitchen and dining room; and at the end, Henry's study decagon, which is accessed through the largest and most elaborate of the decagons.
This large living room, part inspired by Moroccan tents, is arranged so that three of its ten sides are glazed to capture the light of the moving sun.
Structurally, this room depends on ten elegant oversailing beams made of laminated engineered wood, glulam - a beautiful material that Henry wants to use elsewhere.
The roof is mainly copper, inspired by Oxford's university buildings, but also a small area of living sedum roof.
Henry has plenty of experience as a surveyor, but here he seemed to be testing his own limits. A house of decagons is full of 72, 36 and 144 degree angles instead of right angles.
3. Eco Arch
The Cost: £445,000 plus land, estimated total £700,000 - 900,000
This house makes it into the list of 10 Grandest Grand Designs because of that magnificent timbrel arch, dreamed up by architect and owner Richard.
It's not only unique to Grand Designs, but a UK first to build using this ancient European technique. The arch itself is made up of over 26,000 individual, hand-laid tiles.
This house isn't all about aesthetics: it's a revolutionary, carbon-positive passive house that generates all of its own energy, even selling some back to the National Grid, without skimping on electronic luxuries.
It has the living eco roof, solar panels and south-facing, triple glazed panels you'd expect from the greenest of green houses, and is so experimental that Cambridge University have sensors installed in every nook and cranny to monitor the home's energy performance.
This is perhaps the project that best sums up what Grand Designs is all about.
Richard is a senior architect in a busy commercial practice in London. He’s used to designing big buildings with big budgets. His wife Sophie is an investment manager in the city.
A few years ago, fed up with the fast pace of life in London, they moved to Kent.
Now they’ve bitten the bullet, bought a plot of land with a rundown bungalow on it and drawn up a plan to replace that with something entirely different while they live in a caravan on site.
The Plan
Richard and Sophie’s new home will be built using the latest avant garde eco technologies.
On top of the eco-concrete foundations will sit a series of timber frame boxes, heavily insulated with recycled newspaper and clad in English cedar. Large, triple glazed windows to the south will help to heat the house using the power of the sun to warm the heavy concrete slab.
The ground floor is arranged in a cross shape with a study, kitchen, sitting room and dining room branching off the hallway corridor. On the second floor will be three bedrooms and a master bedroom suite.
To conserve heat this whole building will be enveloped in a metalized tough membrane to make it super-airtight, and then fitted with a ventilation system to recover heat from the air.
Then there’s the arch. It's not semi-circular, but parabolic. It will be a soaring curve made from thousands of tiny clay tiles glued together. It will be totally unsupported by the building, a gravity defying first of its kind in Britain.
Inside, those tiles will be visible, soaring above the living spaces like a giant railway arch. On the outside, where the arch sits above the rooms, it will be insulated with foam and covered with layers of gravel and soil to allow wild grasses and flowers to seed - a living, green eco roof.
It’s a highly experimental project and the kind of adventure that only an architect dare go on.
The Build
This ancient type of construction from Europe is called a timbrel vault. It differs from a semi-circular Roman arch in that its curvature is wider in the shape of a parabola. This is much more efficient, allowing the materials to be lighter, thinner and giving the appearance of defying gravity. But the tradition of building arches like these in tiles is a bit of a lost art; Richard will have to learn how to do it from scratch.
Richard and Sophie have taken on a large mortgage to pay for the build, so to save money, as well as living in a caravan on site Richard will project manage and Sophie, a financier, will manage the budget.
Andrew’s first task is to sink a series of 11 metre deep piles into the Kent clay to form a stable base for the house.
Once the basic timber structure is complete, Sophie and Richard are ready for another important delivery.
In late July, 26,000 handmade clay tiles for their dramatic arch arrive on site. The arch is the crowning glory of this house but it cost far more than Richard had budgeted at a whopping £85,000.
The budget’s already grown from £300,000 to £400,000, and now she’s looking at a £20,000 overspend on the arch.
To reach the super eco standards of a passive house, Richard and Sophie have ordered some expensive airtight, triple glazed windows. Once the windows are in and the house is airtight they can finish the interior.
The bathrooms are installed and Richard’s found some suitably eco friendly recycled glass flooring.
A few days later the moment of truth has arrived. One icy morning, 20 tonnes of gravel are delivered to site. Gingerly Richard and the guys begin to fill the pockets of black webbing with gravel. 40 tonnes of soil will follow later.
The Finished House
The parabolic curvature of the timbrel arch and the way it flares gives the impression that it hasn’t so much been built as simply thrust its way out of the ground.
Beneath, Richard’s series of wooden boxes nestle under the protective wings of the arch. The interior, though interesting, is not ostentatious. Downstairs, the tile vault stretches out on either side of the house.
The dining table is tucked under one arm of the arch, whilst Richard’s office sits under the other. These are extreme ends of the corridor off which sit more conventional rooms.
This house is so experimental that Cambridge University has sensors embedded all over the place to monitor its performance. Their researchers want to find out how the walls and floors store and release heat, how well the revolutionary solar panels generate heat and power, and much more. This place has the capacity to generate about £1,800 of excess energy per year, and sell it back to the grid!
4. Midlothian Lime Kiln House
The Cost: Unknown, estimated at around £1million, plus land
Pru and Richard owned what appeared to be a charming family home next to some ancient lime kilns in the Midlothian countryside.
Not content with this seemingly idyllic property, they decided to move out and build a gargantuan spaceship next door. From the glass-walled study to the floating staircase and indoor garden, via the best kitchen ever installed in a Grand Designs house, the Midlothian Lime Kiln House is a beacon ofgreat design.
The Story
When Pru and Richard Irvine came across a plot of land in the middle of the breathtakingly beautiful Midlothian countryside, they dreamt of building 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 could become a blot on the landscape instead of an enhancement.
Pru and Richard sensibly plan to start building in the summer but, because it is an industrial site, are forced to do numerous soil tests.
The build is delayed until the harsh Scottish winter.
With Richard grafting hard to pay for the build it's down to Pru, a food writer, to project manage. Naively she doesn't consider this a full time job, but when her trusty builder goes away and she is left to manage alone she starts to realise just what she's let herself in for.
This giant of a house is a giant of a project. Until it's complete nobody is quite sure whether it will fulfill its brief.
The Build
Despite a few setbacks meaning that they had to build through the Scottish winter, they only finished a couple of months behind schedule.
As the plot had been the site of a lime factory, Richard and Pru needed to provide proof that no contaminants were present - so before they could even start on the built they had to rewrite their environmental report and spend £5,000 on a series of soil tests.
One of the biggest expenses was the windows, which cost around £40,000. The sedum roof, essential to help the building fit with its surroundings, cost £25,000.
By the time all the costs were in, the project was about £50,000 over budget, so Pru and Richard took the decision to build the top half in timber rather than continue with the masonry and planned concrete floor.
The staircase, commissioned by Richard, appears to float almost unsupported. It's an important feature in the glass atrium that also houses Pru's indoor garden.
Here she can grow exotic plants that wouldn't survive outdoors.
Along with a guest suite and the utility rooms, the upstairs houses Pru's all-important and enormous kitchen and dining area.
As Pru is a food writer, this open plan space is crucial to the success of the building.
Next door there is a living room complete with glass cube to give views onto the magnificent old lime kilns.
Clever design helps lessen the house's impact on its surrounding despite its monolithic size.
By building into a slope, from one side the house appears to be single storey. The larch cladding will silver over time and help it merge into the surrounding landscape. A sedum roof will also soften the structure's hard edges.
5. Walton Huf Haus
The Cost: £450,000 (land already owned by David & Greta)
This is a futuristic home from a German production line, assembled on its Surrey site in just six days. Owners David & Greta replaced their previous self build with this precision-engineered kit home.
The house boasts a double-height dining area, balcony landing, three en suite bedrooms, an artist's studio, endless glass walls and that quintessential Huf Haus pitched roof.
Four years ago Kevin McCloud met David and Greta Iredale, whose Huf Haus was built in a factory in Germany and put together on site.
It was one of the most striking and efficient processes Grand Designs has ever seen. But four years on, is the Huf Haus still delivering perfection?
The Project
David and Greta Iredale are seasoned builders. They built their first house in 1956; their second, nine years later. Having lived in it for 40 years, the timber house they designed themselves began to rot away so they decided to pull it down and replace it with a prefab.
But this was no post-war flimsy prefab. This was a solid, German built, precision engineered Huf Haus. Built in a factory, each part was constructed by a different team of skilled workers, very much like a car production line.
The kit house, complete with doors, windows, fixtures and fittings was then shipped to site and put together like some gigantic jigsaw. And with a schedule tighter than a pair of lederhosen, the Germans promised to put the entire house together in just six days.
True to their promise, the German construction team arrived at the crack of dawn but were delayed by the British crane driver, who arrived five hours late after being given the wrong address.
Working late to make up for lost time, the German team succeeded in erecting the house in just six days as promised.
Impressed by the German's efficiency, designer David and Greta's next challenge was to personalise the inside of their stark home through intelligent interior design.
Four years on, Kevin is back to see if David and Greta have been able to stamp their own identity onto this distinctive building.
The Verdict
This hi-tech German prefab went up in just one week, but the Huf Haus is no ordinary kit house. What David and Greta got was a piece of the classic modern dream, all open-plan living with lots of space and lots of light.
Downstairs, a part-concealed kitchen at the front connects to a generous living and dining area at the back, separated from the garden only by large glass walls. There's still room on the ground floor for David's artist's studio.
Upstairs is split in two with a gallery in between overlooking the double height dining area. To one side is the master bedroom suite.
On the other are two more bedrooms.
This is an unusual building for several reasons; it's not English, it's timber framed and it's topped by a split roof in three sections. Also, at around £450,000, it's not cheap.
6. Tuscany Ancient Castle
The Cost: £700,000, plus cost of derelict castle & land
Janne and Howard's castle in Tuscany is arguably the grandest design ever, in the purest sense of the word. And all that grandeur comes at a cost; the budget doubled as this determined couple battled Italian bureaucracy and infamously complex Tuscan planning regulations.
Beneath the traditional stone facade, this building had to be earthquake-proofed. That's no mean feat in a building 1,000 years old. After years of wrangling and hard graft, Janne and Howard are the proud custodians of an ancient monument containing five luxury bedrooms, magnificent exposed oak beams, a gorgeous swimming pool and views most people can only dream of.
The Project
This week Kevin meets a couple who bought a ruin and moved to Italy in 1999, hoping to start work building their dream home in Tuscany.
Since then they've spent all their time trying to get planning permission, but finally, after four years, they are about to start work. And it's an epic project: they have bought a derelict 1,000-year-old castle in the Tuscan hills. Now the couple face their biggest battle of all: rebuilding this massive ruin into a comfortable and luxurious five-bedroom home.
The Build
There were times when the project, like the castle, seemed doomed. The castello had, after all, been struck by earthquakes and the bombs of the Second World War.
When, four years ago, Janne and Howard bought the ruin, there were other destructive demons to overcome; conflicting planning advice, bureaucracy and the worst winter for decades.
The horror on the face of their Italian builder, Claudio Maggini, told its own story. You can't cut corners over building regulations - and certainly not when they concern a monument of historic and cultural significance.
Janne may have fretted at the need to wait further on parish planning consent, when the Italian state itself had granted permission; but she herself appreciated as much as anybody that the castello, historically and culturally, also belonged to the commune.
There was also the practical consideration which Claudio mentioned, that a breach of regulations carried with it a prison sentence.
Ideally, Howard would have liked to be truthful to the castle's thousand-year-old origins. But the commune lies on an earthquake fault line.
It is futile to restore an ancient monument and leave it exposed to the forces of nature. So the couple accepted the compromise of using modern materials, earthquake-resistant bricks and cement, which the law requires, covered by the veneer of authentic stonework.
When it came to the restoration of the interior, battles lay ahead for Janne, Howard and the dynamic duo. What, after all, is truly authentic?
Go to any renovated Tuscan farmhouse and you'll see the authentic dark chestnut beams, the authentic ceiling tiles or mattone, the authentic raw, bricked vaulting. In fact, a grand castello might have had splendid oak beams and plastered ceilings; but that wouldn't fit in with the accepted Tuscan vernacular.
There was much eye-rolling and many sotto voce exclamations of 'Mama Mia', the Tuscan equivalent of the British builder's sucking of the teeth and wagging of the head in mock, exasperated bewilderment - before Janne got her way. The 7.5 metre beams are oak. They look like oak. And no power on earth - not even Italian conservation rules - will make her stain them to look like inferior chestnut.
Architecturally, the castello is the pride of the commune.
Politically and socially the rebuilt castello has to be accepted, rather than imposed. There is probably no more telling tribute to that acceptance than the return by a neighbour of stones 'borrowed' after the castle's dilapidation to complete the authentic restoration.
Two stone pieces in particular were identified as the missing column and plinth from the castle's original Romeo and Juliet loggia.
Restoration is a dialogue; a dialogue between the historic and the contemporary, between the owner and the community, between the creative tastes of builder and designer. Dialogue can be heated, angry, antagonistic, and frustrating. But compromise can be creative. What matters, above all, is the integrity of the project.
If Janne, Howard, the builders, the planners and the comune are satisfied - then the castle deserves to stand for another thousand years.
7. London Jewel Box
Any house centred around a water garden is a winner in our eyes, and the London Jewel Box is exactly that.
The house itself is a white, glistening box, the brainchild of architect Mike Tonkin, and home to Sarah and Coneyl.
It's really two separate buildings, connected by a colonnaded walkway across said water garden.
There's loads of glass, which shows off the unique illuminated kitchen and bedroom units, and the render is a stark, brilliant white. There's a five-story library tower with a reading room right at the top, affording wonderful views across London.
The Jewel Box's crowning glory is that water garden, set in an inner courtyard between the two buildings, which reflects sunlight in all directions.
The Story
Sarah, a maker of modern jewellery, and Coneyl, a freelance photographer, wanted a modern home from which they could both work. But they also wanted a uniquely personal house.
So they commissioned architect Mike Tonkin to come up with a radical design for their long, thin site in a north London residential street.
The result is a house designed around a water garden and built to look delicate while being strong. A pair of buildings - a house and a double-height studio - face each other at either end of the long water garden.
They are connected by a colonnaded walkway on one side and a glass-walled wing comprising a workshop and bedrooms on the other.
The Build
The house is open-plan, with a living area and kitchen downstairs and a bedroom and bathroom above. The studio is one large space. Built into the architect's design were to be decorative features that made playful references to cameras and jewels, reflecting the owners' work. Illuminated units in the kitchen and bedroom would glow in the dark like jewels in a jewel box.
A special set of blinds with an aperture would turn the studio into a camera obscura and project an image of the house on to the back wall.
The exterior walls would be finished with a white render containing crushed glass beads, which would sparkle.
The construction techniques were innovative, using methods more commonly found in commercial building. Mike and his engineer designed a lightweight timber frame and panels that could be firmly bonded together with glue. The foundations consist of hollow steel micro-piles, sunk into concrete. External glass walls have miniature plastic tubes sandwiched, end to end, between two sheets of glass, to allow light in while blocking the view from the street. The flat roofs were constructed with a waterproof membrane.
Despite a fire at the timber factory, which destroyed many of the panels and set work back 10 days, the house was finished in six months.
From the outside, it looks simple, modern and matt white - the sparkle had to be dropped from the outer render to save money.
Inside, the house and enclosed courtyard are alive to the changing light, which pours through the glass walls and reflects off the water garden.
The two main buildings face each other across the water garden, their glass walls and white interiors picking up the play of light on the water.
The colonnaded walkway and line of workshop/bedrooms connect the buildings and enclose the water garden, creating a private space.
The slender construction, gleaming white paint and expanses of glass express delicacy and lightness. Internal walls and floors are finished with MDF and chipboard. The finish is natural and surfaces are either painted white or stained dark.
The interior is dramatic: a vast open living area glazed along one side joins the bedroom and office wings, and a five-storey library tower with a lookout/reading room at the top rises up through the centre.
The building was highly experimental - in effect the couple were making it up as they went along, and they encountered many problems. 'I've got no regrets', commented Jeremy early on, 'but there are bits that are desperately over-complicated, and a bit of simplification on the way might have been easier on our health and our wallets'.
8. Surrey Regency Villa
The Cost: £750,000
Owners Helen and Mark knew they'd never be able to afford a Regency villa... so they faked one.
You might consider this to be mock-grandeur, but with five reception rooms, a coach-house guest wing, sweeping central staircase and oval orangery, it only seems fair that this house takes its place amongst the Grand Designs big boys.
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.
Modelled on the Regency villas of the 1820s, their design had five reception rooms on the ground floor, a sweeping central staircase, four large bedrooms upstairs and a guest wing designed to look like a coach-house.
Grand Regency features included a great bow window in the dining room, an oval orangery, a square portico (columned porch) and a terrace with a classical balustrade.
Budget And Build
Cost of land: £250,000 Planned budget for build: £275,000 Final cost of build: £750,000
Tussles with the planning authorities forced some compromises. The height of the house had to be reduced, and as a result, the roof looked squat to Kevin McCloud's eyes.
Ceilings were lower than planned, too, but Helen, who was in charge of design decisions, worked hard to keep the internal spaces feeling airy, and insisted on the importance of windows - the house has about 40 of them.
Modern quick-build methods were used for the frame: steel struts, breeze blocks and brick facing. The portico was made of poured concrete. But despite the new technology, problems and delays sent costs spiralling. Helen took over as project manager.
It was a huge task to find authentic materials - or convincing substitutes. The roof was tiled with Chinese slate, which resembled Welsh slate but cost much less. The exterior walls were finished with a modern variation on traditional lime render. There was no short cut for the bow windows, however - they had to have 16mm glazing bars (the wooden bars to which the glass is attached), proper sash weights and curved glass panes with tiny imperfections in them to catch the light. Kevin McCloud had some serious doubts. On balance, he feels he would have preferred to have seen an exciting piece of contemporary architecture being commissioned.
But he acknowledges that the planners might not have accepted an avant-garde house on this site; indeed, he feels the alterations they have forced on this design have taken an unacceptable toll.
'Good, faithful period reproduction means copying not just detail and finish, but overall proportion as well. Meddling with the crucial elements of a building is dangerous. With historical designs, it can be fatal.'
Helen continues to work to rise above the compromises and bring her new Georgian house into being. There is much to do: the garden has yet to be landscaped and many rooms are still undecorated. But then it takes time to get the detail perfect, and Helen has it all planned.
The Detail • Symmetry and proportion are the key qualities in late Georgian design. Externally, the square portico gives a focal point to the front of the house. Tall windows are evenly spaced around it. Inside, the airy hall and staircase are deliberately romantic statements. • The sash windows have elegant, narrow glazing bars, correct for the period. • Floors are American oak, stained dark to give the impression of age. • The dining room is formal, with two sets of double doors and the great bow window. A 'secret' door, set flush in the wall, leads to the kitchen. • The kitchen is large, with a big range for cooking, and leads to the oval orangery, with curving arches. Antiqued mirror glass will go on the back wall of the orangery to give a smoky, period effect. • Antique fittings help create atmosphere. In the sitting room, a restored Regency fireplace is the centrepiece, with sofas arranged round it. A cast-iron log-basket is installed in Helen's study. An 1820s Scandinavian chandelier, cobalt blue on the bottom, will hang over the dining table. • Authentic Regency colours, some strong, others delicate, have already been planned to accentuate the rooms' different characters. The sitting room will be decorated in turquoise and powder pink. • Helen's study will be traditional reading room red. And the master bedroom will have a chinoiserie (imitation Chinese) theme, with pale green hand-painted silks on the walls.
How Green?
This house is sympathetic to its setting, sitting pleasantly among trees. However, the materials used in its construction - steel and concrete - are not environmentally friendly, as their manufacture produces vast quantities of carbon dioxide pollutants.
The house will also be expensive to heat and will waste energy because it is not double-glazed. Kevin McCloud understood the decision not to compromise on the look of the windows, but would have liked to have seen another kind of energy-saving measure in compensation - perhaps underfloor heating.
9. Belfast Roman Villa
The Cost: £350,000, plus land
Kevin wasn't keen on the woefully poor eco credentials of this house, and the opulent attitude towards energy bills is also expressed in the overall design of the place.
First of all, it's enormous. Spread over three floors, the house is built around a central courtyard in true Roman style.
It has huge glass walls, a kitchen of mammoth proportions, five bedrooms, four bathrooms, and a centrepiece double-width staircase.
Throw in a copper roof and a wooden deck and you've got yourself very grand design indeed.
The Story
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.
Full-height glass walls blur the boundary between the sitting room and the central courtyard. Almost the entire building was arranged around it, including the enormous kitchen.
At the rear of the site where the slope is steepest, there is a bedroom block, partly built into the hill and sheaved with two storeys of south-facing glass to catch the light.
With five bedrooms and four bathrooms, this could be a super-compact modern hotel. Think of it instead as Thomas and Dervla's glamorous private hideaway, a modernist mansion.
Budget And Build
Estimated budget: £350,000 Final budget: Actually under budget!
10. Yorkshire 14th Century Castle
The Cost: £750,000, plus original ruins and land
There's buying a renovation project, and buying a complete and utter ruin. This was the latter.
Congratulations to Francis and Karen, who against all notions of common sense took this job on. I'm sure they've got no regrets now, relaxing in their huge, beautifully finished castle.
With seven en suite bedrooms, a former chapel and a rooftop area complete with battlements and views across the Dales, the Yorkshire 14th Century Castle completes the 10 Grandest Grand Designs.
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 restoring an ancient building.
Surrounded by rolling green fields, the location is idyllic; however, the castle itself was little more than four crumbling walls.
Francis has had a passion for castles ever since he was a young boy. It's this passion that led him to train as an architect, although now he's more used to putting up commercial buildings than rescuing wrecks.
But after years of only dreaming about it, he finally got the chance to live in one.
To help them accomplish this almost Herculean task, Francis enlisted the help of six stonemasons who lived and worked permanently on site during the project. They painstakingly pieced the castle back together using, wherever possible, the original stone.
When that ran out they had to source and cut the rest from local quarries matching it carefully to the original. As well as repairing any breaches in the exterior walls, they also had to rebuild the whole interior with new walls and floors and new battlements around the top.
Unusually, one of the rooms on the 2nd floor was a chapel so Francis and Karen planned to install new stained glass windows in memory of its history.
Francis and Karen joke about finding the perfect suit of armour to grace their baronial hallway but the style inside is more neo-Georgian than mock Tudor.
Karen was an interior designer before she took time out to bring up the children and chose to paint the walls in Georgian colours. Finishes are simple and natural and where possible the stone has been left uncovered to expose the true character of the castle.
Using his architectural skills, Francis has laid out the interior to create a large, open plan kitchen, formal sitting room and living space, as well as seven bedrooms all with en-suite bathrooms.
Medieval castles have a reputation for being dark and draughty but this one is light and spacious due to the late addition of some Georgian windows on two sides.
It's incredibly rare for a property like this to be available, especially with such a lack of restrictions put on its restoration. Francis and Karen have got their hands on a fantastic structure that has weathered five centuries and, with their help, will be there for many years to come.
Despite trees growing inside the castle walls and the lack of a roof, the couple were confident they could rebuild the ruin with a budget of £400,000 financed by the sale of their previous home and a mortgage. However with the project taking much longer than planned and the couple encountering several setbacks the budget inevitably crept up to around £750,000.
Chablis, Beaune and Nuits-Saint-Georges trip off the tongue so readily as familiar names on wine labels that it can be easy to forget that they are also living villages
The listed Newport Folly had fallen into a sad state of disrepair. Sarah & Dean bought the site, with views across the Welsh hills and into nine different counties, for £1million. 
Reviving an old building whilst retaining its fragile sense of history isn’t easy but Sarah has managed this with great sensitivity. She has even furnished the rooms in the old tower in an old traditional way.
This has to be one of the most unusual houses in Grand Designs history; a complex layout of spaces, designed to fit an awkward plot nestled behind a listed stone wall.
Although these rooms are not decagons, they're not completely square either.
This house makes it into the list of 10 Grandest Grand Designs because of that magnificent timbrel arch, dreamed up by architect and owner Richard. 
Now they’ve bitten the bullet, bought a plot of land with a rundown bungalow on it and drawn up a plan to replace that with something entirely different while they live in a caravan on site.
When Pru and Richard Irvine came across a plot of land in the middle of the breathtakingly beautiful Midlothian countryside, they dreamt of building a bespoke family home.
Along with a guest suite and the utility rooms, the upstairs houses Pru's all-important and enormous kitchen and dining area. 
This is a futuristic home from a German production line, assembled on its Surrey site in just six days. Owners David & Greta replaced their previous self build with this precision-engineered kit home.
Restoration is a dialogue; a dialogue between the historic and the contemporary, between the owner and the community, between the creative tastes of builder and designer. Dialogue can be heated, angry, antagonistic, and frustrating. But compromise can be creative. What matters, above all, is the integrity of the project.
The house itself is a white, glistening box, the brainchild of architect Mike Tonkin, and home to Sarah and Coneyl. 
The building was highly experimental - in effect the couple were making it up as they went along, and they encountered many problems. 'I've got no regrets', commented Jeremy early on, 'but there are bits that are desperately over-complicated, and a bit of simplification on the way might have been easier on our health and our wallets'.
You might consider this to be mock-grandeur, but with five reception rooms, a coach-house guest wing, sweeping central staircase and oval orangery, it only seems fair that this house takes its place amongst the Grand Designs big boys.
Ceilings were lower than planned, too, but Helen, who was in charge of design decisions, worked hard to keep the internal spaces feeling airy, and insisted on the importance of windows - the house has about 40 of them.
Kevin wasn't keen on the woefully poor eco credentials of this house, and the opulent attitude towards energy bills is also expressed in the overall design of the place.
At the rear of the site where the slope is steepest, there is a bedroom block, partly built into the hill and sheaved with two storeys of south-facing glass to catch the light. 
Congratulations to Francis and Karen, who against all notions of common sense took this job on. I'm sure they've got no regrets now, relaxing in their huge, beautifully finished castle.
