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.

Tamayo Hussey's missed Japan ever since she moved to the UK with her husband Nigel. To stave off the homesickness they've decided to transform a forester's lodge into a Japanese house complete with roof bath, tatami room and sliding paper walls. Keen to keep costs under control, Nigel and Tamayo decide to engage only the design skills of an architect and with no previous building experience they bravely go it alone, working without any detailed drawings and fire-fighting problems every step of the way. The wood they're using for the timber frame - Japanese larch - hasn't been used for building houses before in the UK, so no one can be sure it will be strong enough, the new interior walls don't meet properly and the replacement window design can't cope with the rain. But Nigel and Tamayo are determined to overcome any obstacle to get the Japanese house they're so desperate for.

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.

Claire and Ian try to build a home big enough for a disco on a small plot at the end of a London mews. But as angry locals begin to object to their plans, things start to go awry.

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

Kevin McCloud marks the 100th episode with one of the programme's most ambitious projects to date. Leigh Osborne and Graham Voce want to convert and extend a landmark 150-year-old water tower in central London into a luxury home. Grade II-listed, derelict and with 6ft-thick walls, it's a huge challenge for the pair, who also plan to build two structures at the base - a lift shaft connected by a series of glass tunnels, and a modern living space. The result will be a four-bedroom property over nine floors, complete with a room at the top offering spectacular 360 degree views across the capital.

Kevin McCloud meets Tom and Danielle Raffield, whose lifelong passion has been steam-bending wood. They've used the technique to create extraordinary furniture and lighting, but now plan to use it on a larger scale. In an attempt to escape the confines of their tiny gamekeeper's lodge, they have decided to build a wavy wooden house in South Cornwall, completed with curved cladding, twisted furniture and interior walls covered with weathered timber. With a £100,000 budget, the pair have decided to do a lot of the building themselves, and Kevin is on hand to discover whether they're up to the challenge.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Kevin McCloud follows the efforts of Lucie Fairweather to build an eco-friendly house in Woodbridge, Suffolk. After the death of her partner 18 months earlier, and not having a large budget, Lucie is determined to create a beautiful and affordable family home with the help of Jerry Tate, an architect who was involved in the design of the Eden Project

Kevin McCloud meets estate manager Ed Waghorn and his wife Rowena, a couple living an almost self-sufficient life with their four children on a smallholding in Herefordshire. They have been constructing a timber-framed house using recycled materials, wood from nearby forests and stone from around the site, but as construction becomes a way of life for Ed they seem to have lost sight of their goal.

Master carpenter Olaf faces the biggest challenge of his career: creating an oasis for himself and his partner Fritha on a tiny slice of land in Sussex near a mainline railway and A-road

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.

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.

Revisited Season 3 (2003) episode 4 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

Revisited Season 3 (2003) episode 3 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

Revisited Season 3 (2003) episode 2 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

Revisited Season 3 (2003) episode 1 Kevin McCloud returns to the Lambourn Valley to meet a couple who took three years to finish building their home on the Berkshire Downs.

Andy and Nicki Bruce try to build an experimental flood-proof floating house on an island in the River Thames. But building such a complex design on a site with limited access is not easy. Andy and Nicki Bruce's amphibious house, the first of its kind in the UK. Their architect has come up with an ambitious, experimental design that has never been tried on a river bank in Britain and no one knows whether it will work. The Bruces decide to build on a site on a small island in the river. But it's not long before the project becomes bogged down in the logistical challenges of building such a complex design on a small island that is only accessible by a narrow footbridge.

In 2015, Vicky and Ed set out to transform a derelict cowshed into a 21st-century smallholding in Somerset. Six years on, how much has this wildly ambitious project changed their lives?

Kevin McCloud meets Greg and Georgie who are taking on the highly ambitious task of converting a dilapidated, 35-year-old barn in Kent. The build will be a huge challenge involving the painstaking conservation of the existing rotten structure, building a new two-storey internal steel frame and recycling everything they can to stretch their £250,000 budget.

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.

Confirmed city dwellers Michael and Phil have moved to the country to run a farm, start a micro brewery and create in a vast, dramatic 21st-century farmhouse to live in. Michael Butcher and Phil Palmer were confirmed Londoners, loft-livers in the heart of Soho. Until they fell in love with Christmas Farm, near Newbury, and took the life changing decision to quit their urban media jobs and move to the country. They faced two big problems however: first there was an agricultural tie on the land, so Phil and Michael would have to become farmers; the second problem was the uninspiring faux-alpine timber chalet serving as a farmhouse - it had to go. But Phil and Michael have decided they don't want to build a regular brick farmhouse as a replacement. Determined to bring a bit of urban glamour to their new home, they want a 21st-century farmhouse unlike anything the area has seen before. Phil and Michael's version cleverly combines a vast, white, dramatic open-plan party pad upstairs, with muddy functional farming spaces below. As the builders go to work on the extraordinary hand-crafted flint exterior, complete with the largest sliding trapezoid window in Britain, Phil and Michael must juggle construction with farming the land. And in order to make it all work financially they decide to set up a new micro-brewery in the barn.

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.

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.

Piers and Emma build the first new listed castle in the UK for 100 years, complete with a moat and futuristic tech. It's the biggest ever Grand Design, so is even their £2m budget enough?

Six years ago Thomas and Dervla O'Hare set out to build a spectacular split-level home cascading down a practically vertical hillside in Belfast. No one in their right mind would have built on such a steep slope; but ambitious young architect Thomas believed he could do anything as long as he put his mind to it. He set up a fast track building programme to complete this enormous, contemporary home in record time.

Dan and Nina want to build a unique family home, but their plot is dominated by a pond filled with local drainage. Will their West Sussex house be sublime and sleek or a Shrek-like swamp?

A young farmer and architect in Northern Ireland hopes to make a home out of four large shipping containers welded together to form a giant cross. Patrick Bradley has come up with a pounds 100k house design to be built out of four 45-foot shipping containers, welded together to form a giant cross and cantilevered over the top of a stream at a beautiful secluded spot on the family farm. His mum is hoping his new home will get Patrick a girlfriend. But his tiny budget is soon under threat.

Rebecca Sturrock has returned to her family home in Cornwall with her partner Gregory Kewish and a highly ambitious plan. Together they will transform a small, damp, single-storey bungalow into a cutting-edge home on a budget of just pounds 80,000. With rain and wind hammering the site, however, it soon becomes dangerously clear they may have bitten off more than they can chew.

Natasha Cargill wants to build a home shaped like two enormous periscopes in rural Norfolk. But a limited budget and tight planning restrictions start to take their toll. To get planning permission for her build, Natasha Cargill has to ensure not only that the materials used are sustainable, but also agree to measure the amount of diesel used to deliver them. The planning controls are so rigid in fact that even details like the type of portaloos the builders use and the size of her bath have to be monitored. Natasha has just pounds 330k to spend on construction and just six months to complete.

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

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!

Energy conservationist Andrew plans to build a radical, self-heating home by storing the warmth of the summer sun into insulated earth banks. But will this gigantic thermal experiment work?

In Dunstable, John and his wife Helen demolish an old, dilapidated house and in its place build a million-pound, high-tech, accessible glass pavilion, complete with wildlife garden

On a nostalgic revisit to the first ever Grand Design, from back in 1999, Kevin finds out if Tim and Jules are still flying high in their timber-framed home on the cliffs above Newhaven

Zahid and Ferzana ambitiously set out to transform an old coastguard station set on exposed East Yorkshire headland into a cantilevered, three-storey steel and glass box

Kevin McCloud follows a project to renovate and extend a classic 1920s cinema in Thorne, South Yorkshire. With little knowledge of restoration, Gwyn and Kate boldly set about turning the dilapidated building into a family home using masses of concrete after taking advice from an architect friend. The couple are hoping to create a hydraulic glass wall that opens up one side of the house to form a UV-filtered canopy, and there are also plans for a white roof extension that resembles a diving board.

Kevin meets a master craftsman whose dream is to build a castle made entirely of mud. Kevin McCabe is the leading living exponent of the ancient art of cob building - wrestling houses out of mud using his bare hands. But Kevin doesn't just want to build another cob house, he wants to build a cob castle. Not only that, Kevin also wants their gigantic new cob house to meet the highest environmental performance targets ever set. It is truly an almighty challenge. The house will be formed of two vast curved cob roundhouses - the largest of which is inspired by the natural geometry of a snail shell - connected by glazing and topped with undulating wild-flower meadow roofs to mirror the surrounding Devon countryside. But building it involves mixing and laying a mind boggling 2000 tonnes of cob, all during warm sunny weather. Kevin is determined to have the main cob walls up in a few months. But soon the sheer scale of the task becomes clear.

Pep and Malene are building a modern Viking Hall in the Surrey Hills. Following Pep's cancer diagnosis, it's a race to create a house that cherishes their memories and life together.

Justin plans to restore a neo-Gothic cemetery keeper's lodge and convert its toilet block into a luxury extension complete with a moat and swimming pool. But can he keep his budget under control?

In Lincolnshire, high-flyers Zara and Giuliano set out to build a 400-square-metre malthouse-inspired home, but run into problems from the get-go. Can they get the project off the ground?

Leigh and Richard plan to transform a derelict 17th-century flour mill, full of rotten timbers and riddled with structural cracks, into a warm, contemporary, four-floor, three-bed home.

In 2011, Edward and Hazel set out to build a lighthouse on the north Devon coast. By 2019, they were near bankruptcy with just a rusting shell. Three years on, has anything has changed?

Kevin McCloud visits a house belonging to an engineer that resembles a giant snake. The building was inspired by an ammonite shell and has a scaly, curving structure that spirals over two levels and combines natural materials with the latest modern technology. However, completing the project within the 12-month schedule may not be possible.

In 2019, Olaf and Fritha set out to build on a tricky slice of land in West Sussex, boxed in by an A-road and trainline. Kevin McCloud returns to see how their triangular triumph is faring.

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.

Kevin McCloud returns to a remote part of France and a restoration project of a dilapidated manor house started back in 2003 by Denise Daniel and Doug Ibbs. When Denise Daniel and Doug Ibbs gave up everything in the UK to start a new life in a remote part of central France, they couldn't have known what was ahead of them. Most people would have regretted falling in love with a massive, dilapidated manor house with just four crumbling walls and half a roof, but not Doug and Deni. This impressive, extraordinary and utterly determined couple rolled up their sleeves and slogged away day and night, doing everything themselves, year after year, until slowly but surely they created a magnificent edifice out of the ruins they bought off the internet.

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.

Kevin meets a pair of civil-partnered university professors, Celia Brackenridge and Diana Woodward.  They have enlisted the services of industrial designers who have developed a new computer-assisted method for cutting precision-engineered building blocks, however although the technique may be clever, its creators have never created a building before

Furniture maker Lucinda wants to construct a beautifully crafted, two-storey, highly insulated timber home in the woodland of South Herefordshire on a very modest budget, and without using heavy machinery.

Kevin McCloud follows the progress of 37-year-old Angelo Mastropietro, as he transforms a damp, dark and abandoned cave in Worcestershire. Having recently been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, Angelo wants to create a retreat to help him cope with the news and become a 21st century caveman. He has a budget of pounds 100,000 and plans to almost single-handedly carve, cut and drill into the hillside to make the cave comfortable for contemporary living. However, there is no manual for a project of this kind, and the unique challenge soon becomes an obsession.

Alan Dawson has invented his own way of making a house, with every piece put together on site in days. But it must all fit perfectly. Only then will Alan know if his unique house works.

In West Yorkshire's rolling hills, Kara and Jonny build a striking stone and zinc home. The challenges come in thick and fast, but can they can pull it off and redefine what accessible design means?

Peter Berkin and his wife Chard have decided to build a new home at the bottom of their garden. Problem is, right from the start they can't agree on any part of the design - even the basic shape. Peter wants the new house to feature a workshop where he can build a plane. He wants the house to be round. Chard however wants it to be square and practical. Peter aims to spend pounds 400K, Chard wants to keep the budget around pounds 200K. With Peter building as much of the house as he can himself, helped by his mates, and Chard taking control of the money and schedule, it looks like a recipe for disaster.

Nathan and Amye are building a cathedral-like home modelled on local Dutch barn houses with a sleek twist and a 5000-tile armadillo roof. But the pressure mounts for project manager Nathan.

Corinne plans to build a beautifully crafted, wedge-shaped home on a slither of garden down the side of the house she’s lived in for 24 years. But it sits in a strict conservation area…

Kevin revisits Graeme and Melanie, whose hugely ambitious Hackney haven was hampered by a basement bombshell. Have they finally got out of the red and into their modernist home?

When Pru and Richard Irvine came across a plot of land in the middle of the breathtakingly beautiful Midlothian countryside, they seized the opportunity to build on it a bespoke family home. However, the plot, an old industrial site complete with lime kilns, came with a condition. They could only build on it if they become custodians of the kilns, and more importantly, that the house they built blended in to its setting.

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.

Kevin returns to Devon to meet Kevin McCabe, who wanted to build one of the biggest houses ever on Grand Designs, out of mud. Seven years after it began, the cob castle is complete.

Kevin catches up with the story of a daring modernist home in the Andalucian hills in southern Spain.. Ten years ago Gil and Hillary Briffa decided to retire to southern Spain. Rejecting the coastal sprawl around Malaga they found a virgin plot of land up in the Andalucian hills for just £35,000. But instead of building a home like the traditional old fincas nearby, their architect son's design was a confrontational, modernist glass box, surrounded by boldly coloured connected rooms, hidden behind a giant citadel wall. Construction proved stressful. The couple put all their trust in a local Spanish builder who had never built a house like this before. The local residents didn't like it and the mayor tried to get it re-painted white. But if they could just finish the build, it promised to be the coolest retirement home Kevin McCloud has ever seen. Sadly, Gil died a few years ago, but now Kevin returns to meet with Hillary again and to see whether or not their building has settled into its landscape, whether it's still multi-coloured, and to find out just how life is for her as a British widow living up in the Andalucian hills.

Paul and Penny are tearing down their million pound home in south London to build a contemporary mansion. But the challenge of building a complex home soon starts to bite.

Ever since he was a child, stonemason Adam Purchase has loved the old silver mine engine houses that characterise Cornwall's landscape. When he and his partner Nicola Brennan chanced upon a dilapidated Grade II listed engine house with planning permission to turn into a home, it was a dream come true. But converting this important historic ruin into a place to live was never going to be easy. The building itself was little more than a shell, with crumbling plant-infested walls and no roof, windows or floors: a challenge for even the most experienced builders like Adam. Meanwhile the banks refuse to lend them more than £100k, which Adam and Nicola both know is barely enough to get them through. Still, driven by their passion for old buildings, Nicola agrees to support Adam while he takes a year off work to complete the project.

In 2019, Greg and Georgie set out to transform an old barn in Georgie's parents' garden in Sevenoaks for series 21 in 2021. But unexpected underpinning and the COVID pandemic had other ideas. Is it now complete?

Devoted dad Danny builds a sustainable but affordable stilted house up among the trees in his garden. But with no self-build experience and spiralling costs, can he do it on ambition alone?

Kevin meets flying instructor Colin Mackinnon and trapeze artist Marta Briongos and the incredible metal home they're building next to their very own airfield in Strathaven, Scotland. There aren't many people in Britain who can say they own their own airfield. But Colin and Marta Briongos are part of the very select few. The airfield is so important to them, they've decided to live there too. Their ambitious plan is to build an incredible metal sculptural home next to the runway, designed by one of Scotland's most eminent architects and inspired by aircraft hangars. But the difficulties of building their beautiful design soon become apparent. And before the project is barely off the ground they're contending with violent rain, snow, 100-mile-an-hour winds and the worst storms for 100 years. With work slowed down to a snail's pace, what was supposed to be a year-long project heads into its third year.

Kevin McCloud returns to a unique Japanese-Welsh fusion home in the Wye Valley to see how the improvised building weathered one of the wettest winters on record. Tamayo Hussey has missed Japan ever since she moved to the UK 15 years ago with her husband Nigel. To stave off the homesickness they decided to transform their home into a one-of-a-kind Japanese house - complete with Japanese roof bath, tatami room and paper sliding walls. Kevin finds out if it has brought the calm and tranquillity Tamayo remembers from her childhood in Japan.

Jonathan Broom and his wife Deborah have put everything on hold while he pursues his dream of building a mini Hollywood Hills-style mansion right in the gritty heart of north London. For ten years Jonathan Broom has been obsessed with building his own home.They finally stumble across a scrap of land right in the gritty heart of North London, but it's fraught with problems, and the only way they can build their wildly ambitious £1million pound family home, complete with nanny flat and swimming pool, is by sinking half of it six metres below ground. It's a project that pushes the couple and their builder to the very limit. Desperate to make every penny of the budget stretch, Jonathan strikes every deal he can, and even sells his business to raise funds. Originally scheduled to take a year, this giant hole in the ground consumes their money and lives for much longer.

Running out of money is always a grim prospect for anyone attempting their own Grand Design. Perhaps no one has come closer than Robert and Milla Gaukroger. When Kevin last saw them a year ago, they were camping out in the incomplete shell of their ambitious Lake District home with their two children. With hundreds of thousands of pounds of work still to do, the bank was threatening to foreclose on the mortgage.

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.

Kevin McCloud follows Matt and Sophie White from Sussex as they build a giant family house of fun for themselves and their children. Going against the norm of designing a serious and practical home, the couple's property features a revolving bookcase door, secret dens, hiding places, one-way mirrors, and a fireman's pole. Matt uses a steel frame system to allow them to change the layout of the property, and other changes include amending the window shapes and sizes, and adding a half floor to create a James Bond room.

Joe and Claire hope to create 'one of the greatest homes on the planet', that looks like a huge piece of art, with 34 enormous angled zinc shards. But the expensive build faces mind-boggling problems.

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

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

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.

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.

In 2010 Claire Farrow and Ian Hogarth embarked on a wild journey to build the ultimate fun family home, right in the heart of London, including a dance floor, DJ booth and sauna.

Freddie Robins and Ben Coode-Adams left their cramped two bedroom London flat and took on the conversion of a huge Grade II listed timber framed barn in the Essex countryside. Seven times the size of an average three bedroom house, turning this 500-year-old building into a home was a big project. A year after they finished the house, Kevin returns to discover how Ben and Freddy are adjusting to rural life.

Revisited Season 1 (2001) episode 4 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.

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

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.

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...

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.

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

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.

'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?

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.

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.

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

Revisited Season 1 (2001) episode 5 Kevin McCloud revisits a group of people in a Brighton co-operative who are building their own homes and the homes of their neighbours

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.

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.

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.

Revisited Season 1 (2001) episode 2 Kevin McCloud travels to Suffolk to revisit a couple who dreamed of building a 100% environmentally friendly house.

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.

Tony and Ara want to create a house of healing dedicated to health and wellbeing, on a beautiful woodland clearing near Henley-on-Thames. But the site is fraught with emotional landmines...

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!

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.

Revisited Season 1 (2001) episode 3 Kevin McCloud revisits Jeremy Till and Sarah Wigglesworth in Islington, London. Will they have realised their dream of using straw bales in the construction of their house?

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.'

Revisited Season 2 (2002) episode 1 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.

Revisited Season 2 (2002) episode 2 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

Revisited Season 2 (2002) episode 3 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.

Revisited Season 2 (2002) episode 4 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

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.

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.

On the first series of `Grand Designs', a younger Kevin McCloud witnessed as a co-operative of ten families built their own homes on the edge of Brighton. Unpaid, they slogged away for over two years on this pioneering venture, based on designs from architect Walter Segal. A decade later, Kevin returns to see if the houses, and the families that built them, have stood the test of time, and finds himself genuinely inspired.

When Robert and Milla Gaukroger find a plot overlooking Lake Windermere in the Lake District National Park, they reckon they've hit gold.

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.

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

Jonathan and Lindsay want to build a house that's exciting to look at, cheap to run, and ecologically sound. But the build is a battle, with technologies that don't work and a tight budget.

Revisited Season 1 (2001) episode 1 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.

Kevin McCloud follows the progress of Simon Bennett and his wife Jill as they try to restore two timber-framed barns in Suffolk. The couple found out that one of the buildings is among the smallest surviving medieval guildhalls in the country, and while Kevin advises the pair to conserve it in its present state, Simon is determined to restore it to its former glory.

Kevin McCloud presents the first of four special programmes inspired by 15 years of Grand Designs. He begins with a look at the challenges of self-building in the city, where space is at a premium and architects have to be at their most ingenious. Kevin uses footage from the best urban builds from the show over the years, meets pioneers at the forefront of the latest architectural thinking and looks at clever innovations that continue to transform people's lives to reveal which designs work best and why.

Deep-sea diver Adrian Corrigall and wife Megan want to build a concrete family home that Adrian hopes will prove the ultimate 21st-century country house.

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

Kevin McCloud follows the conversion of a large, Grade II-listed timber-framed barn in Essex into a family home and work-space by artists Freddie Robbins and Ben Coode-Adams. Their plans involve few interior walls to display their collection of toys, but at seven times the size of an average three-bedroom house, the transformation of the 500-year-old building proves extremely challenging.

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.

Kevin McCloud looks at the challenges of self-building in the countryside, where design must embrace and enhance tradition, yet often overcome stringent planning constraints. Drawing on footage from the show's 15-year history, as well as new visits to extraordinary homes, he finds out how pioneers at the forefront of architecture are transforming agricultural and historic buildings, and bringing cutting-edge contemporary design to rural parts.

Kevin McCloud catches up with one of his favourite ever Grand Designs: Rebecca and Gregory's radical, experimental timber refurb of an old bungalow.

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.

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

Boat enthusiast James Strangeways invites Kevin McCloud to survey progress on the construction of his new home, which his architect nephew Ben Hebblethwaite has designed to be as 'un-houselike' as possible. James has spent the past 35 years travelling the canals and waterways of Britain, and despite never liking houses, has decided now is the time to put down roots on dry land. Ben hoped a home standing on stilts above a marsh, and incorporating ship-like qualities such as a keel-shaped roof, will be enough to satisfy his boat-mad uncle. However, Ben's contractor goes into liquidation a few months into the project, taking pounds 87,000 of the pounds 300,000 budget, and when James decides to make a few tweaks to the design, alarm-bells begin to ring for the young architect.

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.

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.

Kevin McCloud looks at the transformation of a derelict mill cottage in Northumberland into a contemporary family home, the longest-running project ever featured on the programme. Stefan Lepkowski and Annia Shabowska began work in 2006, and their ambitious plans involved restoring the Georgian building, reconstructing a watermill and adding a steel-and-glass atrium, but their budget of £250,000 was completely inadequate.

Steph Wilson and husband Alex try to build a contemporary farmhouse on her grandfather's old farmland. But lack of money leads to a long spell in a caravan and a total re-design.

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

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.

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

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?

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

Edward and Hazel plan a shining white art deco lighthouse on a rugged beautiful clifftop. But almost immediately their wildly optimistic plan runs into trouble.

Kevin McCloud meets Michelle Parsons, an artist and teacher who decided to seize the day and build her own private hideaway in a woodland environment in Essex after she recovered from a serious illness. Together with her architect husband David, Michelle planned to construct a sleek, black-clad, three bedroom house complete with an art studio. However, torrential rain and a potentially disastrous gas leak stalled progress on the build, and as construction gets under way, Kevin wonders whether the couple's decision to eliminate windows on two sides of the property may leave them living in a gloomy bunker.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Kevin McCloud meets neurologists Penny Talelli and Mark Edwards, who plan to combine their love of old and contemporary architecture as they transform a derelict Victorian gatehouse in North London. However, the pair soon find themselves struggling to balance their busy working lives alongside project managing the build.

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

Kevin McCloud reveals how self-builders in the suburbs are transforming this most maligned of residential environments. He draws on some of the best examples from the 15-year history of Grand Designs, talks to experts in the latest architectural thinking and reveals the designs that have reinvented the suburbs as a place where home-owners really can have it all.

Mark and Candida Diacono are building a house in the shape of a plough in Devon using a non-conventional team of builders. Will their ambitious plans lead to disaster or success?

In 2017, Leigh and Richard bought a derelict Cornish flour mill to restore and turn into their home. By 2021, the rooms and landscaping were still unfinished. Has the grind finally paid off?

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.

Architectural designer Lincoln Miles and his wife found an uninspiring 70s bungalow on the Isle of Wight on a prime piece of land surrounded by unspoilt ancient woodland. Did their unconvential techniques and alternative materials pay off?

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.

Geoff's selling up in Spain to build a flood-resistant architectural marvel on a flood plain on the Essex coast. Will he sink or swim when Covid hits and Spain's property market collapses?