Back for a 10th season, Grand Designs Australia is returning to Australian screens from Thursday, May 5 on Foxtel LifeStyle and On Demand.
From the Snowy Mountains of NSW to Tasmania’s Chain of Lagoons; the rolling green hills of Nimbin to the hustle and bustle of inner-city Melbourne, the show follows people who have found ways to create one of a kind, high performing homes in a world where property prices are heading through the roof.
Mediaweek spoke to award-winning architect and Grand Designs Australia host Peter Maddison about heading into season 10.
In 10 seasons on air, Maddison says there are a couple of things that have changed.
“There is more experimentation, people are more game to take on alternative construction challenges and techniques.
“People are also doing more themselves, they’re less likely to set and forget and get a builder to come in and do it. They’re more willing to take on the work to reduce cost.”
Reducing costs is very helpful when it comes to building a house while the housing market – as well as the price of land – skyrockets.
“Because the cost of land has gone up so much, people have been pushed to more extreme locations to build their dream,” said Maddison.
“Because of that financial pressure, not all of the houses are completely done – they’re done enough for us to be able to tell a compelling story, but there are rooms that we don’t want to poke around in because we’re there to celebrate what they’ve done, not what they haven’t done.”
Filming a show that takes place in locations all over the country is never an easy task at the best of times, but Maddison says Covid didn’t make things any easier.
“We didn’t film for about a year and a half. We hardly filmed at all, there was no travel and this is a national show. We were only able to wrap it up when I could get back to these houses.
“It’s all about being on location in the moment. It’s not the sort of show you can do in a studio. Punters want to be there and taste the atmosphere, so to speak, so we had to go there.”
The theme running throughout this season is risk and reward.
“The homeowners that go on our show, none of them are engaging in the cookie-cutter outer suburban row house,” says Maddison. “We’re more interested in breaking the mould and trying to contribute to a new way of thinking around the way we see housing. Australia is a young country, we’re still finding our architectural identity, and we’re interested in trying to find out what that is.
“We’re interested in homeowners that do take a risk and push the boundaries, and try and find an architectural identity that matches their aspirations.”
For as high stakes as the risks are, the rewards are just as big.
“I often ask the question at the end of the show in the interview, is there anything you would change? I know the answer almost invariably is ‘no, we wouldn’t change a thing’, the rewards are huge for those people that have done it – and my hat’s off to them, I’ve never built a brand new house, it’s a nerve-racking business. These are people that are stepping out of the ordinary to do this stuff.”
For Maddison, the beauty of Grand Designs Australia comes from the fact that there are so many lenses to view the show through.
“Everyone gets different things out of Grand Designs Australia – some people see it as a tourism travel show, other people see it as a lesson on how to how to construct. A lot of tradies watch it because they’re fascinated with how many different ways concrete can be poured, or nails can be put in timber. People tell me all the time that they love the show, and they’re drawn for different reasons.
“It’s quite a rich format, and underlying it all is the human story. It’s really not about building or architecture, it’s really about the human story.”