0:00:00 > 0:00:00and other contenders for the the prestigious design award
0:00:00 > 0:00:10the Royal Institute of British Architects Stirling Prize 2017.
0:00:48 > 0:00:57Six startling buildings, and behind each one, the story of people,
0:00:57 > 0:01:01problems and some beautiful solutions. All competing for the
0:01:01 > 0:01:06biggest prize in British architecture. The Stirling Prize.
0:01:06 > 0:01:11What are you looking for?We are looking for the very highest level
0:01:11 > 0:01:18of architectural achievement. What we're doing here is celebrating
0:01:18 > 0:01:29Civitas, the idea that cities have a role in bringing together the
0:01:29 > 0:01:33social, economic and cultural well-being of their citizens, and I
0:01:33 > 0:01:39think these buildings, this short list, really does I think mark out
0:01:39 > 0:01:41our contribution to that territory.
0:01:47 > 0:01:55Look at that! City of dreams.It's like walking into the gates of
0:01:55 > 0:01:57heaven.
0:02:01 > 0:02:13It looks seriously so dope. It looks so cool.And its tremendous fun,
0:02:13 > 0:02:18it's like a haven of quietness and freedom and madness. It's just
0:02:18 > 0:02:32brilliant, for me it's excellent. Wow! Blimey.I think what's unique
0:02:32 > 0:02:36about this building is it a strikingly modern building in a very
0:02:36 > 0:02:45sensitive conservation environment. I love this building because it
0:02:45 > 0:02:52reflects so many elements of the historic dockyard.When the fire
0:02:52 > 0:02:56happened, people were so devastated, people just felt like they had to do
0:02:56 > 0:03:03something to help.Lavender, very nice. There is a touch of the
0:03:03 > 0:03:06English country cottage garden about all of this, the wickerwork, the old
0:03:06 > 0:03:11handles, but looks can be deceiving, because this is actually a very
0:03:11 > 0:03:16modern brick built block of flats. But inside, there is a surprise,
0:03:16 > 0:03:22because this is one of six buildings nominated for this year's Stirling
0:03:22 > 0:03:29building of the year. And over the next half an hour, we will be
0:03:29 > 0:03:31looking at all of them and working at quite why they have been
0:03:31 > 0:03:36nominated, at the end, we will find out who has won. But first, a look
0:03:36 > 0:03:40at a much loved building, one that needs to be reinvented for the
0:03:40 > 0:03:5421st-century, but has the last few years had a habit of burning down.
0:03:55 > 0:04:02It gets you in here. You just think, why?You were here when it burnt
0:04:02 > 0:04:07down?I was.
0:04:08 > 0:04:11People that had never spoken to before were stopping me to talk
0:04:11 > 0:04:21about the
0:04:23 > 0:04:27Pier, and every body was devastated. It was quite frightening to think
0:04:27 > 0:04:33how people would come back from that.Did you think it was all over?
0:04:33 > 0:04:42Idea to, but actually it was the opposite.The Victorian pier, a part
0:04:42 > 0:04:50of the seaside. But the history of the British peer is all too often a
0:04:50 > 0:04:57history of recurring disaster. Scattered timbers, all the remains
0:04:57 > 0:05:01of Worthing Pier.
0:05:21 > 0:05:26My parents met in the ballroom on the pier, so I class myself as a
0:05:26 > 0:05:33pier baby.And this is where the pier ballroom used to be.I don't
0:05:33 > 0:05:40know how this works. You need a man as well, you see.You want me to
0:05:40 > 0:05:53waltz with you, don't you? I don't think we are going to make Strictly,
0:05:53 > 0:05:55are we
0:05:55 > 0:05:59think we are going to make Strictly, are we?I didn't see it at the time,
0:05:59 > 0:06:03I saw it the next day when it was smoking and smouldering, and you
0:06:03 > 0:06:09just think, why? Very emotional. And to think that it happened, but in
0:06:09 > 0:06:14some ways, I think it was a blessing in disguise, because we've been able
0:06:14 > 0:06:18to go forward with this beautiful structure, and I'm not sure whether
0:06:18 > 0:06:26if it hadn't been for the fire that we would have come this far.Seven
0:06:26 > 0:06:30years on, Jill and thousands of others in the town now own the pier,
0:06:30 > 0:06:45and have overseen the reinvention of an old friend. This curtain of glass
0:06:45 > 0:06:57finally gives the people of Hastings a panoramic view out to sea. The
0:06:57 > 0:07:01woodwork here is still the original timber, there are still some scorch
0:07:01 > 0:07:05marks. But the most important innovation is this. Nothing. What
0:07:05 > 0:07:12they chose not to build. The empty space. There is no end of the pier.
0:07:28 > 0:07:36Building a pier, it's a bit of a mad idea, isn't it?It's bonkers, yes.
0:07:36 > 0:07:40And that's what's so brilliant about it, is nobody in their right mind
0:07:40 > 0:07:46would build a pier out of a material which is going to be dissolved where
0:07:46 > 0:07:52it stands.You are fighting a losing battle everyday?Absolutely, and we
0:07:52 > 0:07:57will need to keep on replacing parts everyday. It gets worn, it gets worn
0:07:57 > 0:08:01away. We didn't have enough money during the reconstruction to replace
0:08:01 > 0:08:04everything, so we are constantly repairing, tidying up nuts and
0:08:04 > 0:08:08bolts. Nowadays you would build it out of concrete and steel.Yes.
0:08:08 > 0:08:12You're going to put your finger on the one thing that makes it so
0:08:12 > 0:08:18special, the design, what would it be?Space. You don't get a vision of
0:08:18 > 0:08:22the pier until you get out the far end, and you see this horizon to
0:08:22 > 0:08:27horizon, and you say, now I get it. You look at it from above and you
0:08:27 > 0:08:34say, so what? You get out there and you go, aha, now I understand, and
0:08:34 > 0:08:37you have to be there to see it.
0:08:50 > 0:08:55So, Hastings Pier, flexibility, designed to last long into the
0:08:55 > 0:08:59future, and also involving the community. And all those things also
0:08:59 > 0:09:06apply here, another of the Stirling nominees, this is the City of
0:09:06 > 0:09:09Glasgow College, and this is the central atrium. What's it all about?
0:09:09 > 0:09:15They wanted a bit of wow factor, the Cinderella of British education,
0:09:15 > 0:09:20they wanted to give it a bit of civic dignity. But before we look at
0:09:20 > 0:09:31the full details of here, two of the buildings of this year's Stirling
0:09:31 > 0:09:32nominees.
0:09:36 > 0:09:43Essentially, Juergen wanted a studio, a place to work. That means
0:09:43 > 0:09:47quite a few things, shooting photographs, making books, making
0:09:47 > 0:09:51exhibitions as well as obviously lots of people, so really that's
0:09:51 > 0:09:54where the idea of several buildings in several gardens, so somewhere
0:09:54 > 0:09:58where lots of different types of shoots can happen in a very natural
0:09:58 > 0:10:05setting.Juergen wanted to share his home with the studio. We wanted this
0:10:05 > 0:10:09new building to have the same moments of intimacy, so he still has
0:10:09 > 0:10:13the kitchen table which is where he does meet clients and where he
0:10:13 > 0:10:17works, there is a library, sauna, Jim, there is a very private in a
0:10:17 > 0:10:22world to the studio, and there is a big studio where he lays out and
0:10:22 > 0:10:25does shoot things, then there is the public building at the front which
0:10:25 > 0:10:30has different collaborators and staff and an archive. There is
0:10:30 > 0:10:33equality between garden and internal space, all the way through the
0:10:33 > 0:10:38building, that is a beautiful part of it. But reduced palette that has
0:10:38 > 0:10:42texture but allows it to be the background and allows his
0:10:42 > 0:10:46photography to be the foreground. There is a sort of quality of light
0:10:46 > 0:10:52both within and in the gardens which is almost archaic, and I think that
0:10:52 > 0:11:00that makes an amazing setting for the kind of work that Juergen does.
0:11:00 > 0:11:03I'm using every single centimetre of the space, and I photograph every
0:11:03 > 0:11:09bit of it, and it is tremendous fun, it is like a haven of quietness and
0:11:09 > 0:11:15freedom and madness. It is just brilliant. For me, it's excellent.
0:11:42 > 0:11:52So, the three major challenges at the dockyard would exhibit the
0:11:52 > 0:11:54ships' timbers, to build 21st-century visitor facilities, and
0:11:54 > 0:12:00to provide gallery spaces which told the story of the dockyard in the age
0:12:00 > 0:12:03of sailing, and we managed to do this by introducing a new building
0:12:03 > 0:12:08into the dockyard which allowed for the communication and circulation of
0:12:08 > 0:12:14visitors around the galleries.As an example of why I like this building,
0:12:14 > 0:12:19it acts as a real beacon for visitors.For me, the building is
0:12:19 > 0:12:23very special because we've managed to find a way to respond to a very
0:12:23 > 0:12:29sensitive historic setting with an architecture that is quite robust
0:12:29 > 0:12:33and allows the buildings around it to speak.I love this building
0:12:33 > 0:12:37because it reflects so many elements of the historic dockyard, and in
0:12:37 > 0:12:41those modern reflections, it unlocks the stories that are contained
0:12:41 > 0:12:44within the original buildings.
0:13:12 > 0:13:17Wow, look at that. City of dreams. It is so cool. It has got lights.
0:13:17 > 0:13:22Not just regular lights, purple lights. It looks awesome. It smells
0:13:22 > 0:13:29so new. There is a cost a
0:13:29 > 0:13:35lights. It looks awesome. It smells so new. There is a cost a! I would
0:13:35 > 0:13:44have preferred a Starbucks, but Costa is better than nothing.This
0:13:44 > 0:13:47film was made by a student, King Billy Hawker, capturing her
0:13:47 > 0:13:58reactions on seeing the new college.
0:14:03 > 0:14:08A year later, we invited her back to take us on a tour.It is like hidden
0:14:08 > 0:14:12surprises, still places that halfway through my course I was just
0:14:12 > 0:14:15discovering upon. I think it is really great that they have hidden
0:14:15 > 0:14:18these little secret gems all over the college. In here is the salon,
0:14:18 > 0:14:29and also the market where they have the bakery.Wow.It's so incredible,
0:14:29 > 0:14:32and I think that's what every student feels when they walk in here
0:14:32 > 0:14:40for the first time, it has a wow factor to it, and it here for the
0:14:40 > 0:14:45students, you know?From the outside, we wanted something that
0:14:45 > 0:14:50had a very strong civic presence, that had an elegance. It's built on
0:14:50 > 0:14:54a hill, so we wanted it to accentuate that. We wanted to put
0:14:54 > 0:14:59this building up on a pedestal. We wanted to say, here in Glasgow, this
0:14:59 > 0:15:06is the building that we think the college deserves.One of the things
0:15:06 > 0:15:13that we were trying to do was to make a place that would be equally
0:15:13 > 0:15:17attractive to young people as the shopping mall or the park corner, a
0:15:17 > 0:15:22place that would allow their social lives to exist as well as receive
0:15:22 > 0:15:28their education.You wanted it to be fun?Yes, to make a place that can
0:15:28 > 0:15:31let people enjoy what they're doing, and be proud of it.Did it work? We
0:15:31 > 0:15:44will meet 17-year-old catering student Lee Christie.My favourite
0:15:44 > 0:15:49kitchen. This is the best kitchen in the college itself. When I walked
0:15:49 > 0:15:59into this kitchen, I was like, is this a college kitchen?! It's like
0:15:59 > 0:16:07walking into the gates of heaven. You walk in, it's open.
0:16:25 > 0:16:30Well, the museum had a very complex 40-year master plan for the site, a
0:16:30 > 0:16:33lot of it to do with supplementing the front of house experience,
0:16:33 > 0:16:36adding conservation and science and logistics, and a lot of these were
0:16:36 > 0:16:41challenges left over on the museum compound from a work that is being
0:16:41 > 0:16:45evolving for 250 years, so what we did was we spent a tremendous amount
0:16:45 > 0:16:47of time with the museum understanding their wants and needs
0:16:47 > 0:16:53to try to respond to the brief. Essentially they wanted to create a
0:16:53 > 0:16:58world conservation and exhibition Centre for the whole of the museum
0:16:58 > 0:17:02campus. This is really a celebration of all of the background work that
0:17:02 > 0:17:05maintains this collection and studies it appropriately. And it
0:17:05 > 0:17:12also creates a fantastic vehicle within which the wider world
0:17:12 > 0:17:17contributions and exchanges can exist.The building is a
0:17:17 > 0:17:21state-of-the-art facility for conservation and scientific
0:17:21 > 0:17:24research, it has helped to bring all of those staff together to work
0:17:24 > 0:17:29together, and it has helped us to design new laboratory services to
0:17:29 > 0:17:37better understand the collection and communicate it to the wider public.
0:17:37 > 0:17:42What is striking about this building is that it is a great environment,
0:17:42 > 0:17:50and by the end of the process here, I felt like I worked here rather
0:17:50 > 0:17:54than the partners.
0:17:58 > 0:18:03We are in the middle of Stoke Newington in Hackney surrounded by
0:18:03 > 0:18:05these fairly straightforward and Victorian and Edwardian redbrick
0:18:05 > 0:18:19terraces.And then we get this almost cartoonish apartments.So
0:18:19 > 0:18:23where are the bins?This is very cleverly disguising the bike store
0:18:23 > 0:18:26on the one side and the bins on the other, the sorts of things usually
0:18:26 > 0:18:31left out.Lets see what it looks like inside. I love these sorts of
0:18:31 > 0:18:36things. This is all the stuff that is usually causing a blight on the
0:18:36 > 0:18:40outside, nicely hidden away. Exactly.This is not what I was
0:18:40 > 0:18:48expecting. It's a sea of wood.It is a bit like entering a kind of sauna.
0:18:48 > 0:18:52This is plywood, is it?It is known as cross laminated timber, so it is
0:18:52 > 0:18:58a super sized form of plywood.John Boehner plywood!Exactly, it allows
0:18:58 > 0:19:08buildings to go up to ten or more stories.There is still a lot of
0:19:08 > 0:19:12wood, isn't there? Is this a door, do you think is yellow that's the
0:19:12 > 0:19:18game in this house. Cupboard or extra bedroom? The washing machine!
0:19:18 > 0:19:28It's hidden away.
0:19:31 > 0:19:36It's a celebration of the beauty of wood. There is no plaster, no paint,
0:19:36 > 0:19:39not even a skirting board, and a factory built wooden kit makes
0:19:39 > 0:19:44construction quicker and cheaper. The basic structure can go up in a
0:19:44 > 0:19:50few days. Architects are even looking at building skyscrapers
0:19:50 > 0:19:55using the technology. They're getting very excited about timber.
0:19:55 > 0:19:58On the continent they've been using solid timber construction for so
0:19:58 > 0:20:02long, it's shown to be good, cheaper, much more environmentally
0:20:02 > 0:20:06friendly. To me, it's the future of housing.
0:20:15 > 0:20:22So, all we need now is a winner, which is why we're here. This is it,
0:20:22 > 0:20:25the royal Institute of British architects Stirling Prize, the
0:20:25 > 0:20:27biggest night of British architecture. The announcement will
0:20:27 > 0:20:32come in the next few minutes, but the question is, how do you compare
0:20:32 > 0:20:36the big show of projects against much smaller, detailed but still
0:20:36 > 0:20:41carefully crafted buildings? Well, it's all about the art of
0:20:41 > 0:20:47architecture. Which one of them has taken that art and pushed it forward
0:20:47 > 0:20:54and solved human problems in a different way?As chair of the jury,
0:20:54 > 0:21:00I congratulate every single one of this year's finalists. Truly
0:21:00 > 0:21:05remarkable buildings, designed and built perfectly for the people that
0:21:05 > 0:21:13they serve. The winner of the 2017 Riba Stirling Prize for architecture
0:21:13 > 0:21:17is Hastings Pier by dRMM
0:21:17 > 0:21:18Riba Stirling Prize for architecture is Hastings Pier by dRMM.
0:21:18 > 0:21:29CHEERING Congratulations. These come and join
0:21:29 > 0:21:34us. Please come and join us on the stage.You can't do interesting
0:21:34 > 0:21:37projects, special projects, without a special client, and I would say
0:21:37 > 0:21:42Hastings Pier charity are up there amongst the most special, even
0:21:42 > 0:21:44eccentric, clients you would ever meet.
0:21:44 > 0:21:47CHEERING
0:21:52 > 0:21:56A good feeling?It's a fantastic feeling, not only personally but on
0:21:56 > 0:22:00behalf of a great many people who worked on this project.It's not a
0:22:00 > 0:22:05normal project for an architect at all?Absolutely. It was initiated by
0:22:05 > 0:22:10local community group who kick-started an effort to save a
0:22:10 > 0:22:14derelict Peya which then caught fire and then had to be completely
0:22:14 > 0:22:18rethought, so it was a long process, seven years of thinking and cloying
0:22:18 > 0:22:25and proposing, and to now come here and be recognised not just as a kind
0:22:25 > 0:22:31of community driven project but as a design, that is fantastic.
0:22:45 > 0:22:52When it was opened in the 1870s, it was described as the peerless pier,
0:22:52 > 0:22:56a masterpiece of Victorian engineering. But like so many
0:22:56 > 0:23:00others, it has faced the ups and downs of fires, storm and changing
0:23:00 > 0:23:08fashions. Yes, 145 years on, it is now Britain's best new building.
0:23:08 > 0:23:12Just perhaps, Hastings Pier can offer an example to others of new
0:23:12 > 0:23:22hope, new future, a new possibility for the British pier.
0:23:52 > 0:23:56What are your thoughts looking out on this now?Oh, I love it. It's
0:23:56 > 0:23:59just so peaceful.