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Returning: Grand Designs Australia

Peter Maddison is back for his sixth season next month on LifeStyle.

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Grand Designs Australia is back for its sixth season next month on the LifeStyle channel.

Once again hosted by Peter Maddison, it will follow the renovations on seven houses across the country, highlighting the architectural challenges and the ambitions of home-owners with big dreams.

One of the most distinctive builds of the season takes us to a beautiful vineyard setting just over half an hour from Adelaide. Tailored specifically for new winemakers – opera singer Cate Foskett and her husband Nick, a Silicon Valley whiz kid – the Max Pritchard designed home is in the shape of a leaf, curved on both sides with a spine stone wall running through the middle. A two story ‘song tower’ with a library on the ground floor and a singing studio on the top floor formed the genesis of the design.

While in the inner city suburb of East Melbourne in Victoria, a very small block is set to make way for a three story totally green home with geo-thermal heating and cooling and a rooftop garden and spa. Photographer Ralph Alfonso has a very strong sense of how precious our environment is and how little space we really need to live in. His downsized style of living focuses on being as frugal as possible, using a ground-breaking and innovative environmental design. The thing is… the house footprint measures just 5 x 4 metres, making it grand in design, although miniature in size.

In the Melbourne suburb of Northcote, the Skipping Girl Vinegar Factory was a siren call for sustainable architect, Adrian Light. But old buildings have a way of resisting change and this one is no exception. Adrian has big plans to turn what is essentially a four storey red brick warehouse with 20 huge concrete vinegar vats into a four bedroom sustainable home for his family. At every stage he is confronted with the realities of reworking a stubborn old, wet factory. As the months turn into years this really is a question of who will win?

Once again Grand Designs Australia brings the characters, the houses and the stories together in an insightful season of inspiration and appreciation. The 7-part season is produced by Fremantle Media, exclusively for Foxtel’s The LifeStyle Channel.

Thursday, November 5 at 8.30pm on The LifeStyle Channel.

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