Grand Designs’ Kevin McCloud: ‘We should be building houses for future generations, not profit’

Grand Designs UK host Kevin McCloud has taken aim at dodgy developers as NSW grapples with defective new-build crisis, saying “we should be building houses for future generations, not profit”.

Grand Designs presenter Kevin McCloud in Surry Hills ahead of his national live tour: Kevin McCloud's Home Truths. Picture: Justin Lloyd

“What I should first of all offer someone from your generation is an apology,” Grand Designs host Kevin McCloud said when asked about Sydney’s housing crisis.

The British designer, writer, and television presenter has presented the BAFTA-winning series since its debut in 1999.

He was not surprised to hear a recent state government strata survey had found 53 per cent of apartments registered from 2016 to 2022 have at least one serious defect.

“The entire property industry is focused on one thing: money,” the 64-year-old told The Daily Telegraph.

“Generating more profit, that’s the driver. So what we get is a relatively poor built environment because somebody wants to make more money by cutting corners.”

McCloud arrived in Sydney this week to do some filming with his Grand Designs Australia counterpart Anthony Burke, ahead of his first live Home Truths Q&A show at ICC on Friday.

This townhouse at 19 Waterloo Street in Surry Hills, designed and owned by SJB architect Adam Haddow, delighted Grand Designs host Kevin McCloud. Picture: SJB Architects

He was delighted to share his latest architectural find: 19 Waterloo Street in Surry Hills, winner of 2023 Robin Boyd Award for Residential Architecture.

“It’s a little townhouse built to passive house standards, almost entirely out of recycled materials,” McCloud said. “The footprint is 10m by 3m deep, but it has seven levels.

The seven-floor home is built almost entirely from recycled materials. Picture: SJB Architects

The home is on a 30 sqm site and has a total internal area of 69 sqm. Picture: SJB Architects

“We went over yesterday and all the windows were open. Despite the humidity, there was a cool breeze coming through. It is really cool.”

It comes as buildings riddled with defects have been uncovered in almost every part of NSW, prompting the state’s construction watchdog to crackdown on dodgy developers.

A total of 10 separate buildings across NSW have been issued with rectification orders by Fair Trading NSW to fix defects in the last month including two developments containing more than 50 separate defects.

Many of them are occupied by residents and were completed within the last 10 years.

“I do believe we could design our way out of housing crisis,” McCloud said.

“The reason I say that is because pretty well every architect I speak to wants to do just that and is trained to do that and is interested in doing that.”

However McCloud says housing intensification and development “is a process that engineers out so much quality in the interest of generating income.”

McCloud advocates for high quality buildings that last a long time. Picture: Justin Lloyd

Sustainability isn’t about carbon footprint, he added — “which by the way is a term that was invented by for a piece of 1990s advertising by BP”— but about making things that last.

“If you’re not building buildings to last then all the effort and energy that goes into them is wasted.”

McCloud points at an old terrace house in Surry Hills.

“Look at any historic building and you feel the energy and enthusiasm and the passion with which is was built because they believed in it,” he said.

“And it was built because they believed in delivering something of real quality, which they were proud of, as opposed to something which no one is.”

This month, McCloud diffused industry whispers of retirement from the beloved documentary series.

“Television is quite addictive,” he said.

“It’s a funny job, if it’s a job at all. It’s part enthusiasm, part communication, part entertainment.

“There’s so much of that world that I’ve yet to explore that I don’t tire of it.”
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