Inspired Madness

Sun Herald

Sunday August 17, 2008

Scott Ellis

It doesn't take much to realise the world has something of an obsession with real estate.

We talk about it, read about it and most of all we watch endless hours of television detailing the best way to buy, sell or renovate our properties.

Across the world, countless programs show us average home owners tacking on a new carport, sprucing up the spare room or in rare cases, taking on a complete renovation.

And then there's the people, anything but average, who end up on Grand Designs.

Where most people are happy with a bit of DIY, these people dream up the most elaborate renovations they can afford and set about turning them into reality.

They might be taking on buildings such as castles, chateaux, barns or old factories; they may face all sorts of problems along the way and wind up with a building hugely different from the original plan but, by giving the impossible a try, they inspire home owners everywhere.

And that, said designer and Grand Designs host Kevin McCloud, is why no matter how outrageous the projects might be, the series has become a worldwide hit.

"It's got nothing to do with envy or desire, it's the recognition that [building a home] is one of life's great adventures," McCloud says.

"And it's an adventure we're all capable of doing or at least wanting to do, no matter where we are."

McCloud says he realised just how far the show's appeal had spread when he was filming in a Sheffield housing estate, where drug dealers who wanted the cameras off their patch had previously threatened him. He was approached by three "large tattooed lads".

"I thought 'Oh no they're going to nick all the camera equipment and leave us for dead' when one of them said 'Eh you! You're that bloke off Grand Designs aren't you? Fantastic!'

"It made me realise that here were these lads living in social housing who would probably never own a house, let alone get the opportunity to build one, and yet they still loved the program.

"People from all walks of life just somehow connect to this."

After nearly a decade of watching amateurs walk where the most hardened professionals would fear to tread, McCloud says he is still inspired by his subjects' spirit of adventure.

"People are capable of extraordinary things," he said. "And that's the most exciting thing for me, watching them go through this process of change, this almost redemptive experience. It shows that human beings are capable of so much more than they sometimes suspect."

Grand Designs Tuesday, 8.35pm, ABC1

Kevin's got cred

WHEN Kevin McCloud wanders about his subjects' homes tossing out advice and opinions, Australian viewers might wonder why they should care what a TV presenter thinks. But McCloud is more than a presenter. As an architecture student at Cambridge University, McCloud had his own lighting design practice working on buildings such as Harrods, Edinburgh Castle, and the Savoy and Dorchester hotels. He is also an honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects.

© 2008 Sun Herald

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