Grand Designs Australia

Sculptor Ben Gilbert and his brother Chris, an architect, build one-bedroom living quarters at an abandoned sawmill in Yackandandah, Victoria, using an off-the-wall design crammed full of innovation

B&B owners Art van Dyke and Troy West build a three-level, one-bedroom, contemporary home bookended by an 1850s stone cottage, near Harcourt in Victoria, on land that comes with its own granite quarry.

Chef Dan Zeidan and his partner Vicky Kordatou want a truly sustainable rural escape, building a zero-waste home from recycled and recyclable non-toxic materials at Kinglake, one hour from Melbourne

While in the inner city suburb of East Melbourne in Victoria, a very small block is set to make way for a three story totally green home with geo-thermal heating and cooling and a rooftop garden and spa. Photographer Ralph Alfonso has a very strong sense of how precious our environment is and how little space we really need to live in. His downsized style of living focuses on being as frugal as possible, using a ground-breaking and innovative environmental design. The thing is… the house footprint measures just 5 x 4 metres, making it grand in design, although miniature in size.

Mark and Karen Bartkevicius restore an old hydro-electricity substation at Launceston in Tasmania and convert it into a two-bed home, salvaging original antique bricks and using old-school lime render.

Nick and Kate take inspiration from their vineyard location for the first build. Their home is designed in the shape of a leaf, with a spine stone wall running through the middle and comes with a singing studio.

A street is to become the site for a futuristic build that has the whole neighbourhood talking. It will be a diagonal structure with a Palm Springs aesthetic that will push the boundaries.

Draftsman Nigel Eberhardt is a conservationist at heart – a passion he shares with partner Nina, a school teacher. Their love for the natural environment saw them purchase one of the last remaining native bush blocks in Turners Beach, a beachside suburb brimming with neat houses and manicured lawns, on Tasmania's north coast, where they build a house around the already established trees.

Canberra couple Barbara and Bill Coyle have been lucky enough to live in houses designed by Australia's best known architects. They love modernist architecture so they engaged the right architect to design them something 70's. Bill an orthopaedic surgeon, has been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Their new house with its curved roofline and glass entrance is designed for the future when he'll be in a wheelchair.

In the Melbourne suburb of Northcote, the Skipping Girl Vinegar Factory was a siren call for sustainable architect, Adrian Light. But old buildings have a way of resisting change and this one is no exception. Adrian has big plans to turn what is essentially a four storey red brick warehouse with 20 huge concrete vinegar vats into a four bedroom sustainable home for his family. At every stage he is confronted with the realities of reworking a stubborn old, wet factory. As the months turn into years this really is a question of who will win?