Grand Designs: House of the Year searches for the UK's top home

Grand Designs presenter Kevin McCloud returns to our screens this month with a special four-part series for Channel 4, exploring the projects in the running for this year's Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) House of the Year award - likened to the "World Cup of Houses" by one nominee.   McCloud will visit some of the UK's most spectacular homes and creative conversions during the search for the winner, revealing how they were built and why they are considered some of the best new British architecture. Highlights include a flint-clad house resembling an Aztec temple, a home built from four shipping containers and a house overlooking the South Downs with red cedar cladding and a folded roof.   Five striking projects across London are strong contenders, including Kew House, a stunning family home tucked behind a 19th-century stable wall in south-west London with two wings linked by glass. At the edge of Hampstead Heath in Highgate, north London, a Fifties house was replaced by an innovative four-bedroom home embedded into a hillside, complete with a cascading stream in the garden.   Each week, the shortlisted buildings will be revealed, with the winner announced during the final programme on November 25.