Grand Designs

Rob Hodgson and Kay Ralph plan to build an architectural monument high on a cliff top, a sleek glass-fronted house inspired by the villas of California.

Product Designer Rebecca Sturrock has returned to her family home in Cornwall, with her partner Gregory Kewish and a highly ambitious plan. Together they will transform a small, damp, single-story bungalow into a cutting edge home for them and their twin 3-year-old daughters - all for just £80,000.

GP Peter Berkin and his wife Chard, an alternative medicine practitioner, have decided to build a new home at the bottom of their garden. Problem is, right from the start they can't agree on any part of the design - even the basic shape.

Patrick Bradley, a young farmer and architect, has come up with a £100k house design the like of which has never been seen before in his native Northern Ireland. It's to be built of four 45 foot shipping containers, welded together to form a giant cross and cantilevered over the top of a stream.

Film props buyer Tracy Fox and scenic artist husband Steve want to build an "urban shed" out of corrugated cement fiber board and twenty foot panels of polycarbonate sheeting.

Natasha Cargill wants to build a home shaped like two enormous periscopes for her and son Lucas. To get planning permission on her beautiful Norfolk countryside plot however, she has to ensure not only that the materials used are sustainable, but also measure the amount of transportation diesel used to deliver them.

Software executive Andy and garden designer Nicki Bruce want to build the UK's first amphibious or "floating" house of its kind. They're desperate to live on the river Thames, so their architect has come up with an experimental design that will see the whole house magically rise up with the flood waters up to a full 3 meters.