Kevin McCloud revisits 'unapologetically modern' home in new Grand Designs
Grand Designs is back on screens as Kevin McCloud travels around the UK meeting new ambitious individuals building their dream homes.
The Channel 4 show is now entering its 25th series, with previous episodes seeing everything from giant curved glass homes to mansions built out of clay and former water towers.
Now, more keen builders are ready to take on the task, not for the faint-hearted, as Kevin travels around the UK to see the new builds in Grand Designs.
The latest series kicked off with Sarah and Howard in Worthing, who built their dream "floating home".
They were followed by Sarah and Pip in Bedfordshire, who brought a "rickety" old barn back to life.
Tomorrow night Kevin revisits Graeme and Mel, whose hugely ambitious Hackney build was hampered by a basement bombshell. Have they finally got out of the red and into their modernist home?#GrandDesigns | Channel 4, Wednesday at 9pm 📺 pic.twitter.com/RHx6QFxR47
— granddesigns (@granddesigns) April 15, 2025
In week three, Kevin met 82-year-old Kathryn, who wanted to build an accessible, ultra-sustainable home.
This week, it's a Grand Designs revisit to Graeme and Melanie in London.
On the latest episode of Grand Designs, Kevin will return to Graeme and Melanie, who had huge ambitions for their new home in Hackney.
Architect Graeme planned for the home to be a comfortable haven for themselves and their teenage daughters.
However, the build was met with issues when they chose a tiny twin garage plot on a traditional Victorian terraced road for £275,000.
Graeme wanted the home to be "an unapologetically modernist bright red design" with a smart interior to maximise space vertically.
The couple were soon met with challenges when they had to excavate four metres down in a tight urban site while having a tight 12-month schedule and a tight budget.
Recommended Reading
From water towers to caves - The best 7 Grand Design builds ever
Q&A with Kevin McCloud as he talks all things Grand Designs
Grand Designs' 'saddest ever' home had a happy ending Kevin McCloud reveals
The build faced more trouble when the basement contractor withdrew from the project due to skyrocketing material costs.
18 months on from Kevin's last visit, the Grand Designs host is back to see if Graeme and Melanie completed their dream home.
Grand Designs is on Channel 4 on Wednesday evenings at 9pm and is available to stream on All4.
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- Buzz Feed
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San Francisco Chronicle
13 hours ago
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Why ‘Materialists' director Celine Song thinks love is a marketplace
In Celine Song's latest movie 'Materialists,' a New York City matchmaker navigates the politics of love. 'You're not ugly — you just don't have money,' says Lucy, portrayed by Dakota Johnson, exhaling cigarette smoke into the New York City air from a fire escape. More Information 'Materialists' (R) is in theaters Friday, June 13. Song's debut film, 2023's 'Past Lives,' rocked audiences with its soft yet devastating spotlight on what it's like to love your husband and your childhood sweetheart the way you love adjoining parts of your own soul. But her follow-up feature takes on a whole new love triangle, one plagued by questions of vanity, class and self-worth. Now for the second time in a row, the writer-director delivers on the wounding nuances of modern love. Like Johnson's Lucy, Song worked for a matchmaking agency in New York. Her clientele was more honest with her about what they wanted in a partner than with their own friends and therapists, she said. 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It's amazing, because it's all numbers: height, weight, income. Q: How would you describe the characters' relationship with self-love, self-worth? A: I think that all three of them are struggling with self-worth, which is common in modern life and modern dating. Another part of the problem is this objectification and commodification of the self and of each other. In 'Pride and Prejudice' or in Victorian romance, this marriage market used to happen in salons or garden parties, where people talk about everybody's value: their worth in silver, their property. That kind of marketplace has existed forever. But now, this objectification and commodification has become so accessible and global. (Song gestures to her phone screen.) Q: I recently saw photos of Kris Jenner's new face — not sure if you saw too. I'm curious what you think about the access to plastic surgery and how it bears weight on dating and love. A: It's terrifying. I feel like there is a really insidious language around taking care of yourself or 'self-improvement.' But this language is really about increasing your value in the marketplace. To me, what's really scary is how cheap Botox is getting. And what's insidious is that it's like, well, everybody is doing it. Those are your competitors in the dating market, and they're doing it. So aren't you doing it? Q: Two characters in 'Materialists' have had plastic surgery and struggle with self-worth, but they're also trying to find love. Do you think you have to have self-love before you find a partner, or are you someone who believes 'We can figure this out together'? A: I met my husband when I was 24, so we were too young to really get to this world of value. I don't know if anybody is that secure when you're in your 20s. But what's amazing is that when you ask somebody who loves you why they love you, their answer will never have anything to do with your market value. It's never going to have anything to do with height or weight. It will always be like, 'I just do.' It's just simple. So in that way, I already know that the marketplace is not real. But now you have access to the global dating market on Instagram, so the problem is that now you're going to start evaluating and objectifying yourself in relation to everybody else, which is really common. Q: So much of this movie is about the math of dating and the failure of that math. What do you think ultimately brings people together? A: It's completely mysterious to me why one person feels something for another person. All you can hope for is that you do, and part of that is being open to that person. It's much easier to be cynical, isn't it? But the truth is that it's a very brave thing to say, 'No, I want love. I believe in it. It might be right around the corner.' And the truth is that it might be right around the corner. That's actually true. Q: Both of your movies, 'Materialists' and 'Past Lives,' explore love triangles that can't last, so you set up a portion of your audience for disappointment. Do you like doing that? A: I want it to be a revelation for the audience members themselves. It usually speaks more about who you are as a person watching it than it does about the characters. Many people might walk away from the film being like, 'I would have made that decision differently.' But the truth is, Lucy is not you. You're you. Q: What hope is there for single people? A: Well, there's advice in the film. … When love happens and is offered to you, you just need the bravery to be able to say yes. I think that's the only thing we can hope for.