Grand Designs Transformations on ABC – Melbourne newsreader Yvonne plans on escaping high-pressure inner-city life by transforming a sloping bush block on the Mornington Peninsula into an eco-retreat, where she can embrace nature, fresh air and seclusion for herself and her family.
But creating the high-performance all-electric home she dreams of comes with challenges she doesn’t bargain for. Diabolical weather and unanticipated cost blow outs almost derail the project.
Yvonne faces a host of interior design complexities that come with creating a sustainable eco-home based on passive house principles. Host and interior designer Yasmine Ghoniem follows Yvonne’s progress and offers the expert advice that helps keep Yvonne on course as she perseveres with a project that tests her limits.
In Sydney, newly married couple Lorenz and Tiffany face challenges of a different kind.
They’re thrilled to have bought a classic mid-century home designed in 1957 by eminent architect, Harry Seidler. But they need to add a modern extension for the family they’re planning to have.
Trouble is, they want to honour the home’s modernist principles with their 21st century design and the 1957 house is heritage listed, which brings numerous regulation hoops to jump through.
And if design considerations weren’t enough, they begin construction during Sydney’s wettest year since 1950 and struggle with delays, increasing costs and dispirited builders. Following their progress, host and Professor of Architecture, Anthony Burke offers insights that helps them realise the house they’ve been hoping for.
Production credits: A Fremantle Australia production for the ABC financed with support from the ABC. Supervising Executive Producer: Brooke Bayvel. Executive Producer: Michael Collett. Series Producer: Chris Perry. ABC Commissioning Editor: Jo Chichester. Executive Producer: Madeleine Hawcroft. Head of Factual: Susie Jones. ABC Head of Screen Content: Jennifer Collins.
Grand Designs Transformations on ABC and ABC iview – Thursday 18 January 2024 at 8.00pm
TV Central ABC content HERE
