0:00:24 > 0:00:29In an archive deep inside what was once East Germany,
0:00:29 > 0:00:31safely under lock and key,
0:00:31 > 0:00:34are documents which tell a remarkable story.
0:00:34 > 0:00:3911 years of work is represented by nearly 3,000 files,
0:00:39 > 0:00:43stacked into 352 metres of shelving.
0:00:45 > 0:00:47These are from a pre-digital world.
0:00:47 > 0:00:52Every plan, purchase order, design decision placed on paper,
0:00:52 > 0:00:58over a million pages, of which nearly 400,000 are letters and faxes.
0:01:00 > 0:01:04It is a paper trail from an epic process -
0:01:04 > 0:01:06a single architectural project.
0:01:09 > 0:01:13There is human drama here, conflict and collaboration.
0:01:15 > 0:01:19A discussion about a staircase that went on for over a year.
0:01:22 > 0:01:26The name on the files is David Chipperfield.
0:01:26 > 0:01:30The project is the Neues Museum in Berlin.
0:01:31 > 0:01:35Few buildings are more symbolic of the history of Germany
0:01:35 > 0:01:39in the last century, but its restoration has transformed
0:01:39 > 0:01:43it into something more powerful, more affecting
0:01:43 > 0:01:46than anyone could have imagined.
0:01:46 > 0:01:49A new building created from the remains of the old.
0:01:50 > 0:01:53A fusion of past and present and a moment in architecture
0:01:53 > 0:01:57that will be remembered long into the future.
0:02:00 > 0:02:04I don't know any architect who hasn't been to the Neues Museum
0:02:04 > 0:02:06and felt it was a masterpiece.
0:02:06 > 0:02:10To spend 11 years on a museum in Berlin,
0:02:10 > 0:02:13to go through the drudgery, the bureaucracy,
0:02:13 > 0:02:16the sense that everyone is trying to stop what you are doing,
0:02:16 > 0:02:17and to go through all of that
0:02:17 > 0:02:21and still keep an idea alive - that is a remarkable achievement.
0:02:21 > 0:02:26You walk around it and you think this is the work of madmen.
0:02:26 > 0:02:30For a whole century, you know, including the architect.
0:02:30 > 0:02:33I think that's so powerful. It changes you, going to that building.
0:02:33 > 0:02:38Chipperfield is one of the few architects in the world who
0:02:38 > 0:02:44can create a cocktail of conservative, almost a classicism,
0:02:44 > 0:02:46and a very crisp modernism.
0:02:46 > 0:02:49I think he's trying to cultivate a conversation,
0:02:49 > 0:02:52not just within the office but within a wider society.
0:02:52 > 0:02:54He's a very articulate architect.
0:02:54 > 0:02:57The work begins with words, in a way.
0:02:57 > 0:03:01But he lets beautiful materials, great spaces
0:03:01 > 0:03:03and light do the talking for him.
0:03:06 > 0:03:11I don't think he's trying to change the world other than to make it
0:03:11 > 0:03:12a more civilised place.
0:03:25 > 0:03:27APPLAUSE
0:03:29 > 0:03:32Sir David Chipperfield, CBE,
0:03:32 > 0:03:35Royal Gold Medallist, Stirling Prize winner,
0:03:35 > 0:03:39is among the most admired and sought after architects in the world.
0:03:41 > 0:03:45Earlier this year he was chosen to design a new contemporary wing
0:03:45 > 0:03:48for that temple of culture,
0:03:48 > 0:03:51New York's Metropolitan Museum Of Art.
0:03:51 > 0:03:55Commissions don't come more prestigious than this.
0:03:55 > 0:03:59What's more, the new building will replace the current galleries
0:03:59 > 0:04:02which face onto the hallowed ground of Central Park.
0:04:04 > 0:04:07He's come a long way from the frock shop in Sloane Street which
0:04:07 > 0:04:08began his career.
0:04:13 > 0:04:17To visit David Chipperfield in his office, you ascend a slightly tatty
0:04:17 > 0:04:22'60s office block from a windswept corner next to Waterloo Station.
0:04:23 > 0:04:27This is how you might imagine an architect's office should be -
0:04:27 > 0:04:31space and light, tables for meeting and eating,
0:04:31 > 0:04:34where even the tableware is designed by Chipperfield
0:04:34 > 0:04:36for the Italian design house Alessi.
0:04:40 > 0:04:41And have you noticed?
0:04:41 > 0:04:46No computers, only models, and they are everywhere.
0:04:47 > 0:04:52The physical model in our office remains the tool of exploration
0:04:52 > 0:04:55and communication. I will only look at projects through physical
0:04:55 > 0:04:59models because I think it gives us something to talk about
0:04:59 > 0:05:01as a third person.
0:05:01 > 0:05:02This is the Met.
0:05:02 > 0:05:05The project is that we take this away,
0:05:05 > 0:05:10even though it was built in the '80s, and build a new building.
0:05:10 > 0:05:13So, you can see all of these different iterations which
0:05:13 > 0:05:17have been going on through the competition stage of nearly
0:05:17 > 0:05:21a year, and now were in a concept stage again
0:05:21 > 0:05:23of developing the project.
0:05:23 > 0:05:25So, even though they commissioned you,
0:05:25 > 0:05:28that dialogue continues.
0:05:28 > 0:05:29Yes, it starts again.
0:05:33 > 0:05:38Since we have become much more digital in every aspect of life,
0:05:38 > 0:05:43I think this physical presence of buildings has a lot more power.
0:05:48 > 0:05:51In David's buildings, there's rarely a single image.
0:05:51 > 0:05:53It's more complex.
0:05:53 > 0:05:54It's not a one-liner.
0:05:54 > 0:05:59I think David Chipperfield buildings don't come and grab you.
0:05:59 > 0:06:02You have to sort of enter into his world to get it.
0:06:02 > 0:06:03I've seen it happen before.
0:06:03 > 0:06:06A month down you say, "Why was that stair there?"
0:06:06 > 0:06:08"Well, it's... I thought it had to be there."
0:06:10 > 0:06:11Just gotta be careful that it
0:06:11 > 0:06:14doesn't become a wrong piece of information.
0:06:18 > 0:06:20So, this is your eagle's nest here.
0:06:21 > 0:06:25You're surrounded by the London that you,
0:06:25 > 0:06:28well, I won't say - the London that you what?
0:06:29 > 0:06:36Well, there is something sobering when you sit here
0:06:36 > 0:06:41and you discuss architecture
0:06:41 > 0:06:45and you stress about a staircase
0:06:45 > 0:06:50or a plan or something small,
0:06:50 > 0:06:53and then you lift your head up, and you look at that and you think,
0:06:53 > 0:06:56"What's the important thing?
0:06:56 > 0:07:00"Does designing a staircase have any relevance
0:07:00 > 0:07:03"compared to designing a city?"
0:07:03 > 0:07:05I mean, what's architecture for?
0:07:05 > 0:07:08That's my worry. What are we doing as architects?
0:07:08 > 0:07:13We're leveraging value on projects where value can be leveraged.
0:07:13 > 0:07:16Architecture has always depended on investment,
0:07:16 > 0:07:19but at the moment investment is a sort of wild beast.
0:07:19 > 0:07:22The money that's coming here isn't just from someone
0:07:22 > 0:07:24walking down the street and saying, "Oh, that's a nice site,
0:07:24 > 0:07:28"maybe I could go to the bank and raise some money and develop it."
0:07:28 > 0:07:33It's global money hovering around, trying to find a place to land.
0:07:34 > 0:07:37London has changed dramatically
0:07:37 > 0:07:39since Chipperfield started out as a young architect,
0:07:39 > 0:07:44working in the offices of both Norman Foster and Richard Rogers.
0:07:44 > 0:07:47There was still a heroic social aspect to the modern
0:07:47 > 0:07:49architecture of the hi-tech era.
0:07:49 > 0:07:53- Richard and Norman both had strong...- Social.
0:07:53 > 0:07:55- ..utopian background.- Yes.
0:07:55 > 0:08:00I think the Pompidou Centre is the last great utopian building.
0:08:01 > 0:08:03Willis Faber,
0:08:03 > 0:08:08which I used to take people around as a member of the office,
0:08:08 > 0:08:13is one of the great office environments,
0:08:13 > 0:08:16very socially inventive.
0:08:16 > 0:08:21We came out of school...with a completely different expectation.
0:08:21 > 0:08:24Sitting in Richard Roger's office with about 12 people
0:08:24 > 0:08:26after he'd built Pompidou,
0:08:26 > 0:08:28you think, "Well, if he can't...."
0:08:28 > 0:08:32- He built Pompidou and that's all... - That's all... What chance for the rest of us?
0:08:35 > 0:08:40Salvation came in the shape of a shop.
0:08:40 > 0:08:42I remember talking to one of my professors,
0:08:42 > 0:08:44who was a university builder,
0:08:44 > 0:08:47just couldn't believe that I was going to design a shop.
0:08:47 > 0:08:49Why would I humiliate myself?
0:08:49 > 0:08:53And I just thought, well, this is the best chance I'd ever seen.
0:08:53 > 0:08:57The Miyake job was a quiet building, it was beautifully done,
0:08:57 > 0:09:00very polished, very elegant, very minimal.
0:09:01 > 0:09:03You could call what David was doing
0:09:03 > 0:09:07sensual born-again modernism. It was a different take.
0:09:07 > 0:09:12His shops were incredibly simple and he was trying to focus
0:09:12 > 0:09:16people's perception of the store on the little shifts you can do at
0:09:16 > 0:09:21that scale, whether it was change of materials or change of levels etc.
0:09:21 > 0:09:25Rather than selling the shop as a kind of a market.
0:09:25 > 0:09:29The success of the Issey Miyake store led to more stores
0:09:29 > 0:09:32and to more work in Japan.
0:09:32 > 0:09:37Japan became a huge patron for a whole emerging generation
0:09:37 > 0:09:39of radical young architects.
0:09:39 > 0:09:41A country which had
0:09:41 > 0:09:44its own indigenous avant-garde architectural culture.
0:09:44 > 0:09:47And David benefitted from that.
0:09:47 > 0:09:52His first two or three stand-alone buildings were all built in Japan.
0:09:52 > 0:09:56And those buildings were often built in urban contexts
0:09:56 > 0:10:00which were very poorly defined or sometimes even rather hostile
0:10:00 > 0:10:03and they have the character of castles, when I look at them.
0:10:03 > 0:10:08They seem fortified, as if turning in on themselves.
0:10:08 > 0:10:11Very preoccupied with an interior space,
0:10:11 > 0:10:13and an interior passage of movement.
0:10:13 > 0:10:16So they become these sort of worlds unto themselves.
0:10:17 > 0:10:21Japanese culture seemed to value an appreciation of simple things,
0:10:21 > 0:10:23clean lines,
0:10:23 > 0:10:25the everyday made special.
0:10:25 > 0:10:29It allowed Chipperfield space to be modern.
0:10:29 > 0:10:32I was hired for three weeks to help on a Japanese competition
0:10:32 > 0:10:35and I stayed for eight-and-a-half years.
0:10:35 > 0:10:40And those first five years David struggled, it was very hard.
0:10:42 > 0:10:46Very few people in Britain were interested in contemporary things.
0:10:50 > 0:10:54Chipperfield's breakthrough in England occurred when he won
0:10:54 > 0:10:56the competition for
0:10:56 > 0:10:59the Museum Of River And Rowing in Henley Upon Thames.
0:10:59 > 0:11:03A town where modern architecture was regarded with suspicion.
0:11:03 > 0:11:06And at some point one of the planners said,
0:11:06 > 0:11:08"You just have to think - would Prince Charles approve?"
0:11:08 > 0:11:11I thought, hang on, this is not the criteria on which planning
0:11:11 > 0:11:14applications should be considered. But, in a way, it was then.
0:11:14 > 0:11:17And I think architects had underestimated
0:11:17 > 0:11:21the need for the familiar as well as the strange.
0:11:22 > 0:11:25In this case, the touch of the familiar was
0:11:25 > 0:11:28the inclusion of a pitched roof in the design.
0:11:28 > 0:11:32I realised if I didn't do a pitched roof I'd have no chance.
0:11:32 > 0:11:36And actually it was shortlisted for the Mies van de Rohe prize,
0:11:36 > 0:11:39and gossip had it that Prince Charles,
0:11:39 > 0:11:42it was one of his favourite modern buildings at that time.
0:11:42 > 0:11:46- Which I probably shouldn't boast about too much.- No, don't.
0:11:46 > 0:11:49But in a way why not? One liked the building.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52He did have a very hard time from, among others,
0:11:52 > 0:11:55the Evening Standard, which launched a crusade
0:11:55 > 0:11:57to stamp out Chipperfield in London.
0:11:57 > 0:12:00Partly it was to do with this house for Nick Knight,
0:12:00 > 0:12:01the photographer.
0:12:01 > 0:12:03To me, it's a modestly scaled,
0:12:03 > 0:12:06quiet, sensible addition to the street.
0:12:06 > 0:12:08A street that I have been to,
0:12:08 > 0:12:12characterised by militant pebbledash and half-timbering.
0:12:12 > 0:12:14I think it actually contributed to
0:12:14 > 0:12:16David's slight paranoia about the British press
0:12:16 > 0:12:19and the sense that people were out to persecute him.
0:12:19 > 0:12:22The lack of reception for his work did form him
0:12:22 > 0:12:24to some extent.
0:12:24 > 0:12:27I think there was an ever so slight bitterness,
0:12:27 > 0:12:30if I can say that, and that fostered a kind of determination that
0:12:30 > 0:12:33you see later, a kind of steeliness that you see in his work.
0:12:33 > 0:12:35He is absolutely determined
0:12:35 > 0:12:38to do things the way he wants to do things.
0:12:42 > 0:12:44One of his early clients, converts even,
0:12:44 > 0:12:46was the sculptor Antony Gormley.
0:12:47 > 0:12:51We go to work in a David Chipperfield studio.
0:12:51 > 0:12:54We live in a house that David helped us convert.
0:12:54 > 0:12:59And we eat with David Chipperfield knives and forks.
0:12:59 > 0:13:03So, we genuinely do depend on David Chipperfield
0:13:03 > 0:13:06for our, as it were, external body.
0:13:11 > 0:13:15The brief that we gave David was space, light and silence.
0:13:16 > 0:13:18But there was immediately this understanding
0:13:18 > 0:13:23about material and about volume
0:13:23 > 0:13:28that absolutely caught Vicken and I
0:13:28 > 0:13:31as being somebody who understood
0:13:31 > 0:13:38about the relationship between light and material and space.
0:13:39 > 0:13:42You could say that IS what architecture is.
0:13:44 > 0:13:46It is bare architecture.
0:13:47 > 0:13:53That bareness is put at the service of human life.
0:13:53 > 0:13:58So that life itself, the way that human bodies occupy his spaces,
0:13:58 > 0:14:00is its decoration.
0:14:00 > 0:14:06And I respect and admire the way David has upheld
0:14:06 > 0:14:11that notion of, in a way, the humanity of architecture.
0:14:19 > 0:14:23Throughout the '90s, work of any note in Britain was hard to come by,
0:14:23 > 0:14:25and the place where David Chipperfield came
0:14:25 > 0:14:28to feel most at home was Berlin.
0:14:30 > 0:14:34It's always intriguing to see what architects build for themselves
0:14:34 > 0:14:38and in David's case this was the place to be.
0:14:41 > 0:14:43In a typical Berlin courtyard,
0:14:43 > 0:14:46there are a group of simple concrete buildings.
0:14:51 > 0:14:54He has an apartment on the street side,
0:14:54 > 0:14:56so you could say he lives above the shop.
0:14:57 > 0:14:59I love his own house in Berlin,
0:14:59 > 0:15:01I love that.
0:15:01 > 0:15:04I think that's a kind of a dream house.
0:15:06 > 0:15:09There's a Kantine, which is open to the public.
0:15:14 > 0:15:19And at the back, offices occupy what was once a piano factory.
0:15:25 > 0:15:29David's architecture begins with the city.
0:15:31 > 0:15:34And that's a very different way of working
0:15:34 > 0:15:36from most celebrity architects today,
0:15:36 > 0:15:41who really are driven by the idea of architecture as an image.
0:15:42 > 0:15:44Sharing this philosophy,
0:15:44 > 0:15:48there are now over 200 architects working for Chipperfield,
0:15:48 > 0:15:53with offices run by directors in Milan, Shanghai, London
0:15:53 > 0:15:55and, of course, Berlin.
0:15:55 > 0:15:58When we go for lunch and we see people coming from outside,
0:15:58 > 0:16:01people from inside, sitting in the sun, enjoying their lunch...
0:16:01 > 0:16:04- Even other architects. - That's the biggest reward!
0:16:04 > 0:16:08That's the biggest reward, architects from across the street.
0:16:08 > 0:16:09I mean, how much can you get?
0:16:14 > 0:16:17Hosting events, entertaining,
0:16:17 > 0:16:22mixing clients, neighbours, friends and, above all, artists - bringing
0:16:22 > 0:16:27people together is clearly important for David and his wife, Evelyn.
0:16:27 > 0:16:30I think she's had a very strong impact on bringing out
0:16:30 > 0:16:32the European-ness in David.
0:16:32 > 0:16:36She's managed to create a kind of, not exactly a salon culture,
0:16:36 > 0:16:38but there is a circle around the Chipperfields.
0:16:38 > 0:16:42There's a sense of creating a conversation around them.
0:16:42 > 0:16:45'Tonight's discussion is all about the city,
0:16:45 > 0:16:47'with his friend, the artist and photographer
0:16:47 > 0:16:49'Thomas Struth.'
0:16:49 > 0:16:53The picture I had of architects was quite negative.
0:16:53 > 0:16:56I thought when I met an architect,
0:16:56 > 0:17:00they were pretty arrogant and I always felt that they are
0:17:00 > 0:17:02mostly vain and self-centred.
0:17:02 > 0:17:04You'd better leave now!
0:17:04 > 0:17:05LAUGHTER
0:17:05 > 0:17:07'I think we get the picture.'
0:17:07 > 0:17:12But Chipperfield has proved himself to be an architect who listens,
0:17:12 > 0:17:15and that makes his a voice to be taken
0:17:15 > 0:17:18seriously in the debate about the future of Berlin.
0:17:20 > 0:17:22'And it all began with the Neues Museum.'
0:17:24 > 0:17:30The Neues Museum was an amazing project for us, and it put us
0:17:30 > 0:17:37very much into the middle of a reflection and a discussion
0:17:37 > 0:17:39about Germany.
0:17:39 > 0:17:41German history and German... and about Berlin.
0:17:41 > 0:17:45How the city should... So, as the city's forming,
0:17:45 > 0:17:49trying to deal with past and future,
0:17:49 > 0:17:52the Neues Museum was seen as
0:17:52 > 0:17:56a valuable contribution to that discussion.
0:17:56 > 0:18:00You were doing it from '97 till... Took you how many years?
0:18:02 > 0:18:05The first competition we started in '94, the first round was '94,
0:18:05 > 0:18:08so we started thinking about that project
0:18:08 > 0:18:11five years after the Wall came down.
0:18:11 > 0:18:14Did you see this as something to help bring
0:18:14 > 0:18:15Germany and Berlin together?
0:18:15 > 0:18:18Was it part of the project?
0:18:18 > 0:18:21- I was only an architect. - Oh, come on.
0:18:22 > 0:18:25Chipperfield's campus is in the Mitte district,
0:18:25 > 0:18:28once part of East Berlin.
0:18:28 > 0:18:32It is a mixed area, with Plattenbau, the concrete prefab blocks
0:18:32 > 0:18:37so characteristic of the GDR, just at the end of the street.
0:18:37 > 0:18:40David says he loves the neighbourhood because it has
0:18:40 > 0:18:42room for the unexpected.
0:18:42 > 0:18:44Today, that includes a visit from
0:18:44 > 0:18:45film director Wim Wenders,
0:18:45 > 0:18:48who is joining us on a walk through the city.
0:18:50 > 0:18:52So, our common neighbourhood.
0:18:52 > 0:18:55- You live near here?- I am just around the corner.- He lives up there.
0:18:55 > 0:18:57I can look into their shower.
0:18:57 > 0:19:02Yeah...we've got a sort of anti-Wim curtain on our shower.
0:19:02 > 0:19:04Because when they found out I could see them
0:19:04 > 0:19:07taking a shower they got scared.
0:19:09 > 0:19:12In the aftermath of the Second World War,
0:19:12 > 0:19:14when the reconstruction of Berlin began,
0:19:14 > 0:19:19it soon became clear that two distinct cities were emerging.
0:19:19 > 0:19:22The division between East and West was made concrete
0:19:22 > 0:19:24by the building of the Berlin Wall.
0:19:24 > 0:19:27Were you from the East or the West? You're from the West.
0:19:27 > 0:19:31I'm from the West, but the first thing I did was moving here
0:19:31 > 0:19:34because I thought it was so much more interesting.
0:19:36 > 0:19:39Wenders was in Australia when the Wall came down.
0:19:39 > 0:19:42Like many of the rest of us, he watched it on TV,
0:19:42 > 0:19:47with its news reports of Stasi archives, and banana shortages,
0:19:47 > 0:19:51and close encounters with that symbol of the East, the Trabant.
0:19:51 > 0:19:52Friends of mine
0:19:52 > 0:19:56whose parents had ordered one a couple of years before the Wall
0:19:56 > 0:20:00fell down, and they were delivered one after the wall fell down!
0:20:00 > 0:20:02And nobody wanted them any more.
0:20:03 > 0:20:05They got that Trabant a year too late.
0:20:07 > 0:20:11So, you were working across with people in East Germany.
0:20:11 > 0:20:14I had friends there, directors and stuff,
0:20:14 > 0:20:17but we couldn't really work here, you see.
0:20:17 > 0:20:21For Wings Of Desire, I tried very hard to shoot in East Berlin,
0:20:21 > 0:20:23- but they wouldn't let me. - They wouldn't?
0:20:23 > 0:20:26No, they wouldn't let me because I made a movie without a script.
0:20:28 > 0:20:29- They were afraid? - Yeah, they were afraid.
0:20:35 > 0:20:38Wenders' angel's-eye view looks down upon Berliners
0:20:38 > 0:20:40of a divided city.
0:20:40 > 0:20:44The pattern of courtyards revealed is a survival from
0:20:44 > 0:20:48the 19th century, but it still helps to make Berlin what it is today.
0:20:50 > 0:20:56The courtyard system is a fairly unique Berlin typology.
0:20:58 > 0:21:02It's a way of getting more density into the centres.
0:21:02 > 0:21:06You couldn't get more dense in a way. Look, here.
0:21:06 > 0:21:08- You can see all the way.- Oh, yeah.
0:21:08 > 0:21:13And some were very regulated, like no kid was allowed to play.
0:21:13 > 0:21:15And you still sometimes see the signs.
0:21:15 > 0:21:19No playing, and no cleaning of carpets.
0:21:22 > 0:21:25Well, I suppose they felt there had to be rules?
0:21:25 > 0:21:28- Yeah, Germans love rules.- Do they?
0:21:30 > 0:21:31They invented all the rules.
0:21:33 > 0:21:35We could have picked a nicer day.
0:21:36 > 0:21:37Yeah, that was Alan's fault.
0:21:41 > 0:21:44Funny to get to see your own city like this.
0:21:45 > 0:21:48So now we come to one of the landmarks,
0:21:48 > 0:21:50and one of my favourite places.
0:21:51 > 0:21:54This is one of the last remaining dance halls,
0:21:54 > 0:21:57and there's dancing still there every night of the week.
0:22:06 > 0:22:09This has all been stage managed by Wim.
0:22:09 > 0:22:12I mean, this is a film set. It's not for real, surely.
0:22:12 > 0:22:14HE HUMS
0:22:15 > 0:22:17There's a Berlin factor
0:22:17 > 0:22:19that heightens the meaning of things.
0:22:19 > 0:22:22You scratch the surface and you find history.
0:22:24 > 0:22:27These photographs were taken in the mid-'70s,
0:22:27 > 0:22:29at the height of the Cold War.
0:22:29 > 0:22:32This dance hall. is a Berlin survivor.
0:22:35 > 0:22:38So many stories, so many ghosts.
0:22:43 > 0:22:45This becomes very nostalgic,
0:22:45 > 0:22:47and in a way unsustainable.
0:22:47 > 0:22:49On the other hand, it's a shame
0:22:49 > 0:22:53that the texture of East Berlin has been lost.
0:22:53 > 0:22:55And then you've got to hold on to it through something
0:22:55 > 0:23:00like this, which is in a way an unsustainable level of dilapidation.
0:23:01 > 0:23:02I love this place.
0:23:05 > 0:23:08And you can still play soccer in the middle of the city.
0:23:10 > 0:23:12This is what a city should be like, no?
0:23:23 > 0:23:26Destruction and dilapidation have defined Berlin -
0:23:26 > 0:23:29a legacy of the war and the Wall.
0:23:29 > 0:23:31There was one grand public building
0:23:31 > 0:23:32in the heart of the city
0:23:32 > 0:23:36which remained a ruin for over 50 years.
0:23:36 > 0:23:37The Neues Museum.
0:23:39 > 0:23:42It was designed by neoclassical architect
0:23:42 > 0:23:46August Stuler for King Friedrich Willhelm IV of Prussia.
0:23:48 > 0:23:51It was a way of affirming power through art when it was
0:23:51 > 0:23:54built in the 19th century,
0:23:54 > 0:23:57but the 20th all but destroyed it.
0:24:01 > 0:24:04It was bombed by the Allies, pockmarked by bullets
0:24:04 > 0:24:08and shrapnel as the Red Army took possession of the city,
0:24:08 > 0:24:10and left to rot during the GDR.
0:24:13 > 0:24:16The weight of all this history would eventually
0:24:16 > 0:24:19fall on the shoulders of this quietly spoken Englishman.
0:24:22 > 0:24:24The restored Neues Museum today,
0:24:24 > 0:24:27looks at a distance like what it was meant to be,
0:24:27 > 0:24:31an evocation of Classical Greece transported to Berlin.
0:24:33 > 0:24:36But look closer and you can see the scars of history.
0:24:38 > 0:24:42They are there because of a decision taken not to restore, but
0:24:42 > 0:24:46to keep, clean and repair the fabric of the building that survived.
0:24:47 > 0:24:52To treat it in effect like the fragments of a precious Greek vase.
0:24:54 > 0:24:58Some spaces required dramatic intervention.
0:24:58 > 0:25:03The grand staircase hall, linking the three storeys of the museum,
0:25:03 > 0:25:06had been bombed right through to the basement.
0:25:06 > 0:25:09It would need something special from the architects to live up to
0:25:09 > 0:25:10what had been lost.
0:25:16 > 0:25:19This is quite a bold proposition.
0:25:19 > 0:25:21In a way, that's what we thought,
0:25:21 > 0:25:26but interestingly all alternative ideas didn't work with the room.
0:25:26 > 0:25:29And then you realise that the room and the stair
0:25:29 > 0:25:30are dynamically integrated.
0:25:30 > 0:25:34This diagonal experience of the space leading to the light.
0:25:34 > 0:25:37This one coming up to this light. You just couldn't get
0:25:37 > 0:25:39anything else to be as convincing.
0:25:41 > 0:25:44Preservation of the ruin meant listening to all its stories.
0:25:45 > 0:25:47The fabric showed the scars of war,
0:25:47 > 0:25:51and in one corner the walls were blackened by fires
0:25:51 > 0:25:55from the Battle for Berlin, when the women and children of the city
0:25:55 > 0:25:59were among the last left to fight against the advancing Russians.
0:25:59 > 0:26:02Did you have to look at each of these areas
0:26:02 > 0:26:05and these spaces and think, "What's the story here?
0:26:05 > 0:26:07"Why is this here? Should we keep it? Should we not keep it?"
0:26:07 > 0:26:09Is that what you did?
0:26:09 > 0:26:11It's a detail and it's hidden there.
0:26:11 > 0:26:13Just at a second glimpse,
0:26:13 > 0:26:16you realise suddenly where it comes from. And that's it.
0:26:20 > 0:26:24At the concept stage, not all Berliners were convinced.
0:26:24 > 0:26:28Some continued to demand full restoration.
0:26:28 > 0:26:32A campaign was mounted against the Chipperfield plans.
0:26:32 > 0:26:35Watercolours showing the polychromatic glories
0:26:35 > 0:26:39of Stuler's interior were compared to stark concrete.
0:26:41 > 0:26:43There was a confrontational atmosphere,
0:26:43 > 0:26:45the citizens almost rose up.
0:26:45 > 0:26:46SHE SPEAKS IN GERMAN
0:26:46 > 0:26:51But Chipperfield, interestingly, didn't see that as a problem,
0:26:51 > 0:26:53he saw that as a wonderful opportunity.
0:26:53 > 0:26:56It meant that the citizens were interested in what's going on.
0:26:56 > 0:26:59Once people are passionate, and interested,
0:26:59 > 0:27:01then they become involved in the process,
0:27:01 > 0:27:04and it was a dialogue in a way that I think
0:27:04 > 0:27:06a lot of other buildings are not.
0:27:09 > 0:27:13The starting point for the process was an analysis of the ruin,
0:27:13 > 0:27:16by Julian Harrap, the conservation architect.
0:27:16 > 0:27:20We'd be involved in actually trying
0:27:20 > 0:27:24to give, if you like, a rating to each piece of fabric.
0:27:24 > 0:27:29And it might go from utter and total deconstruction,
0:27:29 > 0:27:34wrecked walls, missing brickwork, and then it might
0:27:34 > 0:27:38move along to a point at the other end of the room where you've
0:27:38 > 0:27:42got wall paintings in almost perfect condition.
0:27:42 > 0:27:46And so this idea of graduating each space
0:27:46 > 0:27:53according to its components was fundamental.
0:27:54 > 0:27:59The dialogue around the building extended to craftsmen, conservators,
0:27:59 > 0:28:03and contractors, all dedicated to the same brick-by-brick
0:28:03 > 0:28:07problem solving that was becoming an adventure in architecture.
0:28:08 > 0:28:12There was some stereotypical Germanic precision involved too.
0:28:13 > 0:28:18The concrete pieces are enormous but they are produced
0:28:18 > 0:28:21with an incredible precision.
0:28:21 > 0:28:23They have 5mm joints.
0:28:23 > 0:28:29And if you imagine 5mm and they have plus minus 1mm,
0:28:29 > 0:28:31and if you go ten metres like that,
0:28:31 > 0:28:36four metres up and then plus minus one, this is very precise,
0:28:36 > 0:28:38almost Egyptian, I would say.
0:28:41 > 0:28:44Stuler's original museum changed themes and structure
0:28:44 > 0:28:46from room to room.
0:28:46 > 0:28:50Greek, Egyptian, vaulted, columned.
0:28:50 > 0:28:53It gave the architects license to change their approach
0:28:53 > 0:28:56room by room in response.
0:28:56 > 0:29:01The museum's curators and directors were part of the conversation.
0:29:01 > 0:29:05The collection to be displayed influenced decisions at every turn.
0:29:05 > 0:29:09Some of the Egyptian collection was quite literally brought into
0:29:09 > 0:29:12the sun by a new cage-like construction
0:29:12 > 0:29:15designed by Chipperfield.
0:29:15 > 0:29:20The way the new inserts itself within the old is surprising.
0:29:23 > 0:29:27Because you are always aware that there are new acts in the building,
0:29:27 > 0:29:31but not in the way that is let's say contradictory with what's there.
0:29:31 > 0:29:35Somehow the whole is bigger, more alive,
0:29:35 > 0:29:39and actually richer with David's intervention.
0:29:39 > 0:29:43And that richness is very appealing.
0:29:55 > 0:29:57The decoration had been lost,
0:29:57 > 0:30:00in many places, so where we had lost it completely,
0:30:00 > 0:30:03we faked the grid again.
0:30:03 > 0:30:05Just did that as an impression.
0:30:05 > 0:30:07So you got the sense of pattern.
0:30:10 > 0:30:13Every single square inch of that building is
0:30:13 > 0:30:15denoted on a drawing like this.
0:30:15 > 0:30:18It's one of those drawings that links...that really tells you
0:30:18 > 0:30:19what architects do.
0:30:19 > 0:30:21And I get really excited to see this
0:30:21 > 0:30:24because it is as authored as the napkin sketch,
0:30:24 > 0:30:28this is as much what David is as that little doodle.
0:30:28 > 0:30:30This is really the work of David Chipperfield architects.
0:30:30 > 0:30:35That kind of ruin was a problem, it was a really big problem,
0:30:35 > 0:30:38no-one knew what to do with it, how to handle its neoclassical
0:30:38 > 0:30:42heritage, or its GDR heritage, or the World War II heritage
0:30:42 > 0:30:46and all of those things were impossible to deal with.
0:30:46 > 0:30:49There was a desire by the client to have a much flashier,
0:30:49 > 0:30:51much more 21st century-looking building.
0:30:51 > 0:30:55Renowned American architect Frank Gehry was Chipperfield's
0:30:55 > 0:30:59chief rival in the architectural competition for the project.
0:31:00 > 0:31:03The process was tortuous and the presentations took place
0:31:03 > 0:31:05in this room.
0:31:05 > 0:31:07As a young architect I had the drawings
0:31:07 > 0:31:10pinned on the wall and the general director,
0:31:10 > 0:31:14who had wanted Gehry,
0:31:14 > 0:31:18after about five minutes, stood up, came to my drawings, hit them
0:31:18 > 0:31:19and said, "This is shit."
0:31:20 > 0:31:24"I do not need this, this is shit. This is absolute shit."
0:31:24 > 0:31:26And walked out.
0:31:26 > 0:31:29And I was like five minutes... And there was like 30 people there.
0:31:29 > 0:31:31And I said, "So now what do I do?"
0:31:31 > 0:31:34And I thought, "The most important person in the jury
0:31:34 > 0:31:36"has just left the room."
0:31:36 > 0:31:38Then we got a phone call after saying,
0:31:38 > 0:31:40look, we've decided to do a second round with you
0:31:40 > 0:31:42and Gehry. So, congratulations...
0:31:45 > 0:31:48So we were given another two months and it was head-to-head.
0:31:48 > 0:31:51And, in fact, recently someone said to me, "During high noon..."
0:31:51 > 0:31:53And I said, "What's high noon?"
0:31:53 > 0:31:56"You know when you and Gehry were..."
0:31:56 > 0:31:59- It became a sort of... - So, it was on the same day?
0:31:59 > 0:32:01Yeah, I mean, we didn't literally...
0:32:01 > 0:32:06And so we presented and at the end of the presentation,
0:32:06 > 0:32:09the director came up to me and said, "Fantastic."
0:32:11 > 0:32:13What happened in the interim?
0:32:13 > 0:32:16You can't... In England, you don't talk to each other for 20 years.
0:32:19 > 0:32:23That's also where I got my CBE, in that room.
0:32:23 > 0:32:26- Oh, really.- Deliberate.
0:32:26 > 0:32:28In the very room where you were humiliated.
0:32:32 > 0:32:34From the Queen personally.
0:32:34 > 0:32:36Yes.
0:32:36 > 0:32:39'And as if that wasn't enough, Prince Charles
0:32:39 > 0:32:43'and the Duchess of Cornwall came for a personal tour,
0:32:43 > 0:32:46'and so did the most powerful woman in Europe,
0:32:46 > 0:32:51'rumoured to be David Chipperfield's newest and biggest fan,
0:32:51 > 0:32:54'the President of the German Republic, Angela Merkel.'
0:33:07 > 0:33:10It does have a very special character.
0:33:10 > 0:33:14Even as I walk round today, there are certain sorts
0:33:14 > 0:33:19of things - the fall of the light in the western sun is fantastic.
0:33:19 > 0:33:25And the discovery of tiny little things which happen
0:33:25 > 0:33:30is going to keep me going there for a very long time.
0:33:36 > 0:33:38Every decision had to be formulated by us,
0:33:38 > 0:33:42then had to be proposed by us, then had to be
0:33:42 > 0:33:46approved by the user group and a delivery agency...
0:33:49 > 0:33:51I felt it could have stayed empty
0:33:51 > 0:33:56because the building as such was so extraordinary.
0:33:56 > 0:33:59It was such an incredible document of history.
0:34:00 > 0:34:05A tasting of everything that happened to this city over...
0:34:05 > 0:34:08Yes, what a great narrative that suddenly came to life.
0:34:08 > 0:34:12The story was all there, and it almost seemed a waste to put
0:34:12 > 0:34:13it full of art.
0:34:15 > 0:34:18Just saying that when he went to the Neues Museum that it seemed
0:34:18 > 0:34:19a waste to put any art in it
0:34:19 > 0:34:22because the narrative and the story was so rich.
0:34:22 > 0:34:25You didn't need all the art in there.
0:34:25 > 0:34:27- We'd better cut that out. - Can we cut that out?
0:34:27 > 0:34:29- No, why?- Makes it even richer.
0:34:34 > 0:34:37# This time tomorrow
0:34:38 > 0:34:40# Where will we be?
0:34:42 > 0:34:45# On a spaceship somewhere
0:34:45 > 0:34:51# Sailing across an empty sea
0:34:52 > 0:34:55# This time tomorrow... #
0:34:55 > 0:34:57It is a mess, Berlin, but it's a nice mess, no?
0:34:57 > 0:35:02'The success of the Neues Museum has led to an even more ambitious
0:35:02 > 0:35:06'role for David Chipperfield in the future of the city he loves.'
0:35:06 > 0:35:10He is now responsible for the master plan for Museum Island
0:35:10 > 0:35:11in the heart of Berlin.
0:35:13 > 0:35:16It began as King Frederich Willhelm's romantic sketch
0:35:16 > 0:35:20for a "sanctuary of art and science" in 1841.
0:35:20 > 0:35:23Prince Charles would definitely approve.
0:35:23 > 0:35:25Admittedly, he couldn't
0:35:25 > 0:35:28have predicted that a railway would run through the middle of it.
0:35:30 > 0:35:34The long term timescale of this city plan is unbelievably
0:35:34 > 0:35:36rare in architecture these days.
0:35:38 > 0:35:41In England, you have discussion about planning things
0:35:41 > 0:35:44about three years ahead or something, maximum.
0:35:44 > 0:35:47Here you're in meetings and they say,
0:35:47 > 0:35:51"Well, if we open the south wing in 2019
0:35:51 > 0:35:55"we could do the north wing in 2024, it means
0:35:55 > 0:35:57"that we can bring the connection to..."
0:35:57 > 0:35:59And you're sitting in this room...
0:35:59 > 0:36:02You're thinking, "Will I still be here?"
0:36:03 > 0:36:10# I can see the world and it ain't so big at all... #
0:36:12 > 0:36:14Whatever the future brings, Chipperfield has
0:36:14 > 0:36:16already made his mark.
0:36:16 > 0:36:19That's a Chipperfield building,
0:36:19 > 0:36:24And so is this, a townhouse art gallery on a prize site that
0:36:24 > 0:36:29rather playfully seems to both fit in and stand out at the same time.
0:36:31 > 0:36:33Those windows are really tall.
0:36:34 > 0:36:36So this is our corner of Berlin.
0:36:37 > 0:36:40It's a ringside seat for the main event,
0:36:40 > 0:36:42a view of the Neues Museum.
0:36:42 > 0:36:46But even that is changing as another Chipperfield building
0:36:46 > 0:36:49rises from the construction site opposite.
0:36:49 > 0:36:53It's a new gallery and a grand public entrance to Museum Island.
0:36:55 > 0:36:59So what this building does is add a whole load
0:36:59 > 0:37:03of facilities that the Museum Island doesn't have.
0:37:03 > 0:37:06And then it sort of helps bind together all the buildings.
0:37:07 > 0:37:10So it's both familiar and unfamiliar.
0:37:10 > 0:37:11You know, it's somehow both...
0:37:11 > 0:37:14It actually has the illusion of being quite historical,
0:37:14 > 0:37:18but actually it's extremely minimal and modern.
0:37:18 > 0:37:20It's going to be heroic.
0:37:21 > 0:37:24It's not as soft as people might think it might be,
0:37:24 > 0:37:26it's going to be a little bit shocking.
0:37:32 > 0:37:36Chipperfield's vision in columns and glass is a bold one,
0:37:36 > 0:37:41and it's inspired by a monumental work of modernism by his great hero,
0:37:41 > 0:37:44the German-born architect, Mies van der Rohe.
0:37:44 > 0:37:47It's a building which plays an important role
0:37:47 > 0:37:49in the story of West Berlin.
0:37:49 > 0:37:51Once the city was divided, of course,
0:37:51 > 0:37:55the west had lost all its museums,
0:37:55 > 0:37:59so then they had to build these alternative institutions.
0:37:59 > 0:38:02And a rather strange place to build it in a way.
0:38:02 > 0:38:06So, this new centre - the cultural centre -
0:38:06 > 0:38:09was not in the centre of the west,
0:38:09 > 0:38:11but as close to the wall as possible.
0:38:11 > 0:38:15Provocatively, in a way,
0:38:15 > 0:38:20reminding people just over there how good it was over here.
0:38:23 > 0:38:29It's a strange moment when a temple of modernism begins to show its age.
0:38:29 > 0:38:32Chipperfield has won the job of refurbishing it.
0:38:33 > 0:38:38You can just see the level of trust that the German people
0:38:38 > 0:38:41have in David to feel comfortable
0:38:41 > 0:38:46to let him deal with this masterpiece of Mies van der Rohe's.
0:38:46 > 0:38:50It's an unique opportunity to get forensically close to the
0:38:50 > 0:38:54work of the man who famously pronounced that, "Less is more,"
0:38:54 > 0:38:56and that, "God is in the detail."
0:38:58 > 0:39:01The roof was built as a plate on the floor
0:39:01 > 0:39:05and, as it went up, the legs swang in.
0:39:05 > 0:39:07And no-one had done something like that before.
0:39:07 > 0:39:09Was he on the site when this was all done?
0:39:09 > 0:39:13Well, he came to see the lifting of the roof and he,
0:39:13 > 0:39:17I think as an act of bravado, went underneath the roof to prove how...
0:39:17 > 0:39:21- Do you do things like that yourself? - No, no!
0:39:21 > 0:39:25Restoring a Mies building is not going to be easy.
0:39:25 > 0:39:28Every element, every joint, is part of the architecture.
0:39:28 > 0:39:31Even its plan has a graphic purity.
0:39:31 > 0:39:34This is a formidable drawing of Mies's van der Rohe's
0:39:34 > 0:39:36Neue Nationalgalerie Gallery in Berlin
0:39:36 > 0:39:38and it's a reflected ceiling plan showing
0:39:38 > 0:39:40that extraordinary grid within a grid within a grid
0:39:40 > 0:39:43of the kind of Mies van der Rohe module
0:39:43 > 0:39:46of this square temple in the centre of Berlin.
0:39:47 > 0:39:52I must say, for me, it's one of those moments where the apprentice meets the master.
0:39:54 > 0:39:56This is a glass and steel building.
0:39:56 > 0:40:01It's also a gallery in which art has to be exhibited.
0:40:01 > 0:40:05I mean, most people would say, "Well, most galleries, they have hardly any light coming in."
0:40:05 > 0:40:09This is all about light. How do you deal with that in relation
0:40:09 > 0:40:13to your responsibility towards what comes in here and how are you -
0:40:13 > 0:40:15are you thinking hard about that?
0:40:15 > 0:40:19Mies was challenged early on that
0:40:19 > 0:40:22this was going to be a problem
0:40:22 > 0:40:25and he amusingly said,
0:40:25 > 0:40:30"I know, but I think it is such an interesting concept,
0:40:30 > 0:40:32"I feel obliged to pursue it."
0:40:32 > 0:40:36- Which, I think is...- Bugger off! - It's a good line to use against your clients,
0:40:36 > 0:40:39but I'm not sure we could ever do that ourselves.
0:40:39 > 0:40:42Mies had this idea about how you would do it.
0:40:42 > 0:40:46So, he hung panels in here and you walked in and it sort of worked.
0:40:46 > 0:40:50Now, the building has an authority and somehow it's part of nature,
0:40:50 > 0:40:53it's part of the city and everyone recognises that this is
0:40:53 > 0:40:54the great room of Berlin.
0:40:56 > 0:41:00But you can see that simple things over the years
0:41:00 > 0:41:02have just gradually eroded the quality.
0:41:02 > 0:41:05I mean, one of the biggest problems has been the glass.
0:41:05 > 0:41:10- I would say this architecture forgives...- Nothing.
0:41:10 > 0:41:13Forgives nothing. Well, because...
0:41:13 > 0:41:15God is in the detail, according to Mies.
0:41:15 > 0:41:19And of course this is a very minimal building, obviously, in that sense,
0:41:19 > 0:41:23- so every single... You've got very few materials you're using...- Uh-huh.
0:41:23 > 0:41:25..and they've got to be right.
0:41:26 > 0:41:30This materiality is fundamental,
0:41:30 > 0:41:35but it's full of weaknesses in terms of how we now would build up
0:41:35 > 0:41:38an isolation between inside and outside.
0:41:38 > 0:41:43So, great sheets of condensation form on the inside of this building.
0:41:43 > 0:41:46They even anticipated that moisture, cos this is like a rain...
0:41:46 > 0:41:48This is like a gutter.
0:41:48 > 0:41:51We're going to spend a lot of money restoring this building.
0:41:51 > 0:41:54So, therefore, if we're going to restore it, surely we're going
0:41:54 > 0:41:59to solve all the technical problems that the building carries.
0:41:59 > 0:42:02Otherwise, why would you spend that money?
0:42:02 > 0:42:04On the other hand, we are restoring Mies.
0:42:04 > 0:42:06So, surely if you're going to restore Mies,
0:42:06 > 0:42:08you're going to restore Mies.
0:42:08 > 0:42:09You have to be true to Mies.
0:42:09 > 0:42:12What's the point of killing Mies in protecting him?
0:42:12 > 0:42:17So, you actually have to have a cross-cultural dialogue.
0:42:17 > 0:42:21You know, in England I think it would get project managed out of it.
0:42:21 > 0:42:24Yeah, and they would say, "I'm sorry that's costing that much more,
0:42:24 > 0:42:26"no-one's going to tell the difference..."
0:42:26 > 0:42:28We've talked about this enough,
0:42:28 > 0:42:30we've had two meetings and we've just got to make a decision.
0:42:30 > 0:42:33In Germany, you can have 20 meetings, you can have 40 meetings,
0:42:33 > 0:42:34it doesn't matter.
0:42:34 > 0:42:38- But you do, don't you?- Yeah, you do. Until you get it right.
0:42:45 > 0:42:48How many meetings have there been about the carpet?
0:42:48 > 0:42:50Quite a few!
0:42:50 > 0:42:53- The carpet's not over. - The carpet's not over?
0:42:56 > 0:42:59- Mies had nothing to do with this.- No, no, no. Of course, he chose that.
0:42:59 > 0:43:03- He chose this? - This is sacred lino.
0:43:03 > 0:43:05- Hello.- Hello.
0:43:05 > 0:43:07He didn't just say, "You go through that door
0:43:07 > 0:43:09"and it's all rubbish in there and I'm not interested."
0:43:09 > 0:43:15This is really carefully thought through furniture.
0:43:15 > 0:43:18- And the table...- The table? That's a Mies table?- Yeah.
0:43:18 > 0:43:21- It's half of it.- Half a Mies table. - They cut it, they were too big.
0:43:21 > 0:43:24God, that's the most shocking thing you've said today -
0:43:24 > 0:43:26a Mies table was cut in half!
0:43:39 > 0:43:43Look how beautiful that is. He did love the way to build.
0:43:43 > 0:43:49I mean, he was absolutely interested in construction -
0:43:49 > 0:43:52not image. I mean, the problem about architecture now is that
0:43:52 > 0:43:55we've become more interested in the virtual
0:43:55 > 0:43:58than we are in the experiential. And the problem is
0:43:58 > 0:44:02that a lot of architecture is known through image anyway.
0:44:02 > 0:44:03Well, it's an interesting point
0:44:03 > 0:44:05that we never talk about with architecture,
0:44:05 > 0:44:09which is how a building feels. You know, it's not a...
0:44:09 > 0:44:12Absolutely. Very difficult to discuss.
0:44:12 > 0:44:16And yet, that's what it's about. How does a building feel?
0:44:16 > 0:44:18Thank you very much. Absolutely.
0:44:25 > 0:44:28The last exhibition in the New National Gallery, a prologue
0:44:28 > 0:44:33to renovation, was this installation by Chipperfield himself.
0:44:33 > 0:44:37A play on the history of the column, called Sticks and Stones.
0:44:40 > 0:44:43It's no accident today that he makes the core of his practice
0:44:43 > 0:44:45in cultural buildings and he does them brilliantly.
0:44:45 > 0:44:47He understands how artists want to work,
0:44:47 > 0:44:49he understands how curators want to work.
0:44:49 > 0:44:53He never seems to do a bad one when it comes to museums and galleries.
0:44:53 > 0:44:56And of course those have become the cathedrals of our time.
0:45:00 > 0:45:03I think David's work is always conceived
0:45:03 > 0:45:08in response to the nature of the place in which it sits.
0:45:08 > 0:45:13Something like Hepworth, it almost adopts the River Calder as a moat
0:45:13 > 0:45:19with a bridge running across and it has those steep concrete walls,
0:45:19 > 0:45:21with quite minimal fenestration.
0:45:24 > 0:45:30What was so interesting about the site that we were given
0:45:30 > 0:45:34is that it was, in my opinion, completely three dimensional.
0:45:34 > 0:45:38And of course, that brought me into a nervous moment
0:45:38 > 0:45:42of architecture as sculpture, which I am very nervous of.
0:45:42 > 0:45:46But instead of just putting a shape on top of something,
0:45:46 > 0:45:52I was interested in the idea of articulating the rooms of a museum
0:45:52 > 0:45:57and extending those - extrapolating out of those rooms - form.
0:45:57 > 0:45:59And the light is quite important, isn't it?
0:45:59 > 0:46:01Where the light's coming into those spaces.
0:46:01 > 0:46:04Well, that was the other part of this little jigsaw puzzle.
0:46:04 > 0:46:09To bring light in through a roof in an even way
0:46:09 > 0:46:13onto an art space is quite complex
0:46:13 > 0:46:17and by the time it gets to the wall plane, to the picture plane,
0:46:17 > 0:46:19it's sort of fizzled out a bit.
0:46:19 > 0:46:24So, this was a strategy of not bringing real light onto the wall
0:46:24 > 0:46:27or onto the floor but, in a way like church light,
0:46:27 > 0:46:28I call it church light.
0:46:28 > 0:46:32It was that connection to daylight
0:46:32 > 0:46:37that reminded you of the weather and the fact that you're in a room.
0:46:40 > 0:46:45Making architecture for art is a very specific task
0:46:45 > 0:46:47because it's not about how you live,
0:46:47 > 0:46:51it's not about your daily life, it's about a visit
0:46:51 > 0:46:56and it's a completely different set of critical elements
0:46:56 > 0:46:58between the viewer and the art work.
0:46:58 > 0:47:01It's an architecture which must step back
0:47:01 > 0:47:03and let the art work come forward.
0:47:03 > 0:47:06And Hepworth does it incredibly well
0:47:06 > 0:47:09and yet manages to be the closest thing, one might say,
0:47:09 > 0:47:12to an iconic building that David has done.
0:47:13 > 0:47:18But Wakefield needed a building that had presence in that way.
0:47:28 > 0:47:31One of the questions that remains out there -
0:47:31 > 0:47:34can we only find architecture now in museums?
0:47:34 > 0:47:39I am very self-conscious that we are in a sort of green zone in
0:47:39 > 0:47:45doing museum architecture because you are privileged generally to be
0:47:45 > 0:47:48in an environment where everyone's roughly going in the same direction.
0:47:48 > 0:47:51There are no explicit enemies. Um...
0:47:52 > 0:47:57..at the same time, being an architect out there,
0:47:57 > 0:48:02outside of the green zone in the commercial world
0:48:02 > 0:48:04is becoming increasingly difficult
0:48:04 > 0:48:08and architecture has become increasingly isolated.
0:48:08 > 0:48:12Buildings have become isolated from the fabric of the city.
0:48:12 > 0:48:16They don't just replace, you know, you don't take one building down,
0:48:16 > 0:48:19replace it with something roughly the same size and slot it back in.
0:48:19 > 0:48:22You take ten buildings down and build a tower.
0:48:22 > 0:48:27When I was director of the Venice Biennale my theme was Common Ground,
0:48:27 > 0:48:32and of course I was lamenting the lack of common ground between...
0:48:34 > 0:48:36..society and the profession.
0:48:46 > 0:48:52At first glance, this unassuming seaside village in a corner of Spain,
0:48:52 > 0:48:55is the last place you'd expect a world-renowned architect
0:48:55 > 0:48:56to build a home.
0:49:00 > 0:49:03Initially, it was just the family's holidays, then extended a bit
0:49:03 > 0:49:08and then gradually the opportunity arose to build a house there,
0:49:08 > 0:49:11to invite people and actually we have meetings there
0:49:11 > 0:49:13as much as he has his holidays.
0:49:14 > 0:49:19That annual break, which isn't really a break because he invites
0:49:19 > 0:49:24the world to come and join him and indeed see things his way.
0:49:32 > 0:49:34There's the beauty of this natural environment,
0:49:34 > 0:49:36but also it's a kind of quite ordinary
0:49:36 > 0:49:39because some people might say even it's a quite ugly town.
0:49:39 > 0:49:43- I think you can use the word ugly. - Can I? So, what brought you here?
0:49:43 > 0:49:47I mean, it started off for us really innocently as, you know,
0:49:47 > 0:49:51trying to work out where to take the kids in the summer for a few weeks
0:49:51 > 0:49:56and it grew into something else.
0:49:56 > 0:50:01To be in a place of such incredible natural beauty
0:50:01 > 0:50:02and of people who actually,
0:50:02 > 0:50:05I have to say, I've understood better and better
0:50:05 > 0:50:10that they have a deep love of the place, a deep love for the place.
0:50:10 > 0:50:15You know, there's something very content about that.
0:50:15 > 0:50:19And that's something which I think societally we've sort of lost.
0:50:19 > 0:50:22Globalisation puts us in a situation
0:50:22 > 0:50:24where we always want to be somewhere else.
0:50:24 > 0:50:27And...
0:50:27 > 0:50:31what has been the great experience here is that
0:50:31 > 0:50:35we've found a place to be,
0:50:35 > 0:50:39we've tried to, um, be part of it.
0:50:48 > 0:50:50You have a kind of quite benign view
0:50:50 > 0:50:53of what people do to their own homes, right?
0:50:53 > 0:50:57Typical Galician village was granite, granite, granite.
0:50:57 > 0:50:59Then, they added.
0:51:04 > 0:51:10They stuck tiles on things and, you know, they added areas.
0:51:10 > 0:51:12That might cheer you up!
0:51:12 > 0:51:16One person does it and then the next one decides to copy it.
0:51:17 > 0:51:20And this has got a 3D print on it.
0:51:29 > 0:51:32I wouldn't be at all surprised in another ten years, you know,
0:51:32 > 0:51:35cos underneath that is real stone like that.
0:51:35 > 0:51:39- So, they've just layered that on top? - They are just layers on top.
0:51:42 > 0:51:46At least it is a sort of engagement.
0:51:46 > 0:51:49Un pueblo bonito que tenemos. Si.
0:51:49 > 0:51:53- Bonito y tranquilo y saludable, aqui si.- Exactamente.
0:52:01 > 0:52:03- What did she say to you?- She said,
0:52:03 > 0:52:07"It's a very pretty village and very tranquil and nice to be in."
0:52:07 > 0:52:12No, but you know, there's something pleasant about it.
0:52:12 > 0:52:15There is, there's something charming about it and, everywhere you go,
0:52:15 > 0:52:16something hits you by surprise.
0:52:16 > 0:52:19Yeah. It's full of texture, it's full of life.
0:52:19 > 0:52:20And is a lot of it ugly?
0:52:20 > 0:52:24Yeah, sure. But the problem with design and architecture -
0:52:24 > 0:52:27and especially now - it takes itself too seriously.
0:52:27 > 0:52:30And in the end you've gotta remember what it's for -
0:52:30 > 0:52:34it's about people, it's not THAT important.
0:52:35 > 0:52:38And here we are, actually, this is your home.
0:52:38 > 0:52:42There was a gap in the village - and it's a really strange gap -
0:52:42 > 0:52:44and you can see that the street turns,
0:52:44 > 0:52:46all the buildings stick out in a funny way,
0:52:46 > 0:52:51so I didn't know how to design a house
0:52:51 > 0:52:55that fitted into this strange geometry.
0:52:55 > 0:52:58It's very inspired by Alvaro Siza, whose...
0:52:58 > 0:53:00CAR HORN TOOTS
0:53:00 > 0:53:04Right by the traffic lights - the only traffic lights in town.
0:53:06 > 0:53:08- Shall we go in?- Yes.
0:53:13 > 0:53:16It's actually quite a small house.
0:53:16 > 0:53:19So, how does he manage to get so many people into it?
0:53:31 > 0:53:34Space, light and the right materials.
0:53:42 > 0:53:44This is...
0:53:44 > 0:53:46So, that's the view.
0:53:51 > 0:53:53That is quite something!
0:53:55 > 0:53:57It is interesting. Villagers will come in here,
0:53:57 > 0:53:59then they stand and look at the view all the time.
0:53:59 > 0:54:01They say, "Wow, that's a fantastic view,"
0:54:01 > 0:54:04and you say, "Well, you know, you've always had it!"
0:54:04 > 0:54:07But there's something about framing a view,
0:54:07 > 0:54:10or you know, intensifying something.
0:54:12 > 0:54:15And I think that's something which, you know, interests me
0:54:15 > 0:54:20is the idea of, you know, making ordinary things more special.
0:54:22 > 0:54:25There's no hiding in a house.
0:54:25 > 0:54:29It's like trying to write a poem, rather than a novel.
0:54:29 > 0:54:30Because a novel is a big baggy thing,
0:54:30 > 0:54:32which can allow all sorts of things to happen,
0:54:32 > 0:54:36but the house is a way to develop ideas with great clarity.
0:54:36 > 0:54:39And they all show - you can't bluff with a house.
0:54:42 > 0:54:46He wants to make a building that...
0:54:48 > 0:54:50..resonates with your life.
0:54:50 > 0:54:53In that sense, he's a space doctor.
0:54:55 > 0:54:57He knows that life is messy,
0:54:57 > 0:55:00but he likes to make very beautiful cupboards
0:55:00 > 0:55:01to put the mess away in.
0:55:15 > 0:55:17We shouldn't leave Evelyn out of this
0:55:17 > 0:55:20because together they've become an extraordinary team.
0:55:23 > 0:55:26- I'm Manola.- Manola. Que pasa con Manola?
0:55:26 > 0:55:28THEY SPEAK SPANISH
0:55:28 > 0:55:31She's so, I think, emotionally intelligent
0:55:31 > 0:55:34and Evelyn's interest in the human relations
0:55:34 > 0:55:37within the Chipperfield practice
0:55:37 > 0:55:41has been absolutely intrinsic to its success.
0:55:41 > 0:55:45This house, the space that you've created, he's created,
0:55:45 > 0:55:46it's quite small, isn't it?
0:55:46 > 0:55:49Well, it was a tiny little triangle in the village
0:55:49 > 0:55:52and the neighbour wanted it for his car
0:55:52 > 0:55:56and I think the only reason why the man who owned it sold it to us
0:55:56 > 0:55:59is because he started to worry that this neighbour -
0:55:59 > 0:56:01who he really disliked intensely -
0:56:01 > 0:56:03would actually get it for his car.
0:56:03 > 0:56:07So, he sold it to us and it did look like a triangle, like something that
0:56:07 > 0:56:09nobody could do anything with.
0:56:09 > 0:56:11And I suppose I have a good architect!
0:56:11 > 0:56:14I sense about David that somehow,
0:56:14 > 0:56:19despite his passion for architecture,
0:56:19 > 0:56:21I think, sometimes I feel he's disappointed
0:56:21 > 0:56:23with what architecture is achieving.
0:56:23 > 0:56:27Disappointment is not a word that I would associate with him -
0:56:27 > 0:56:28he's never a victim.
0:56:28 > 0:56:32You know, he always feels huge responsibility for...
0:56:35 > 0:56:38..doing something in the way in which he feels it could be done,
0:56:38 > 0:56:40or at least attempting to.
0:56:40 > 0:56:43I mean, he never feels it's done well enough.
0:56:43 > 0:56:46That is sometimes nerve-racking. I mean he always, you know,
0:56:46 > 0:56:53to say, "Not bad," is the height of praise.
0:56:53 > 0:56:55So, what would David be if he wasn't an architect?
0:56:55 > 0:56:58What would be the thing that would give him satisfaction?
0:56:58 > 0:57:01Oh, God. I would think he probably would do anything, you know,
0:57:01 > 0:57:04anything in a very similar way.
0:57:09 > 0:57:12He's often said he'd love to be a chef.
0:57:12 > 0:57:15Apparently, before he was an architect he thought of being a vet,
0:57:15 > 0:57:17which I can't imagine at all.
0:57:17 > 0:57:19He'd love to write novels.
0:57:19 > 0:57:21SHE LAUGHS
0:57:21 > 0:57:23But I think he likes to be an architect!
0:57:27 > 0:57:30David's sailing can be a metaphor for a man that has...
0:57:32 > 0:57:34..sailed his own course.
0:57:34 > 0:57:38With a distant horizon - he was never one for short gains.
0:57:42 > 0:57:46David became fanatic over the years about sailing,
0:57:46 > 0:57:49the whole family did and it's sort of great, you know.
0:57:49 > 0:57:52He takes people on the big boat.
0:57:59 > 0:58:02The children grew up sailing here
0:58:02 > 0:58:05and so I had to try and keep up with them.
0:58:05 > 0:58:07So, I learnt sailing at the same time as they did.
0:58:07 > 0:58:10Of course, they are natural sailors and I'm not.
0:58:10 > 0:58:14They, you know, I can't really sail without them, we do it as a family.
0:58:25 > 0:58:32Essentially, what we do here is to swap our anxieties from,
0:58:32 > 0:58:35you know, the abstract ones to the physical ones, the real ones.
0:58:35 > 0:58:37But then people say to me,
0:58:37 > 0:58:40"Yeah, but why do you have 18 people in your house?
0:58:40 > 0:58:43"Why do you bring all these people here?"
0:58:43 > 0:58:47I mean, you know, we have something like 150 people over the summer
0:58:47 > 0:58:48or some ridiculous number.
0:58:48 > 0:58:51For me, that's the other aspect,
0:58:51 > 0:58:54that the world isn't just the physical,
0:58:54 > 0:58:57it's also sitting down with people
0:58:57 > 0:59:01and you know communing and enjoying that.
0:59:01 > 0:59:06I mean, these sound terribly cliched ideas.
0:59:06 > 0:59:09Gabriel tells me that when you were designing this kitchen
0:59:09 > 0:59:12you were obsessive and fanatical
0:59:12 > 0:59:16about every single thing in this kitchen.
0:59:16 > 0:59:19If you're using something all the time and I know how to use it,
0:59:19 > 0:59:22I know all the problems of it, when I redesigned it
0:59:22 > 0:59:26I tried to solve all the issues that were there before.
0:59:26 > 0:59:30The dishwasher used to be this side, so people used to come and...
0:59:30 > 0:59:32So, I try to keep a barrier here.
0:59:32 > 0:59:35I think, unlike quite a lot of architects,
0:59:35 > 0:59:39you absolutely believe that it is a collaboration
0:59:39 > 0:59:41and it's a collaboration with the environment, with the...
0:59:41 > 0:59:44Because - A: I just don't like fighting.
0:59:44 > 0:59:47I'm not confrontational and therefore I find that difficult.
0:59:47 > 0:59:50And secondly, I think, instead of you there and me there,
0:59:50 > 0:59:54- we should both be looking at the same thing.- Yeah.
0:59:54 > 0:59:56You want everybody...
0:59:56 > 1:00:00If that's the problem and that's the issue,
1:00:00 > 1:00:02we should all be looking at it.
1:00:12 > 1:00:14It's sort of a white colour, it's quite a modern bridge.
1:00:14 > 1:00:16- It's concrete.- Yeah, exactly.
1:00:16 > 1:00:20So, you've not really chosen to reference the brick in any way.
1:00:20 > 1:00:22If you use the brick of the building,
1:00:22 > 1:00:24you're not going to convince anybody
1:00:24 > 1:00:27that that piece is part of the original building.
1:00:27 > 1:00:32It seems that for Chipperfield the conversation really never stops.
1:00:32 > 1:00:35So, you have the bridge and the bridge comes...
1:00:35 > 1:00:38how do you actually get through that?
1:00:38 > 1:00:41So, we bring this floor lower,
1:00:41 > 1:00:43to the same level of this cast corridor.
1:00:45 > 1:00:48If we take all of this back of house stuff away...
1:00:50 > 1:00:53..take away all of this crap -
1:00:53 > 1:00:57and it will become a rather beautiful introduction -
1:00:57 > 1:00:59and another dimension to the Royal Academy.
1:00:59 > 1:01:04And it will open in our 250th anniversary, which is 2018.
1:01:07 > 1:01:09The new master plan will bring
1:01:09 > 1:01:12all the buildings of the Royal Academy together,
1:01:12 > 1:01:15along with the tribes that inhabit them -
1:01:15 > 1:01:19the curators, the art handlers, the students, the academicians -
1:01:19 > 1:01:23and they've all got a point of view.
1:01:23 > 1:01:26This conversation has been going on for seven years.
1:01:31 > 1:01:35And if that's not enough of a challenge, this could well be.
1:01:36 > 1:01:41David Chipperfield comes to New York every month to meet with his clients
1:01:41 > 1:01:44at the Met led by its director Thomas Campbell.
1:01:46 > 1:01:48For the Met in New York,
1:01:48 > 1:01:52perhaps the most well-endowed museum on the planet,
1:01:52 > 1:01:56to choose an architect from London is a fantastic achievement.
1:01:56 > 1:02:01It has to be the moment when David can finally relax.
1:02:01 > 1:02:04He's made it.
1:02:04 > 1:02:06Well, maybe.
1:02:08 > 1:02:11Going round and round this building,
1:02:11 > 1:02:15why one likes so much of the 5th Avenue side of the building
1:02:15 > 1:02:19and other parts, is that you get the feeling that the architecture
1:02:19 > 1:02:23is somehow part of the gallery spaces.
1:02:23 > 1:02:26Why Modern Contemporary is so disappointing is that you feel
1:02:26 > 1:02:29you are in a world of dry wall and panelling.
1:02:29 > 1:02:32You don't feel that there's anything there that wouldn't just be
1:02:32 > 1:02:35blown away by a strong wind.
1:02:39 > 1:02:43- Things don't feel like they're on purpose.- No, exactly.
1:02:43 > 1:02:48- And there's a competition, rather than a reinforcement.- Yeah.
1:02:49 > 1:02:51The Met extension is a big deal.
1:02:51 > 1:02:55It involves demolishing the whole Modern and Contemporary Wing,
1:02:55 > 1:03:00designed in the 1980s by Kevin Roache and Partners.
1:03:00 > 1:03:03What Roache did was just kind of bang something very new against
1:03:03 > 1:03:06something old and say, "Talk to each other."
1:03:06 > 1:03:09But they never really did talk to each other very well.
1:03:09 > 1:03:13So, my hope is that what David Chipperfield does is in this
1:03:13 > 1:03:17newer tradition of juxtaposing
1:03:17 > 1:03:20modern and traditional architecture
1:03:20 > 1:03:23in a way that actually encourages them to speak,
1:03:23 > 1:03:26rather than having them stare at each other not talking.
1:03:27 > 1:03:31Conventionally, you put the desk there, the coat check
1:03:31 > 1:03:32and all that stuff.
1:03:32 > 1:03:37The stakes are high and New York cultural politics is a tough game.
1:03:37 > 1:03:39A lot of people will need persuading.
1:03:43 > 1:03:45That is David's vision, under the drape,
1:03:45 > 1:03:48but we're not allowed to show the model.
1:03:49 > 1:03:54The Met will need to tread carefully, this is sensitive ground.
1:03:54 > 1:03:58Two major New York institutions have recently had to abandon
1:03:58 > 1:04:01expansion plans because of public opposition.
1:04:01 > 1:04:04David, let me take a snapshot.
1:04:04 > 1:04:06- An Instagram moment.- Of you!
1:04:08 > 1:04:11HE LAUGHS
1:04:11 > 1:04:13It is extraordinary.
1:04:13 > 1:04:17What you're getting here is not only the New York skyline
1:04:17 > 1:04:21but the Met is known as the only building in Central Park.
1:04:21 > 1:04:25Everybody always wanted the museum and the park to connect better,
1:04:25 > 1:04:28maybe now it can happen.
1:04:28 > 1:04:31And if its better than what we see there now,
1:04:31 > 1:04:33I would expect - and in fact hope -
1:04:33 > 1:04:36that the public response would be positive.
1:04:36 > 1:04:40But all of that said, in New York you really can't predict anything.
1:04:42 > 1:04:47It is a bit strange to knock down a building that isn't so old.
1:04:47 > 1:04:50I mean, the people in the museum remember the opening.
1:04:54 > 1:04:56I've been looking at this for a long time,
1:04:56 > 1:04:59so I see a lot of different things.
1:05:01 > 1:05:03Everyone presumes that as an architect,
1:05:03 > 1:05:04you're used to visualising,
1:05:04 > 1:05:08therefore you know what it's going to look like.
1:05:08 > 1:05:12But, to be honest, it's never that easy.