3. Kevin McCloud
3. Kevin McCloud (Image 3 of 3)
Kevin McCloud is a designer, presenter and author. With a family background in engineering, a degree in the history of art and architecture and experience as a theatre designer, he brings many different perspectives to the Grand Designs series. Kevin has written and presented every series of Grand Designs, plus one of Grand Designs Indoors. He also appeared on odd slots in the early days of Home Front, and presented the tall buildings/climbing series Don't Look Down for BBC2. Further Grand Designs series are planned for the near future.
When not filming, Kevin runs a product design practice, specialising in lighting and furniture. He has designed lighting for some of the finest buildings in Europe and many great houses – Ely Cathedral, Edinburgh Castle, two European palaces, the Savoy and Dorchester hotels, to name a few. He has also worked on home products for Fired Earth and ranges of tableware, lighting and other homeware items for Debenhams.
Kevin has written books on colour, home decorating and lighting. His exclusive lighting designs (McCloud Lightning) are hand-built under licence.
A Dream Ticket
'Doing Grand Designs is a dream ticket for me,' he says. 'I started by pursuing a (terminated) career in music, and then I went to Cambridge to take a degree in languages, which quickly changed to philosophy, then finally to the history of art and architecture. I then retrained as a designer and led two weird, parallel lives designing both in the theatre and in people's houses. I've designed exhibitions, graphics, product and spaces, settling eventually – for no particular reason other than people bought the stuff – on lighting and furniture. I enjoy it all.
'I also enjoy the performing that TV entails. I'm a jack-of-all-trades and everything I've done has revolved around people's homes and the way they use them. Television seems the perfect place for me. It suits all my unfocused interests and amateurish enthusiasms …'
Personal Crusade
But Kevin also has a personal crusade – for architecture and design that honours and responds to the people who use them: 'The most important piece of architecture any of us ever experience is the home we live in. If Grand Designs can do anything, it can at least raise the level of our awareness and especially our expectations of the quality of the buildings we live in.'
He also believes that the best design – whether traditional or radically modern – relates to context: landscape, place and neighbouring buildings. Environmental issues are also of prime importance: 'Eco-building is no longer the domain of the knit-your-own-sandals brigade. Legislation and the Rio and Kyoto protocols require us to consider the environmental impact of everything we do, and clearly our homes are big producers of pollution both in their construction and in day-to-day running.
'It behoves us all – in fact, I think it's an ethical prerogative – to minimise the use of highly processed materials, to recycle, to insulate and minimise the use of fossil fuels to keep our buildings warm. But sustainable issues are complex, involving 'full life cycle' and 'embodied energy' analyses, and the eco-lobby's resorting to scare mongering doesn't make things easier. So it's important to research building methods and materials fully.'
For more on Kevin with details and comments on his interests and activities visit his site.
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