Grand Designs

When Kevin met Anne and Richard in 2000, they were about to embark on the ambitious task of converting a disused electricity substation in Sunderland into a family home. (from Grand Designs Indoors)

Kevin McCloud revisits Janne and Howard and their ongoing conversion of a derelict 1,000-year-old castle in Tuscany. (from Grand Designs Abroad)

Puglia, in Italy’s deep south, where the country's heel rounds to the foot’s arch, is a land of shimmering heat, olive groves and artists’ dreams. It is also the place where artists, like David Westby and Leone (Leo) Witton, became hard-working artisans to turn a derelict olive farm into a Roman country estate – despite the worst obstructions of Italian bureaucracy and with very little money. (from Grand Designs Abroad)

Kevin McCloud returns to see the Sampson family in France. (from Grand Designs Abroad)

This special episode follows Kevin as he begins on an epic adventure to create his very own Grand Design.

Kevin continues in his epic battle to build his very own Grand Design of visionary homes. But as the schedule slips residents start to grumble. As part of the Great British Property Scandal Kevin McCloud tries to prove that it shouldn't cost any more to build homes that are a lot nicer to live in. As he nears the end of the his five-year project to build beautiful, affordable, eco homes for the same price as low cost social housing, Kevin has become convinced that good design can help us live happier, more sociable lives. In an extraordinary social experiment, Kevin wants to create a new kind of development, where neighbours share vegetable gardens, grow fruit trees and look after their own central village green. So Kevin and his partners start team-building exercises to get private and council tenants working together. But has Kevin done enough to sow the seeds of a strong community? And more importantly what will people think of his visionary homes?

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.

Kevin McCloud returns to Somerset to see Ed and Vicky Versluys and their cowshed conversion. Within two years of meeting, Ed and Vicky had got engaged, abandoned their city lives, and bought an ugly, derelict 1940s cowshed. They decided to project manage and convert the cowshed into a home and business with the help of just one young builder and what they could learn from the internet. With a wedding to plan, no access to mains power or water, it's no surprise that they didn't manage to finish within their ambitious eight month schedule. A year after his last visit and with the house finally complete, Kevin finds out what it's like living in an off-grid home designed for animals.

To celebrate 20 years of Grand Designs, Kevin McCloud reveals his top five properties from the show, revisiting the buildings and people who have most inspired him over the years. From concrete-vaulted glass-fronted pavilions and heroic restoration projects, to handcrafted hobbit houses made of hedgerow, Kevin reflects on what it takes to build a truly great Grand Designs project.

In the celebratory episode, stalwart host of Grand Designs Kevin McCloud, reveals a closely guarded secret – his top five buildings from over the years. In revisiting the buildings and the people that have inspired him most, Kevin ruminates on what makes a truly great Grand Designs project, while revelling in the brilliant architectural mix of inspiring homes.

To mark 25 years of the nation's favourite homebuilding programme, Kevin McCloud celebrates the triumphs and commiserates the disasters as he looks back at some iconic moments.