Grand Designs: House of the Year

Kevin McCloud is joined by architect Damion Burrows and conservation architect Natasha Huq to review the houses in the running for the 2025 Royal Institute of British Architects House of the Year award. The first six include up are a jewel-like home on a remote Hebridean island, a retreat carved into rock on the Cornish cliffs and a London home built behind a butcher's shop, where everything must be hauled through a one-metre alleyway.

On the Kent coast, a contemporary home makes the beach itself part of everyday life, blending work with an endless sense of escape. In east London, a landlocked plot is transformed into a sun-filled sanctuary, precisely angled to catch every ray while shutting out the city around it. In suburban Surrey, a burst of tropical colour, terracotta and greenery conjures the Caribbean. In London, a calm retreat draws on Japanese traditions, with timber frames and courtyards that blur the line between house and garden. In Wiltshire, soaring rooflines stretch outwards to frame vast views of cathedral spires and meadows. California comes to south London in the form of a dazzling American-style glass and steel home. Each house offers an experience like no other. But only the best will earn a place on the shortlist.

The search for the House of the Year 2025 continues with a home in Bannau Brycheiniog, the Brecon Beacons, built from sandstone quarried in the mountains it overlooks. Also, a project that used modern methods to reinvent Norwich's medieval brick tradition and a Suffolk property where handmade brick and Douglas fir beams combine in a striking cruciform design. Finally, an 18th-century Essex barn brought back to life beam-by-beam, its historic frame repaired with seasoned oak using centuries-old techniques.