Grand Designs New Zealand

Shane and Tina Nicholls love the ancient Japanese art of burnt timber. Add in 25,000 Scandinavian bricks, a memorial garden, Hauraki Gulf views, a pool, and you have a home of epic proportions.

Harlem and Nicola attempt to build a glass-house on a bridge over the water. Will Harlem make a modernist masterpiece or will it end in shards in the stream?

Musicians, Justine Cormack and Marc Taddei swap their Auckland home for the mountains of Central Otago. They risk all by adapting an American wedge-shaped design for the Southern Hemisphere.

David and Tracey Lewis share a passion for art and architecture, but when they jointly create a stunning home in Waipu Cove, there’s a clash of creative wills and epic battle over the budget.

Six years in the making, Craig Jarvis’s tiny 65 square metre home overlooking Taylor’s mistake is Grand Designs longest running house build.

A boyhood dream sets Neil Lawrence on a quest to build a Medieval castle for wife Yolande and son Ethan. Creating a 50-metre long castle wall is just the first of many uphill battles.

Auckland couple Bridget and Steve Varney take on the daunting challenge of converting Farmer’s grand tearooms built in 1930 into a New York style loft apartment.

Chris Moller takes a tour of three exceptional Grand Designs houses from the last four seasons to see how they’ve developed and asks whether the hard work and heartaches were really worth it.