Big Design Adventure

Tim and Kevin pull on their hard hats for a tour of 66 Portland Place, the striking 1934 London home of the Royal Institute of British Architects. Chair of the RIBA Board of Trustees Jack Pringle guides them through the building as it’s being stripped back, restored and reimagined as a new, more welcoming public home for architecture. Along the way, they uncover the work of designer Miriam W...

Tim and Kevin head to West London to borrow the keys to an apartment in Trellick Tower, the iconic Brutalist apartment block designed by Hungarian émigré architect Ernő Goldfinger — an absolute banger of an example of social housing. Joining them on the sofa is Ernő’s granddaughter, Pippa, who shares her very personal story of growing up around her incredibly progressive...

It’s a bonus episode with Pippa Goldfinger, especially curated by Kevin for you.  Works best if you listen to the main episode first - Series 3, Episode 9.    To view images from this episode, head to our Instagram page - @big_design_adventure And be sure to follow Tim Ross ( @modernister ) and Kevin McCloud ( @kevin.mccloud1 ) We’d love to hear from you, reach out to us...

This week Kev drags a slightly confused Tim to Leigh, outside Manchester, to explore Leigh Spinners Mill, a vast former cotton mill. He’s less confused when he finds out it’s been given an extraordinary new life as a thriving community hub. Built in 1913 for the Horrocks family, the mill is a reminder of the textile industry that once dominated Greater Manchester, shaping its towns, co...

What makes a well-designed hotel? This listener question set off a chain of events that created a cavalcade of hot takes, extreme rants about the state of modern hotels, a potted history of motels, a small-scale therapy session about the lettering on bottles in hotel bathrooms, a revelation about an unexpected adult movie star, and the rest you can find out for yourself. This is another feedback e...

Robin and Lucienne Day, were the most distinguished British designers of the post war period. Their designs were woven into everyday life. Robin's revolutionary polypropylene chair became one of the most widely used chairs in history, while Lucienne's vibrant textile designs helped define the optimistic look of post-war Britain. Together, they transformed the way ordinary people lived, proving tha...

Earlier this year, Sam Neill kindly agreed to join us on the podcast. The plan was to wait until Kevin was back in Australia so we could all sit down together, unfortunately we couldn’t make the dates align. Last week, Tim went back through his archives and rediscovered a conversation the two of them recorded years earlier for a project that never eventuated. For the next hour, you get to sp...

On the night of 14 November 1940, nearly 500 Luftwaffe bombers descended on Coventry. Over the next 11 hours, they dropped more than 500 tonnes of high explosives and around 30,000 incendiary bombs on the city. By morning, 568 people had been killed, around 850 seriously injured and 43,000 homes damaged or destroyed. At the centre of it all, the medieval Cathedral of St Michael had been reduced to...

Tim and Kevin head into the English countryside to visit acclaimed artist Morag Myerscough and artist-musician Luke Morgan, who traded the excitement of inner-city London for an unloved modernist house, an ambitious renovation and a completely different way of living. Five years into the renovation, with the end in sight, they open up their home and their lives to share the unexpected ways the hou...

Can architecture help solve the housing crisis? Acclaimed London architect Peter Barber thinks it can, and he's proving it one street at a time. Tim and Kevin head to London to meet one of Britain's most admired architects, whose award-winning work is rethinking what social and affordable housing can be. From his remarkable King's Cross studio, where every wall is lined with hand-built architectur...

Tim and Kevin head to Melbourne for a special conversation with celebrated Australian designer Mary Featherston in her groundbreaking home, designed by Robin Boyd in 1967 - an intergenerational house where family life and creative work have been intertwined for almost six decades. One of Australia’s most influential voices in design, Mary reflects on the evolution of her home over nearly 60...

In this very special bonus mini episode, we have some huge news about our episode available exclusively on cassette, some even bigger news about another huge launch that’s definitely not on cassette. What else? A preview of Series 3 (which begins June 23) and Kevin’s incredible impersonation of a seagull. If you would like a copy of our cassette, they are available at modernisterbooks....

Tim and Kevin head to Perth to meet businesswoman, arts patron and National Living Treasure Janet Holmes à Court AC inside her extraordinary private gallery housed in a former paint factory. Janet’s gallery is open to the public and her belief that art should be seen by everyone is central to the generosity she shows as an indefatigable champion of the arts in Australia. This is an il...

Tim and Kevin head to Canberra to meet architect Shannon Battison, a former President of the Australian Institute of Architects, who spent a considerable amount of time designing the perfect home for her family. Then she threw a rather large spanner in the works and bought them a new one — a 1970s experimental house designed by her mentor. To make matters worse, it’s quite small and ne...

There’s quite a large amount of your emails in the Manila folder, and it’s time to get through them. We have questions, corrections and some rather bonkers observations. We are also looking to launch the most ridiculous extension to the podcast that anyone could imagine. A rather large small clue is in the graphic above. Rate, subscribe and give yourself a high five. Neil Clerehan audi...

We all want our cities and our neighbourhoods to be better, but what can we do about it? Tim and Kev head to Fremantle in Western Australia to meet Kate Hulett, a community-minded individual who isn’t afraid to step up and have a crack at making change. She’s passionate about Fremantle and her state and, with great positivity, advocates for better housing, more thoughtful and sustainab...

Tim and Kevin take a road trip down to Anglesea, on Victoria’s Surf Coast, to visit architect John Wardle at Burnt Earth Beach House, his award-winning holiday home. Described by his peers as “the architect’s architect”, John is the recipient of the Gold Medal, Australian architecture’s highest honour. He’s also a collector of things, people and ideas, and this...

What’s the most impressive thing you can do for an overseas visitor? Wrangle them an invite to the official residence of the Governor-General? That’s exactly what Tim managed to do for Kevin. In this very special episode, they take a tour of Admiralty House and sit down with the Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia, Her Excellency the Honourable Ms Sam Mostyn AC....

Kevin on the dance floor? The ultimate 1970s party house is on the menu as Tim and Kev hit the Perth suburb of Dianella to visit one of the city’s most talked-about homes. Designed by Bulgarian-born architect Iwan Iwanoff in 1976, the Marsala House is a sculptural, concrete-block Brutalist wonderland that boasts a Saturday Night Fever-style dance floor. The current owner, Greg, flings o...

Enter stage left: Neil Clerehan, the Melbourne architect who helped bring modernism to the suburbs - and a handsome, charming raconteur who waltzed his way through Melbourne society. A talented writer, his wit found a regular home in newspapers for much of his life. In this very special conversation, Tim and Kevin head to the leafy inner-city suburb of South Yarra to sit down with Neil’...

What happens when two young architects build their own home with little money but plenty of ideas? Tim and Kev head to London’s Hampstead to visit Patty Hopkins, one of Britain’s most influential architects and the co-founder of Hopkins Architects, the practice she started with her late husband Michael in 1976. For this very special interview she opens the doors to the iconic glass and...

Tim and Kev head to Brisbane to meet architect John Ellway, who has quietly built a reputation for transforming one of Australia’s most iconic house types - the Queenslander. Working almost entirely in his own neighbourhood, John carefully adapts these classic timber-and-tin homes so they can handle contemporary living while still embracing the subtropical climate that shaped them. Recorded...

Tim and Kev head to Melbourne to visit Ben Shewry, the chef behind the world-famous restaurant Attica, who lives in the 1966 home designed by émigré architect Ernest Fooks. Ben, who has a deep passion for architecture and design, had long admired the house from afar, but he never thought he’d actually own it. In this episode, he not only flings open the door to his incredi...

Tim and Kev head to the Sydney inner-city suburb of Marrickville to visit artist Leila Jeffreys and musician James Roden, who have spent a decade transforming a modest weatherboard cottage into a small but carefully considered home. Their dream? A small sustainable home that works for them and connects them to nature by creating habitat for birds and native species while rethinking what...

Can you imagine living in a museum? Tim and Kev head to Surrey to visit The Homewood, the modernist masterpiece Patrick Gwynne designed for his family in the late 1930s. Completed in 1938, The Homewood is one of the most remarkable examples of pre-war modernist architecture in Britain. Gwynne later gifted the house to the National Trust in 1999, with the stipulation that someone must live in it an...