From humble mud bricks to an Italian mountain with the world’s most prized marble, we start with the foundations of the home. Explore the cave dwellings of our earliest ancestors and the wooden homes of Vikings, all the way to the soaring skyscrapers of modern metropolises. Some of the incredible locations on the itinerary include a sleek, earthen eco-retreat built of lava; an ambitious archeological effort in France to build a medieval castle from scratch; Hampton Court Palace to explore the history behind King Henry VIII’s brick pleasure palace; Pasadena, California, where movie buffs will recognize an iconic American Craftsman home; and San Francisco, where we meet award-winning designer Yves Béhar who is designing homes of the future.
Step inside the home to discover the fascinating origins of how our favorite rooms evolved. Feast in the original hall of fame at the world’s largest Viking Hall. Then journey to Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello and its incredible kitchen where the beloved french fry may have been invented. You will need to be on your best behavior to sit with the lords and ladies dining with us at Highclere Castle (from Downton Abbey). And finally, explore the luxurious living rooms of Hearst Castle and meet interior designer to the stars Brigette Romanek.
Go upstairs to the most intimate rooms of the house — the study, the bathroom, and the bedroom. Working from home takes on new meaning in history’s greatest studies as we pull back the curtains on the rooms that made Mark Twain, Thomas Edison and Virginia Woolf. Next, dive into the dirty details behind the most private room in the house; the bathroom. After, we explore the boudoirs of French kings and queens at a castle 500 years older than Versailles and take a look inside the high-tech bedroom designs of the future. Finally, we will look to the horizon to see what the future of home on earth, and even on Mars, might look like.
