Grand Designs

- Season 16

(2015)

Clinton is a perfectionist who just isn't satisfied with the magnificent house he built two years ago. He has an ambitious dream for his next house. But perfect dreams are nothing if not expensive. So will his new house be close enough to perfect that Clinton doesn't need to build a third.

Architect Ben Hebblethwaite agrees to design a house for his uncle James Strangeways. But James is an avid boatman who prefers living on his seven boats to a house on land. So the question is, can Ben design a house where James feels comfortable enough to actually live in it? Maybe a house that feels a bit like a boat?

After surviving a cerebral hemorrhage and coma Bram Vis and his wife Lisa have decided to build a seven thousand square foot house that has everything they could possibly want. The modern design is centuries ahead of any other house on the island but promises to be magnificent. Let's hope they can afford it.

Here's a a dream house for a Troglodyte or latent Neandethal; a cave. Angelo Mastropietro plans to convert a cave, last inhabited a few decades ago, into a home fit for a hobbit though he intends some of the furniture such as a sofa, bath and shelves to be cut into the rock. But the project is little more than a vague mental vision, except for a chalk drawing on the wall, so we'll see.

Michael plans to repair and convert an abandoned blacksmith's forge and add a new construction extension as his first solo architectural job, a house for his wife Michele and their new baby. If that sounds ambitious his budget is a miserly GBP 150,000 including a mortgage. But not to worry. He'll do much of the heavy, heavy lifting himself.

Londoners Ed Verslace and Vicky Anderson who long for life in the country have fallen in love with a cow-shed in Somerset with a magnificent view for their new home. Besides the house they want to operate a microfarm with pigs and chickens so Chef Ed can butcher and cure his own meats while Vicky offers Pilates classes in her home studio. One problem; the shed looks like it barely survived that last apocalypse. Another, they plan to physically build the house themselves and know nothing about home construction. But the Internet will provide all the training they need,...

Many of Kevin's subjects strive to blend their homes into the environment. Stephen Yeoman and Anita Findlay intend to build a house that will radically contrast with the environment and the local architecture. Further they chose the most prominent lot in the town and rusty steel for cladding that could very well look, well, horrible.

Andy and Nicola buy an old house on an island on the River Thames for £350,000, in Buckinghamshire. It is a 220 ton amphibious house. Kevin returns there to see if it has been a success. They had to dig to 5 metres to make the footings due to it being on a riverbank.

Kevin McLoud returns to North Cornwall to see Rebecca Sturrock and Gregory Kewish's Grand Deaign.