Durham Dales 2025

Kevin McCloud follows more of Britain's most ambitious self-building projects, as intrepid individuals attempt to design and construct the home of their dreams. After 40 years living largely in the southeast of England, artist Sarah is returning to her roots in the northeast with towering ambitions for an exposed, three-acre plot that she's bought at auction in the Durham Dales. She wants to create a radical home and creative hub combined, including a studio and gallery for displaying and selling art. With her budget of £330,000, Sarah hopes to build with a super-sustainable yet still relatively unknown and hard-to-predict material - hempcrete. Left exposed throughout the interior, the hempcrete will provide a dramatic earthy look, but this relies on the building process going perfectly. But, just a few months into Sarah's eight-month schedule, her plan to move in before winter is scuppered as her inexperience as a project manager starts to show. With material costs going through the roof, and her budget doing likewise, selling her one-bed holiday cottage looks like the only way to keep building. As the critical hemp process gets going, and proves increasingly tortuous and unpredictable, the success of Sarah's project hangs in the balance.