Grand Designs Australia

After spending 2 years building his dream home in Callignee, Victoria, the worst bushfires in Victoria's history (Black Sunday) burnt the home of Chris Clarke to the ground. After recovering from the shock, Chris decides to rebuild his home on the same site, and the idea of Callignee 2 is born. Follow Chris on his journey to build his spectacular new home in the Australian bush.

Architect Domenic Alvaro and his partner Sue Bassett purchase a tiny corner car park (7m x 6m) and turn it into 220 square metres of fantastic living space. Despite a rapid pace of construction using prefabricated concrete components, their vertical build faces many interesting challenges. The design won a 2011 World Architecture Festival award.

Jan and Ed Gillman painstakingly restore a tumbled-down weatherboard (one of the oldest homes in the region) in Southport, to its former glory.

Julie and Patrick Eltridge purchase an asbestos-riddled house in Sydney's beachside Clovelly and in its place build a modern architecturally designed home using a Melbourne firm of 'pre-fab' builders, who custom build them a modular home that is trucked to Sydney and assembled on site.

Trevor and Francoise Sullivan (and their friends) build a cyclone proof tropical tree house that is windowless and based on the shape of a 50 cent piece.

On their 4,000 square metre block, Steve and Lisa Morley live the American dream and build a Hampton's style home in the Gold Coast hinterlands.

Engineer Peter Riedel and his wife Mary purchase an 1870's church for $20,000 and re-build it into a beautiful home.

Drew Muirhead builds a spectacular Balinese resort style mansion in leafy Cottage Point. The end result has a private beach with boatshed and speedboat, but the journey to the finish line isn't easy with the slope of the block and access to it posing a number of building challenges

Ian McDonald and Rob Wilhelm build a spectacular $1.8 million dollar home overlooking Port Phillip Bay on the Bellarine Peninsula.