Grand Designs: 13x7

South London: Modernist Masterpiece

A young couple want take on an average 1950s house and turn it into an architectural masterpiece.

After a year of searching London for somewhere exciting to live with their young girls Lola and Sylva, Ben and Rachel Hammond stumbled upon a house on a totally unique plot, buried within the leafy depths of a beautiful south London park. Only problem is the house itself – an ugly, inefficient and uninspiring red brick property.

Their solution is uncompromising. With the help of their architect friend Zac, they decide not to knock it down, but to radically redesign, remodel and transform this unsightly lump it into a sleek, crisp, modernist masterpiece.

This is no easy task however. Their cutting edge new materials struggle to get past the local planning department and building control. Delivery of key elements like the giant glass window panes is massively delayed. The contractors struggle to deliver on an incredibly tight fixed price contract, and Ben and Rachel have to work flat out in their day jobs to pay for everything.