0:00:05 > 0:00:09By the 1980s, modern architecture was under attack.
0:00:10 > 0:00:13"It had failed so badly," some said,
0:00:13 > 0:00:18"we'd be better off going back to older styles of building."
0:00:18 > 0:00:22But a bold young generation of British architects argued
0:00:22 > 0:00:24the exact opposite.
0:00:24 > 0:00:26Instead of retreating into the past,
0:00:26 > 0:00:29they were building gleaming visions of the future.
0:00:32 > 0:00:34During the 1970s, the work
0:00:34 > 0:00:37of Richard Rogers,
0:00:37 > 0:00:39Norman Foster,
0:00:39 > 0:00:40Nicholas Grimshaw,
0:00:40 > 0:00:42Terry Farrell
0:00:42 > 0:00:46and Michael Hopkins had begun to be seen as a movement -
0:00:46 > 0:00:47"high-tech."
0:00:49 > 0:00:51In their 20s and 30s, they'd collaborated
0:00:51 > 0:00:56and shared a dream of how architecture could change the world.
0:00:56 > 0:00:59In middle age, they'd become rivals,
0:00:59 > 0:01:03and their work would become increasingly controversial.
0:01:03 > 0:01:07Yet a decade which threatened to break them would, instead,
0:01:07 > 0:01:08make them.
0:01:08 > 0:01:11These were the years when they created some of the towering
0:01:11 > 0:01:14achievements of 20th-century design.
0:01:15 > 0:01:18They became the most successful generation of architects
0:01:18 > 0:01:20Britain has ever produced.
0:01:20 > 0:01:25This, in their own words, is the story of how.
0:01:25 > 0:01:26# Burning down the house
0:01:29 > 0:01:31# Burning down the house! #
0:01:37 > 0:01:41Like millions of others in late '70s Britain, Richard Rogers was
0:01:41 > 0:01:45struggling to find work, even though he'd already created
0:01:45 > 0:01:48a building that was famous all over the world.
0:01:48 > 0:01:52I, you know, I used to say nobody wanted another Pompidou.
0:01:52 > 0:01:55I think everybody thought we only built Pompidous.
0:01:55 > 0:01:57And actually I think people were somewhat afraid,
0:01:57 > 0:02:01certainly clients would have been very bold to
0:02:01 > 0:02:03make a commission to us after that building,
0:02:03 > 0:02:05which was very, very radical at the time.
0:02:05 > 0:02:07There was a vacuum,
0:02:07 > 0:02:10and I came to a moment in time when I thought I shan't be building
0:02:10 > 0:02:13any more buildings. I'm not an architect, I'll be a teacher.
0:02:13 > 0:02:17It was very tough, and just at the moment of
0:02:17 > 0:02:18the real low of lows, you're thinking,
0:02:18 > 0:02:21"Well, maybe it's time to do other things."
0:02:21 > 0:02:24We'd made the decision to go into a competition
0:02:24 > 0:02:26for the Lloyd's of London building.
0:02:28 > 0:02:31The chances of winning seemed slim.
0:02:32 > 0:02:35Rogers was a left-winger who thought suits were square.
0:02:35 > 0:02:40The City of London was still a bastion of bowler-hatted tradition,
0:02:40 > 0:02:44not the sort of chaps you'd expect to be fans of his work in Paris.
0:02:46 > 0:02:51I think Beaubourg made us take a deep breath.
0:02:51 > 0:02:57For many of us, it is so radical in design, er,
0:02:57 > 0:03:01we might have been frightened - in fact we weren't.
0:03:01 > 0:03:05They said one of the reasons that we chose you were
0:03:05 > 0:03:06because you were very much like us.
0:03:06 > 0:03:08And we thought, "Well, that's very strange,"
0:03:08 > 0:03:11cos these are traditional City gents
0:03:11 > 0:03:14who are the venerated institution. Not a bit of it.
0:03:14 > 0:03:17Lloyd's, what do they do for a living? They take risk.
0:03:17 > 0:03:19Lloyd's had confidence in spades,
0:03:19 > 0:03:22and, you know, Lloyd's were very proud of who they were.
0:03:22 > 0:03:26They said to us, "We want a building that will reflect our stature
0:03:26 > 0:03:28"within the world."
0:03:49 > 0:03:52Rogers certainly delivered a building which made Lloyd's
0:03:52 > 0:03:55stand out from the crowd.
0:03:55 > 0:03:58Design had begun, however, with another part of their brief -
0:03:58 > 0:04:02to maintain their traditional style of doing business.
0:04:02 > 0:04:05The marketplace was prime.
0:04:05 > 0:04:10They wanted the whole market to feel as if it was trading in one room.
0:04:10 > 0:04:12Which it always had done, philosophically,
0:04:12 > 0:04:14from its earliest days.
0:04:14 > 0:04:15MUSIC: "Paninaro" by Pet Shop Boys
0:04:17 > 0:04:21So the heart of the Lloyd's Building is a single, very tall room,
0:04:21 > 0:04:25which splits trading over several open floors.
0:04:29 > 0:04:34They said, "One of the things we don't want is people in white coats
0:04:34 > 0:04:38"fixing services in our trading floors."
0:04:38 > 0:04:40As they were making a very large number of millions per day,
0:04:40 > 0:04:44in premiums, they didn't want that process disturbed.
0:04:44 > 0:04:48"Can you find another place to put the services, please?"
0:04:48 > 0:04:52So everything that's a support service is outside.
0:04:54 > 0:04:56Developing the inside-out approach
0:04:56 > 0:05:00first seen at the Pompidou Centre, toilets, staircases,
0:05:00 > 0:05:04pipes and ducts are arranged round the perimeter of the building.
0:05:05 > 0:05:08That's where the lifts were put as well.
0:05:08 > 0:05:11And not just so they'd be easier for maintenance staff to reach.
0:05:19 > 0:05:22Aesthetically, movement can be a very pleasurable thing.
0:05:22 > 0:05:27I've never understood why one should get into a lift and rub shoulders
0:05:27 > 0:05:30with lots of people you don't know in a dark box like a tomb.
0:05:30 > 0:05:33If you put it on the outside of the building, you suddenly get
0:05:33 > 0:05:36the view, and movement becomes part of the enjoyment of life,
0:05:36 > 0:05:39not just part of the function of life.
0:05:41 > 0:05:44Despite the fact they appear to be restrained City gentlemen,
0:05:44 > 0:05:47they loved them, too, they're human beings.
0:05:47 > 0:05:51Once you get used to the notion of the vertiginous ride, it's fun.
0:05:56 > 0:05:59Architects don't like the term "high-tech",
0:05:59 > 0:06:03but with creations like Lloyd's, you can see why the label stuck.
0:06:03 > 0:06:07It unapologetically uses materials such as stainless steel,
0:06:07 > 0:06:11which had once been the preserve of industry - not architecture.
0:06:15 > 0:06:20This is a machine for working in, with no superfluous decoration.
0:06:20 > 0:06:25Instead, visual stimulation comes from structural engineering.
0:06:25 > 0:06:28One of the things about working with architects like Richard
0:06:28 > 0:06:30is that it not only has to work,
0:06:30 > 0:06:33but when it was finished, it had to look that you could see how
0:06:33 > 0:06:35it had been put together
0:06:35 > 0:06:37so you could see nodes, connections.
0:06:37 > 0:06:40Knuckles and joints.
0:06:42 > 0:06:44Which is actually a lot of the logic in these kind of buildings -
0:06:44 > 0:06:48you see an object which explains how the thing was built.
0:06:55 > 0:06:59Though the high-tech generation had been building since the 1960s,
0:06:59 > 0:07:02Lloyd's was by far the biggest project any of them
0:07:02 > 0:07:04had yet got off the ground in Britain.
0:07:08 > 0:07:12The basic concept of the design had been decided within two years
0:07:12 > 0:07:14of winning the contest.
0:07:14 > 0:07:18Over the further six years it took to construct, however, Rogers
0:07:18 > 0:07:22and his team were still puzzling out exactly how it would all work.
0:07:24 > 0:07:27It's the nearest thing I could imagine to being
0:07:27 > 0:07:29working on a medieval cathedral
0:07:29 > 0:07:35where there is this broad idea of principles
0:07:35 > 0:07:39but then the nature of the fabric of it was...
0:07:39 > 0:07:43was...was still being designed as it was being constructed.
0:07:49 > 0:07:52When the building was...is about to be completed,
0:07:52 > 0:07:56the Chairman of Lloyd's said to me, um,
0:07:56 > 0:07:58"Why didn't you tell us that it was going to look like that?"
0:07:58 > 0:08:00And I remember I said, "But I didn't know."
0:08:00 > 0:08:02Because in a sense, until you complete it,
0:08:02 > 0:08:05you don't really know where this leads to.
0:08:12 > 0:08:14If Rogers' creation resembled a cathedral,
0:08:14 > 0:08:17then the god it would worship was money.
0:08:17 > 0:08:20The City of London was increasingly turbo-charged
0:08:20 > 0:08:24by the time the building opened in 1986, so the flashier
0:08:24 > 0:08:27occupants of the Square Mile might have been expected to love it.
0:08:30 > 0:08:34It turned out to be a future people weren't quite ready for.
0:08:34 > 0:08:38It's a deeply shocking building, and I have to admit I don't like it yet.
0:08:38 > 0:08:41I've stood in front of it for a very long time trying to like it.
0:08:41 > 0:08:43I hope that the people who live in it like it.
0:08:43 > 0:08:46I don't like the fact that we can't operate in there the way
0:08:46 > 0:08:49we have throughout the history of Lloyd's.
0:08:49 > 0:08:53It is an abortion. It's an excrescence, quite frankly.
0:08:54 > 0:08:59When I came to the opening of Lloyd's I sat next to, er,
0:08:59 > 0:09:03the Dean of St Paul's, and he said, "What if... Do you feel beleaguered?"
0:09:03 > 0:09:05And I said, "Yes, I feel pretty beleaguered."
0:09:05 > 0:09:08All the headlines were, you know, "A terrible architect."
0:09:08 > 0:09:11The public were not used to this type of building.
0:09:11 > 0:09:13Er, so it was the shock of the new.
0:09:13 > 0:09:16So on the whole the press saw it as
0:09:16 > 0:09:20a destruction of a great historic tradition of the City of London.
0:09:21 > 0:09:25The attacks were wounding, because Rogers had tried to make
0:09:25 > 0:09:28a building that would get along with its older neighbours.
0:09:30 > 0:09:34The area around Lloyd's is primarily medieval.
0:09:34 > 0:09:37Therefore when you come along the narrow roads as you approach
0:09:37 > 0:09:41the building, you never actually see the building as a whole,
0:09:41 > 0:09:43you just see pieces, and the building is designed
0:09:43 > 0:09:45to be seen in those pieces.
0:09:45 > 0:09:48In a sense, we've sculpted the roofscape
0:09:48 > 0:09:51so as to make a building which is anchored
0:09:51 > 0:09:54in the City of London by a series of towers
0:09:54 > 0:09:58and which will be recognised from considerable distances away.
0:09:58 > 0:10:02For Rogers, mixing the old with the new was what architecture
0:10:02 > 0:10:04had always done.
0:10:04 > 0:10:07But an increasingly conservative, and conservationist,
0:10:07 > 0:10:10culture disagreed, as he learned to his cost
0:10:10 > 0:10:13while Lloyd's was still being built.
0:10:16 > 0:10:21In 1983, the National Gallery held a contest to design a new extension.
0:10:21 > 0:10:24Rogers entered something high-tech.
0:10:24 > 0:10:27Not only did he lose the competition,
0:10:27 > 0:10:28it made him a target
0:10:28 > 0:10:31for modern architecture's most prominent critic.
0:10:33 > 0:10:37Instead of designing an extension to the elegant
0:10:37 > 0:10:41facade of the National Gallery, which complements it
0:10:41 > 0:10:45and continues the concept of columns and domes,
0:10:45 > 0:10:47it looks as if we may be presented
0:10:47 > 0:10:50with a kind of vast municipal fire station.
0:10:50 > 0:10:54I would understand better this type of high-tech approach
0:10:54 > 0:10:59if you demolished the whole of Trafalgar Square and started again.
0:10:59 > 0:11:02But what is proposed seems to me
0:11:02 > 0:11:04like a monstrous carbuncle
0:11:04 > 0:11:08on the face of a much loved and elegant friend.
0:11:08 > 0:11:10I thought the speech that Prince Charles made was
0:11:10 > 0:11:13unbelievably rude. I thought it was appalling.
0:11:13 > 0:11:16And I think everybody was pretty shocked.
0:11:16 > 0:11:18It wasn't as it happens our building, but it could have been.
0:11:18 > 0:11:21I was perfectly proud to accept being a carbuncle
0:11:21 > 0:11:23in the terms that he had put.
0:11:23 > 0:11:26Outside the architectural profession, however, there was
0:11:26 > 0:11:29support for some of the Prince's criticisms.
0:11:29 > 0:11:31There were terrible problems
0:11:31 > 0:11:34with architecture from the 1950s, '60s, '70s,
0:11:34 > 0:11:36which emerged very strongly
0:11:36 > 0:11:37in the early 1980s.
0:11:37 > 0:11:39So as Prince Charles spoke,
0:11:39 > 0:11:42many people in Britain were living in concrete apartment blocks
0:11:42 > 0:11:45that were leaking, full of damp and condensation,
0:11:45 > 0:11:48lifts not working, so all the famous things that people know.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52But the Prince wasn't just complaining about the quality
0:11:52 > 0:11:54of post-war construction,
0:11:54 > 0:11:57he was attacking the whole approach to architecture which Rogers
0:11:57 > 0:12:00and his generation believed in - modernism.
0:12:02 > 0:12:04I find it hard, I must say,
0:12:04 > 0:12:07to appreciate architecture which shouts at you,
0:12:07 > 0:12:10strictly utilitarian designs -
0:12:10 > 0:12:14flat roofs, uncompromising angles,
0:12:14 > 0:12:17an absence of any decoration at all.
0:12:17 > 0:12:20The love affair with revolutionary artificial
0:12:20 > 0:12:26building materials which so often prove unsatisfactory in the end.
0:12:26 > 0:12:30Though the high-tech group built more user-friendly buildings
0:12:30 > 0:12:33than the concrete boxes of preceding generations,
0:12:33 > 0:12:35they still called themselves modernists.
0:12:35 > 0:12:3750 years earlier,
0:12:37 > 0:12:41the likes of Le Corbusier had tried to wipe clean the slate
0:12:41 > 0:12:45of history. Ever since, architects had believed that only modern forms
0:12:45 > 0:12:47could meet the needs of the modern age.
0:12:47 > 0:12:51But they could no longer ignore the concerns the Prince had voiced
0:12:51 > 0:12:52so powerfully.
0:12:53 > 0:12:56The architecture of the future had to find a way
0:12:56 > 0:12:59to get along better with the past.
0:13:01 > 0:13:04One architect from their generation had been worrying about this
0:13:04 > 0:13:06since the '70s.
0:13:06 > 0:13:10I think Charles was 99% right.
0:13:10 > 0:13:14It was true - most people did like traditional buildings
0:13:14 > 0:13:15and traditional architecture.
0:13:15 > 0:13:18That's the kind of houses they bought.
0:13:18 > 0:13:20It's something that architects had to register,
0:13:20 > 0:13:22they had to deal with that.
0:13:22 > 0:13:27Terry Farrell had once been seen as part of the high-tech movement.
0:13:27 > 0:13:29In the '70s, he co-designed
0:13:29 > 0:13:33and lived in this startling tower block.
0:13:33 > 0:13:35Effectively, Terry Farrell was
0:13:35 > 0:13:38the apostate - he's the one who gave up the
0:13:38 > 0:13:40holy grail of pure modernism.
0:13:40 > 0:13:43But Farrell didn't want to return to the traditional
0:13:43 > 0:13:46styles of building the Prince of Wales was championing.
0:13:46 > 0:13:51Instead, he wanted to cherry-pick the best of past and present.
0:13:59 > 0:14:03Postmodernism was a response to dreary, dull,
0:14:03 > 0:14:05mechanical modern architecture.
0:14:08 > 0:14:10It's a hybrid movement of many styles,
0:14:10 > 0:14:12many languages of architecture.
0:14:12 > 0:14:15You use ornaments, symbolism, colour.
0:14:16 > 0:14:22Architects were freeing themselves up to plunder history books
0:14:22 > 0:14:24and to use history as a kind of play box.
0:14:27 > 0:14:30Architecture had been very stuffy and rigid
0:14:30 > 0:14:32and form follows function,
0:14:32 > 0:14:34honest expression of materials...
0:14:34 > 0:14:36I just put all that completely to
0:14:36 > 0:14:41one side and, erm, I suddenly found released, artistically released.
0:14:46 > 0:14:48Across the world, postmodernism
0:14:48 > 0:14:50seemed to promise a new dawn
0:14:50 > 0:14:53for architecture - and it was Farrell who created the first
0:14:53 > 0:14:55significant example in Britain.
0:14:58 > 0:15:02When breakfast television was launched in 1983,
0:15:02 > 0:15:07the commercial service was broadcast from studios designed by Terry.
0:15:10 > 0:15:12Hello, good morning, and welcome!
0:15:16 > 0:15:20I deliberately made the front look as though it had
0:15:20 > 0:15:24origins in the streamline modern of Hollywood. It had sunbursts
0:15:24 > 0:15:28and had extruded lettering that went all along right through it,
0:15:28 > 0:15:32which various exhibition and other buildings in the '30s had done.
0:15:32 > 0:15:35On the canal side it's, I think... By keeping the old wall
0:15:35 > 0:15:38and adding a bit of colour, and the kind of colour that you'd find
0:15:38 > 0:15:42on canal boats, erm, it's really kept a continuity with the canal.
0:15:48 > 0:15:52And then inside, an interior that was pure theatre.
0:15:55 > 0:15:57There was something quite special about it.
0:15:57 > 0:16:00It was for a television company, it was meant to be dramatic,
0:16:00 > 0:16:01it was meant to be playful.
0:16:08 > 0:16:10It couldn't have looked more '80s.
0:16:10 > 0:16:13Yet its most famous features had been inspired
0:16:13 > 0:16:15by architecture from centuries before.
0:16:16 > 0:16:19I remember Terry was away on holiday for a long weekend
0:16:19 > 0:16:21or something in Venice.
0:16:21 > 0:16:23And I was looking around Venice at all these points
0:16:23 > 0:16:27and gable ends, and I realised that they always put something on it,
0:16:27 > 0:16:30whether it was a cup and ball or a figure or what have you.
0:16:30 > 0:16:33And he called me up and said, "I've got it, I've got it,
0:16:33 > 0:16:35"I know ex... We must..."
0:16:35 > 0:16:37He said, "The buildings here are covered in the most wonderful
0:16:37 > 0:16:41"decoration and finials. They would look great on the top of TV-am.
0:16:41 > 0:16:43"And we'll do eggcups!"
0:16:43 > 0:16:46And he said, "How many pinnacles are there on the rear elevation?"
0:16:46 > 0:16:48And he came back and he said, "There are 11."
0:16:48 > 0:16:50I said, "We have to build a 12, we have to have a dozen."
0:16:50 > 0:16:56And sure enough, we managed to get another one in to have a dozen eggs.
0:16:56 > 0:17:00The notorious eggcups - I remember being startled,
0:17:00 > 0:17:02and I remember thinking,
0:17:02 > 0:17:04"Well, this is an acid test of what I've been saying.
0:17:04 > 0:17:07I said, "We're not going to design by committee. If that's what Terry
0:17:07 > 0:17:12"wants to do, then in my opinion that is what we should let him do."
0:17:12 > 0:17:14It was, you know, OK, bonkers,
0:17:14 > 0:17:20but it was enjoyably bonkers at a time where I think the nation
0:17:20 > 0:17:23needed a little gaiety both in television and in architecture.
0:17:25 > 0:17:28Though TV-am cost just a fraction of its contemporary
0:17:28 > 0:17:31the Lloyd's building, it established Farrell
0:17:31 > 0:17:33as a major figure in British architecture,
0:17:33 > 0:17:36and it proved he could succeed without the man who'd been
0:17:36 > 0:17:42his professional partner in the '60s and '70s, Nicholas Grimshaw.
0:17:42 > 0:17:45TRIO: # Da, da, da
0:17:45 > 0:17:48# Da, da, da... #
0:17:48 > 0:17:52In the early '80s, Grimshaw was still building
0:17:52 > 0:17:54the kind of uncompromising industrial architecture
0:17:54 > 0:17:58which had been the speciality of his partnership with Farrell.
0:17:58 > 0:18:01At the time when TV-am was built,
0:18:01 > 0:18:04Grimshaw was probably the least fashionable architect
0:18:04 > 0:18:06in the entire country because, you know,
0:18:06 > 0:18:08he was putting up sort of slick sheds.
0:18:11 > 0:18:14Was it Peter Jay who wrote this thing in the Sunday Times
0:18:14 > 0:18:19about calling Terry Farrell a genius because of the eggcups?
0:18:19 > 0:18:22- HE LAUGHS - And that got Nick very cross indeed.
0:18:24 > 0:18:30I never quite worked out why Terry Farrell
0:18:30 > 0:18:36adopted postmodernism with such open arms as he did.
0:18:36 > 0:18:41Nick is a very stubborn person, and he's got very firm beliefs.
0:18:41 > 0:18:45And, you know, none of that stuff was allowed in the office.
0:18:45 > 0:18:48High-tech was now under attack on two fronts,
0:18:48 > 0:18:51from postmodernism as well as from the anti-modernism
0:18:51 > 0:18:55which the Prince of Wales was seen as championing.
0:18:55 > 0:18:59In the early '80s, Foster and Rogers
0:18:59 > 0:19:02were traumatised by the style question,
0:19:02 > 0:19:05and they started attacking postmodernism by name.
0:19:05 > 0:19:10And as a result, the battle of the styles took place,
0:19:10 > 0:19:13which was really negative in many respects.
0:19:13 > 0:19:17The flavour of the year at that time
0:19:17 > 0:19:21was pastiche, of a rather grotesque nature.
0:19:21 > 0:19:26I mean, it was the cartoon imagery of classical architecture.
0:19:27 > 0:19:30Norman Foster had built an impressive reputation
0:19:30 > 0:19:34with his sleek and minimal approach to modern architecture.
0:19:34 > 0:19:38But at the end of the '70s, the change in architectural fashions
0:19:38 > 0:19:42and economic climate threatened to end his career.
0:19:42 > 0:19:46And I remember that period very well. No new projects were coming in.
0:19:46 > 0:19:50So we were - although we never said so at the time -
0:19:50 > 0:19:52we were pretty desperate.
0:19:53 > 0:19:56Foster had entered the Lloyd's competition,
0:19:56 > 0:19:59but when beaten to that job by his former partner,
0:19:59 > 0:20:03Norman instead looked abroad for work.
0:20:03 > 0:20:06MUSIC: "Canton" by Japan
0:20:15 > 0:20:18He entered a contest to build the new headquarters
0:20:18 > 0:20:22for the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation.
0:20:22 > 0:20:26We invested heavily in doing that competition.
0:20:27 > 0:20:30If we hadn't won it, I don't know...
0:20:30 > 0:20:33Maybe we'd have survived, maybe not.
0:20:36 > 0:20:40Foster and his team threw everything they had
0:20:40 > 0:20:43into trying to meet HSBC's ambitious brief.
0:20:44 > 0:20:47The bank wanted the best building in the world.
0:20:47 > 0:20:50Yeah, what does that mean?
0:20:50 > 0:20:55I went with Norman to Hong Kong for the briefing that the bank gave.
0:20:55 > 0:20:59And unlike any of the other practices
0:20:59 > 0:21:02we stayed on for a few days after,
0:21:02 > 0:21:06trying to understand better the way in which the bank operated,
0:21:06 > 0:21:09to get behind the scenes, as it were.
0:21:09 > 0:21:11The bank's first reaction was,
0:21:11 > 0:21:14"Well, of course we'd have to tell the other competitors, wouldn't we?"
0:21:14 > 0:21:17So I said, "Why would you have to tell the other competitors?
0:21:17 > 0:21:19"If we're interested in your bank,
0:21:19 > 0:21:23"why would you share it with our competitors?"
0:21:23 > 0:21:26"Yes, you've got a point. What can we tell you?"
0:21:26 > 0:21:31And they said, "You'll hear something called feng shui,
0:21:31 > 0:21:32"and don't worry about feng shui."
0:21:32 > 0:21:38So I was immediately curious and I consulted a feng shui man.
0:21:38 > 0:21:40He did a drawing,
0:21:40 > 0:21:44had a conversation, we paid him a fee.
0:21:44 > 0:21:48And actually the final design, as built,
0:21:48 > 0:21:54has some considerable similarities to that sketch that was produced!
0:21:54 > 0:21:56MUSIC: "Living On The Ceiling" by Blancmange
0:22:11 > 0:22:13I think the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank
0:22:13 > 0:22:16is one of the great buildings of the 20th century.
0:22:16 > 0:22:19If you had to pick a top ten, it would be up there.
0:22:19 > 0:22:22# And I'm so tall, I'm so tall... #
0:22:22 > 0:22:27And yet in 1979, when Foster won the competition,
0:22:27 > 0:22:30he'd never built anything taller than four storeys.
0:22:30 > 0:22:33I can remember the day it was announced, and I remember
0:22:33 > 0:22:35there were a few glasses of champagne
0:22:35 > 0:22:37that we were drinking in the office,
0:22:37 > 0:22:40and after a minute or two we started to look round at each other
0:22:40 > 0:22:43and realised, "How the hell are we going to do this?"
0:22:43 > 0:22:47"We've won it, but now we're going to have to build it!"
0:22:50 > 0:22:53The design was far from settled at that stage.
0:22:53 > 0:22:56All Foster knew for certain
0:22:56 > 0:22:58is that he didn't like most of the towers
0:22:58 > 0:23:00which had been built previously.
0:23:01 > 0:23:05So many high-rise buildings, in retrospect,
0:23:05 > 0:23:08are like so many kind of dumb boxes.
0:23:08 > 0:23:10They're anonymous, they're hostile,
0:23:10 > 0:23:13the only difference from one floor to the other
0:23:13 > 0:23:16is the number on the lift car or the door in the corridor.
0:23:16 > 0:23:19There's no progression of space, they're intimidating,
0:23:19 > 0:23:21they're soulless.
0:23:23 > 0:23:27Foster and his team decided they could do better.
0:23:28 > 0:23:30They set out to reinvent the skyscraper.
0:23:32 > 0:23:38I think coming to a building type that you've not done before
0:23:38 > 0:23:41makes you think very hard.
0:23:41 > 0:23:42You have no preconceptions,
0:23:42 > 0:23:45you start with a clean sheet of paper.
0:23:45 > 0:23:49He just brainstormed it to the nth degree.
0:23:49 > 0:23:53In just over a year, something like 5,000 drawings, 500 models.
0:23:53 > 0:23:56Models of the structure,
0:23:56 > 0:23:59drawings at a close-up scale.
0:23:59 > 0:24:03The way that something will bolt together, junction together.
0:24:03 > 0:24:05The things that hold the building, drive the building.
0:24:05 > 0:24:07I count myself very fortunate
0:24:07 > 0:24:10that I worked first for Roger and then for Foster's.
0:24:10 > 0:24:12Cos they share a very rigorous approach
0:24:12 > 0:24:16where you carefully define all the issues, the problems
0:24:16 > 0:24:18you're going to solve before you try to solve them.
0:24:18 > 0:24:21Not only two-dimensionally, but also as a model.
0:24:21 > 0:24:24Three-dimensional study model here, to explore what it looks like,
0:24:24 > 0:24:26how it might assemble.
0:24:26 > 0:24:30We tested options, you know, we looked at other ways to do it.
0:24:30 > 0:24:32So here we're showing the possibility of a deck
0:24:32 > 0:24:34that connects then right out to the water,
0:24:34 > 0:24:36in the same spirit of Venice, if you like.
0:24:36 > 0:24:39Nothing was designed or built that hadn't gone through
0:24:39 > 0:24:41a very rigorous process,
0:24:41 > 0:24:45that there were very, very strong reasons that it should be thus.
0:24:48 > 0:24:52The bank encouraged us to look at the big wide world
0:24:52 > 0:24:54and actually see what was available.
0:24:54 > 0:24:56"Don't just come to us with European ideas.
0:24:56 > 0:24:58"What's available in America? What's in Japan?
0:24:58 > 0:25:01"What's in other parts of the planet?"
0:25:01 > 0:25:04The idea of getting all these building components from all over
0:25:04 > 0:25:09the world, and of making them conform to one architectural vision.
0:25:09 > 0:25:14The scale of its ambition is one reason why it's a great building.
0:25:16 > 0:25:20What this exhaustive design process produced
0:25:20 > 0:25:22was a structure like no other.
0:25:22 > 0:25:25It's questioning the nature of a tall building.
0:25:25 > 0:25:29Every tall building up to that point had a central core,
0:25:29 > 0:25:31it was like a kebab.
0:25:31 > 0:25:34If you took the core from the heart of the building,
0:25:34 > 0:25:36which had never been done before,
0:25:36 > 0:25:40and you moved it to the edges so you could see through the space,
0:25:40 > 0:25:42everybody would have a better working environment.
0:25:46 > 0:25:49It's wonderful - the idea of suspending
0:25:49 > 0:25:53the whole building from those two rows of masts.
0:25:55 > 0:25:58Like a multi-storey suspension bridge.
0:26:03 > 0:26:07The vast open-plan interior could be arranged more flexibly
0:26:07 > 0:26:09and adapted more easily -
0:26:09 > 0:26:12obsessions of Foster and his peers since the '60s.
0:26:14 > 0:26:19The suspended structure also gave something back to the city.
0:26:19 > 0:26:23What's amazing about the HSBC project is that in Hong Kong
0:26:23 > 0:26:26real estate is extremely expensive, and here is the ground floor,
0:26:26 > 0:26:30which is usually seen as the grand welcome entrance for most projects.
0:26:30 > 0:26:32You know, you come up to this extraordinary bank
0:26:32 > 0:26:34and actually all you have are two escalators
0:26:34 > 0:26:37coming down to the ground and an extraordinary open plaza.
0:26:37 > 0:26:39Then you look up into the belly of this glass building
0:26:39 > 0:26:42and realise, "Oh, THAT'S the building, the building's up there."
0:26:42 > 0:26:45For a building like that to make such a gesture was profound.
0:26:50 > 0:26:54HSBC paid an unprecedented price for their building -
0:26:54 > 0:26:58over a billion pounds in today's money.
0:26:58 > 0:27:00Shipping components from 80 different countries
0:27:00 > 0:27:05and pioneering new industrial processes didn't come cheap.
0:27:05 > 0:27:07At that time it was thought to be
0:27:07 > 0:27:09the most expensive building in the world.
0:27:09 > 0:27:12I talked to the clients, so I knew the people in Hong Kong quite well
0:27:12 > 0:27:16and they would defend it as the most expensive building in the world
0:27:16 > 0:27:19because they said, "It's a work of art, and any work of art,
0:27:19 > 0:27:22" you have to spend as much money as it takes."
0:27:27 > 0:27:32Earlier in his career, Foster had specialised in low-cost,
0:27:32 > 0:27:34right-on buildings.
0:27:34 > 0:27:38Now he'd created the ultimate luxury object for a bank.
0:27:38 > 0:27:42A man who'd always sought flexibility in his architecture
0:27:42 > 0:27:45was adapting perfectly to the spirit of the '80s.
0:27:45 > 0:27:48It was a building which made his international reputation.
0:27:48 > 0:27:51After that he could do anything in the world.
0:27:51 > 0:27:55It summarised, at the highest level, high-tech.
0:28:02 > 0:28:07Only one contemporary project could seriously be considered its equal -
0:28:07 > 0:28:09Lloyd's.
0:28:12 > 0:28:15The two towers had more than just height in common -
0:28:15 > 0:28:20they had similar aims, similar budgets and the same roots.
0:28:21 > 0:28:23Foster and Rogers had, after all,
0:28:23 > 0:28:26been friends since the '60s as well as rivals.
0:28:26 > 0:28:30I think there's no question there was a great competitive element
0:28:30 > 0:28:32between Norman Foster and Richard Rogers -
0:28:32 > 0:28:35I mean, they spurred each other on though.
0:28:35 > 0:28:38To say that there was competition between the two
0:28:38 > 0:28:40would be to put it, you know, mildly.
0:28:41 > 0:28:45These things sort of came to a head when the traditional cricket match
0:28:45 > 0:28:47came up,
0:28:47 > 0:28:51and the gloves came off between the people in the two practices.
0:28:52 > 0:28:57As the '80s drew on, however, Foster had another serious rival.
0:28:57 > 0:29:00One who, like Rogers, had once been his collaborator.
0:29:04 > 0:29:07This was the building which proved Michael Hopkins
0:29:07 > 0:29:10could be just as inventive as Foster and Rogers,
0:29:10 > 0:29:14and secured his place in the front rank of British architects.
0:29:20 > 0:29:24It's the research and development base for an oil technology company.
0:29:32 > 0:29:36It's on quite a prominent site on the edge of Cambridge,
0:29:36 > 0:29:38and you couldn't just stick an ordinary old factory roof on it
0:29:38 > 0:29:40if you wanted to.
0:29:40 > 0:29:43It needed something more particular.
0:29:46 > 0:29:50Like Foster's Hongkong Bank, this structure is suspended from above
0:29:50 > 0:29:53rather than supported from below.
0:29:55 > 0:29:58Every roof needs to be held up somehow.
0:29:58 > 0:30:01You can do it with a forest of columns which fill a whole interior,
0:30:01 > 0:30:04or you can stick a maypole in the middle of your roof
0:30:04 > 0:30:06and hang it off that pole.
0:30:06 > 0:30:07It's a landmark, it's an eye-catcher.
0:30:07 > 0:30:10It says, "We're doing something special."
0:30:12 > 0:30:16At Schlumberger, Hopkins combined this novel approach to structure
0:30:16 > 0:30:19with an innovative new material.
0:30:19 > 0:30:22This fabric is collectively known as PTFE glass,
0:30:22 > 0:30:24polytetrafluoroethylene,
0:30:24 > 0:30:28which is woven glass fibres covered in Teflon.
0:30:32 > 0:30:35But it had the huge benefit of being non-stick,
0:30:35 > 0:30:38so it's sort of self-cleaning, sparkling in the sunshine,
0:30:38 > 0:30:41and the glass fibres are very, very strong.
0:30:45 > 0:30:48At the research laboratory,
0:30:48 > 0:30:51the fabric covers a central area for mechanical work
0:30:51 > 0:30:54as well as staff social areas.
0:30:54 > 0:30:56It forms tents, which join together the office
0:30:56 > 0:31:01and lab areas running along each side of the plan.
0:31:01 > 0:31:06It's not like a boy scout tent or even a circus tent.
0:31:06 > 0:31:08They flap about and they don't stand up.
0:31:08 > 0:31:12This one has to stand up against all the wind loadings,
0:31:12 > 0:31:16snow loadings that any other roof has to deal with,
0:31:16 > 0:31:19and it has to be there permanently.
0:31:20 > 0:31:24To make a strong enough structure out of fabric,
0:31:24 > 0:31:26the engineers sought digital help.
0:31:27 > 0:31:32This was one of the first buildings designed, in part, by computers.
0:31:32 > 0:31:34In architectural engineering
0:31:34 > 0:31:38I don't think anything had relied so much upon the computer.
0:31:38 > 0:31:40Software had to specially developed and written
0:31:40 > 0:31:44that would compute the shape, or form-find it, as we call it.
0:31:46 > 0:31:49Computer drawing was almost unheard of at that time,
0:31:49 > 0:31:52and that was pretty special because you didn't start with sketches
0:31:52 > 0:31:54and drawings, you started with numbers.
0:31:56 > 0:31:59Some people find it very difficult to believe
0:31:59 > 0:32:03that a mathematical process could generate a sculpture,
0:32:03 > 0:32:07and so we then made a physical model using hand-sewn pieces of canvas
0:32:07 > 0:32:11attached to the wires and tension rods with screws and threads,
0:32:11 > 0:32:14just to make sure we'd got it right.
0:32:17 > 0:32:20This is high-tech as sci-fi.
0:32:20 > 0:32:24While postmodernism was playing about with the past,
0:32:24 > 0:32:26the remaining high-tech true believers
0:32:26 > 0:32:30seemed ever more determined in their pursuit of the future.
0:32:40 > 0:32:42So even when building something
0:32:42 > 0:32:44as ordinary as an inner-city supermarket,
0:32:44 > 0:32:47Nicholas Grimshaw refused to compromise
0:32:47 > 0:32:50on his industrial approach.
0:32:50 > 0:32:54We didn't waver one inch from our belief
0:32:54 > 0:32:58in our new palette of materials, and in modernism generally.
0:33:01 > 0:33:04The structure's really - even though I say it myself -
0:33:04 > 0:33:06a bit of a tour de force.
0:33:07 > 0:33:10You can see these great bunches of ties coming down,
0:33:10 > 0:33:14and it sort of gives the building, I think, enormous kind of strength
0:33:14 > 0:33:19and impact in the street, instead of being a rather sort of bland box.
0:33:22 > 0:33:25Grimshaw gave a nod to his building's older neighbours
0:33:25 > 0:33:28in the arrangement of these rods,
0:33:28 > 0:33:30which hold down the cantilevered roof.
0:33:30 > 0:33:34We put them at the same sort of rhythm as the party walls
0:33:34 > 0:33:36of the Georgian houses opposite.
0:33:36 > 0:33:40And in an odd kind of way, it does echo the scale of the buildings
0:33:40 > 0:33:42on the other side of the street.
0:33:44 > 0:33:46I actually think it fits in rather well.
0:33:48 > 0:33:52No other supermarket built in the '80s looked anything like this.
0:33:52 > 0:33:56But it owed its existence not to shoppers' demands,
0:33:56 > 0:33:58nor even Sainsbury's desires,
0:33:58 > 0:34:02but to a powerful architects' department at the local council.
0:34:02 > 0:34:04We had a sympathetic planning authority,
0:34:04 > 0:34:07so we managed to do something quite radical.
0:34:08 > 0:34:13Grimshaw's weren't Sainsbury's first choice of architects for the job,
0:34:13 > 0:34:15but the die-hard modernists at Camden Council
0:34:15 > 0:34:18had rejected all the previous designs
0:34:18 > 0:34:21which the supermarket had proposed for the site.
0:34:21 > 0:34:26They started off with their standard Surrey farmhouse style,
0:34:26 > 0:34:28which is a brick building with a pitched roof.
0:34:28 > 0:34:32And then they tried bypass-Tudor,
0:34:32 > 0:34:35which there's a pub on the corner, still there,
0:34:35 > 0:34:38with, you know, wood nailed onto the outside.
0:34:38 > 0:34:41The planners were getting pretty fed up by then, and they said,
0:34:41 > 0:34:43"Look, you've tried all these styles on us,
0:34:43 > 0:34:45"all we want is a decent building."
0:34:45 > 0:34:49And so, somewhat in desperation, I think, Sainsbury's turned to us.
0:34:49 > 0:34:53And by that time they were so sort of beaten up, Sainsbury's,
0:34:53 > 0:34:55they let us do what we wanted to do.
0:34:58 > 0:35:01By odd coincidence, Grimshaw's supermarket
0:35:01 > 0:35:05was built round the corner from Farrell's TV-am building.
0:35:05 > 0:35:09Within a few metres of each other, the former partners now presented
0:35:09 > 0:35:12wildly divergent visions of architecture.
0:35:13 > 0:35:16Whereas the back of Farrell's building had responded
0:35:16 > 0:35:20to its setting by echoing the colours of nearby canal boats,
0:35:20 > 0:35:24what Grimshaw built behind his supermarket
0:35:24 > 0:35:27made no concessions to context or tradition.
0:35:27 > 0:35:32It was a terrace of high-tech homes, built when most house builders
0:35:32 > 0:35:35had reverted to red brick and pitched roofs.
0:35:37 > 0:35:41We felt, rightly or wrongly, that the whole site had to be a piece.
0:35:41 > 0:35:44And we felt we had developed an expertise in working metal.
0:35:46 > 0:35:49And, I have to admit,
0:35:49 > 0:35:53we were at that time obsessed with that kind of imagery,
0:35:53 > 0:35:56and we aspired to a kind of showroom gleam.
0:35:58 > 0:36:00At a time when whole estates
0:36:00 > 0:36:04were built in neo-Georgian toytown pastiche,
0:36:04 > 0:36:06Grimshaw and his team were sticking to high-tech
0:36:06 > 0:36:08with steely determination.
0:36:10 > 0:36:13The world will catch up.
0:36:13 > 0:36:15I think that was... Putting it bluntly, that was the attitude.
0:36:15 > 0:36:19By the late '80s, the world WAS paying attention
0:36:19 > 0:36:22to Britain's high-tech architects.
0:36:22 > 0:36:24They were treated with increasing respect abroad.
0:36:24 > 0:36:27It was on home turf where scepticism remained strongest.
0:36:27 > 0:36:31You have, ladies and gentleman, to give this much to the Luftwaffe.
0:36:31 > 0:36:33When it knocked down our buildings,
0:36:33 > 0:36:36it didn't replace them with anything more offensive than rubble -
0:36:36 > 0:36:37WE did that.
0:36:39 > 0:36:43This royal broadside was provoked by plans for a major development
0:36:43 > 0:36:45next to St Paul's Cathedral,
0:36:45 > 0:36:49replacing a 1960s scheme which even fans of modernism
0:36:49 > 0:36:51had to admit wasn't very good.
0:36:52 > 0:36:56In 1987, an architectural contest was held
0:36:56 > 0:36:58to come up with a replacement.
0:36:58 > 0:37:00Both Rogers and Foster entered.
0:37:00 > 0:37:04But once again, Prince Charles was unimpressed
0:37:04 > 0:37:06with all the modern schemes proposed.
0:37:07 > 0:37:11None of them, I believe, address the primary problems
0:37:11 > 0:37:15of appropriateness and architectural good manners.
0:37:15 > 0:37:20I would like to see the kinds of materials Wren might have used,
0:37:20 > 0:37:23and the ornament and detail of classical architecture.
0:37:24 > 0:37:26Rogers was selected as part of the team
0:37:26 > 0:37:30who would build the new Paternoster Square.
0:37:30 > 0:37:34After the Prince's intervention, however, his scheme was scrapped,
0:37:34 > 0:37:36and the architect was to be further disappointed
0:37:36 > 0:37:38when his royal opponent was invited
0:37:38 > 0:37:41to debate their differences in public.
0:37:41 > 0:37:43Back came this message from Buckingham Palace,
0:37:43 > 0:37:46"The Prince does not debate." That's what got my...got me.
0:37:46 > 0:37:49Within a democracy, it's not on.
0:37:50 > 0:37:54Instead, the two set out their rival visions of architecture
0:37:54 > 0:37:56in separate films for the BBC.
0:37:56 > 0:37:59I am not interested in copying styles.
0:37:59 > 0:38:01That is actually belittling history.
0:38:01 > 0:38:04I'm interested in learning FROM history.
0:38:04 > 0:38:05There is no need for buildings,
0:38:05 > 0:38:08just because they house computers and word processors,
0:38:08 > 0:38:11to look like machines themselves.
0:38:11 > 0:38:15There seemed no end in sight for high-tech's battle with heritage.
0:38:18 > 0:38:20MUSIC: "Moments In Love" by The Art Of Noise
0:38:27 > 0:38:30But then, one of Rogers' peers called a ceasefire.
0:38:32 > 0:38:37At Lord's Cricket Ground, Michael Hopkins surprised everyone
0:38:37 > 0:38:41with a new-found willingness to engage with architectural history.
0:38:41 > 0:38:43When I first started work with Michael Hopkins
0:38:43 > 0:38:46their architecture was what people would call "high-tech".
0:38:46 > 0:38:49But then Lord's was the turning point.
0:38:49 > 0:38:51And that's when it began to get quite different.
0:38:53 > 0:38:56The first time going to Lord's I was absolutely
0:38:56 > 0:38:59sort of knocked out by the place - particularly the Pavilion
0:38:59 > 0:39:04which has this marvellous Edwardian light, lacy,
0:39:04 > 0:39:07very English summer quality about it.
0:39:09 > 0:39:12Hopkins' brief was to replace a crumbling
0:39:12 > 0:39:1519th-century part of the ground.
0:39:15 > 0:39:17The standard modernist response
0:39:17 > 0:39:20would have been to knock it down and start again.
0:39:20 > 0:39:22The Mound Stand, as it was before,
0:39:22 > 0:39:25was very popular to the cricketing fans.
0:39:25 > 0:39:30The roof was shot, but the brickwork underneath was very nice.
0:39:31 > 0:39:34And in one of these sort of design sessions where you're thinking
0:39:34 > 0:39:38of all sorts of things, I suggested, "Why don't we keep the bottom bit?"
0:39:38 > 0:39:40It was one of those sort of suggestions you make
0:39:40 > 0:39:42slightly sort of toe-in-water, you know.
0:39:42 > 0:39:45"I'm only an engineer, but how about we keep this?" You know.
0:39:45 > 0:39:47And that's really what we did.
0:39:58 > 0:40:01Rather than inventing something new for it,
0:40:01 > 0:40:04we kept the good bits of the Victorian outside wall
0:40:04 > 0:40:07and just copied it and extended it on.
0:40:13 > 0:40:15And then you rise up from that
0:40:15 > 0:40:18in a really gutsy bit of modern engineering.
0:40:23 > 0:40:27For a modernist architect to emulate the Victorians was a surprise,
0:40:27 > 0:40:29because it smacked of postmodernism.
0:40:30 > 0:40:36Brickwork was the antithesis of high-tech - a labour intensive,
0:40:36 > 0:40:39messy, piecemeal, site-based process.
0:40:40 > 0:40:44But somehow, it captured Hopkins' imagination.
0:40:44 > 0:40:46He fell in love with bricks.
0:40:46 > 0:40:50Maybe you will get an interesting architecture out of brick,
0:40:50 > 0:40:53and it would feel more contemporary if you made it hold
0:40:53 > 0:40:56the bloody building up rather than just sticking it on as a facade.
0:40:56 > 0:41:00Whenever you see a Hopkins brick pier,
0:41:00 > 0:41:02it really does support the building.
0:41:02 > 0:41:05It isn't a steel column hidden inside,
0:41:05 > 0:41:08which is what most architects would do these days.
0:41:08 > 0:41:09MUSIC: "Christian" by China Crisis
0:41:14 > 0:41:16Hopkins used fabric for the roof,
0:41:16 > 0:41:18as he'd done at the Schlumberger Research Centre
0:41:18 > 0:41:22and as he'd go on to do in many future projects.
0:41:22 > 0:41:26The result was something even Prince Charles could enjoy.
0:41:26 > 0:41:29- PRINCE CHARLES:- It seems to me to capture the spirit of Lord's,
0:41:29 > 0:41:34with a suggestion of marquee tents and Edwardian summer days.
0:41:34 > 0:41:37Everyone welcomed it. The Establishment loved it
0:41:37 > 0:41:41as well as the progressive architects. It was a great hit.
0:41:45 > 0:41:49Other commissions from traditional institutions began to follow.
0:41:49 > 0:41:52High-tech was slowly winning over the sceptics.
0:41:52 > 0:41:57But it remained a relatively rare sight in late '80s Britain.
0:42:01 > 0:42:05The property developers who transformed Britain's cities
0:42:05 > 0:42:09during the third Thatcher term much preferred postmodernism.
0:42:09 > 0:42:12These were the years when Terry Farrell made the leap
0:42:12 > 0:42:15from critically-acclaimed but small-scale projects
0:42:15 > 0:42:17to big-budget buildings.
0:42:17 > 0:42:20He now had three gargantuan office blocks
0:42:20 > 0:42:23under construction in different parts of London,
0:42:23 > 0:42:27including one which achieved worldwide fame.
0:42:27 > 0:42:29MUSIC: "Safe From Harm" by Massive Attack
0:42:40 > 0:42:44It is James Bond's headquarters, MI6!
0:42:47 > 0:42:49Like his other office blocks,
0:42:49 > 0:42:53Vauxhall Cross was commissioned by a private developer.
0:42:53 > 0:42:55Only when the design was well under way
0:42:55 > 0:42:59did Farrell learn an arm of government wanted to move in.
0:42:59 > 0:43:02I had no idea I was building MI6.
0:43:02 > 0:43:04I was told it was a government headquarters,
0:43:04 > 0:43:08and we guessed, wrongly, very early on
0:43:08 > 0:43:10that it was for the Department of the Environment.
0:43:11 > 0:43:13I put the trees on the top
0:43:13 > 0:43:17particularly because it was the Department of the Environment.
0:43:20 > 0:43:23The building was finished and handed over,
0:43:23 > 0:43:26and I was watching television and on the screen,
0:43:26 > 0:43:30"The British have announced that this is the headquarters of MI6."
0:43:33 > 0:43:36The imposing appearance of the building was inspired
0:43:36 > 0:43:40not by its eventual occupants, but by its position on the river.
0:43:40 > 0:43:44The Thames brings out of Londoners
0:43:44 > 0:43:46a different response of scale and stature.
0:43:46 > 0:43:48If you look along the river banks,
0:43:48 > 0:43:51you see the buildings much more clearly in silhouette.
0:43:51 > 0:43:53They have great stature.
0:43:53 > 0:43:57So I argued you could build a palazzo of height and bulk
0:43:57 > 0:44:01and drama and scale.
0:44:05 > 0:44:08It is a really masterful essay
0:44:08 > 0:44:12in this kind of layered contradiction
0:44:12 > 0:44:17between steel and glass, masonry - the classical and high-tech -
0:44:17 > 0:44:22and in many ways was a high point of British postmodernism.
0:44:25 > 0:44:28And it was attacked, of course, by the modernists
0:44:28 > 0:44:31for being a little bit Egyptian, being a bit Art Deco,
0:44:31 > 0:44:37for being like a set for Aida, the opera - which it is...
0:44:37 > 0:44:41I know it's received an awful lot of criticism and so on.
0:44:41 > 0:44:44I was told that in the latest James Bond film,
0:44:44 > 0:44:46when they blew up the building,
0:44:46 > 0:44:50an architect had taken several friends to see the movie
0:44:50 > 0:44:54and they all cheered when it was blown up, inside the cinema.
0:44:54 > 0:44:56MUSIC: "Enjoy The Silence" by Depeche Mode
0:44:58 > 0:45:02The more successful Terry became, the more he found himself
0:45:02 > 0:45:05the number one target for the opponents of postmodernism.
0:45:07 > 0:45:10I got a huge amount of antagonism thrown at me.
0:45:12 > 0:45:16It was partly a case of guilt by association.
0:45:17 > 0:45:20There were firms in Britain that took on the mantle
0:45:20 > 0:45:23of postmodernism and did some dreadful buildings.
0:45:23 > 0:45:26In the hands of the commercial world,
0:45:26 > 0:45:30it becomes too much, you know, glitz and bling.
0:45:30 > 0:45:32People were thinking this can't develop.
0:45:32 > 0:45:35How many more pink and grey shiny granite pedimented buildings
0:45:35 > 0:45:37with bobbles on do we want, really?
0:45:37 > 0:45:42By 1991, when Farrell's new building for Charing Cross station
0:45:42 > 0:45:46was completed, the backlash was well under way.
0:45:46 > 0:45:48Tastemakers looked instead to another station
0:45:48 > 0:45:52just across the river, being built by Terry's former partner
0:45:52 > 0:45:55who'd stayed steadfast to high-tech.
0:45:55 > 0:45:57MUSIC: "Voyage, Voyage" by Desireless
0:46:07 > 0:46:11Digging of the Channel Tunnel had begun in earnest in 1988,
0:46:11 > 0:46:14so London needed a new terminus for the high speed
0:46:14 > 0:46:17international trains which would go through it.
0:46:17 > 0:46:20It was a very, very hard fought competition,
0:46:20 > 0:46:26and we absolutely put everything we had into getting that job.
0:46:28 > 0:46:31We knew that it was very exciting,
0:46:31 > 0:46:36because the French side were not doing very much to Gare du Nord
0:46:36 > 0:46:40so we felt that we could do something rather special.
0:46:40 > 0:46:44Something heroic was needed.
0:46:46 > 0:46:50The site for the new station wasn't heroic, however -
0:46:50 > 0:46:53a tight and irregular bit of leftover land.
0:46:55 > 0:46:57It was a bit like being given a foot
0:46:57 > 0:47:00and being asked to design a sock to pull over it.
0:47:00 > 0:47:02It was a very twisting, difficult geometry.
0:47:02 > 0:47:05Normally, the way in a complex shape it would be dealt with
0:47:05 > 0:47:08would be to have thousands of different shaped pieces of glass,
0:47:08 > 0:47:10and then you would have to marry -
0:47:10 > 0:47:12each piece would be a special bespoke piece.
0:47:12 > 0:47:15This was the thing that really terrified the project managers -
0:47:15 > 0:47:17they saw this convoluted shape
0:47:17 > 0:47:20and said, "That will cost you a hell of a lot more money."
0:47:20 > 0:47:22We had to, in some way, make the thing
0:47:22 > 0:47:25so that we had mass-produced components to bring...
0:47:25 > 0:47:26to keep the price down.
0:47:29 > 0:47:32To allow the roof to change shape with the site,
0:47:32 > 0:47:35the team devised a "loose fit" glazing system.
0:47:36 > 0:47:39It's all tiled with regular rectilinear sheets.
0:47:41 > 0:47:45The panels overlap, which means that you can get this kind of adjustment.
0:47:47 > 0:47:51So each layer goes one over the other, and then by creating
0:47:51 > 0:47:55this special set of hands that can move in any direction, that dealt
0:47:55 > 0:47:58with the difficulty of joining the glass back to the steel structure.
0:47:58 > 0:48:02There was a period in the site offices where you kept seeing
0:48:02 > 0:48:05people demonstrating how the bracket works and how it adjusted.
0:48:05 > 0:48:07"No, no, no, it's like this!"
0:48:11 > 0:48:13SIR NICHOLAS GRIMSHAW: We were involved absolutely
0:48:13 > 0:48:15down to the last nut and bolt.
0:48:16 > 0:48:19The steel components were specially cast for the project
0:48:19 > 0:48:22in a foundry, having been designed by Nick and the team.
0:48:26 > 0:48:30There were a number of tubular elements coming into one point -
0:48:30 > 0:48:34if we'd rammed them all together and tried to sort of weld them up
0:48:34 > 0:48:38in a great kind of gnarled knot, it would have looked horrible.
0:48:38 > 0:48:42So what we did was we did this casting like a kind of heart valve,
0:48:42 > 0:48:48with short stubs coming out of it for each of the tubes to fit over...
0:48:50 > 0:48:53..so it was a beautiful, functional thing.
0:49:00 > 0:49:04Waterloo International met with huge public, as well as critical,
0:49:04 > 0:49:08enthusiasm when it opened in 1994.
0:49:08 > 0:49:10Sometimes everything goes right.
0:49:10 > 0:49:12This was going to be a special moment in history,
0:49:12 > 0:49:15the first train through the Channel Tunnel, ribbon-cutting with
0:49:15 > 0:49:20the Queen and Mitterrand, and we wouldn't have been allowed
0:49:20 > 0:49:24to make such an ebullient building, er, for a lesser moment.
0:49:30 > 0:49:33Here was a work of uncompromising modern architecture
0:49:33 > 0:49:36which didn't upset the heritage brigade.
0:49:36 > 0:49:40One reason might have been that elegantly engineered glass roofs
0:49:40 > 0:49:42were themselves part of British history -
0:49:42 > 0:49:46going back to the Crystal Palace of 1851,
0:49:46 > 0:49:48and the first Victorian railway stations.
0:49:48 > 0:49:52Those structures had always been a very direct inspiration
0:49:52 > 0:49:54for the high-tech generation.
0:49:55 > 0:49:58My colleagues Foster and Hopkins would have said
0:49:58 > 0:50:01exactly the same thing - it's more or less running
0:50:01 > 0:50:05in a straight line from Paxton and Brunel up to the present day.
0:50:06 > 0:50:10Paxton, with the Crystal Palace, still holds the record
0:50:10 > 0:50:14for the maximum space covered in the minimum amount of time.
0:50:19 > 0:50:22Waterloo proved postmodernists weren't the only ones
0:50:22 > 0:50:26who could draw inspiration from architectural history.
0:50:26 > 0:50:28I think there was a feeling,
0:50:28 > 0:50:31"Let's get back to something a little more earthy and serious."
0:50:31 > 0:50:34You get sick of postmodernism very quickly.
0:50:34 > 0:50:37You know, we were the glass of cold water that everyone
0:50:37 > 0:50:39needed to drink after a rich meal, I think.
0:50:42 > 0:50:44Like the Grimshaw team,
0:50:44 > 0:50:47Norman Foster never wavered from his modernist belief
0:50:47 > 0:50:51that well-engineered structures don't need dressing up.
0:50:51 > 0:50:56The project he unveiled in 1992 would prove to millions
0:50:56 > 0:51:00of visitors each year that high-tech was nothing to be scared of.
0:51:00 > 0:51:04British Airports Authority at the time was
0:51:04 > 0:51:07headed out by an engineer, Norman Payne.
0:51:07 > 0:51:14And he said, quite simply, "I want a new generation airport."
0:51:14 > 0:51:19The other challenge he gave us was he wanted the building to be
0:51:19 > 0:51:26between 15 and 20% cheaper than any terminal that he'd built previously.
0:51:26 > 0:51:28So not only did we have to reinvent the terminal,
0:51:28 > 0:51:30it had to be considerably cheaper.
0:51:33 > 0:51:36Foster and his team, as was now their custom,
0:51:36 > 0:51:40exhaustively analysed the whole concept of airport design.
0:51:40 > 0:51:43They found plenty of room for improvement.
0:51:45 > 0:51:49So often in earlier terminals, you didn't know where the hell you were,
0:51:49 > 0:51:52which way you were facing and which way you were meant to go.
0:51:52 > 0:51:56The act of travel raises the level of anxiety in a lot of people,
0:51:56 > 0:52:00so what you want to do is to make the experience
0:52:00 > 0:52:03as easy, as enjoyable as possible.
0:52:03 > 0:52:05Um...and the way to do that is
0:52:05 > 0:52:09to provide a terminal building
0:52:09 > 0:52:10that gets rid of all the clutter.
0:52:24 > 0:52:27It's very open, very clear, easy to navigate.
0:52:30 > 0:52:34With the views out, you can see the plane, you know where you're going.
0:52:34 > 0:52:39Essentially, Stansted is... is one very large room.
0:52:39 > 0:52:44And everything happens in that room as far as the passengers
0:52:44 > 0:52:46are concerned, both arriving and departing.
0:52:50 > 0:52:53All of the grubby, oily, engineering stuff -
0:52:53 > 0:52:54you know, the baggage handling,
0:52:54 > 0:52:58the air conditioning - would be in the basement and feed upwards,
0:52:58 > 0:53:00so that people would then be separated from
0:53:00 > 0:53:02the works of the building.
0:53:02 > 0:53:05Traditionally, all of this mechanical plant
0:53:05 > 0:53:07had been placed on the roof.
0:53:07 > 0:53:12So this idea of turning the building literally upside down
0:53:12 > 0:53:17also saved money, because we didn't have to have a great beefy structure
0:53:17 > 0:53:19supporting all this heavy plant up in the air.
0:53:23 > 0:53:28The roof then only had to keep the water out, and it can let natural
0:53:28 > 0:53:33light in throughout the whole depth and footprint of the building.
0:53:37 > 0:53:40The trees, as we call them, because they fan outwards, erm,
0:53:40 > 0:53:44they hold up the roof, but they also order the space as well,
0:53:44 > 0:53:47they give it a clarity, a sense of rhythm,
0:53:47 > 0:53:50of order, of movement, of progression.
0:53:52 > 0:53:54Compared to the engineering gymnastics
0:53:54 > 0:53:57of the Hongkong Shanghai Bank, Stansted is calmer,
0:53:57 > 0:54:00more minimal architecture, and easier, perhaps,
0:54:00 > 0:54:02for the public to like.
0:54:02 > 0:54:04That didn't mean it was easier to design.
0:54:05 > 0:54:10In the end, I think that the simplicity is deceptive.
0:54:10 > 0:54:13It's like writing a poem - it's easier to write an essay.
0:54:13 > 0:54:16This is Foster's genius - that he can make something
0:54:16 > 0:54:20intensely difficult seem obvious and effortless.
0:54:22 > 0:54:25Having already reinvented the skyscraper,
0:54:25 > 0:54:29Foster had successfully reinvented the airport.
0:54:29 > 0:54:33That model has been adopted by every architect,
0:54:33 > 0:54:39every airport planner - and that, of course, is the ultimate compliment.
0:54:39 > 0:54:42It's been very flattering that it has been interpreted
0:54:42 > 0:54:47in all sorts of very interesting ways by architects across the world.
0:54:48 > 0:54:52Foster and his peers had argued since the '60s that modern
0:54:52 > 0:54:56architecture should reflect the advanced technology of modern life.
0:54:56 > 0:54:58When they started building airports,
0:54:58 > 0:55:01everyone could see their point.
0:55:01 > 0:55:03Try to imagine a world
0:55:03 > 0:55:09in which the latest aircraft comes into a neo-Georgian airport.
0:55:09 > 0:55:11I mean, it's not going to work, is it?
0:55:11 > 0:55:16So it seems likely that an airport would commission an architect
0:55:16 > 0:55:19like Norman Foster, rather than one of the Prince of Wales' team.
0:55:23 > 0:55:26But by the mid-'90s, traditional styles of architecture
0:55:26 > 0:55:30were losing out to high-tech even in historic locations.
0:55:32 > 0:55:36Foster showed the light, minimal approach he'd used in Stansted
0:55:36 > 0:55:38could work equally well in the midst
0:55:38 > 0:55:40of the 19th-century Royal Academy in London.
0:55:44 > 0:55:47Once, the prospect of an English country house like Glyndebourne
0:55:47 > 0:55:49getting a high-tech extension
0:55:49 > 0:55:53would have caused outraged cries of "Carbuncle!"
0:55:53 > 0:55:56Yet in 1994, even the most traditional of opera goers
0:55:56 > 0:56:00applauded the new theatre by Hopkins Architects.
0:56:00 > 0:56:05High-tech had proved its versatility and diversity,
0:56:05 > 0:56:07and firms which were fighting for their lives at the start
0:56:07 > 0:56:10of the '80s were finally booming.
0:56:10 > 0:56:13But with their form of modernism rehabilitated,
0:56:13 > 0:56:16what need was there for postmodernism?
0:56:16 > 0:56:20Farrell was then in the wilderness.
0:56:20 > 0:56:22And so for ten years during the '90s,
0:56:22 > 0:56:26I never got a single commission in London - where I lived!
0:56:27 > 0:56:29MUSIC: "Belfast" by Orbital
0:56:31 > 0:56:34Farrell instead set up shop, very successfully,
0:56:34 > 0:56:37in Asia, where he spent much of the '90s
0:56:37 > 0:56:40building projects like Hong Kong's Peak Tower.
0:56:45 > 0:56:47Meanwhile, those who stuck with high-tech
0:56:47 > 0:56:50were now in demand across the world.
0:56:54 > 0:56:58The architectural axis shifted to Britain, without question,
0:56:58 > 0:56:59without question,
0:56:59 > 0:57:03and Rogers and Foster were the most influential architects in the world,
0:57:03 > 0:57:05I think, at that time.
0:57:05 > 0:57:08Eight years after the Lloyd's building caused such a ruckus,
0:57:08 > 0:57:12Rogers' London headquarters for Channel 4
0:57:12 > 0:57:14opened without a squeak of controversy.
0:57:14 > 0:57:18Even the British public now seemed at ease with high-tech buildings,
0:57:18 > 0:57:22and their architects were no longer public enemies.
0:57:22 > 0:57:28In 1996, Richard Rogers became Lord Rogers of Riverside.
0:57:28 > 0:57:32Soon after, he was joined by Lord Foster of Thames Bank.
0:57:32 > 0:57:36Grimshaw, Hopkins and Farrell were all knighted too.
0:57:36 > 0:57:39Men who had once been radical outsiders
0:57:39 > 0:57:42were slowly edging into the Establishment.
0:57:43 > 0:57:45MUSIC: "Porcelain" by Moby
0:57:47 > 0:57:50Yet, at an age where many would think of retiring,
0:57:50 > 0:57:53they showed no signs of slowing down.
0:57:53 > 0:57:56In the next programme, the stories behind some of their most
0:57:56 > 0:58:00iconic buildings and biggest controversies.
0:58:00 > 0:58:02Moving into the heart of power
0:58:02 > 0:58:05produced a whole new set of problems.
0:58:08 > 0:58:10You can learn more about iconic British designs
0:58:10 > 0:58:12and the people behind them
0:58:12 > 0:58:16with The Open University's interactive Building Stories.
0:58:16 > 0:58:20Go to...
0:58:20 > 0:58:23and follow the links to The Open University.