Big Design Adventure

What happens when you try to fix the housing crisis without destroying the suburbs we love? You get density by stealth. Tim and Kev head to the Perth suburbia to visit Giuseppe’s House, a 1960s home recently restored by local architect Kate Fitzgerald. Beneath the terrazzo floors and colourful character lies a bigger idea: how to add more housing to our cities without flattening their i...

We’re back with Series Two! Tim and Kevin head to Birmingham to explore a city defined by industry, reinvention and the home of Peaky Blinders , Black Sabbath and ELO. Over tea and biscuits with journalist and campaigner Mary Keating, they examine the fight to save the Smallbrook Ringway Centre, one of Europe’s longest modernist buildings and a rare surviving example of Birmingham...

In the special festive episode, can you have a room just reserved for Christmas Day? What’s our hot take on the merits of tinsel, and we present our all time favourite Christmas movies and songs. The model makers who create wooden Christmas ornaments of buildings can be found on Instagram here: Atelier Maps or their Esty store here .  For suggestions of places and stories for Serie...

In this mini episode we’ve got huge news about the final show for the year and we answer our most asked question. For questions and suggestions for our Christmas episode, shoot us an email to hello@bigdesignadventure.com For suggestions of places and stories for Series 2, shoot us an email to  hello@bigdesignadventure.com Tickets are now on sale for Kevin McCloud and Tim Ross – Li...

Tim and Kev head to London to visit Highgate New Town, a 1970s social housing scheme designed by Hungarian-born architect Peter Tabori. Over a cup of tea with architect and long-time resident Rachel Stevenson, they uncover the secret behind the development’s enduring success. In the 1960s and ’70s, Camden became a testing ground for a new kind of socialhousing in London — one tha...

In answering all your burning questions, Kevin reveals his one-sided feud with Jay Kay from Jamiroquai. There are a few mea culpas along the way as we tackle your criticisms and wonder if design can save us in a world without the communal joy of watching shows like Sale of the Century . Oh, and we’ve got a HUGE announcement to make!   You can check out Kev on Top Gear’s You Tube c...

In a semi-desperate attempt to find meaning in service station design, Tim and Kev head to Copenhagen to visit the famed filling station designed by Arne Jacobsen in the 1930s. A far-ranging conversation was recorded in front of the bowsers for your listening pleasure, and things may have gotten a little kooky. Also in this episode: find out how Sarah Jessica Parker has recently become a new fan....

What happens when you mix modernism, espionage, and a few Bauhaus legends in one London apartment block? You get the Isokon Building. Tim and Kev head to North London to visit the legendary 1934 modernist icon designed by Wells Coates and developed by Jack and Molly Pritchard. Once home to Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer, Agatha Christie and a bunch of spies, Isokon was a radical experiment in...

Hooray for Mid Century Modern Hollywood! Tim and Kev are joined by Julie Berghoff, the Emmy Award–winning Production Designer for the hit Seth Rogen series The Studio . How did she manage to secure those iconic homes as locations? How did Julie create a set that feels like a Frank Lloyd Wright masterpiece? And will you stick around for Tim and Kev’s Seth Rogen imper...

Can you imagine finding out online that your grandfather wanted you to live in his iconic house after he was gone? That’s what happened to Frances Martin, the granddaughter of legendary New Zealand ceramicists Bruce and Estelle Martin. Tim and Kev take a trip to Napier to visit the Martin House and chat with Frances about living in her 1960s John Scott home in Hawke’s Bay. This is a gr...

Is it worth paying for an architect? Are pre fab houses a solution for the housing crisis? What buildings should be demolished to build new homes? Just some of your questions we tackle in our very first question and answers episode. You can find pictures and videos on our Instagram page - @big_design_adventure  And be sure to follow Tim Ross (@modernister ) and Kevin McCloud (@kevin...

What’s the real story of the Splayd? Australia’s greatest contributions to eatingutensils…Tim has the answer. Then Kevin whisks us off to Sheffield to explore the legacy of David Mellor, one of Britain’s finest designers, whose cutlery from the mid-century is still in production today. Yes, welcome to Cutlery Town. Invented in Sydney in 1943 by Bill McArthur, the...

What’s the best way to save our 20th Century architecture? Tim and Kev travel to Manchester to meet the charasmatic Eddy Rhead, from The Modernist, part of a group who believed they’ve found the secret.    The Modernist is a bookstore, publisher and exhibition space which is part of The Modernist Society, a Manchester organisation “dedicated to celebrating and engaging...

In this very first bonus episode, Tim and Kevin continue their deep dive on the evolution of airplane design, revisit some of their favourite plane movies and hatch a plan about taking their own Spitfire and Harrier Jump Jet for a test flight. Tim and Kevin chat about a few movies during this episode including The V.I.P.s (1963) Mortadella (1971) The First of the Few (1942) The Dam Busters (1955)...

On a mid afternoon flight from Copenhagen to Heathrow, Tim and Kev pull out the microphones to discuss their favourite airplanes of all time, trade helicopter stories, reveal the worst plane food of all time…and a whole lot more. Plus this coming Friday they prove that there can never be enough jet fuel propelled plane talk when they unleash their very first bonus episode full of all the ai...

Tim drags a reluctant Kevin to the Wrexham, the Welsh town that shot to fame when actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney bought their struggling football team in 2020. How has it really changed? They gave themselves 24 hours to find out.  Wrexham, a historic market town in North Wales, was once best known for brewing and coal mining, with its football club, Wrexham AFC, quietly toiling away...

Tim and Kev delve into the weird world of science fiction string puppets from the many iconic TV series produced by Gerry Anderson.  From Thunderbirds to Space 1999, Stingray, Captain Scarlet and not forgetting UFO. Stand by for Supermarionation. For behind the scenes stories of Anderson’s work and how the puppets never could walk properly, visit the brilliant YouTube collection of Cent...

Tim and Kev head to London to explore a radical 1960s housing development where prospective residents must pass an interview before moving in. But will they make the cut?   Winscombe Street consists of five terrace houses in  Camden , London, England, designed by the architect  Neave Brown  for himself and a collective of four other families in the mid 1960s.  &n...

To kick off the big design adventure, Kevin heads to the Sydney suburbs to visit Tim in his 1950s modernist home. Plonking themselves at the table, they launch into a wide- ranging conversation covering the trials and tribulations of kitchen renovations, the folly of our before-and-after culture, and just how much Tim tidied up the house for Kev. To view images from this episode, head to our Insta...