Can’t believe we are already six months into the pandemic and counting! Being in a creative field like architecture, sitting home day-in and day-out, we keep reuniting with our favourite friend Mr. Creative Block. Remember him? Grumpy, irritated, makes you question why you didn’t leave undergrad school with that friend who quit in the first year?

So if you have been feeling uninspired, bored and have finished binge watching your ‘Tiger King’s and ‘Indian Matchmaking’s; we have put together a small list of series that we have been spuriously watching to keep our creative juices flowing and keep Mr. Grumpy at bay.

Lets dive into it then!

Never Too Small

Never Too Small is a media company dedicated to small foot print design and living. They showcase how houses with a tiny footprint can still be designed innovatively by using multi-functional furniture and smart planning. The best thing about the show, each episode is not more than 10 minutes making it an easy watch. The show literally made us want to design a tiny house that very instant.

Watch: Never Too Small

Follow: @nvtsmall

Find: www.nevertoosmall.com

The World’s Most Extraordinary Homes

World’s Most Extraordinary Homes is a docu-series which follows award winning architect Piers Taylor and actress/property developer Caroline Quentin, who explore a range of architect designed homes in both, extreme locations around the world and around various countries. This series has a total of two seasons that are so engrossing to watch that you will kick yourself for watching it all in a day. Because they travel literally all around the world to pick out the most extraordinary home, each and every design style of the house is vastly different from the next one. Moreover, Caroline and Piers are exceptional hosts and keep the vibe of the show so light and entertaining that we are craving a third season of the show! Bad news, season 3 is yet not announced. Good news, Piers and Caroline have teamed up to host another architecture and design related show which we are pretty excited about!

Watch: Netflix

Follow: @worldsmostextraordinaryhomes, @quentyquestions, @invisible_studio

Grand Designs UK

Grand Designs is a British television series which features unusual and often elaborate personal architectural home-building projects which is more process oriented rather than design oriented. The show highlights the struggle and risk that people go through to build their dream homes. The show is presented by Kevin McCloud since it first aired in April 1999 and more then 200 episodes have been broadcasted over 20 seasons. We discovered the show last month and were hooked! Currently, in USA and India, only two seasons are available on Netflix. Each episode is an hour long which usually starts with Kevin meeting the home-builders at the inception of the project, followed by a very clear explanation of the design intent with the aid of a digital model. He then keeps meeting the home-builders at varying stages of the build which we feel is the best part of the show as the viewer feels involved in the complete building process - right from design conception, to construction, to the final product.

Watch: Netflix, Channel4

Follow: @granddesignstv, @kevin.mccloud1

Find: www.granddesignsmagazine.com

Buildofy

Buildofy is India’s first and largest architecture and design video channel on YouTube founded by Dhwaj Shah and Neetal Shah, where Indian architects and designers showcase and explain their work. Most videos are quiet short, about 8 - 15 minutes, but very design focused. Prior to the pandemic, each episode would be a conversation with the architect/designer with them explaining the ideas and concepts behind their projects via sketches, images and walk-throughs. What is really impressive is how the show very quickly adapted to the changing times. Even during the pandemic, Buildofy has kept releasing new episodes with a series of project images and a voice over by the architects themselves explaining their projects. Each time we watch an episode we are spellbound at how well the architecture and design field in India has developed (and is developing) and what a powerhouse each and every designer showcased is.

Watch: Youtube

Follow: @buildofy.india, @dhwaj.sky

Find: www.buildofy.com

Small Budget Big Make Over

This gem of a show we discovered back in 2018. The power couple architects and founders of SiCiDi Architecture, Muninder Singh Chowdhry and Vishakha Dholakia Chowdhry, are so creative and entertaining that one wants to keep binging on this show to watch them interact with clients and each other. Based in India, this show is about, yes you guessed it right, clients with small budgets who want a big makeover for their homes. The most interesting part is the vast difference between the ‘before’ and ‘after’ look of the space. It wasn’t just us but our non-architect family members were hooked onto the show as well!

Watch: Small Budget Big Make Over

Follow: @munindersinghchowdhry, @vishakha.chowdhry, @sicidi_architecture

Find: www.sicidiarchitecture.com