0:00:04 > 0:00:06Archiveprogrammes chosen by experts.
0:00:06 > 0:00:09Forthis collection, Janet Street-Porter has selected
0:00:09 > 0:00:12programmes about post-war architecture.
0:00:12 > 0:00:14Moreprogrammes on this theme
0:00:14 > 0:00:17and other BBC Four collections are available on BBC iPlayer.
0:01:09 > 0:01:13PETER SHAFFER: Thisis a programme about murder. Architectural murder.
0:01:13 > 0:01:16You are going to witness the severed limbs,
0:01:16 > 0:01:18the pulped torso of a great city.
0:01:18 > 0:01:22Nodoubt to many of you, the word "murder" will seem exaggerated.
0:01:22 > 0:01:24You will say that what we call today development
0:01:24 > 0:01:26is a necessary partof change.
0:01:26 > 0:01:29Ifyou really think this, so much the worse for you.
0:01:29 > 0:01:31And so much the worse for your children.
0:01:31 > 0:01:33They ask for bread.
0:01:33 > 0:01:35In this particular you give them not stone,
0:01:35 > 0:01:38but dead concrete, a building like this.
0:01:38 > 0:01:40Lifeless. Faceless.
0:01:40 > 0:01:42Hopeless. Joyless.
0:01:42 > 0:01:44Mean-spirited.
0:01:44 > 0:01:47Damningthe sky with its load of untrying.
0:01:47 > 0:01:49Ruining everything around it.
0:01:51 > 0:01:54Thepeople who designed this thing are, if you can believe it,
0:01:54 > 0:01:56the heirs of Wren and Nash.
0:01:56 > 0:01:57To me, they are criminals.
0:01:57 > 0:02:00Worse are the people who commissioned it,
0:02:00 > 0:02:04who approved, probably insisted upon, its mediocrity.
0:02:04 > 0:02:06And worse still are the people who indifferently let it happen,
0:02:06 > 0:02:08whodon't even really notice it.
0:02:08 > 0:02:09You.
0:02:09 > 0:02:10Us.
0:02:12 > 0:02:14Thisis what your descendants will know,
0:02:14 > 0:02:16a featureless, life-despising mess
0:02:16 > 0:02:19whose only message is that life is a prison.
0:02:19 > 0:02:20Anddo you know what the price is
0:02:20 > 0:02:22you are paying for this sort of thing?
0:02:22 > 0:02:25This.Buildings like these.
0:02:25 > 0:02:28Spacious, humane, original, life-enhancing,
0:02:28 > 0:02:31perfectly proportioned, elegant,
0:02:31 > 0:02:33uniquely-London buildings.
0:02:33 > 0:02:37Perhapsif we hurry, we can make the whole of London
0:02:37 > 0:02:39look like this by 1975.
0:02:39 > 0:02:41Lovely Howland Street.
0:02:42 > 0:02:44Inany right-ordered society,
0:02:44 > 0:02:47the makers of this filthy complex would be hanged
0:02:47 > 0:02:49for debauching public imagination.
0:02:50 > 0:02:52Wedeserve what we get.
0:02:54 > 0:02:58NARRATOR: PeterShaffer spoke about his hometown of London,
0:02:58 > 0:03:01but what he wrote applies to many cities throughout the entire world.
0:03:11 > 0:03:13Thesemodern houses and streets
0:03:13 > 0:03:16do not belong to any particular town or country.
0:03:16 > 0:03:18We all recognise them instantly.
0:03:18 > 0:03:20We all have seen them, walked through them.
0:03:20 > 0:03:23Many ofus even live or work in them.
0:03:23 > 0:03:27Alifeless environment of huge objects bumper to bumper.
0:03:31 > 0:03:34Arewe in London, Berlin, Kuwait, Paris or Singapore?
0:03:36 > 0:03:39These imperious and mute buildings,
0:03:39 > 0:03:41these endless rows of sameness
0:03:41 > 0:03:45are, in fact,shining examples of modern architecture
0:03:45 > 0:03:47taken at random from each of these cities.
0:03:49 > 0:03:53Atotal waste of human and material resources.
0:03:53 > 0:03:55What happened?
0:03:59 > 0:04:01Whyhave modern cities and buildings failed us?
0:04:03 > 0:04:05We will blame, of course, the population explosion.
0:04:07 > 0:04:11In the year 2000 eight out of ten people will live in towns.
0:04:13 > 0:04:16Weare flying to the moon. We are inventing computers.
0:04:16 > 0:04:18But we seem to be incapable
0:04:18 > 0:04:21of dealing with large numbers of people -
0:04:21 > 0:04:23unable to feed and to house them.
0:04:28 > 0:04:32Thereis a growing need to use the space allocated to us properly.
0:04:32 > 0:04:34Humanely.
0:04:34 > 0:04:37How will all these people live?
0:04:37 > 0:04:41This will be the moral question of the next 20 years.
0:04:41 > 0:04:43BABY CRIES
0:04:46 > 0:04:48Atthe beginning of this century,
0:04:48 > 0:04:51most capitals in the Western world had an answer to urban growth.
0:04:51 > 0:04:56Many European countries built garden cities and housing estates.
0:04:56 > 0:05:00Thisis Letchworth, designed in 1903 by Unwin and Parker.
0:05:02 > 0:05:05Thisis architecture that puts man at the centre.
0:05:11 > 0:05:14In1927, Bruno Taut built this estate in Berlin.
0:05:19 > 0:05:21Manyleading German architects
0:05:21 > 0:05:25invented a new and humane housing concept for the working man.
0:05:28 > 0:05:32Inthe '20s, architects dreamt of shiningand noble cities
0:05:32 > 0:05:35for the future of mankind.
0:05:35 > 0:05:37Thecity never arrived.
0:05:37 > 0:05:41Instead, Le Corbusier's dreams turned into nightmares.
0:05:41 > 0:05:43Over-sanitised, over-planned.
0:05:45 > 0:05:49Now,almost at the end of the century, most optimism has vanished.
0:05:49 > 0:05:53And the century seems to be ending the way it began -
0:05:53 > 0:05:55in a chaos of architecture and town planning.
0:06:01 > 0:06:04Buildingsof the modern movement were the reaction against
0:06:04 > 0:06:0719th-century cities smothered in ornament.
0:06:07 > 0:06:11They were a battle cry for simplicity and functionalism.
0:06:11 > 0:06:14Architectstried to get rid of all empty decoration -
0:06:14 > 0:06:16purityreplaced playfulness.
0:06:16 > 0:06:18A mostly private architecture
0:06:18 > 0:06:22where architects and clients often shared tastes and values.
0:06:25 > 0:06:29In1923, this drawing appeared in a German magazine.
0:06:29 > 0:06:32It was the work of a young architect, Mies van der Rohe.
0:06:32 > 0:06:37Itbecame the prototype of all office buildings for the next 40 years.
0:06:40 > 0:06:42Thearchitectural formula,
0:06:42 > 0:06:45as propagated by the high priests of the modern movement,
0:06:45 > 0:06:48Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, Gropius and others,
0:06:48 > 0:06:50was universally accepted, copied
0:06:50 > 0:06:53andfinally debasedby architects
0:06:53 > 0:06:55until it was totally drained of its original vision.
0:06:57 > 0:07:00Bythe 1960s, architecture all over the world
0:07:00 > 0:07:03had reached its worst phase in history.
0:07:03 > 0:07:07The rigorous functionalism of the masters had been exhausted.
0:07:07 > 0:07:09BABYCRIES
0:07:13 > 0:07:16Themodern movement was declared dead.
0:07:16 > 0:07:18EXPLOSION
0:07:24 > 0:07:27Manypeople trace this back to July 1972
0:07:27 > 0:07:29when, in St Louis, Missouri,
0:07:29 > 0:07:32a housing scheme built in the '50s was blown up
0:07:32 > 0:07:35because vandalism had made it obsolete.
0:07:36 > 0:07:40Architecturehad diminished and incarcerated people.
0:08:00 > 0:08:03I think our cities are getting uglier every single day.
0:08:03 > 0:08:05I mean, the subways are getting more crowded,
0:08:05 > 0:08:07the cars are getting more jammed,
0:08:07 > 0:08:10the houses aren't being built, so they're falling down.
0:08:10 > 0:08:12And the cities, they are building skyscrapers
0:08:12 > 0:08:14so you can't move around the streets.
0:08:14 > 0:08:16So of course they're getting uglier.
0:08:16 > 0:08:18Now, that is a terrible thing for an architect to say
0:08:18 > 0:08:21because I'd like to rebuild those cities.
0:08:21 > 0:08:24That would be our job, you see. That'd be fun.
0:08:24 > 0:08:27But you'd have to tear down about two thirds of the cities.
0:08:27 > 0:08:32Thedestruction of our cities, which...is unbelievably depressing.
0:08:32 > 0:08:36I mean, I know cities like Glasgow and Liverpool, I grew up in them,
0:08:36 > 0:08:39and they were magnificent 19th-century...
0:08:39 > 0:08:4118th- and 19th-century cities,
0:08:41 > 0:08:46which have been absolutely destroyed by post-war town planning,
0:08:46 > 0:08:49post-war decisions.
0:08:49 > 0:08:53The lethal combination is not so much the architect,
0:08:53 > 0:08:57the lethal combination is the town planner
0:08:57 > 0:08:59and the local council
0:08:59 > 0:09:01and the idea of progress.
0:09:01 > 0:09:05Andall councils, whether they're on the right or left,
0:09:05 > 0:09:09have had the notion that to make progress in the cities,
0:09:09 > 0:09:12you have to take down and remake.
0:09:12 > 0:09:15CHURCH BELL RINGS
0:09:15 > 0:09:18Whenwe look at what is left of our old cities,
0:09:18 > 0:09:19we must ask ourselves,
0:09:19 > 0:09:22"Why are we not able to build as well as in the past?"
0:09:23 > 0:09:27"Are we not richer, technically more accomplished than thepeople
0:09:27 > 0:09:28"who built Bath or Florence?"
0:09:30 > 0:09:33Thesecities survived political change and upheaval
0:09:33 > 0:09:36and are still able to satisfy human needs.
0:09:40 > 0:09:43Ofcourse, technological inventions, such as reinforced concrete,
0:09:43 > 0:09:45steel frames, lifts and,
0:09:45 > 0:09:48most of all, the growing need for shelter,
0:09:48 > 0:09:50change the architectural landscape for ever.
0:10:00 > 0:10:02Buthave our great architects lost the spirit
0:10:02 > 0:10:04which fired their predecessors?
0:10:06 > 0:10:10Their artistry gave their buildings not only an inventiveness of form,
0:10:10 > 0:10:15but also a sense of proportion, based on human scale.
0:10:20 > 0:10:24Ithink to some degree people have always been disturbed by change
0:10:24 > 0:10:26because that which they know is always comfortable.
0:10:26 > 0:10:30But I think that perhaps thechanges which exist today...
0:10:30 > 0:10:33er, in our cities are...
0:10:33 > 0:10:38seem to be so unsympathetic to what remains,
0:10:38 > 0:10:43both in terms of scale, colour, texture, materials.
0:10:43 > 0:10:45And I don't think it's so much what they look like,
0:10:45 > 0:10:48I think it's the scale, a relationship,
0:10:48 > 0:10:51whichis being destroyed.
0:10:54 > 0:10:58Inthe late '60s appeared two books by the American architect
0:10:58 > 0:10:59Robert Venturi -
0:10:59 > 0:11:02Complexity And Contradiction In Architecture
0:11:02 > 0:11:05and Learning From Las Vegas.
0:11:05 > 0:11:09Venturi became the guru of what is now known as the postmodern school.
0:11:10 > 0:11:14He pleaded passionately for plurality and richness of meaning,
0:11:14 > 0:11:16for ornament rather than purity.
0:11:16 > 0:11:18He fought the ghetto of good taste
0:11:18 > 0:11:22and urged architects to leave their priggishness behind
0:11:22 > 0:11:24and to embracepop culture.
0:11:29 > 0:11:32Thenext 15 years saw an intense sorting out of ideas.
0:11:34 > 0:11:37A whole new generation of architects grew up
0:11:37 > 0:11:40with radically different attitudes to those of their predecessors.
0:11:42 > 0:11:45Architecture has again become a carrier of meanings
0:11:45 > 0:11:49and symbols, responding to a deeply and commonly felt human desire.
0:12:00 > 0:12:04Oneof the most telling stories of what has happened in architecture
0:12:04 > 0:12:06is Charles Moore's Piazza d'Italia,
0:12:06 > 0:12:09a square in the middle of New Orleans.
0:12:11 > 0:12:14Mooreis one of the leading exponents of the postmodern school.
0:12:16 > 0:12:19Thesquare is meant to be a meeting point
0:12:19 > 0:12:20for the Italians living in the town.
0:12:23 > 0:12:27This is fictional architecture, which shatters our aesthetic conception
0:12:27 > 0:12:30of what a modern square should look like.
0:12:30 > 0:12:33Around the map of Italy are echoes of the Trevi Fountain,
0:12:33 > 0:12:36a shingle portal, some Greekcolumns -
0:12:36 > 0:12:40a hotchpotch of cultural references full of irony and nostalgia.
0:12:47 > 0:12:49Theremnants of an expensive set
0:12:49 > 0:12:52for a musical which has long ceased to run.
0:12:54 > 0:12:57HansHollein, Vienna's postmodernist,
0:12:57 > 0:12:59designed several travel offices.
0:12:59 > 0:13:01They also tell a story.
0:13:03 > 0:13:07Palmtrees, a pyramid, broken Greek pillars,
0:13:07 > 0:13:10an Indian chhatri talk about journeys.
0:13:10 > 0:13:14The office has become a stage, evoking far-away places.
0:13:16 > 0:13:19These buildings are meant to amuse or to shock you.
0:13:19 > 0:13:22They're a conscious effort to create places with identity.
0:13:22 > 0:13:25Butboth examples, by Hollein and Moore,
0:13:25 > 0:13:28also demonstrate the danger of too much irony.
0:13:28 > 0:13:31They show how quickly such a road can lead to kitsch.
0:13:33 > 0:13:35HUM OF TRAFFIC
0:13:38 > 0:13:39BIRDSONG
0:13:45 > 0:13:48Thebest stores in America also tell a story.
0:13:48 > 0:13:52These are fantasy buildings, cleverly used to boost sales,
0:13:52 > 0:13:56a punch in the eye, a tongue-in-cheek architecture, a desire to perplex,
0:13:56 > 0:13:58like a surrealist joke.
0:14:17 > 0:14:21In1980, a much talked-about exhibition of the Venice Biennale,
0:14:21 > 0:14:23called The Presence Of The Past,
0:14:23 > 0:14:28put up the slogan, "It is again possible to learn from tradition..."
0:14:30 > 0:14:32Itshowed 22 facades.
0:14:32 > 0:14:35It was the first time that a large international group of architects
0:14:35 > 0:14:38had collectively expressed their preference for ornament.
0:14:50 > 0:14:53Theworld of architecture seemed to have turned upside down.
0:14:56 > 0:14:59In1983, Philip Johnson, yesterday a stern defender of
0:14:59 > 0:15:02Le Corbusier, Gropius, and Mies van der Rohe,
0:15:02 > 0:15:05surprised everybody with the AT&T Building in New York.
0:15:08 > 0:15:09Ithad a granite facade
0:15:09 > 0:15:12and a top which looked like a Chippendale tallboy.
0:15:15 > 0:15:19Comparedto the glasshouse Johnson built for himself 35 years ago,
0:15:19 > 0:15:21it definitely looks old-fashioned.
0:15:25 > 0:15:28AnotherAmerican architect, Michael Graves,
0:15:28 > 0:15:31who began his career as an ardent follower of Le Corbusier,
0:15:31 > 0:15:33shocked and delighted architects and critics
0:15:33 > 0:15:37when he presented his skyscraper to the city of Portland, Oregon -
0:15:37 > 0:15:40a giant jukeboxin garish colours.
0:15:43 > 0:15:47InJapan, Arata Isozaki, one of the country's leading architects,
0:15:47 > 0:15:50designed a cultural centre in Tsukuba.
0:15:50 > 0:15:52It is filled with historical references,
0:15:52 > 0:15:54from Michelangelo to Claude-Nicolas Ledoux.
0:15:57 > 0:16:00Thiscourtyard by the English architect James Stirling,
0:16:00 > 0:16:02a classical courtyard in stone and marble,
0:16:02 > 0:16:05is the heart of his new museum in Stuttgart.
0:16:05 > 0:16:08It is supposed to represent the German soul
0:16:08 > 0:16:10withits longing for Arcadia.
0:16:12 > 0:16:14Theseare apartment houses in Berlin
0:16:15 > 0:16:17by the Austrian architect Hans Hollein
0:16:17 > 0:16:19and Francy Valentiny from Luxembourg.
0:16:22 > 0:16:24The Spaniard,Ricardo Bofill,
0:16:24 > 0:16:29is building social houses in France resembling palaces and castles.
0:16:31 > 0:16:35Everywherecolumns and porticos, roofs and gables.
0:16:37 > 0:16:39History is no longer a dirty word.
0:16:43 > 0:16:46Ourlonging for a clearly identifiable culture makes us
0:16:46 > 0:16:49look at the past and take refuge in nostalgia.
0:16:52 > 0:16:54This movement in architecture, away from austerity,
0:16:54 > 0:16:58goes hand-in-hand with what is happening in the other arts.
0:17:03 > 0:17:05Peoplehave realised that abstract language
0:17:05 > 0:17:08serves too narrow a range of human emotions
0:17:08 > 0:17:11and artists have turned to a more representational form
0:17:11 > 0:17:13to which one can respond more directly.
0:17:17 > 0:17:20Thisis creating a situation where we're going from
0:17:20 > 0:17:23a rather rigorous form of architecture
0:17:23 > 0:17:26to a more relaxed, romantic, if you like,
0:17:26 > 0:17:29at times decorative, at times pastiche.
0:17:29 > 0:17:32I don't approve of some of these, I approve of some. And that's...
0:17:32 > 0:17:35That is creating this period of crisis.
0:17:35 > 0:17:38I think that it's a very exciting period
0:17:38 > 0:17:41because in a sense the excitement of being a part of a period of crisis
0:17:41 > 0:17:44is that you can start to re-examine things which probably...
0:17:45 > 0:17:49which were very difficult to examine under the very much more stricter
0:17:49 > 0:17:52moral codes thatwe had during those first 75 years.
0:17:52 > 0:17:53You couldn't oppose the modern movement before.
0:17:54 > 0:17:55It was really like a sort of religion.
0:17:55 > 0:17:57Now we suddenly see that you can take it in many different directions.
0:17:57 > 0:18:02It'sless of a...dogma now.
0:18:02 > 0:18:05There are many, many directions that people can go.
0:18:05 > 0:18:08And architects do take advantage of it, particularly young architects.
0:18:08 > 0:18:12They take advantage ofthat freedom and they begin to have...
0:18:14 > 0:18:17..an opportunity to express themselves.
0:18:17 > 0:18:21Yes,I think there has been a change and it's here to stay.
0:18:21 > 0:18:23There's been a tremendous change,
0:18:23 > 0:18:26but I think it's far less a trumped-up change of geniuses
0:18:26 > 0:18:29than the normal evolution of the arts.
0:18:29 > 0:18:33Ithink that modernism had reached a point where it had really
0:18:33 > 0:18:38stretched and forced every principle that it ascribed to
0:18:38 > 0:18:43and there had to be a way out, anatural evolution.
0:18:45 > 0:18:47Muchof today's architecture is polemical.
0:18:47 > 0:18:49BIRD CAWS
0:18:49 > 0:18:51The multitude of emerging styles... CLATTERING
0:18:51 > 0:18:54..have brought about an often tiresome controversy.
0:18:56 > 0:19:00Thenew generation of architects is aggressively verbal,
0:19:00 > 0:19:03staking a claim for architecture rather than producing it.
0:19:03 > 0:19:04RUMBLING
0:19:04 > 0:19:07International conferences offer ample opportunity...
0:19:07 > 0:19:10ARGUING ..for in-fights and labelling.
0:19:10 > 0:19:12Blinded by prejudices about each other,
0:19:12 > 0:19:14architects are often not aware
0:19:14 > 0:19:18that the general public cares little about philosophy.
0:19:18 > 0:19:21Whatpeople like is not necessarily what the profession likes.
0:19:26 > 0:19:29Duringthe last few years, we've realised that a total change
0:19:29 > 0:19:33and reorientation in architecture and town planning is needed
0:19:33 > 0:19:36if we want to save our environment from total destruction.
0:19:38 > 0:19:42Everywhere,a new, positive thinking is taking place.
0:19:42 > 0:19:45Architects are beginning to be less preoccupied with individual buildings
0:19:45 > 0:19:48and are now concerned with the spaces around them.
0:19:48 > 0:19:51Theevidence is visible everywhere.
0:19:51 > 0:19:53CHILDREN PLAY
0:19:53 > 0:19:55The changes are not yet on a large scale
0:19:55 > 0:19:57but people are relearning
0:19:57 > 0:20:01to accept basic human need for better housingand better environment.
0:20:03 > 0:20:06Themix of styles has created more humane buildings.
0:20:06 > 0:20:08Low-rises are replacing high-rises.
0:20:10 > 0:20:13Ornament and colour are returning to our facades.
0:20:14 > 0:20:19The use ofbrick instead of concrete has produced a warmer architecture.
0:20:19 > 0:20:23Apitched roof symbolises a kind of homely protectiveness.
0:20:24 > 0:20:27Everywhere, variety instead of monotony.
0:20:29 > 0:20:31Warmth instead of coldness.
0:20:51 > 0:20:55InLondon, opposite a council tower block from the 1960s,
0:20:55 > 0:20:57four town houses by Jeremy Dixon
0:20:57 > 0:20:59were also commissioned by the local council.
0:21:02 > 0:21:04Dixonhas created a hybrid architecture.
0:21:05 > 0:21:09He draws on the elements of the nearby 19th-century villas.
0:21:12 > 0:21:16Thehouses provide all the things people have been fighting for,
0:21:16 > 0:21:20a respect for the surroundings and a feeling of domestic protection,
0:21:20 > 0:21:25in short, a total change inscale, attitude and concern.
0:21:28 > 0:21:31MAN: Wehave forgotten the measure of man.
0:21:31 > 0:21:34We have only asked for the measure of the machine.
0:21:34 > 0:21:36We have functionalised the human being.
0:21:36 > 0:21:40Then suddenly we find out that for instance,
0:21:40 > 0:21:44ornament, which was discarded completely,
0:21:45 > 0:21:49is something which we need for our soul, for man's soul,
0:21:49 > 0:21:52that a facade, a decorated facade,
0:21:52 > 0:21:56may be something like the face of a man -
0:21:56 > 0:21:59facade means "faccia", means "face".
0:21:59 > 0:22:04Anda building also has a face, has a personality, is an individual.
0:22:04 > 0:22:09And it shouldn't be as abstract as, let's say, a container.
0:22:09 > 0:22:16So,we started to find out more about the relationship of, let's say,
0:22:16 > 0:22:18a decorated facade and man.
0:22:24 > 0:22:28NARRATOR: Itis not surprising that the demand for better alternatives
0:22:28 > 0:22:31and a richer language has been coming from the young.
0:22:31 > 0:22:33Many of them have known success
0:22:33 > 0:22:36at an age their predecessors only dreamt of.
0:22:36 > 0:22:40These buildings on Miami Bay are by the young architectural group,
0:22:40 > 0:22:42Arquitectonica.
0:22:47 > 0:22:49Theirapproach to building
0:22:49 > 0:22:51and their desire to create a more liveable environment
0:22:51 > 0:22:53exemplifies the many changes
0:22:53 > 0:22:56which run through the architectural world at large.
0:22:58 > 0:23:00Theirbrash and unorthodox designs
0:23:00 > 0:23:03have been a talking point in the architectural profession.
0:23:10 > 0:23:13Duringthe last few years, the young husband and wife team,
0:23:13 > 0:23:16Bernado Fort-Brescia and Laurinda Spear,
0:23:16 > 0:23:19have gathered commissions with breathtaking speed.
0:23:23 > 0:23:27Theirmost famous building so far is called Atlantis.
0:23:27 > 0:23:31It has quickly established itself as one of the new landmarks in Miami.
0:23:31 > 0:23:35With an almost childlike joy, various elements of the building
0:23:35 > 0:23:39are punched out as in a jigsaw puzzle and appear in other places.
0:23:40 > 0:23:42Themissing piece from the hole in the middle
0:23:42 > 0:23:45reappears on the ground as a squash court.
0:23:53 > 0:23:57Thefront facade in shiny black glass is broken up
0:23:57 > 0:24:00by yellow balconies and a jutting-out spiral staircase.
0:24:04 > 0:24:07Ared triangle disguises the cooling tower.
0:24:07 > 0:24:09This is fun architecture -
0:24:09 > 0:24:11sophisticated and ironical.
0:24:18 > 0:24:22Thecut-out square is a reference to one of Le Corbusier's ideas
0:24:22 > 0:24:26that everybody should have their own garden, however high in the air.
0:24:26 > 0:24:32A heart-shaped pool isa pun, and a commentary on a certain lifestyle.
0:24:32 > 0:24:36Arquitectonica'sbuilding responds to the present-day demand
0:24:36 > 0:24:40for more fictional architecture,
0:24:40 > 0:24:42for facades which communicate a story.
0:24:42 > 0:24:45This is part of their tremendous popular appeal.
0:24:46 > 0:24:48Unfortunately,still,
0:24:48 > 0:24:53the majority of the buildings that are put up are just buildings.
0:24:53 > 0:24:57And they're not designed except as shelter.
0:24:57 > 0:25:00There is no particularimage intended
0:25:00 > 0:25:04or there's no attempt at communicating any new idea.
0:25:05 > 0:25:07There's generally no concept in them.
0:25:08 > 0:25:10And hopefully this...
0:25:11 > 0:25:13The tide is turning.
0:25:13 > 0:25:15Wewouldn't want every building to be so interesting
0:25:15 > 0:25:18that you would be just be completely bowled over
0:25:18 > 0:25:19every time you walked outside.
0:25:19 > 0:25:22So it's kind of nice to have a grey background
0:25:22 > 0:25:25and every now and then an interesting building.
0:25:25 > 0:25:28NARRATOR: Arquitectonica's success is fairly recent.
0:25:28 > 0:25:32Theirfirst clients were, in fact, Laurinda Spear's parents.
0:25:32 > 0:25:35Fresh from university, they built a house for them
0:25:36 > 0:25:38at the edge of Miami Bay.
0:25:38 > 0:25:41The back pays homage to the modern movement.
0:25:41 > 0:25:43Fromthe terrace, it gives one the feeling
0:25:43 > 0:25:45of being on a ship at high sea.
0:25:58 > 0:26:01Thefront is painted in different shades of pink,
0:26:01 > 0:26:04a cheerful irreverent touch that must make the modernists
0:26:05 > 0:26:08turn in their graves, despite the references toship architecture
0:26:08 > 0:26:11and the use of translucent glass blocks,
0:26:11 > 0:26:13one of their favourite materials.
0:26:26 > 0:26:29WATER LAPS
0:26:35 > 0:26:39Befittingthe Florida climate, outside and inside form one unit.
0:26:39 > 0:26:41The pool is integrated with the building
0:26:41 > 0:26:43right outside the living room.
0:26:49 > 0:26:52Thepink wall is in fact the reverse of the facade.
0:26:53 > 0:26:56It protects the pool from inquisitive neighbours.
0:26:56 > 0:27:00LAURINDA SPEAR: I think generally Americans haven't until recently
0:27:00 > 0:27:02looked at architecture as art.
0:27:02 > 0:27:05They've looked at it from a functional point of view
0:27:05 > 0:27:07andin a different way,
0:27:07 > 0:27:09in a different category than art.
0:27:09 > 0:27:12But we are among other architects, I suppose,
0:27:12 > 0:27:14who are starting to be more artistic
0:27:14 > 0:27:17and to look at our buildings as sculptures
0:27:17 > 0:27:19or as a form of painting or art or something else.
0:27:20 > 0:27:22Our buildings try to bring about a certain romance
0:27:22 > 0:27:25and a certain fantasy about architecture
0:27:25 > 0:27:28that sometimes painters have seen,
0:27:28 > 0:27:33and our work often attempts to introduce
0:27:33 > 0:27:36a certain element of surrealism
0:27:36 > 0:27:39and poetry into modern architecture.
0:27:43 > 0:27:46NARRATOR: ThePalace in Miami was Arquitectonica's first try
0:27:46 > 0:27:47at a skyscraper.
0:27:49 > 0:27:51Theicy, glass tower is pierced by a smaller
0:27:51 > 0:27:55stepped building in glass and stucco made to look like brick,
0:27:55 > 0:28:00which protrudes at the other side - another surrealist joke.
0:28:00 > 0:28:02Inmost of Arquitectonica's buildings,
0:28:02 > 0:28:04one gets the impression that the architecture
0:28:04 > 0:28:06has gone a bit out of control.
0:28:06 > 0:28:10This is exactly what is intended - a visual anarchy,
0:28:10 > 0:28:14mixingelements of art, fairground and pop culture,
0:28:14 > 0:28:16anything to make the building stand out,
0:28:16 > 0:28:19to prevent it from becoming boring.
0:28:19 > 0:28:21As one critic has pointed out,
0:28:21 > 0:28:23they look as if they were built by Alice in Wonderland
0:28:23 > 0:28:25after she studied at the Bauhaus.
0:28:28 > 0:28:31TheBabylon is a ziggurat-shaped luxury apartment house.
0:28:31 > 0:28:3430 years ago, most houses in the neighbourhood
0:28:34 > 0:28:36looked like the villa next door.
0:28:36 > 0:28:39Then came a flood of anonymous apartment blocks
0:28:39 > 0:28:41with no feeling for scale and place.
0:28:45 > 0:28:49Arquitectonica has put up a building which does not dwarf its neighbour.
0:28:49 > 0:28:52The colour of the old roof is echoed in the facade.
0:28:59 > 0:29:02ButThe Babylon seemed to be only a short-lived dream.
0:29:04 > 0:29:05With soaring land prices,
0:29:05 > 0:29:08greedy developers threatened to tear it down
0:29:08 > 0:29:10even before it has been occupied,
0:29:10 > 0:29:13to replace it, probably, with a cost-effective horror.
0:29:18 > 0:29:21Architecturehas become big business.
0:29:21 > 0:29:24The pride in being big, which fills the heads of most businessmen,
0:29:24 > 0:29:27has also infected architects.
0:29:27 > 0:29:29Some of them employ several hundred people.
0:29:38 > 0:29:41LAURINDA SPEAR: Wedon't aspire to be a huge SOM-type of operation.
0:29:41 > 0:29:43Really we want to maintain a size
0:29:43 > 0:29:47that we personally can design all the projects
0:29:47 > 0:29:49and not have to farm out the design to someone else.
0:29:49 > 0:29:53And to this date all the designs are originated by the partners.
0:29:53 > 0:29:57And that doesn't happen in some of those very large firms.
0:29:57 > 0:30:00There are teams that are assigned to various projects
0:30:00 > 0:30:02and they have committees that review.
0:30:02 > 0:30:09And...the decision-making becomes so corporate in its organisation,
0:30:09 > 0:30:11and instead of...
0:30:11 > 0:30:15And incidentally very little emotion isleft to the decision-making.
0:30:15 > 0:30:18And there are aspects of architecture that are very rational,
0:30:18 > 0:30:22but there are aspects that are very intuitive and...
0:30:23 > 0:30:29And somehow there has to be that... other element in the decision-making.
0:30:29 > 0:30:33And we feel that if we maintain control of the design decisions
0:30:33 > 0:30:37thatwe won't lose that important part.
0:30:40 > 0:30:44NARRATOR: Butwill they be able to resist the pressure of big business?
0:30:44 > 0:30:46Already they are building apartments in New York,
0:30:46 > 0:30:50a shopping centre in Houston, an amusement park in Nigeria,
0:30:50 > 0:30:53a museum in Philadelphia and a bank in Peru.
0:30:54 > 0:30:56They are moving into a different league.
0:30:59 > 0:31:04The60-storey Helmsley Center in Miami, housing offices and a hotel,
0:31:04 > 0:31:08the triple-arched 45-storey Horizon Hill project in Texas -
0:31:08 > 0:31:11theirnew daring designs are pushing our imaginations
0:31:11 > 0:31:14further into fantasy.
0:31:14 > 0:31:16CHILDRENPLAY
0:31:21 > 0:31:247,000miles away, another young group of architects
0:31:25 > 0:31:27are breaking away from the modernist movement
0:31:27 > 0:31:29and are attracting much attention.
0:31:29 > 0:31:33The Miyashiro primary schoolnear Tokyo was designed by Team Zoo.
0:31:39 > 0:31:41CHILDREN SING
0:31:41 > 0:31:44Theirbuildings are evidence that Japan is alsoinfluenced
0:31:44 > 0:31:46by the concerns of postmodern architecture.
0:31:46 > 0:31:49Their approach is a radical departure
0:31:49 > 0:31:50from the barren and stark buildings
0:31:50 > 0:31:52designed by other Japanese architects.
0:31:59 > 0:32:03Itis making a direct link to traditional Japanese architecture,
0:32:03 > 0:32:05reinterpreting it in a modern way.
0:32:09 > 0:32:13TeamZoo offers a complex of small buildings, easy to understand,
0:32:13 > 0:32:15easy to use.
0:32:15 > 0:32:18This is a total departure from the obsession of housing everyone
0:32:18 > 0:32:19under one roof.
0:32:22 > 0:32:24Theplay world of children is interlaced
0:32:24 > 0:32:27and forms a dialogue with the school world.
0:32:29 > 0:32:32Littlenetworks of squares and streets, as in a city,
0:32:32 > 0:32:34avoid endless dark corridors,
0:32:35 > 0:32:37so synonymous with a repressive institution.
0:32:37 > 0:32:39CHILDREN LAUGH
0:32:45 > 0:32:47Thisschool, which was inexpensive to construct,
0:32:47 > 0:32:49is both intimate and exciting.
0:32:53 > 0:32:56Anotheryoung architect of outstanding success
0:32:56 > 0:32:59of a very different kind is Helmut Jahn.
0:32:59 > 0:33:03He is the president of one of the big Chicago firms,Murphy/Jahn.
0:33:03 > 0:33:07He has already over 30 large buildings to his credit.
0:33:09 > 0:33:1217 huge projects are under construction,
0:33:12 > 0:33:15among theman airport, a subway system,
0:33:15 > 0:33:19and skyscrapers in South Africa, New York and Houston.
0:33:19 > 0:33:21With almost as many awards to his name,
0:33:21 > 0:33:23his success is indeed staggering.
0:33:23 > 0:33:24A native of Germany,
0:33:24 > 0:33:27he has moved into the forefront of world architecture.
0:33:29 > 0:33:31Jahnis in love with the skyscrapers
0:33:31 > 0:33:33of the Art Deco and Beaux Arts period,
0:33:33 > 0:33:36like the Wrigley, built in 1921...
0:33:38 > 0:33:39..or the Tribune Tower,
0:33:39 > 0:33:42the winner of the skyscraper competition of the same year.
0:33:44 > 0:33:47Inhis buildings, he's trying to incorporate
0:33:47 > 0:33:51some of the formal inventiveness and symbolism of the old skyscrapers,
0:33:51 > 0:33:54combining them with modern materials and techniques.
0:33:56 > 0:34:00Oneof his latest buildings is on Chicago's South Wacker Drive.
0:34:08 > 0:34:09Byusing different coloured glass,
0:34:10 > 0:34:13he discovers more and more decorative possibilities.
0:34:13 > 0:34:15TRAFFIC HUMS
0:34:17 > 0:34:19SIREN WAILS
0:34:32 > 0:34:35Articulatedentrances, columns, recesses
0:34:35 > 0:34:36and a definite top
0:34:37 > 0:34:40are all a reaction to the straight museum glass box.
0:34:43 > 0:34:47HELMUT JAHN: The last ten yearshave brought one of the most interesting
0:34:47 > 0:34:50periods in architecture since the '20s.
0:34:50 > 0:34:54Essentially, there has been a rethinking of the principles
0:34:54 > 0:34:58which were established during the modern movement inthe '20s.
0:34:58 > 0:35:02And I think it's also particular and peculiar
0:35:02 > 0:35:05that this rethinking started to a large degree in this country.
0:35:06 > 0:35:11Wevery much tried to recreate in those buildings
0:35:11 > 0:35:14that element of excitement and surprise
0:35:14 > 0:35:15and a people-pleasing aspect,
0:35:16 > 0:35:18which the buildings of the '20s and '30s had
0:35:18 > 0:35:21and which modern architecture never quite achieved.
0:35:21 > 0:35:25There is an underlying interestof merging
0:35:25 > 0:35:27certain interests in technology
0:35:27 > 0:35:30with, you know, aspects of popular culture.
0:35:31 > 0:35:36And that is actually somewhat a positive view oftechnology
0:35:36 > 0:35:40and its influence on life and society and our work.
0:35:40 > 0:35:43It is somewhat an optimistic attitude
0:35:43 > 0:35:47which is so fast-fading inthis society
0:35:47 > 0:35:51where there is an almost pessimistic outlook about the future
0:35:51 > 0:35:53and what technology can give us.
0:35:53 > 0:35:57ButI think buildings are the few things which I think can uplift us
0:35:57 > 0:36:00and can give us those elements
0:36:00 > 0:36:02because they actually do affect people quite a bit
0:36:02 > 0:36:04because people spend more time in an office building
0:36:04 > 0:36:06than they spend in their home.
0:36:08 > 0:36:10NARRATOR: Jahn's influence on the face of Chicago
0:36:10 > 0:36:13has been as radical as that of Louis Sullivan, FrankLloyd Wright
0:36:13 > 0:36:15and Mies van der Rohe.
0:36:16 > 0:36:18Inthe State Of Illinois Center,
0:36:18 > 0:36:22Jahn is experimenting with more humane office spaces.
0:36:22 > 0:36:25He has chosen an asymmetrical shape which seems at first
0:36:25 > 0:36:27to be rather awkward.
0:36:27 > 0:36:30This is an official building, but by breaking up the surfaces,
0:36:30 > 0:36:33heavoids a too obvious monumentality.
0:36:36 > 0:36:41Threebig glass knuckles, crowned by a sliced-off roof.
0:36:41 > 0:36:44This is a bold and radical departure
0:36:44 > 0:36:47from the familiar business tower with its congested office spaces.
0:36:50 > 0:36:5514floors of offices are dispersed around a vast central atrium.
0:36:55 > 0:36:58The huge open space is designed for pleasure
0:36:58 > 0:37:01with all the paraphernalia of theatre -
0:37:01 > 0:37:02waterfalls,ponds, plants.
0:37:03 > 0:37:05By scooping out the entire centre
0:37:05 > 0:37:09and stretching a glass skin over a hi-tech frame,
0:37:09 > 0:37:12Jahn diminishes the feeling of oppressiveness
0:37:12 > 0:37:14which so often marks large office buildings.
0:37:16 > 0:37:20Thisis a conscious effort to break with the stereotype skyscraper
0:37:20 > 0:37:23and to create a new kind of typology for office building.
0:37:24 > 0:37:27It fits well into the postmodern concept.
0:37:29 > 0:37:32With all the interest in form,
0:37:32 > 0:37:36expression, the conception,
0:37:36 > 0:37:38the actual aspects about architecture,
0:37:38 > 0:37:44I would say that at leastwhat we can say for us as architects today,
0:37:44 > 0:37:47we have not lost that interest
0:37:47 > 0:37:52in all the technical and functional know-how
0:37:53 > 0:37:55of the modern movement.
0:37:55 > 0:37:59Andwe expand and continue and refine those principles,
0:37:59 > 0:38:04but we have also found a certain dissatisfaction
0:38:04 > 0:38:07about what modern architecture has done
0:38:07 > 0:38:09toourselves and to our city.
0:38:09 > 0:38:12In the process of looking for solutions to that,
0:38:12 > 0:38:15we look to the past and we look to the future.
0:38:15 > 0:38:17As such, we are postmodernists.
0:38:20 > 0:38:24NARRATOR:Helmut Jahn's buildings are glossy, bordering on the chic.
0:38:27 > 0:38:31Somecritics have accused him of just doing some slick packaging.
0:38:33 > 0:38:37Tothose who find his buildings too rich in details, too flash,
0:38:37 > 0:38:40he replies, "We don't construct decorations,
0:38:40 > 0:38:42"we decorate constructions."
0:38:49 > 0:38:51Thereis no doubt that his work
0:38:51 > 0:38:53is technically tremendously skilful and daring.
0:38:55 > 0:38:58Whatever one may think of their aesthetics,
0:38:58 > 0:39:00his buildings are a new form of urban excitement.
0:39:03 > 0:39:05Ofcourse, it would be an exaggeration
0:39:05 > 0:39:08to say that we are suddenly at the threshold of a new architecture.
0:39:10 > 0:39:13Aconcerted effort is still missing.
0:39:13 > 0:39:15Values are gradually shifting,
0:39:15 > 0:39:18but there is still a lot of overlapping -
0:39:18 > 0:39:21a coexistence of the old with the new, the good with the bad.
0:39:23 > 0:39:25Thenext programme will take a closerlook
0:39:25 > 0:39:28at some of the architectural schemes that are ringing the changes,
0:39:28 > 0:39:32allowing hope in an oftendevastated architectural landscape.