The grandest designs
ANOTHER year has gone by and have you done any of those home improvements yet? Have you got round to painting the kids’ bedroom or insulating the attic?
No? Well, don’t let this show make you feel bad as it whizzes us around some of the most cutting-edge, contemporary homes in the country.
Hundreds entered the 2018 Royal Institute of British Architects House of the Year, but only a few have made it to the shortlist. And these are the homes that we get to see in this series before the winner is announced in the final episode.
You get to have “a jolly good nosey”, as host Kevin McCloud puts it.
And therein lies the success of this show. We just love poking around other people’s houses.
In all honesty, there aren’t many workable ideas to steal, here. We can’t all fit in secret sliding doors, reflecting pools or glass-roofed atriums.
But it is a fascinating watch, if only to marvel at how people have the time or energy to achieve these incredible architectural builds.
“Yes, that’s a door. It’s like the Crystal Maze,” says Kevin at one point, clearly struggling to enter one property. Some are so cutting-edge, they are impenetrable.
In this first episode, Kevin, architect Damion Burrows and design expert Michelle Ogundehin visit five homes that “dare to be different”.
Among others, you can make your own mind up about a controversial house that once received the following review from a passer-by: “That’s the ugliest building in Hackney.”