Grand Designs Australia

Peter Maddison presents season five of the Australian architecture show that follows intrepid individuals as they try to design and construct the home of their dreams. Melbourne doctors Ian Kronborg and Ann Howard are driven to create a home like no other. Their plan is to build a three-storey house clad entirely with water tanks: massive, two-metre-high, H-shaped black plastic beasts that will form the skin of their new abode. The 30-odd tanks necessary to cover the house will hold over 50,000 litres of water – enough to cover their needs for a lifetime and irrigate a rooftop garden too. Ian also has plans for living green walls, with vertical gardens and hanging foliage that should drape the exterior in years to come. It’s a design that’s bound to get the neighbours talking in a suburb brimming with tiny, traditional, weatherboard single-fronted workers’ cottages. After two years chasing planning approval, and then losing their builder, Ian and Ann find they are delayed once more when the council deems that a power pole is too close to the house. It would be enough to make most couples give up, but Ian and Ann push on, each with their own individualistic view of what this house will be. While Ian is focused on the sustainable qualities and operations of the water tank concept, Ann has the more romantic aim of creating a light-filled environment reminiscent of an Italian villa. Can their two ideals meet?, Melbourne doctors Ian Kronborg and Ann Howard are driven to create a home like no other., Two Melbourne doctors create a home like no other.