Features

It's "the arse of the world" according to Mark Haddon's best seller; it's "the dullest town of its size in the UK" says an on-line guide and to comedian Eddie Izzard it's a "knackered, kind of Fresno Town"…

But, according to Kevin McCloud the presenter of Channel 4's Grand Designs: "Swindon is a delight".

"Swindon is a delight"

It's not often you hear the words "Swindon" and "delight" in the same sentence let alone from the mouth of one of the country's leading exponents of good taste and good design. 

"I love it, you know, I travel all over Britain and I look at a lot of really crap towns and Swindon is not a crap town.

"Don't you feel good about this place?  I think it's a great town and I think it's got tremendous potential."

In fact Kevin has been so taken with Swindon's potential that after 18 months of work, and a year exploring Britain, he's chosen it to be the site of his first foray into volume house-building.

The Design is going to be Grand

Over the years, to an audience of 6.2 million, Kevin has been the prophet-of-doom presence to the chaos of other people's Grand Designs.  Now, however, it's his project that's on the line.

Having set up his own development company, HAB Housing, Kevin is out to prove that there is an alternative to the bulk of the UK's poor quality volume house-building. And a green alternative at that.

For a buyer of one of McClud's HAB homes, it seems, you'll not only be buying into a spot of good design and 'proper architecture' but be taking part in some unapologetic 'social engineering' as well.

Swindon's McCloud HAB Homes

In Swindon two developments, of 150-200 HAB homes, are all set to be built with the whole process being filmed by TalkBack Thames for Channel 4:

"We're working on a total of up to 400 homes across both sites," says Kevin, "which offer challenges, not least of which is the fact they're both currently very green spaces.

"One is a redundant allotment site with scrubland to the north; the other is greenfield agricultural land in Swindon's 'front garden'. But our interest in these sites starts with what they already have: the trees, their open space and their ecology."

But, as McCloud would say if it was anyone else's projects but his own: a contextual, sustainable, contemporary, enjoyable, sociable and profitable build?  "I'm just not sure if they can carry it off."