Grand Designs

Interviewer: Richard Rosser Transcriber: Charys Mason Photography: Grand Designs

Richard: Are Grand Designs reserved for people with a massive a budget and a spare field or can homeowners have big ambitions for their small properties?

Kevin: People only remember the Grand Designs projects that we filmed that cost £1million, that go over budget and everything goes wrong, but we also film quite a few small projects, built for £150-200k, projects that are well within the grasp of people. I think the Government wants to see more self-built properties over the next 5 years. I think it’s a great way to obtain a home, which is customized and suited to you.

Richard: Does this increase in self-built houses help stem the flow towards more people renting than owning their own properties?

Kevin: You’re absolutely right about the obsession with ownership in the UK. I am working with an organization which is an ethical capital fund to assist with affordable private state rental and try and form a new affordable and ethical model in rental. We are doing a scheme with them in Bristol of 180 houses which I think is going to be a very exciting scheme. It’s amazing to think that we are pretty unique as we rely on large developers to build great amounts of cheap housing – cheap to build not cheap to buy!

Richard: The foundation and development people talk about is the bricks and mortar but the foundation and development of what you’re talking about is the actual community before the bricks and mortar are actually put in place?

Kevin: Yes. Bicester are planning 1,900 self built and custom built new homes. The first 10 are a scheme that we are filming for Channel 4, which will be broadcast next summer. What’s fascinating is to see the way in which these households that they build alongside each other come to depend on each other, to learn, to collaborate, to lend each other tools, to offer each other help and support. And by doing this they have built their community, they are a strong, resilient group of people, all of whom share this passion for building and making a home. I would say that actually the community is stronger than the architecture and that is amazing.

Richard: What kind of home improvements can add the most value and charm to a small property?

Kevin: Add fitted storage into the building where possible. When you do this you create masses of storage space in the building. The other most important thing is that it doesn’t matter how big your house is, it’s the amount of stuff you own. If you own a small house and then you de-clutter and create a storage space you suddenly have a large house which you can move around freely. Thirdly, you can go to your local DIY store and buy mirror tiles and cover a whole wall in mirror. They make buildings seem much bigger, they reflect more light; they create patterns when sunlight hits them. Again, it’s a simple architectural trick trying to bring in light.

Richard: I have one final question about your final comment on each episode of Grand Designs. Does that just roll off the tongue or do you have to give it a lot of thought?

Kevin: Sometimes on the train on the way to the project I’ll think about it. Usually we film everything in order so by then I’ve thought about it and asked people what they think about it throughout the day. I always try to do it differently and find a different way, never producing the same words or ideas twice.