Grand Designs Live 2008
Added On: 29/05/2008
1 RatingsThe Grand Designs TV show goes Live in London Excel!
The hit Channel 4 series Grand Designs, presented by Kevin Cloud, follows unusual and unique architectural house-building projects in the UK and Europe.
The Grand Design team is now organising regular exhibition shows in London and Birmingham, presenting the best new eco and green technologies for existing homes and new house-builds, and a host of other home-related products.
Our GoEcoGo team visited the Grand Designs show at the London Excel (3-11th May 08) to see what all the chatter was about...
The show ran in parallel with a series of live Grand Designs TV slots on Channel 4 with presenter Melanie Sykes, and the studio was right in the middle of the Excel show. So if you got weary walking around the stands you could go and watch a TV show being made, all rather interesting!
Grand Designs Live Show Highlights
There were so many highlights to the show, but here were some of favourite our show stands and green businesses.
Solardome
The main exhibition stand was dominated by the amazing Solardome stand, a well laid-out garden with 3 geodesic glass domes, each filled with a variety of different plants and herbs. We'd live in a Solardome if we could, the designs look great and they're extremely practical for gardening or fantastic as a living space.
Worcester-Bosch Boilers
Worcester-Bosch are really leading the way with new green boiler and central heating technologies, and the fact that every gas boiler in their current range has a SEDBUK A rating is testament this. The guys and girls on the Worcester-Bosch boiler stand were from a number of different parts of the business, and they were all happy to chat to visitors about pretty much anything! The stand was packed with boiler and central heating products so you could have a good poke around, top marks!
Zimsculpt
We loved the beautiful sculptures on display on the Zimsculpt stand, hand-made by stone sculptors from Zimbabwe. A few of the artists had come over to talk about their sculptures too, it was great to meet the people behind the art.
SolaLighting
SolaLighting have a variety of innovative green products which we were particularly impressed with, one being the SolaTube daylight system. Reflective tubes from the roof shine sunlight through to any upstairs room, giving you natural sunlight.
Not only will it save you on your electricity bills by giving you free light, but they will also bathe any gloomy rooms in a nice warm glow, highly recommended. The representitives at the SolaLighting stand were friendly and knowledgeble too, nice to see a smile!
We'll be adding more reviews from the show in the coming weeks, highlights include an eco house built during the show and the fantastic Decode Design, and news on the upcoming Grand Designs Show at the Birmingham NEC, coming soon!
And Finally...
The Grand Designs Show held it's own awards ceremony for a variety of different categories, so we thought we'd give a few awards of our own...
Check out this video from the Grand Designs London show 2008, for info on the eco house they built.
Most Hypnotising Stand
Goes to...Twirlees
Walk into the stand and you may never leave, their reflective products left us happily confused and missing 20 minutes.
Best Celebrity Stare
Goes to...Janet Street Porter
After some mild baiting, we got a glare that could turn your heart to stone from the legendary face of thunder, Janet S.P.
Favourite Show Freebie
Goes to...Bombay Sapphire Gin
Free bar!
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