Grand Designs

The ambitious self-builders are back! Disco balls, surfboards and laundry that sorts itself - what more do you want? For Bryony and Matt: to finish their California-chic home within a year.

Peter and Emily plan to convert an old vicarage into two 'cloud houses' painted strawberry-ice-cream pink, covered in arches, with turquoise-rimmed windows. But there's a storm gathering...

Thirty-two-year-old London architect Seb has the rare opportunity to build his own house in his grandparents' back garden. His ambitious design challenges many of the conventions of traditional construction, from an innovative roof cladding system he devised himself to a structure made from cross-laminated timber panels imported from Austria. For Seb, this is a chance to create something genuinely original, but it's also a huge personal gamble. He wants the house to be built quickly and to the highest possible standards, on a budget of £420,000. On an awkward, tightly constrained site, every penny and every inch of space have to work hard.

Kevin McCloud meets artists Jana and Rory, who live in a former driving test centre in the east of Edinburgh but have ambitions for something bigger and much warmer to live in every winter. They want to replace the current building with a sleek, contemporary slipped box house with upside-down living to capture a view of the sea - and all on a minimal budget.

Kevin McCloud revisits couple Chris and Gill, who he last met in 2001 when they were renovating a disused textile mill near Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, into modern hi-tech accommodation with a minimalist interior. The presenter finds out how life has been in the house over the past 25 years, asking whether their meticulous approach has stood the test of time.

Kevin McCloud catches up with energy conservationist Andrew, who in 2017 decided to build a radical, self-heating home for his family - the first of its kind in the UK. The aim was to heat the house all year round by storing the warmth of the summer sun into insulated earth banks over and around the house, and then drawing the warmth back into the living spaces in winter. Six years since his last visit, Kevin McCloud returns to see if this groundbreaking experiment has proven a success.