As Grand Designs Live returns to London ExCeL (5-13 May), we ask TV presenter and design guru Kevin McCloud for his views on planning for modern cities, the smartest way to go green — and how he really feels about garden gnomes.

The architect's iconic Straw Bale House was featured on Grand Designs back in 1999, and since then it has achieved cult status for its green credentials. 

Reluctant to move, interior designer Mel Massey decided to stay put and renovate her family’s four-bedroom home.

After years working in Los Angeles, this couple tore down all but two walls of a Victorian cottage in Surrey and recreated the inside-outside Californian lifestyle they had grown to love.

If the entire roof had not needed replacing, Valentina would never have got herself a bright and warm 'new' Victorian mews house.

The designer is a fan of London's art galleries and his secret shop is an old-fashioned ironmongers he discovered by chance.

Young Masters Art Prize founder Cynthia Corbett's dining room decor was inspired by Monet.

The founder of fragrance house Ormonde Jayne on her favourite antiques dealers, why she loves H&M Home and why she'll always stop at The Conran Shop on the way to the cheese shop.

The Hayward Gallery's senior curator shares her favourite places to shop in the capital and why she's a born and bred south-east Londoner.

Better flow is key to the ingenious transformation of a poky Fulham flat into a spacious showcase home.