Grand Designs Australia

After eight years of planning, Melbourne couple Glenn and Kate Morris are finally making a start on their striking, sustainable 'sand dune' house near Inverloch on Victoria's Gippsland coastline. For them, this crescent shaped, spaceship-like design is the ultimate response to a wind swept location. Once building gets underway, the couple need even more patience as attention to detail is paramount in this curvaceous new building. Let's hope it lives up to their high expectations.

Greg, a former bricklayer, is passionate about two things - his family, and bricks. As a testament to his love for both, he's building a tri-level, solid-brick terrace house with a cantilevered pool on the top floor.

Hoteliers Richard and Denise have knocked down the family home in the Adelaide Hills and are rebuilding an even bigger version, despite the fact their kids are grown. This modern mansion will have all the bells and whistles, amid resort-like luxury on three tiered acres overlooking Adelaide, but is this unpretentious, likeable couple creating a home or a hotel for themselves? Money may be no object, but have they taken on too much?

Ardent collectors Kerry and Judy have a passion for Sante-fe style, mud houses even though they live on a sloping bush block on Sydney's north shore. Inspired by an unconventional builder who changes his mind (and their design) on a regular basis, they set out to create a home out of recycled timber and corrugated iron, rendered in clay dug up from the side of the road. It may be straight out of the American mid west but this hybrid home will have a distinctly Australian flavour and provide an earthy backdrop for their many artistic objects, artifacts and collectables.

Darren and Ruth Rogers are building their dream home on a rare vacant block in Melbourne's Richmond. Like a hidden gem the house will rise above the neighbours to take in the stunning city skyline and MCG. But with no street frontage access is via a tiny laneway - which means building it could be fraught with challenges - not least of which will be keeping the neighbours happy. Darren is extravagant and likes his luxuries - Ruth is modest, with a simple dream of a small yard and chooks. Will their different ambitions be satisfied in the final glamorous creation? 

Builder Chris Knierem wants to create an environmentally sustainable eco-house in the heart of Sydney's inner west. He manages to buy one of the last, original vacant blocks of land in Forest Lodge and while living in the house next-door, designs, and will now build, his longed for 'green' home. Despite the narrow block and tricky access, the house will feature thermal mass heating below the slab, eradicating heating bills, an underground water tank, vertical gardens, louvres for cooling and a roof-top garden with solar panels. He's hoping this green space above will encourage the return of bird life to the city and that his new home will become a benchmark for contemporary green design.

Sydney doctors Meredith and Mathew Bayfield are building a new family homestead on their 1000-acre merino sheep station in Ilford, on the NSW central tablelands. They plan to spend half their time here. The new house will have two pavilions linked by a glass walkway, made from local and reclaimed materials and wool derived products like wool insulation. The house will sit on the highest, most exposed spot on their land and while this will afford them wonderful district views, it will also challenge them in unexpected ways. As will the design, which is reworked several times on the run.

Married in 1987, Daniela and Niran have spent 25 years saving to build their dream home together. They're using the site of their old house - a battelaxe block in affluent, leafy Hunters Hill. Entry is via a long, narrow driveway, lined with trees deemed significant, so building access proves challenging and expensive. Daniela and Niran face both the challenges and the house design bravely, using a highly unusual mix of techniques and materials. Surrounded by traditional sandstone and federation homes, theirs will stand out for its fresh take on modernist architecture - one which combines their love of natural materials, organic textures and rectilinear architecture. It promises to be a fascinating marriage of styles. 

This is the ultimate Aussie grand design as artists Andrew and Dianne farewell the heat of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, where they manage an Aborignal art gallery, to start a new life in a polar opposite location in Bass Strait. Their new home will sit on the wild and windy west coast of King Island, a remote location frequently lashed by the Roaring Forties. King Island isn't known for its eclectic architecture, so the house will stand apart for its unique design in the shape of a whale's tail. Overlooking the sea, it's a house that will truly embrace its location while reflecting the couple's love of the island. This is the journey of Andrew and Dianne establishing their new spiritual home, if it doesn't get blown away.