Grand Designs Extras Editor's Letter July

Date Published:

04/06/2009

One hundred thousand people visited Grand Designs Live last month – that’s a staggering number, the more so because the country is gripped by recession. And these people weren’t just coming for a grand day out, though there was much on offer (turn to page 31 to read our highlights). Many came to find ideas for their home, to look for suppliers, and to buy.

That’s perhaps the difference between this year and last year’s show – in 2008 we were still talking about property, equity, and rising house prices; 2009 is the year we’re all staying put and focusing instead on creating great places to live. Which is why the advice from our resident architect, George Clarke, is really on-the-money this month. George shows one couple how investing and reworking the layout of their flat can make it a much more successful place to life, as well as adding value. To see how, go to page 146.

A good architect is worth his or her weight in gold. These guys train for years, and, as our Ask the Architect feature demonstrates each month, will think of solutions you’d never even contemplated. Not convinced? Read our guide on page 135.

Finally, an update on our Great British Refurb campaign. We launched with great success at Grand Designs Live – so far 3,000 people have signed up to our petition. Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, joined Kevin McCloud for a discussion on the challenge of making our existing housing stock energy efficient and what the Government is doing to make this possible. This month Ed Miliband writes for us exclusively on this topic – see page 28 for this and to read more about the campaign. And if you haven’t already done so, please sign up to the petition at greatbritishrefurb.co.uk. Together we really can make a difference.

Claire Barrett, editor

What's Kevin up to..?

Spurred on by Daren Howarth and Adi Nortje’s innovative and unusual groundhouse in Brittany featured on the recent series of Grand Designs, which used 1,000 old car tyres for its walls, Kevin investigates other uses for ex-tyres. And discovers that there are very few to be found. ‘Thirty-five per cent are recycled. Into all kinds of useful, human-friendly products… these products might account for, oh, I don’t know, ten tons of tyres. That’s a whopping 0.002 per cent of the tyre mountain.’ See page 132 for the full story.

This edition of the Editor's Letter is taken from the July issue of Grand Designs magazine. If you would like to subscribe for as little as £9 then head here to find out more.

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