0:03:02 > 0:03:06In cities such as Bristol here, these are the homes of the future.
0:03:09 > 0:03:13Some people think that living in tall flats raises a whole new set
0:03:13 > 0:03:18of problems, and as a nation, Britain is only just getting used to them.
0:03:18 > 0:03:20A man who's made a special study of the health aspects
0:03:20 > 0:03:23of modern planning is the deputy medical officer of health
0:03:23 > 0:03:25for Bristol, Dr John Scone.
0:03:27 > 0:03:30High-flat developments can be very successful,
0:03:30 > 0:03:34as illustrated by projects in Bristol, if centrally situated,
0:03:34 > 0:03:38with easy access to lifts, shops,
0:03:38 > 0:03:41open spaces and places of entertainment.
0:03:41 > 0:03:44Families with young children especially appreciate
0:03:44 > 0:03:50laundry facilities, play areas, nursery schools and roomy balconies,
0:03:50 > 0:03:54preferably with sunny, pleasant aspects.
0:03:54 > 0:03:57In Bristol, where they've built nearly 50 multi-storey towers
0:03:57 > 0:04:00in the last 12 years, the housing and medical authorities
0:04:00 > 0:04:04are experts on organising high life.
0:04:04 > 0:04:07The lifts have to be built large enough to take pram,
0:04:07 > 0:04:09mother and family.
0:04:09 > 0:04:11The windows have special safety catches,
0:04:11 > 0:04:14so a toddler is absolutely safe.
0:04:16 > 0:04:21And of course the tall blocks have central heating. Payment is by meter.
0:04:22 > 0:04:27The more you build upwards, the more space you need for cars.
0:04:27 > 0:04:30Bristol's policy is at least one parking space or one garage
0:04:30 > 0:04:32for every flat in the block.
0:04:32 > 0:04:35In Bristol, council housing is self-supporting
0:04:35 > 0:04:38and doesn't cost the rate-payers a penny.
0:04:38 > 0:04:40The tenants pay ten shillings a week for their garage,
0:04:40 > 0:04:43which may be in a multi-storey block.
0:04:43 > 0:04:45The caretaker has quite a lot to look after.
0:04:45 > 0:04:48Among other things, he makes up the rota for the laundry
0:04:48 > 0:04:51so the housewives know exactly when it's their turn,
0:04:51 > 0:04:55and they get a complete family wash for about one and six.
0:04:55 > 0:04:58The communal laundry in the basement is also a place to meet
0:04:58 > 0:05:02the neighbours, but you don't have to talk unless you want to.
0:05:09 > 0:05:12For the more elderly, there is a special community room
0:05:12 > 0:05:15where the Happy Hours club can brew up a cup of tea and have a natter.
0:05:15 > 0:05:19LOUD CHATTER
0:05:21 > 0:05:24Schools, shops, bus services -
0:05:24 > 0:05:26there isn't much that gets overlooked in the housing planning
0:05:26 > 0:05:29that's becoming more and more general today.
0:05:29 > 0:05:31Some estates even have their own surgery, for the use
0:05:31 > 0:05:35of the visiting doctor and to save the tenants a long journey.
0:05:50 > 0:05:53It's a fact that most people like the room with a view
0:05:53 > 0:05:56on the top floor once they get up there.
0:05:56 > 0:06:00Clive Baker does, but his wife has some reservations.
0:06:00 > 0:06:03I've got no complaints about living in this block of flats.
0:06:03 > 0:06:06In fact, I think it's very nice indeed.
0:06:06 > 0:06:07The only drawback I do find,
0:06:07 > 0:06:12is waiting for the lifts - five or six minutes sometimes.
0:06:12 > 0:06:13Well, my main worry is
0:06:13 > 0:06:16when Richard gets a little bit older, where is he going to play?
0:06:16 > 0:06:19You can't send a three-year-old down 13 flights of stairs,
0:06:19 > 0:06:22they're just not trustworthy enough, are they?
0:06:22 > 0:06:24I think we're going to have to think about moving
0:06:24 > 0:06:25when he's about two or three.
0:06:25 > 0:06:29It's cleaner high up and the air is fresher,
0:06:29 > 0:06:30and there's less dusting to do.
0:06:32 > 0:06:34But one problem of the tall flats
0:06:34 > 0:06:37is loneliness - you don't meet people.
0:06:37 > 0:06:40So, in Bristol, the authorities make it a policy to put
0:06:40 > 0:06:43the not-so-young as near the ground as possible, where they can
0:06:43 > 0:06:47watch the world go by and have a chat with a passing neighbour.
0:07:12 > 0:07:16High flats sprouting like mushrooms in cities all over Britain.
0:07:16 > 0:07:19The latest and tallest in London is Balfron Tower,
0:07:19 > 0:07:22in Poplar, with nearly 150 flats.
0:07:23 > 0:07:27It was designed by Erno Goldfinger, who went and lived on the 26th
0:07:27 > 0:07:31floor to experience for himself the problems involved in high living.
0:07:31 > 0:07:34He's an architect who firmly believes that the tall
0:07:34 > 0:07:37building is inevitably the home of the future.
0:07:37 > 0:07:39The flats I've built in Tower Hamlets
0:07:39 > 0:07:44for the Greater London Council, overlooking the river,
0:07:44 > 0:07:46the docks and Greenwich...
0:07:47 > 0:07:51..try to solve, besides the normal problems of architecture
0:07:51 > 0:07:57and building, problems of economics, population density,
0:07:57 > 0:08:01the problems of children, teenagers and old people,
0:08:01 > 0:08:03and the problem of cars -
0:08:03 > 0:08:07the segregation of pedestrians from traffic.
0:08:58 > 0:09:01The old that is valuable is not always destroyed.
0:09:01 > 0:09:05This timber-framed Tudor house, complete with its occupant,
0:09:05 > 0:09:07stood in the path of a new inner-bypass for Exeter.
0:09:12 > 0:09:15So, by jacking up the old place as it stood, it was decided to move
0:09:15 > 0:09:19the 500-year-old building to a new site down the road.
0:09:19 > 0:09:23In fact, it was up the road, up a one-in-ten hill.
0:09:23 > 0:09:27Mounted on an iron-wheel chassis that ran in steel channels, the
0:09:27 > 0:09:31three-storey 30-ton house was slowly winched up towards its new site.
0:09:39 > 0:09:41Still intact, the house arrived
0:09:41 > 0:09:44and then the London removal engineers had to slowly jack it
0:09:44 > 0:09:48down on to its new foundations and get the chassis out from under it.
0:09:52 > 0:09:54Finally, the old place is secure in its new home,
0:09:54 > 0:09:57and where it once stood, a new road could drive forward.
0:10:53 > 0:10:56The Ravenscroft estate in Newham, and it's doubtful
0:10:56 > 0:10:59whether you could find anything better in the whole of Britain.
0:10:59 > 0:11:02When you look at life inside these homes, the old image
0:11:02 > 0:11:06of the council house gets a death blow.
0:11:06 > 0:11:08Years of research into the needs of the modern family
0:11:08 > 0:11:09went into these homes.
0:11:21 > 0:11:22Some walls are detachable
0:11:22 > 0:11:26to cater for changes in the size of the family over the years.
0:11:26 > 0:11:28It's been finally understood that children
0:11:28 > 0:11:31and youngsters need somewhere apart from a bedroom to play
0:11:31 > 0:11:35and do homework, while parents get a bit of peace themselves.
0:11:41 > 0:11:44The kitchen no longer cuts Mum off from activities in the rest
0:11:44 > 0:11:46of the house, whilst she is working in it.
0:11:46 > 0:11:50A great leap forward. But it was designed to go even further.
0:11:50 > 0:11:54The planners, so often criticised for isolating people in compartments,
0:11:54 > 0:11:56designed Ravenscroft as a community
0:11:56 > 0:12:00with its own completely private grounds and play areas
0:12:00 > 0:12:02for the tenants to run themselves.
0:12:08 > 0:12:12A minority of children have turned the pleasant places into a wasteland
0:12:12 > 0:12:14and now scarcely anyone uses it.
0:12:14 > 0:12:18They stay firmly behind the doors of their fine homes.
0:12:55 > 0:12:57Let's go zooming into the future.
0:12:57 > 0:13:01Look at the sort of house we might be living in 20 years' time,
0:13:01 > 0:13:05or now if anyone's got £19,000 to spend, which is what the first
0:13:05 > 0:13:10model of the Water Lily House by architect Bengt Warne cost to make.
0:13:10 > 0:13:13And model it is, for everything in the house is prefabricated
0:13:13 > 0:13:17and soon they'll becoming off the production line by the dozen,
0:13:17 > 0:13:19and down will come the prices.
0:13:19 > 0:13:21A heated swimming pool in the living room.
0:13:21 > 0:13:24I suppose it saves on fitted carpets!
0:13:30 > 0:13:33In summer, the whole glass roof opens,
0:13:33 > 0:13:36and the living room becomes a patio, open to the sky.
0:13:36 > 0:13:40In winter you close it, lounge about in a swimsuit
0:13:40 > 0:13:43and watch the storms raging in the sky above you.
0:13:54 > 0:13:57The way Bengt Warne has used space in the kitchen
0:13:57 > 0:13:59is little short of miraculous.
0:13:59 > 0:14:03It's a small kitchen, and yet bread cutter...
0:14:08 > 0:14:09..sink rubbish disposal...
0:14:12 > 0:14:13..a built-in mixer board...
0:14:19 > 0:14:22..and a lesson in how to use corner space...
0:14:26 > 0:14:27..dishwasher...
0:14:30 > 0:14:32..and then there's a drying cabinet.
0:14:32 > 0:14:35Apart from the standard four fridges of course, two cookers with
0:14:35 > 0:14:39anti-boiling over devices and controlled air conditioning.
0:14:42 > 0:14:46Night, and what a pad to throw a party in.
0:14:46 > 0:14:49All in the future, but the future gets nearer every day.
0:15:36 > 0:15:39At Britain's building research station in Hertfordshire,
0:15:39 > 0:15:43new ways and techniques of construction are investigated.
0:15:43 > 0:15:45This reinforced concrete beam,
0:15:45 > 0:15:48a major component in the new-style prefabricated block of flats,
0:15:48 > 0:15:52is subjected to a series of stresses, and the results noted.
0:15:53 > 0:15:57As nearly half the building work in Britain today comes under public authorities,
0:15:57 > 0:16:01government departments are taking a lead in encouraging any sound
0:16:01 > 0:16:04new method of construction that'll help to produce homes more quickly.
0:16:04 > 0:16:09For over the next ten years, building output must rise by 55%
0:16:09 > 0:16:12with only a 2% estimated increase in the labour force.
0:16:24 > 0:16:27With official encouragement, industrialised building
0:16:27 > 0:16:31in Britain is forging ahead and there are now 280 different systems.
0:16:31 > 0:16:35As yet, industrialized building methods are as expensive
0:16:35 > 0:16:38as bricks and mortar, but the saving is in time.
0:16:38 > 0:16:41A multi-storey block of flats which used to take more than two years
0:16:41 > 0:16:44to build can now be completed in less than six months.
0:16:46 > 0:16:49As the constructors finish one storey and move upwards,
0:16:49 > 0:16:52so the interior workers take over for decorating
0:16:52 > 0:16:56and laying floors, and fitting complete kitchen units.
0:16:56 > 0:16:59On large sites, like this 17-storey block of flats being built
0:16:59 > 0:17:02in Surrey, another method is to pre-cast the sections
0:17:02 > 0:17:06of the building on the site, to lay out a factory in other words, from
0:17:06 > 0:17:10which the sections can be lifted by crane directly to the building.
0:17:10 > 0:17:14All the units, like these stairways, are made of reinforced concrete.
0:17:14 > 0:17:17Decorative facings of factory-made mosaic are laid onto concrete walls
0:17:17 > 0:17:19to relieve the monotony.
0:17:19 > 0:17:23Good design is important of course, both outside and inside.
0:17:23 > 0:17:26But if Britain is going to win the battle on the housing front,
0:17:26 > 0:17:29a good deal of standardisation is unavoidable.
0:17:29 > 0:17:32In fact, it's the only way the job can be done if everyone is to
0:17:32 > 0:17:35have his own modern home in the foreseeable future.
0:18:24 > 0:18:27There are 15 new towns going up in Britain.
0:18:27 > 0:18:28In all our long history,
0:18:28 > 0:18:31nothing on this scale has every happened before.
0:18:31 > 0:18:35Nothing to equal it is happening anywhere else in the world.
0:18:35 > 0:18:38New homes for 700,000 people.
0:18:38 > 0:18:41In the north of England, standing in the Durham coalfield,
0:18:41 > 0:18:45is Peterlee, named after a famous miners' leader.
0:18:45 > 0:18:48This is one of the most interesting large-scale housing schemes
0:18:48 > 0:18:50anywhere in Britain.
0:18:50 > 0:18:53Peterlee was designed to be the centre for 26 scattered
0:18:53 > 0:18:56settlements which had grown up around the pitheads,
0:18:56 > 0:19:00and also to provide new homes for 30,000 people.
0:19:00 > 0:19:03In the old mining villages, there was no employment for women
0:19:03 > 0:19:08and girls but there are lots of jobs going in the new town.
0:19:08 > 0:19:11Peterlee is rapidly becoming what it was designed to be -
0:19:11 > 0:19:13the centre of a whole district.
0:19:13 > 0:19:16Every new town is different.
0:19:16 > 0:19:20Harlow was designed to ease the congestion in London.
0:19:20 > 0:19:24It has more than 300 different types of houses, flats and maisonettes.
0:19:24 > 0:19:29In ten years, the population has grown from 5,000 to 50,000.
0:19:30 > 0:19:34Henry Moore's famous family group sums up the spirit of Harlow
0:19:34 > 0:19:38and one of its major problems - children.
0:19:38 > 0:19:41Nearly half the population of Harlow are young married couples.
0:19:41 > 0:19:44There are about 20,000 children.
0:19:44 > 0:19:47To keep them occupied during the long summer holidays,
0:19:47 > 0:19:49a big play scheme has been organised.
0:19:49 > 0:19:51It's a lot of work, but it's worth it.
0:19:54 > 0:19:56Harlow is building its own sports centre.
0:19:56 > 0:19:59Here, youngsters from the town are helped by young
0:19:59 > 0:20:02volunteers from all over Europe.
0:20:02 > 0:20:04They work hard and they don't get paid.
0:20:04 > 0:20:07They consider it a job worth doing for love.
0:20:10 > 0:20:13Market day is an old tradition in Britain,
0:20:13 > 0:20:17as old as the oldest town and as new as the newest.
0:20:17 > 0:20:20Harlow's market place is more than a collection of stalls.
0:20:20 > 0:20:22It's a place of excitement, of the unexpected,
0:20:22 > 0:20:25of a bargain to be gloated over long after.
0:20:25 > 0:20:28Was it so different 1,000 years ago?
0:20:28 > 0:20:32Perhaps here is one answer to what makes a town more than just
0:20:32 > 0:20:36a lot of houses - the town is also the people in it.
0:20:36 > 0:20:38They're meeting and mixing, they're jostling and laughing.
0:20:38 > 0:20:40Their indignation and their pleasure.
0:20:58 > 0:21:01A new town expressly designed for the motor car age,
0:21:01 > 0:21:05on the basis that every family living in it will own a car.
0:21:05 > 0:21:09A town where traffic is concentrated on motorway-type roads
0:21:09 > 0:21:11built for free flow and safety.
0:21:11 > 0:21:14A town of peaceful co-existence between motorist and pedestrian.
0:21:18 > 0:21:21It's Cumbernauld in Scotland and its planners have found a way
0:21:21 > 0:21:25of getting over some of the problems of a car-owning community.
0:21:33 > 0:21:36Here is one of the housing areas where no car can enter,
0:21:36 > 0:21:40and where children can play without risk of being run over.
0:21:40 > 0:21:43And for the 70,000 people who will live in Cumbernauld,
0:21:43 > 0:21:46there will be special pedestrian routes, footways with
0:21:46 > 0:21:49a built-in row of bricks that lead to the town centre and shops.
0:21:49 > 0:21:53It's what the planners call a second generation new town
0:21:53 > 0:21:56and it's going up to relieve overcrowding in Glasgow.
0:21:56 > 0:21:59Its centre is on a deck above the approach road, with shops
0:21:59 > 0:22:01and business premises on the deck.
0:22:02 > 0:22:05Yet, even as Cumbernauld grows, and its builders
0:22:05 > 0:22:08work on the town that is meant to meet the impact of the motor car,
0:22:08 > 0:22:12it may have been overtaken in the high-speed drive into tomorrow.
0:22:12 > 0:22:14For some experts are already saying
0:22:14 > 0:22:17that its basis of one car to one family isn't enough,
0:22:17 > 0:22:20that many families in the future will own two cars.
0:22:20 > 0:22:25If the motor car is not to become our master, Britain has to
0:22:25 > 0:22:27face a revolution as drastic in its own way
0:22:27 > 0:22:30as the Industrial Revolution of nearly 200 years ago.
0:23:39 > 0:23:41There are some people who like a place
0:23:41 > 0:23:44that's a bit out of the ordinary, perhaps something like this.
0:23:45 > 0:23:49Here's one for sale at Winterton-on-Sea in Norfolk.
0:23:49 > 0:23:53This lighthouse, built in 1840, was closed in 1921 because the build-up
0:23:53 > 0:23:57of the sand dunes took the sea a quarter of a mile away from it.
0:23:57 > 0:23:59Then it was turned into a home.
0:23:59 > 0:24:02Now, with a big bungalow built onto the back of it, it can be said
0:24:02 > 0:24:04to have every mod con.
0:24:06 > 0:24:10During World War II, the room at the top was used as a gun site.
0:24:10 > 0:24:12Today it has been converted into a sun room.
0:24:12 > 0:24:15A room with a very special view.
0:24:22 > 0:24:26Few of England's oast houses are used today for their original
0:24:26 > 0:24:27purpose of drying hops,
0:24:27 > 0:24:29but some people have discovered that they can form
0:24:29 > 0:24:32the basis of beautiful home.
0:24:32 > 0:24:35These oast houses at Halstead in Kent were built about 80 years ago
0:24:35 > 0:24:38and were later converted.
0:24:38 > 0:24:40Most of the rooms are circular which is fine
0:24:40 > 0:24:43so long as you don't want to hang pictures on the walls.
0:24:43 > 0:24:45They have to be stuck on without frames.
0:24:48 > 0:24:50Built to guard the Kent and Sussex coast
0:24:50 > 0:24:53when Napoleon threatened invasion, Martello Towers are
0:24:53 > 0:24:58today mostly crumbling monuments to a dictator's frustrated ambition.
0:24:58 > 0:25:01But this one near Hythe has achieved a new role as a holiday home
0:25:01 > 0:25:03for a London family.
0:25:11 > 0:25:15Not far away at St Margaret's Bay near Dover, a block house was
0:25:15 > 0:25:20built for artillery use in 1910. Today, it too is a holiday house.
0:25:20 > 0:25:23The kitchen still has the lookout window.
0:25:27 > 0:25:31The sitting room window bay had been built onto the back of the house,
0:25:31 > 0:25:35and with walls nearly two feet thick, it's cool even in a hot summer.
0:25:38 > 0:25:41This house is a real do-it-yourself effort.
0:25:41 > 0:25:44It was designed and built in Highgate, London, by architect
0:25:44 > 0:25:47Walter Segal, for him and his family to live in while their
0:25:47 > 0:25:51new permanent home was being built at the other end of the garden.
0:25:51 > 0:25:53Put together like a boy's construction set,
0:25:53 > 0:25:56the house is made of slabs of compressed wood chips.
0:26:00 > 0:26:05The slabs, two feet wide, are held in position by batons
0:26:05 > 0:26:07and the wallpaper is wedged behind them.
0:26:11 > 0:26:15Sizes of rooms can be altered by moving the partitions.
0:26:15 > 0:26:16Though planned for temporary use,
0:26:16 > 0:26:19the house could have a life of about 40 years.
0:26:19 > 0:26:22It cost less than £900.
0:26:22 > 0:26:26The whole thing can be entirely dismantled in about ten days.
0:26:58 > 0:27:01And here's the home of an ex-railway man
0:27:01 > 0:27:03who just couldn't live away from railways.
0:27:03 > 0:27:05Just before he retired,
0:27:05 > 0:27:08signalman Alfred Barrett bought the disused station building
0:27:08 > 0:27:12at Little Kimble in Buckinghamshire, and turned it into a home.
0:27:12 > 0:27:14Mr and Mrs Barrett still see trains every day,
0:27:14 > 0:27:18for Little Kimble is now officially a halt and many stop there.
0:27:20 > 0:27:23The dining room was once the porter's rest room.
0:27:28 > 0:27:32The sitting room was the general waiting room and booking office.
0:27:33 > 0:27:37After eight years, the Barretts have transformed the station house
0:27:37 > 0:27:40and the garden is looked after in the best railway tradition.
0:28:38 > 0:28:42Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd