2 months ago
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In all the rooms, in all the houses, in all the designs featured in ABC series Grand Designs Transformations, just one factor is essential. A home revamp – big, small, exorbitantly priced or built for a song – works best if it reflects those using it.
So says architectural expert Professor Anthony Burke, the show’s co-host, who believes aping spruiked home design trends means little if the result doesn’t complement home owners’ lives.
Grand Designs Transformations co-hosts Anthony Burke and Yasmine Ghoniem.
“A house is not a physical thing,” he says. “A house is a place where human relationships are fostered and made to grow and blossom. It’s the stage upon which life’s theatre plays out. So the actual play is the issue, not the stage. But the stage is necessary to support and promote the theatre, if you like.”
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This philosophy features prominently in the second 10-episode series of Grand Designs Transformations, sibling to the ABC’s Grand Designs Australia and Restoration Australia, also hosted by Burke. Returning with co-host Yasmine Ghoniem, an award-winning interior designer, the show follows 20 new big-dream, all-budget redesigns across five states.
In every project, from a Paddington terrace to a Melbourne garage, from a forlorn chapel in a NSW country paddock to a 140-year-old glasshouse shipped from to Tasmania from the UK, the people and their stories are as important as the structure being tackled.
In one, a shed in Newstead, Victoria, becomes a Japanese-style bathhouse via a tiny budget and hard grunt. In others, a Queensland couple transform an old house after floods destroyed their original home; an inner-city Melbourne couple champion profuse colour design in the face of health challenges; and an Adelaide family rework a 19th-century bluestone villa into a home for three generations.
They’re familiar Grand Designs tropes, but Burke says this series puts greater focus on the stories and people behind each transformation.
“It’s important seeing that there’s an enormous amount at stake in these projects,” Burke says. “Even the smallest ones. There’s this consequence. While we can laugh and joke and talk about budgets and timelines, underneath it all is a question of, ‘Can I put myself against something that’s bigger than me? Something that’s going to impact my entire world, my family, all my friends? Is this the right thing to do? Am I going to be OK?’
Melbourne couple Eric and Nicky and their colourful home featured in Grand Designs Transformations.
“They’re all doing it as a very genuine act of improving their lives, their family and relationships. They’re putting everything out there to do it. It’s not just for TV.”
Ghoniem, who follows another Grand Designs path by being pregnant across episodes, says she hopes these stories help people understand the true effect of design.
“Changing a space can transform lives,” she says. “There will be things that people don’t realise have a knock-on effect on their lives because they live there every day. I think it’s good to learn how to change those for the better.
“It doesn’t matter how much money you have. It’s being open to change and also realising they can make those changes.”
In all the design shows he’s hosted, Burke has sharpened his TV host skills.
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“I’m an academic,” he says. “I’m not an actor. They do try and get me to do jokes and stuff, and sometimes that’s just a complete disaster. But in every project, all my reactions are genuine. I’m quite happy to lay out advice, give some critical feedback, but I do believe there’s no point in turning up at the reveal and going, ‘Oh geez, what a disaster.’
“Of course, there are lessons to be learnt in what not to do. But everything I’ve learnt in teaching students at university has shown we learn so much more from the positive examples rather than the negative.
“Even within a dog’s breakfast of a project there will be a few lessons to pull out that were really great outcomes for various other reasons. Maybe it doesn’t look so good, but perhaps it’s super-environmental. Or it’s an absolute triumph in terms of recycled materials or bargain-shopping elements or doing it all on a budget of 10 grand.
“In the Grand Designs family of programs, we’re definitely moving away from the big speccy houses. What we’re really looking for is the relatability of innovations that people want and need to bring to everyday life.”
Rather than building the biggest house for the sake of it or incorporating design features that don’t align with surrounds or raise energy bills, Burke is seeing projects inspired by the lack of housing affordability, the cost of living or a focus on sustainability and smart environmental design.
“The world has changed,” he says. “We need to update our idea of home. In this series, we’ve got the very beautiful bluestone house that has been extended to incorporate grandma, the grandkids and their parents.
Greg with his outdoor sauna in Grand Designs Transformations.
“We’ve got Greg, a single dad for whom a big part of his shed-to-bathhouse project was, ‘How am I building this for my two girls?’ He’s a pretty eccentric and interesting and creative guy, and, oh my god, wait until you see his reveal. It is the tiniest little bloody thing out in the back of a paddock. But the sun’s setting, the bath is steaming and he’s just looking at the view beyond a silver gum.
“He spent about 10 grand on the whole thing, and it was absolutely magical.”
Burke says housing styles and design choices in Australia are being driven by different priorities and, more often than not, it’s not a huge house that fills the lot, drains energy and avoids a connection to nature.
“There’s an entirely new generation of Australians trying to work out how they can build something affordably that prioritises things they value such as health and the environment,” he says. “We’re genuinely turning a corner here in terms of housing design. But it’s a huge ship that we have to turn around.”
Grand Designs Transformations premieres at 8pm on Thursday, January 8, on the ABC and ABC iview.
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