A look at Grand Designs 2025 series
A floating house and a revisit to the 'heartbreaking' house are two of the projects featuring this series
This week Kevin McCloud returned to our screens in the latest series of Grand Designs on Channel 4.
Two series have been filmed to air this year, focussing on new buildings and revisiting homes from previous episodes.
Kevin McCloud told the Daily Express: “It is fantastic to be back with another two series of Grand Designs in 2025. It’s full of astonishing projects and really remarkable people.”
Grand Designs 2025 Preview: The floating home
The first episode in the new series aired on Wednesday 26 March and followed the story of architect Howard and Sarah, and their ‘floating’ house on a tidal estuary near Worthing in West Sussex.
The house was designed to look like a boat, and was defined by Howard as ‘the perfect project is something that’s unimaginably difficult’. That summed it up pretty well as they faced plenty of challenges with the experimental build.
The foundations were made out of prefabricated polystyrene slabs to combat the mud surface beneath. The build had a budget of £385,000 over an 18-month schedule.
Watch the Floating Home, Worthing 2025 episode on All4 here
Photo: Channel 4
Throwback to the Eco Barge
This build may remind many of the eco-barge makeover from 2007 by Chris Miller and his wife Sze Liu La.
This had the somewhat harrowing ending of the home getting lost at sea, until the houseboat was transformed by another couple who took on the project.
Photo: Howard and Sarah’s floating home from 2025 series, Channel 4
Grand Designs 2025 preview: The ‘heartbreaking’ unfinished house
Coming up in this series, Kevin McCloud has also teased his return to Graeme and Melanie’s home in Hackney, East London.
This featured on the 2023 series and was described as ‘heartbreaking’ at the time.
After experiencing the loss of their own partners, the architect and graphic designer met and fell in love. They wanted to create a strong, stable and secure family home with space for their blended family of two daughters. The end goal being that they would no longer have to share a small bedroom.
They set out on their dream to transform a garage plot into a three-bedroom home but it was hailed as ‘heartbreaking’ when, with a budget of £450,000 the couple ran out of money.
The unexpected costs and challenges of the build were a nightmare for the couple. The issues included unforeseen design changes, contractors pulling out and a lack of space for builders to work with.
Moving ahead to present day, Kevin McCloud has revealed that the home has finally been completed.
Photo: Graeme and Melanie meet with Kevin McCloud for Grand Designs. (Freemantle/Channel 4)
Grand Designs continues at 9pm on Wednesday 2 April.
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