When we made the first series of Grand Designs, a decade ago, it broke the mould and busted myths. Following a host of optimistic home-builders as they fought with planners, tussled with their architects – and sometimes spent a great deal of money in the process – we documented their journeys and their tribulations. Most of the projects overcame the obstacles that inevitably cropped up to become a dream realised; a few have gone horribly wrong. All show the levels to which people can aspire architecturally, and all illustrate that powerful relationship with the made world around us.

Grand Designs has so far trailed 67 projects from inception to completion, ranging from the restoration of a castle in Yorkshire to an “underground house” built into the earth in Cumbria. Many of those we’ve filmed are exemplary – the first series featured an ambitious eco-house in north London and a sustainable community self-build in Brighton. We’ve also documented a revolution in attitudes towards building and the environment: whereas in 1999, green issues were of interest to a minority of self-builders, now, in nearly every case, they represent an important part of the building’s philosophy.

It is the wide variety of projects that has kept Grand Designs fresh over the past 10 years. This week, the ninth series begins, and each of the eight new projects is, of course, very different. All, however, follow ordinary people on extraordinary journeys.

My five all-time personal favourites, which range from the woodman Ben Law’s cottage in West Sussex to Monty Ravenscroft’s innovative home squeezed into a tiny site in south London, are all about pushing the boundaries. There isn’t a conventional big, white modernist cube – what you could call the standard midlife-crisis home – among them.

They all attempt a bespoke and idiosyncratic response to where they are. Together, they crystallise what Grand Designs is all about: vision and risk.

The new series of Grand Designs starts on Wednesday at 9pm on Channel 4

THE WOODMAN'S COTTAGE, WEST SUSSEX

Despite the name, this house – McCloud’s favourite – is not a cosy stone cottage with a thatched roof. It is built almost entirely from the trees in the woods in which it stands. The A-frame is made of trunks, the floor is a wooden platform and there are oak shingles on the roof. It is insulated with recycled newspaper under the floor and barley-straw bales stacked between the frame and the internal studwork. Its walls, covered in lime plaster, are curved in places, where the straw beneath the plaster has been shaped with a chainsaw. The property generates all its electricity (which is then stored in old submarine batteries) from solar panels previously used in the Big Brother house and wind turbines; the taps are fed from a nearby spring. The project was shown in the third series of Grand Designs in 2003.

Who built it? Ben Law, 43, a woodman, with the assistance of a small army of volunteers, who stayed in the woods and helped to build the house in return for food, drink and tuition from a master carpenter.

How did he get the idea?Ben had been living for 10 years in tents and caravans in the wood, part of which he owns. When the planners told him he couldn’t continue to do so, he decided to build something that “sat as lightly as possible on the landscape”.

How much did it cost? The price was £28,000, most of it for materials. The only labour costs were victuals for the volunteer builders. Law already owned the land.

How long did it take to build? The A-frame went up in a day, but it took seven months to finish the original one-bedroom, one-bathroom house. Ben, married to Bev, 42, has since added a small two-bedroom extension for children Zed, 3 and Tess, 2.

Times recommends

• Second homes: credit crunch casualty or money-spinner?
• How I built my own sliding house
• Top 10 incentives for house buyers