As we celebrate Britain's best-known and most stylish home exhibition Grand Designs Live which opens its doors at London's Excel in May, we caught up with the star of the show, Kevin McCloud, who revealed what he thinks makes a design truly grand, his hopes for the British housing market and how we can make our homes greener. Get your free tickets to the show here.
Real grand designs
You’ve been writing and presenting Grand Designs since 1999. Do you think people are getting better at DIY?
Yes. Without a doubt, when we started Grand Designs there were fewer and now there are more. It’s something like seven and a half per cent of all projects being built in time are self build so we have a good culture of it now, there’s Grand Designs, there are self build centres, there are websites. It didn’t exist when we first started, none of it existed. So it’s very exciting to see.
Did Grand Designs start it?
No, I don’t think so, I think we just simply followed something, that’s all, we recorded it, chartered it.
And it’s going to continue to get bigger?
I think so, well now that Grant Shapps has announced grand designs for everyone, there’s going to be a great self-build revolution. It’ll be interesting to see how that happens and how the planning system resolves itself but I am very excited by that and I think in our little way we’ve got a part to play in the future of that. It’s going to be fun. It could even mean that we start to see grand designs projects start turning more and more into communities and things as much as individual, it could be a great fun.
After seeing so many grand designs on your programmes, it must take something special to really impress you? What kinds of things catch your eye?
Do you know what, when we first started I used to get extremely excited about glass walls and white minimalism and non expensive work surfaces and I still am in a way and I still love beautiful design when it’s done well and I love craftsmanship and I love things that are properly made and it makes my heart sing every time I visit sites and look at the quality of what I see. That’s fundamental, but what I also love now is when I visit a place that’s done, that looks really idiosyncratic, not like a show room, that looks and feels really special and autobiographical and that is precious, that’s a lovely thing. And so many of our projects are. You know, they’re right out there doing their thing and so much of it is quirky.
It’s that individuality isn’t it.
Yeah, in a world where increasingly individuality and quirkiness and autobiography are being squeezed out of our lives.
Read for the second installment of our exclusive interview with Kevin McCloud - Where Kevin's practised what he preaches.
Read for the third installment with Kevin Mccloud - A British Taste for Grand Design
As the show kicks off at London's Excel, read the final part of our interview - Grand Green Designs
Kevin McCloud joins an array of celebrity and industry experts, as Grand Designs Live returns to London for the 7th consecutive year for 9 days, at ExCeL from Saturday 30th April – Sunday 8th May 2011. With over 500 exhibitors showcasing the widest range of high quality products and innovations, as well as offering free consultations, Grand Designs Live is the ultimate consumer home event, boasting everything needed to build and furnish a home – all under one roof. Get half price tickets by booking in advance - visit www.granddesignslive.com or call 0844 209 7349 and quote PRIME9.