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Here, outside Paris, Le Corbusier built the Villa Savoye.

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This would define the look of modernism -

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a minimal flat-roofed large-windowed white box.

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He proclaimed the house would be a machine for living in.

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More than anything, Le Corbusier admired the modern motorcar

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as a perfect marriage of function and design.

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The house would function as efficiently as a car and be as modern as a car.

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Imagine what people thought of the house in the 1920s.

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And not only did Le Corbusier want this house to be like a car,

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he also wanted the house to accommodate a car as the central tool of the modern age.

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The house is raised on legs and its dimensions fit exactly a car's turning circle.

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There's also a built-in garage.

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This house is a machine for living in, but it's more than that.

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It's a temple, a temple to purity.

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This entrance hall is so simple, so austere.

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And the clue to its meaning is given by this rather unexpected object

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standing in the entrance hall.

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A sink. Here it is, in the middle of the space.

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It's a place of ritualistic washing.

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Here, one washes away the outer world, the dirt that's left behind.

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And purified, one then enters the upper regions of the house.

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There's a beautiful staircase here, sculptural object. You go up that.

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Or more striking, the architect invites the visitor to go on an artificial promenade,

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to go on this ramp that leads into the heart of the building.

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The first thing that strikes you is the light, the white painted walls, the huge window.

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Indeed, the light draws you onwards and upwards into a better, brighter world of the future.

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"A great epoch has begun.

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"There is a new spirit," wrote Le Corbusier in his book, Towards A New Architecture.

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Architecture that used light and space would make people healthier and happier.

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No more dark basements and a reinforced concrete frame

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would allow for large ribbon windows, letting in lots more light...

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..but also free up the interior for open-plan living.

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Le Corbusier also told people HOW they should live in his house.

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Clothes should be tidied away.

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There should be no unnecessary furniture

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and he didn't like people having pictures up in their bedrooms.

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The rules even told you how to use your own bathroom.

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Behind me, the little closet is the lavatory, a secret place.

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Here, a bidet. In front of me, a basin, rather charmingly top lit through the skylight.

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Here, a rather squarish

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uncomfortable-looking bath.

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And in front of me, this serpentine form

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on which I'm meant to lounge. Having wrapped myself in my towel, I lie here...

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..as the architect would oblige me to do, drying myself, I suppose.

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And then, from here into bed.

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Le Corbusier even specified where to put the bed.

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It should go between two columns, at a precise distance from the bath and the window.

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This machine for living in is as attentive to detail as you might expect from a watchmaker's son.

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The ascending ramp continues from the central open court,

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leading to a flat roof terrace, maximising space and efficiency

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for exercise and fresh air.

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The architectural promenade

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climaxes in an external window framing the view.

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Villa Savoye made manifest a new architecture as set out to improve life through design.

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But at the end of the day, it was just a weekend retreat for a rich client.

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If architecture was really to change things, it would have to do it in a much bigger, bolder way.

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Road signs in Britain were chaotic and came in different sizes, symbols, colours and shapes.

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The result was frustration and confusion.

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When the motorways were still in the planning phase,

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the government had appointed a committee to investigate the issue of new signage.

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I thought perhaps we might need the help of a designer.

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So that was quite a very new thing for somebody,

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actually, for a committee, a government committee, to employ a consultant designer.

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How do they differ from present motor signs?

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We've used a mixture of block letters and small letters

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for greater legibility.

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Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert were charged with developing

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a new signage system for Britain's motorways.

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They realised that the absolute essence

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of an efficient motorway signage system was clarity.

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The signs had to be easy to read, instantly recognisable to motorists.

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Motorists had to understand what they were saying.

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And it had to convey essential information to them,

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but motorists really didn't need to waste time thinking.

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-The basic unit, obviously, is the typeface and from that, you build out.

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In order to achieve this simplicity,

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they had to do some very complicated work behind the scenes.

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So they thought through every single aspect of the way in which those signs would be read.

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The lettering always stayed the same and you read the symbol first and then you picked out the lettering

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and then you got the sense of what the message was and the route numbers.

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So, basically, it's very simple. And the colours.

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And we've also put white letters on a blue background for the same reason.

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I remember the formula that I used was ultramarine plus azure blue

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plus zinc white designer's colours.

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We were amazed at the size of them.

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It staggered us. We just couldn't comprehend that you need a road sign as big as we were making them.

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Of course, you're travelling at 70 mph and you want to pick up the directions early.

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So they're logical and they're correct, but we were surprised.

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They are beautifully elegant. They're like works of art in their own right.

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But they're also completely utterly functional, and that is why today,

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over 40 years later, that signage hasn't changed.

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It doesn't need to change. Perfect typography is perfect typography.

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When you're driving on the motorway or the road,

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thanks to Jock Kinneir and Margaret Calvert, you never have to think about the signs you're looking at.

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Keep it simple and it's easier to read and remember

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and it looks good in its own right in the landscape.

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Walter Gropius was one of the most vital architects of the last century.

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He believed in bridging the gap between technology, industry and architecture.

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His greatest achievement was founding the Bauhaus,

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the arts institute that brought together architecture, painting, woodwork and design.

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In 1925, he designed the Bauhaus headquarters in Dessau, Germany.

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It's arguably the most famous monument to modernism.

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Great architects like Mies van der Rohe and artists Kandinsky and Klee, all taught here.

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The building has three parts with no clear back or front.

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A radical departure from other public buildings at that time.

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Today, it's still a school for architecture and design and its workshops are still in use.

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Even though they were built about 70-odd years ago,

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for us now they're really good to work in.

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It's great cos most of the walls are windows,

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so you get the most out of natural light.

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Gropius also built the apartments for the Bauhaus masters.

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The three identical houses are staggered in height.

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They show a theory that Gropius believed in all his life -

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identical units that can be combined in any number of ways.

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In 1926, he was commissioned by the City of Dessau to provide 300 low-income-family homes.

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He used the Torten housing estate as an experiment

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to see how much space people really needed to live in.

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Each two-storey house had a plot of land just the right size for the owners to keep a sheep or a goat.

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He hoped the workers could make extra cash by selling milk and cheese.

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But the experiment backfired.

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The estate was slated as looking like an assembly line of fridges.

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In the 1930s, the Nazis accused the school of neglecting German values

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and encouraging Jewish influence.

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In 1933, they shut the Bauhaus down.

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In 1937, Gropius went to the US

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and was made a senior professor at Harvard.

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He designed much of the new campus and founded The Architects' Collaborative.

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Although he died in 1969, the collaborative ensured

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that the Bauhaus principles of teamwork and artistic unity live on.

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When I think of modern offices, I think of drab open-plan rooms in Slough

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crammed full of David Brents. But does it have to be like this?

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Will the office ever become an enjoyable place to work?

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One of the most uninspiring office environments is the call centre.

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There's not much company loyalty and people don't stick around for long.

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So a company in Swindon decided to do something completely different.

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-Hi.

-Hiya. How you doing?

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-Good. How are you?

-Not so bad. Come through.

-Thank you.

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So, Paul, how long have you been in this building?

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We moved in in January 2000.

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We really needed to be in a purpose-built building.

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And I think there was a need for the company to have an identity

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and we really wanted a building to show that.

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And I've heard about some of your treats round the building.

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We have ladies in 1950s trolley dolly outfits,

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running round with motorised trolleys, going in between desks

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and giving everyone tea and coffee and offering sandwiches.

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Our reception desk that we've got here is specifically designed and built.

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We like people to enjoy working here and we also want to create obviously a bit of interest about the company

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via what we do, sort of thing.

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Most of the people who work here are in their early 20s,

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so the architect designed the toilets to look like nightclubs.

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DANCE MUSIC

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Not very good for doing your make-up, though.

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The fountain's unique, too.

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The height of the water mirrors the height of the lift, so you can tell which floor it's on.

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This building is a great example of design that works,

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but you don't have to use £7 million.

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Richard Palmer needed a little bit more space, so he just did it using furniture.

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Richard created office high chairs which sit at a two-metre-high desk,

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cleverly separating the desk from the meeting area.

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-Hi, Richard.

-Hi.

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-So I take it you don't suffer from vertigo.

-Not particularly, no.

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That's lucky cos we're pretty high up here.

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-About two metres.

-So I take it you've got a bunk bed at home?

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It's funny cos I'm a twin and, yeah, I used to have a bunk bed.

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So maybe that's it, subliminally.

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So, did you invent these? This is totally your idea?

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Yeah. I mean, the chair itself is a standard Herman Miller product.

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But the structure and the rest of the layout and the design is all ours.

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The original inception is to try and segregate the space, but it works much better than we imagined.

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We don't feel part of what's going on down there,

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and conversely, they don't feel that you're part of what's going on.

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So you do actually very quickly separate.

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There was no desire to get secretaries in skirts up here?

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HE LAUGHS

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The new Selfridges feels like so much more than just a shop.

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It's a destination, a whole city under one roof.

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In the 21st century department store, selling comes second.

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What's important is getting people through the door and keeping them there with an array of experiences.

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Once and for all, splashing your cash becomes hard to resist.

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We animate loads of brands, loads of experiences

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in a place that has been designed to

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accommodate those brands and experiences.

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We have worked with a whole range of designers and architects,

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and it was incredible to see how that injection of creativity and design

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put a whole new momentum behind that business. We all got what we need.

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You know, we got suits and trousers and socks and everything.

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You know, wardrobes full of them. But it's really about that experience of buying

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and the pleasure that you get about finding something new and different.

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For us, it's important that our place

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is as exciting and interesting as the other places that they could go to.

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I think of competition for Selfridges as, you know,

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"I'm going to go and watch Arsenal play," or, "I'm going to lunch."

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"I'm going to go to an art gallery or a museum." It's a day out. It's part of a day out.

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It's about much more than shopping.

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What's really interesting is that it's not a new concept.

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It's exactly what Gordon Selfridge wanted when he opened the store in 1909.

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Selfridge really thought about customer psychology.

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It's thanks to him that department stores have their perfume counters on the ground floor.

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He realised the scent wafting out to the street would tempt people in.

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He was also a master showman.

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He put on art displays and hosted theatrical events.

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Selfridges took the radical decision to use cutting-edge architects rather than interior designers.

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Across town, a rival store is also aware of the need to diversify.

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Crucial to the reinvention of a department store is the cafe and restaurants.

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Harvey Nichols wanted their new restaurant to be the best in town,

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a destination in itself.

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The idea of putting a high-class restaurant, a cafe and a high-quality food offering,

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as they call it, on top of the department store and making it a destination

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was unheard of ten years ago.

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What they wanted to do was really establish this as an attraction within the store, itself.

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Here we have a restaurant at the top of the building.

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We draw people through the building and then people percolate back through the building again

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and have the retail experience.

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And after a lunch-time bottle of wine, half-cut shoppers spend double the cash.

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Harvey Nichols has a different design ethos to Selfridges.

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The backdrop is kept cool and calm so the products take centre stage.

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So confident are Selfridges of the revival of the department store

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that they've started to commission more up and down the country.

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At Manchester's Exchange Square, a different architect did each floor.

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It's a design pick 'n' mix.

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Here, Aldo Cibic uses bright colours and shiny resin.

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This floor couldn't be more different.

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Belgian architect Vincent Van Duysen opts for elegant natural stone, subtle lighting and lots of grey.

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The basement holds the food hall.

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A blueprint for the future of food retailing.

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The food hall is conceived as a series of droplets in a landscape

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which displays food in these very beautiful sinuous forms.

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The ceiling and floors are curved so you get this very sensuous form

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and what you feel like when you're in here

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is that you're in the belly of an amazing cavern of delights, really.

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This food hall is one of the places where you just never want to leave.

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You want to have lunch here. You want to spend time just waiting for people or just really sampling food.

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Not good if you can't control what you're eating.

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Selfridges approached me to design the ground floor.

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I said I'd never done a store before and they said, "Great!"

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They were looking for new ideas.

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What you have is a sky which sits over the whole thing.

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And the lights have been tempered so it's like a morning sky, a fresh light,

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a kind of really sparkly light, so that when the cosmetics and the bags and the luxury goods are displayed,

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they have a flattering, complementary light all over them.

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What I then tried to do is have a floor which looks like a beach, as the water's just passed over it

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and drained away. So you have these white pebbles, which unify the entire space.

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And then you have these objects, which are geometric and cubic,

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but also translucent, and capture the light in them,

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with mirrors to reflect and give you kind of glimpses of yourself as you go past.

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So what you have is an environment which is complementary to the idea of beauty

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and also to the idea of luxury and feeling good.

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Urban planners are already thinking of ways to cope with the consequences

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of such a rise in temperature across Britain.

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One area that will have to change will be the design of our homes.

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By 2080, our homes will have to be able to shut out the summer heat,

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conserve water and use the minimum amount of energy possible.

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Well, this could be a model for our future living.

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Beddington Zero Energy Development, also known as BedZED,

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is the UK's largest eco-community.

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It's an experimental set-up offering a practical solution to sustainable living.

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Well, that's what the blurb says, but what's it like to live here?

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Sue Riddlestone and her family moved in when it was built four years ago.

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Wow. It's so light and bright and pretty, isn't it?

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It's a fantastic feeling.

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Well, when we first moved in, we thought

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"Wow, this is really fantastic and futuristic."

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But actually, after a couple of weeks,

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we just got used to all the various features.

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Believe it or not, the house doesn't need any central heating or air conditioning.

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It's all down to the architecture.

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-We've got these very thick walls.

-Right.

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A bit like a church where you've got the solid construction

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so it keeps fairly cool in the summer and also keeps the heat in in the winter.

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The sun floods in through the south-facing conservatories,

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capturing natural light and heat for the cold winter months.

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Well, look at this!

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I love this sort of futuristic rooftop you've got here.

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It's fabulous.

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Lining all the roofs are strange-looking vents.

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They capture the wind to ventilate the homes in the summer.

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Energy used in our homes accounts for 27% of all carbon emissions in the UK.

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The aim here is to reduce that down to zero.

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All the hot water and part of the electricity

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comes from one central unit on site, fuelled by locally sourced wood chippings

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that would otherwise go to waste.

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The site has also been designed to save water.

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The roof is covered with a plant called sedum.

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Sedum is like a succulent plant.

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When it rains, it holds the water and stops it all rushing down at once.

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And then we collect the rainwater in big tanks under the ground

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and we use that water for flushing the toilets.

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BedZED is one of the few housing developments around now

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that's been designed to suit the climate conditions of the future.

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But can these ideas be scaled up so that by 2080, whole cities offer sustainable living?

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To adapt the 22 million homes across the UK would certainly be a major challenge.

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Who fancies this lifestyle?

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This vision of housing bliss is care of a rather famous Scandinavian furniture company

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who see flatpack homes as one solution to the UK's housing crisis.

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Allen keys at the ready.

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But wait a minute.

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Ready-made housing plonked into place... Haven't we been here before?

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Well, yes. Prefab housing is a great British treasure and has been around for years.

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The post-war version is the one we all remember.

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Modular-living aficionado Greg thinks we shouldn't underestimate the power of a prefab.

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By the time of the Second World War, there was a huge housing crisis.

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The problem was made particularly acute because the men were away.

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There wasn't anyone to build the houses.

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So the government needed to come up with something.

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They came up with the idea of building prefabs.

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Prefab - noun.

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Something that is prefabricated as a building or fixture.

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You would never know such an attractive house is a prefab.

0:24:080:24:12

Nowadays, labour costs are very high and particularly in the last five years,

0:24:120:24:16

so maybe it's more appropriate now that we're looking back at prefabrication.

0:24:160:24:20

Now, fast-forward to the noughties and another housing crisis...

0:24:200:24:24

Are flatpacks the new prefabs?

0:24:240:24:27

And in which case, aren't we just using a familiar solution for the same old problem?

0:24:270:24:33

No. This is a very different approach.

0:24:330:24:35

That was government-sponsored cheap housing, short-term life spans.

0:24:350:24:39

It was an intermediate solution.

0:24:390:24:42

You know, this is bringing something back which is fundamentally more sophisticated,

0:24:420:24:47

very, very high quality and is here to last.

0:24:470:24:50

It sounds too good to be true.

0:24:500:24:52

Affordable, high quality, contemporary housing for the masses.

0:24:520:24:56

But, Alan, it's still a prefab, isn't it?

0:24:560:24:59

If you say, "Is it factory constructed?" then yes.

0:24:590:25:02

But I think, from the days of prefabbed houses as we all knew them 40, 50 years ago,

0:25:020:25:07

this is a massive progression.

0:25:070:25:09

He would say that, wouldn't he?

0:25:090:25:12

After all, his company is responsible for bringing these houses over from Sweden.

0:25:120:25:16

And even if flatpack is the future of British housing, would it detach itself from the stigma of prefab?

0:25:160:25:23

Some people had their doubts the first time round.

0:25:230:25:26

There was lots of snobbery about prefabs in the 1940s.

0:25:260:25:29

People saying "You're not living in Tin Can Alley!" "You're not living in that chicken shed!"

0:25:290:25:33

But the people who moved in loved them and I think you'll find the same thing happens

0:25:330:25:37

with these new prefab flatpacks.

0:25:370:25:38

Betty lives just down the road from the new flatpack development

0:25:380:25:42

in Tin Can Alley, or as it's better known, Wharfedale Road.

0:25:420:25:46

She's lived in prefabs for over 40 years and is quite used to people's attitudes towards them.

0:25:460:25:51

Do you think it's funny that they kind of fell out of fashion

0:25:510:25:55

at some point and people started to be quite rude about prefabs?

0:25:550:25:59

Yes. When you get a taxi, they say, "Oh, Tin Town."

0:25:590:26:02

When you say where you're going, they say, "Tin Town!"

0:26:020:26:05

That's really rude.

0:26:050:26:06

We just laugh it off.

0:26:060:26:08

They don't see inside, do they?

0:26:080:26:11

-This isn't the first prefab that you've lived in?

-No. No.

0:26:110:26:15

-I've lived in the single ones.

-And what was that like?

-It was brilliant.

0:26:150:26:18

-It had all mod cons and everything.

-Like what?

0:26:180:26:22

Well, it had a fridge, which a lot of people didn't have then.

0:26:220:26:26

Electric cooker. Electric boiler. Cupboards everywhere.

0:26:270:26:32

'They even had an inside loo.

0:26:320:26:35

'Prefab living is pretty fabulous.

0:26:350:26:37

'Well, it is if Betty's anything to go by.'

0:26:370:26:40

But then again, she's not forking out up to 150 grand to buy one.

0:26:400:26:44

The only thing I'm slightly disappointed about with this new system

0:26:440:26:47

is just how expensive these houses are. They're saying 35 grand maximum income for a household,

0:26:470:26:52

so you've got to be low income to be able to buy them.

0:26:520:26:54

Yet the actual retail cost of these houses is still really high.

0:26:540:26:58

If they're popular, if they are mass produced, well, mass production can bring that price down.

0:26:580:27:03

So, hopefully, this experiment will lead to something bigger.

0:27:030:27:06

Is the British consumer ready for it?

0:27:060:27:08

Well, we don't ask everybody to like it or to want to live in it.

0:27:080:27:13

It's a solution. But we certainly had a very significant interest

0:27:130:27:17

in what we're doing.

0:27:170:27:19

The customers that we're talking to about living in these units

0:27:190:27:23

are very, very excited.

0:27:230:27:24

Betty loves it and, Lucy, I can see an evangelical fervour for flatpack actually burning in your eyes.

0:27:240:27:30

-Why do you like it?

-I think they're a really good idea.

0:27:300:27:33

They're really cosy. They're very well insulated.

0:27:330:27:35

They're much cheaper to produce and they should be more environmentally friendly to produce, as well,

0:27:350:27:41

than using loads of cement, bricks and mortar which creates a lot of carbon emission.

0:27:410:27:45

The disadvantage of it - what's the arguments against it?

0:27:450:27:48

Well, most people are kind of persuaded

0:27:480:27:51

that they need a mock Tudor, bricks and mortar, very traditional-style home.

0:27:510:27:55

It feels more solid, doesn't it?

0:27:550:27:57

Yeah, but we've got to change our perception because we have got a housing crisis.

0:27:570:28:01

We need to build really, really fast to accommodate everyone that needs a home

0:28:010:28:04

-and I think flatpacks are a really good solution to that.

-Are they environmentally friendly?

0:28:040:28:09

Yeah. They should be and I think the more that are made and the more that we get an appetite for them,

0:28:090:28:14

the more that they will become easier, quicker to produce and more eco-friendly to produce.

0:28:140:28:19

It was the emigre visionary Berthold Lubetkin

0:28:260:28:30

who was to have the greatest influence on British architecture.

0:28:300:28:35

It was here in leafy North London that Lubetkin launched his mission

0:28:350:28:39

to convert the British to modernism.

0:28:390:28:41

And this country's first experiment with modern living in the 20th century

0:28:410:28:46

wasn't conducted on human beings but on apes.

0:28:460:28:50

Here you see the luxurious new apartment which has been built for the two gorillas, Minor and Mug.

0:28:520:28:58

The home is full of modern conveniences, including walls which can be adjusted according to weather

0:28:580:29:02

and sunglass panels so they can retain their healthy jungle tan.

0:29:020:29:07

So pleased was London Zoo with this pioneering structure,

0:29:100:29:14

that a year later, Lubetkin won a second commission.

0:29:140:29:16

And it was for this next building that Lubetkin really made his mark,

0:29:200:29:24

creating an enduring image, an icon, of the modern movement in Britain.

0:29:240:29:29

This was no mere zoo building.

0:29:320:29:34

This was an ideological statement and the British public's first taste of hard-core modernism.

0:29:340:29:42

The penguin pool.

0:29:420:29:43

Lubetkin created a stunning stage on which the penguins

0:29:460:29:49

would show off to each other and to the zoo's visitors.

0:29:490:29:52

Reinforced concrete was a pioneering material he used to create the pool's central feature

0:29:530:29:58

of intertwining ramps.

0:29:580:30:02

Never before in Britain had concrete been used with such verve

0:30:030:30:08

in such a minimalist, sculptural, daring fashion.

0:30:080:30:12

In fact, this elegant, swirling form could only have been built with concrete reinforced with steel.

0:30:120:30:19

But although a brilliant modern design, this must have proved a miserable home for penguins.

0:30:190:30:25

What Lubetkin had overlooked or ignored was the lifestyle of the penguins.

0:30:260:30:31

In summer, they were trapped in an open-air oven.

0:30:310:30:35

And though the penguins seemed happy enough using the ramps, they totally ignored the diving tank.

0:30:350:30:40

Neither were the gorillas happy in their concrete drum,

0:30:440:30:47

and by 1939 had been moved out to more suitable surroundings.

0:30:470:30:52

The penguins lasted a little longer in their modernist home,

0:30:520:30:57

but today the pool lies empty.

0:30:570:30:59

As with the gorilla house, the irony of a functionalist building not actually functioning

0:31:010:31:05

was passed over.

0:31:050:31:06

In fact, the popularity of Lubetkin's work at London Zoo

0:31:060:31:10

helped launch modernism into the wider world,

0:31:100:31:13

and in a sense, showed that the British public were at last embracing modernist architecture.

0:31:130:31:20

When the public votes for Britain's ugliest buildings, brutalist architecture usually tops the list.

0:31:290:31:35

Yet nearly £2 million of public money's been spent on renovating this building,

0:31:350:31:40

while the same amount has been sought to demolish this one.

0:31:400:31:44

Most people think brutalism is where modern architecture went too far,

0:31:440:31:48

but I really admire this.

0:31:480:31:50

The question is, do you have to be an architect to like brutalism?

0:31:500:31:53

And what should we do with these spiky survivors of the '60s?

0:31:530:31:57

Let's clear up one of the myths.

0:31:570:32:00

It's not called brutalism because the architects wanted to be brutal.

0:32:000:32:04

The tag comes from the French word brute, which means raw.

0:32:040:32:08

The surface texture on these buildings is rough and ready.

0:32:080:32:12

You can still see the grain of the wood used to mould the concrete.

0:32:120:32:15

This was architecture trying to be totally honest about how a building's made and what it does.

0:32:190:32:25

The style was pioneered in the '50s by big names like Le Corbusier.

0:32:250:32:30

By the '60s, it was being used to rebuild post-war Britain.

0:32:300:32:35

So when Portsmouth needed a new shopping centre,

0:32:350:32:38

it got one of the first privately-built examples of brutalism.

0:32:380:32:42

This is what the shiny future looks like now.

0:32:430:32:47

This is classic brutalism.

0:32:480:32:50

The forms are incredibly sculptural.

0:32:500:32:53

There are access decks to walk around and the staircases and services are on the outside.

0:32:530:32:57

I find lumps of concrete like this sexy. I've never seen such an expressive car park ramp.

0:32:570:33:03

It was way ahead of its time. Richard Rogers's Lloyd's building was praised for similar details 20 years later.

0:33:030:33:10

The Tricorn's architect insists there's nothing wrong with his original design,

0:33:100:33:15

just with where it was built and how it's been treated.

0:33:150:33:18

If it had been maintained,

0:33:180:33:20

if it had actually had all the finishes that were necessary,

0:33:200:33:23

the shiny shop fronts, the planting as well,

0:33:230:33:26

I think people'll be less aware of its brutality. And I would have hoped,

0:33:260:33:31

over a period of years, that people would have come to accept it, at least, if not actually enjoyed it.

0:33:310:33:36

A lot of people have complained that this building looks ugly. What's your response to that?

0:33:360:33:42

Well, I'm very surprised. A lot of people like the building.

0:33:420:33:45

One thing I do find is that any piece of architecture

0:33:450:33:49

worth being called architecture is usually both hated and loved.

0:33:490:33:53

If people don't notice it, it's not architecture.

0:33:530:33:55

Rodney has drawn up plans for how his building could be resurrected for the 21st century

0:33:550:34:00

and is in talks with the site's developers.

0:34:000:34:03

But Portsmouth Council is determined to flatten it.

0:34:030:34:06

They want a European grant for it to be demolished, even before there are firm plans to replace it.

0:34:060:34:11

The government won't protect the Tricorn by listing it.

0:34:120:34:15

They said it's not unique.

0:34:150:34:19

While the wrecking ball stands by in Portsmouth, builders are renovating

0:34:190:34:23

London's shopping centre for the arts, the South Bank.

0:34:230:34:26

It, too, was threatened with demolition.

0:34:260:34:28

Some people still think that's a good idea.

0:34:280:34:30

On your right-hand side, you will see the Royal National Theatre.

0:34:320:34:37

It was described by Prince Charles to look like the back of a nuclear power station,

0:34:370:34:42

and it was voted by the public as being one of the ugliest buildings within London.

0:34:420:34:46

We don't quite agree with that.

0:34:460:34:47

We think that building there to our right is the ugliest building in the world.

0:34:470:34:52

My tour guide would have loved a plan for the Hayward Gallery in the '80s,

0:34:520:34:57

which completely buried it under a bright new facade.

0:34:570:34:59

A more respectful redevelopment has finally begun.

0:34:590:35:03

I like the fact that it's an authentic piece of '60s design

0:35:030:35:08

-and the fact that it's uncompromising.

-Yeah.

0:35:080:35:10

There are only three windows in the whole building

0:35:100:35:13

and two of those were forced on the original designers. They didn't want them.

0:35:130:35:16

Because there are no windows, it's all about surfaces and spaces.

0:35:160:35:22

I've heard so many descriptions, like an adventure playground for Daleks,

0:35:220:35:26

like a frozen Picasso sculpture.

0:35:260:35:28

It's like a battleship peppered with pill boxes.

0:35:280:35:32

And we're moving away from this idea of judging a building on whether it's ugly or beautiful.

0:35:320:35:37

Brutalist buildings are truly three-dimensional.

0:35:390:35:41

They work, quite literally, on a number of levels.

0:35:410:35:44

This makes them ideal for a sport which hardly anyone had heard of when they were built.

0:35:440:35:49

This is skateable architecture.

0:35:550:35:57

But just when people are learning to love brutalism, we're in danger of losing some of the best examples.

0:36:000:36:05

As part of the latest plans for the South Bank, the skaters' undercroft

0:36:050:36:09

and concert halls above it could be destroyed.

0:36:090:36:12

I think it would be terrible to lose these, or the Tricorn.

0:36:120:36:15

If nothing else, they should be saved as monuments to the '60s.

0:36:150:36:18

An era which was much more heroic and ambitious than ours.

0:36:180:36:22

What will future generations think if we knocked these buildings down now?

0:36:220:36:25

995 flats, an average of three persons in a flat. So that's nearly 3,000 people in here.

0:36:340:36:41

People don't like Park Hill.

0:36:410:36:43

Some people don't, because of its outside appearance,

0:36:430:36:46

but they don't come to look inside.

0:36:460:36:49

And I don't mean inside of their houses, I mean inside the community.

0:36:490:36:53

It's like being in heaven up here because we've always been poor people

0:36:530:36:59

and these places are just lovely for us,

0:36:590:37:04

either for old age or young age.

0:37:040:37:06

What I like best about the kitchen is the sink unit.

0:37:060:37:09

And then you've got the cooker, which is electric.

0:37:090:37:12

Then this is the bathroom.

0:37:120:37:14

It's got a nice heated rail.

0:37:140:37:17

And along here is the living room.

0:37:170:37:20

In here, again, you've got your central heating and nice big windows again.

0:37:200:37:24

Altogether, we like it all.

0:37:240:37:27

The Park Hill estate stands on a craggy slope above Sheffield.

0:37:320:37:36

Completed in 1961,

0:37:360:37:38

it was the most ambitious public housing scheme in post-war Britain.

0:37:380:37:43

Park Hill didn't attempt to find a cosy British version of modernism.

0:37:540:37:59

Its immense scale,

0:37:590:38:01

its huge block zigzagging along the escarpment above the city -

0:38:010:38:05

this was brutal modernism on a European scale.

0:38:050:38:09

The idea was to build bigger new, but retain a sense of community.

0:38:140:38:20

Three, four,

0:38:210:38:24

five, six,

0:38:240:38:26

seven, eight. Down. Down.

0:38:260:38:30

These broad decks linking the flats

0:38:300:38:33

were intended to evoke the community spirit of the traditional street.

0:38:330:38:38

Here people would meet, gather, chat around the doors.

0:38:380:38:42

Children would play.

0:38:420:38:43

But it all happened up in the air.

0:38:430:38:46

Very convivial. And unlikely as it seems now, it worked.

0:38:460:38:52

People got to know each other very quickly.

0:38:540:38:57

I played out there regularly.

0:38:570:38:59

And I loved it, cos my mum and dad knew where I was.

0:38:590:39:02

If I wanted to go to the playground at the bottom, they could look out of the window and see that I was there.

0:39:020:39:08

Everything was new, it was sparkling, it was modern.

0:39:080:39:11

Fridges, which not many people had fridges in them days... So everything - it was all a new experience.

0:39:170:39:23

We could make ice-cubes to put in our drinks, you know. And it were just fabulous.

0:39:230:39:28

We had everything on our doorstep. We had sweet shops, cake shops.

0:39:310:39:35

You mention it, we had it there.

0:39:350:39:37

We had a milkman, as well,

0:39:390:39:41

that delivered milk every morning onto your doorstep.

0:39:410:39:46

We had four pubs and every one of them in them days used to be full.

0:39:460:39:51

It were just a great community to start with.

0:39:510:39:54

In less than three decades, the estate was in trouble.

0:39:580:40:02

What had been popular public housing

0:40:020:40:04

now assumed a threatening aspect of an inner-city sink estate.

0:40:040:40:11

The streets in the sky turned from being a focus of community life into a muggers' paradise.

0:40:110:40:18

Now, it's become everyone's least favourite place to live -

0:40:200:40:23

a concrete prison.

0:40:230:40:25

Whichever way you look at it, Park Hill is something of a whodunnit.

0:40:280:40:33

You can't help but feel that somewhere along the line, a crime has been committed against humanity.

0:40:330:40:39

The problem is working out exactly what the crime is and who's the guilty party.

0:40:390:40:46

For some, it's the architects who are to blame because, whatever their worthy ideals,

0:40:500:40:55

they imposed an alien concrete megastructure on the people of Sheffield.

0:40:550:41:00

But others argue that the early happy years of Park Hill would have continued

0:41:020:41:07

if only it had been properly managed and maintained by the local authority.

0:41:070:41:11

The battle to apportion blame goes on as ferociously today as it ever did.

0:41:160:41:23

About 50 years ago, there was a positive outbreak of house-building fever

0:41:350:41:40

as councils decided they wanted to move their populations out of the noisy, smelly centre of the city

0:41:400:41:45

and put them in purpose-built estates.

0:41:450:41:47

And here in Swansea, they had all sorts of experimental answers,

0:41:470:41:51

and other councils used to come and have a look and see how they were getting on,

0:41:510:41:55

and make their choices from the things they could see in Swansea.

0:41:550:41:58

Now we're told there've got to be millions more houses,

0:41:580:42:02

but for people of my generation, this brings us out in a rash.

0:42:020:42:06

We worry. Are we going to make the same mistakes all over again?

0:42:060:42:10

The idea then was that people would live over there, shop over here, work over there and play...

0:42:120:42:18

The only trouble is that everything needed to be linked by an efficient network of roads.

0:42:190:42:25

The ring road, the link road, the trunk road - thousands of roads.

0:42:270:42:32

And it seems, far from linking us, it has the effect of shoving us all in cars.

0:42:350:42:41

Walking anywhere seems downright perverse.

0:42:410:42:45

Well, we're building again.

0:42:490:42:52

And this time, it's going to happen in the areas where dirty,

0:42:520:42:55

heavy industry of the past has been cleared away.

0:42:550:42:58

This is not only regeneration, it's a new vision,

0:42:580:43:01

which is is to free ourselves from giant link roads,

0:43:010:43:06

by putting work, play and housing all in one area.

0:43:060:43:10

Much as it was, wasn't it, in our original cities?

0:43:100:43:15

Who's to say that all these new ideas are that much more effective or right?

0:43:150:43:22

Because everybody had faith in the old ideas.

0:43:220:43:26

I think it was very much...

0:43:260:43:28

At that time, it was a very top-down approach.

0:43:280:43:31

It was, "We know best. We're going to do this."

0:43:310:43:33

And it was all about massive development - the scale was massive.

0:43:330:43:36

Whereas I think now we're realising that you've got to involve the local community.

0:43:360:43:40

So partly it's about scale and involvement.

0:43:400:43:43

If you start with the idea of quality and you say quality's going to be about good design,

0:43:430:43:47

that involves using top architects, and top architects are quite expensive, aren't they?

0:43:470:43:53

Yes, but again, it'd be worth finding out.

0:43:530:43:56

And you learn from experience that, unless you get that high quality, then you eventually pay for it.

0:43:560:44:01

We're not just competing with Wales and the rest of the UK. We're competing with Ireland,

0:44:010:44:05

with other parts of Europe. We're competing with America. So it's got to be about quality.

0:44:050:44:10

But it's not just about the quality design. Are the buildings sustainable?

0:44:100:44:14

Whether they're residential or whether they're offices.

0:44:140:44:18

Are they low in energy use?

0:44:180:44:20

But also, is it sustainable and accessible in transport terms?

0:44:200:44:23

There's no point putting huge developments in and people have got to use cars, their cars,

0:44:230:44:28

in order to get to their work or shopping.

0:44:280:44:31

But is there a sense that these flats are just for wealthy people?

0:44:310:44:36

Some of them are, but there will also be development for social housing.

0:44:360:44:39

The old marina, Maritime Quarter of Swansea,

0:44:390:44:42

has a mix of private-sector development and social housing. And it's worked.

0:44:420:44:46

We've found from experience that having isolated developments,

0:44:460:44:51

particularly in the cities, just doesn't work and you need that mix.

0:44:510:44:54

But what do the locals think?

0:44:540:44:56

It does look glamorous. It looks much better than the other side, definitely.

0:44:560:45:00

They are quite stark compared to this development,

0:45:000:45:03

which is far more interesting to look at as a building.

0:45:030:45:06

And have they been a success, do you know?

0:45:060:45:08

Well, I know for a fact, a friend of mine was the quantity surveyor on this project

0:45:080:45:13

and virtually these flats were sold out before the project was finished.

0:45:130:45:17

I think people are pleased that Swansea is getting some development.

0:45:170:45:21

I think a lot of people think all the development goes to Cardiff,

0:45:210:45:24

and they like it that Swansea is having a lot more development here.

0:45:240:45:28

I love this Swansea-Cardiff thing! To somebody coming in, we know that one way or another,

0:45:280:45:32

it all comes down to the fact that Cardiff gets what Swansea doesn't!

0:45:320:45:36

MUSIC: "Wonderful Copenhagen"

0:45:450:45:47

# Wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen! #

0:45:470:45:51

Welcome to Copenhagen.

0:45:510:45:55

# Once I sailed away But I'm home today... #

0:45:550:45:58

When I was RIBA President, we gave Copenhagen our first European City Of The Year award

0:45:580:46:05

for its very people-centred approach to planning.

0:46:050:46:09

And that's why Copenhagen's such an inspiration.

0:46:090:46:12

It's also a city with rough corners - no Paris or Milan.

0:46:120:46:16

A city with an historic harbour at its heart, a similar climate to the UK,

0:46:160:46:20

and 40 or 50 years ago, a city that had lost its way.

0:46:200:46:25

At the forefront of this people-focused approach to regeneration

0:46:310:46:35

are the world-renowned Gehl Architects,

0:46:350:46:38

and I'm going to meet partners in the firm, Helle Soholt and Lars Gemzoe.

0:46:380:46:44

What do they think creates the perfect living street?

0:46:450:46:50

I think it's very important that there is

0:46:500:46:53

a mix of pedestrians, bicycles, cars.

0:46:530:46:56

A mix of small shops, bigger shops.

0:46:560:46:59

Some shops are down in the basement, others are on the ground floor.

0:46:590:47:03

We have people living on top in apartments.

0:47:030:47:05

There is a great mix of activities taking place

0:47:050:47:10

and that is why this is working as a 24-hour street.

0:47:100:47:14

-So it's a vertical and horizontal mix?

-Yes. Yes.

0:47:140:47:17

I think there's an interesting change here in Copenhagen

0:47:170:47:20

when it all started to make the environment better.

0:47:200:47:23

The whole notion was that this is a shopping area.

0:47:230:47:26

Today it's much more seen as a meeting place.

0:47:260:47:30

People looking at other people is the key thing that we all love to do

0:47:300:47:35

and it's also a way where public space becomes, in the best cases,

0:47:350:47:39

the place where you can learn what society is.

0:47:390:47:42

In sites that are underpinned by sound statistical data, how have you applied your studies?

0:47:420:47:47

I mean, what have you discovered by watching, this people watching, that you're so good at?

0:47:470:47:53

One of the things that we learnt out of this

0:47:530:47:55

is how important it is to make people visible in the planning process.

0:47:550:47:59

Just the sheer fact that we got information about what people actually do in public spaces.

0:47:590:48:05

How would you set about deciding on priorities

0:48:050:48:10

for regeneration of that sort?

0:48:100:48:13

The most important thing is to ensure diversity.

0:48:130:48:17

Diversity in public spaces,

0:48:170:48:20

diversity in streets, diversity in parks,

0:48:200:48:23

diversity in housing, so that you ensure in the very end, a diversity of people.

0:48:230:48:30

Such diversity is often missing from UK developments.

0:48:300:48:33

But in Copenhagen, there are examples all over the city.

0:48:330:48:36

But how to see them all in the time?

0:48:360:48:40

These city bikes are found on virtually every corner in central Copenhagen

0:48:400:48:45

and they're free for anyone to use.

0:48:450:48:48

You've just got to put in a deposit like a supermarket trolley and you're away.

0:48:480:48:53

And wish me luck.

0:48:530:48:56

This is brilliant.

0:49:050:49:08

First stop is Sankt Hans Torv,

0:49:080:49:11

a new public square that's been created in the place of a busy road junction.

0:49:110:49:16

A good place to try some of Lars's and Helle's people watching for myself.

0:49:160:49:21

I'm now going to play wildlife presenter.

0:49:210:49:25

We're going to see how this species behaves in its habitat.

0:49:250:49:29

Let's observe.

0:49:290:49:32

VIOLIN PLAYS

0:49:320:49:34

There's all signs of life here.

0:49:380:49:40

There are people just sitting,

0:49:400:49:43

standing, eating,

0:49:430:49:47

just lying and sopping up the sun.

0:49:470:49:49

The kids playing.

0:49:490:49:51

There are courtship displays.

0:49:530:49:56

And there's even a a guy over there who seems to be totally passed out.

0:49:560:50:00

It's no accident that this place is popular.

0:50:030:50:06

It's a very thriving mixed-youth area with people living, working.

0:50:060:50:10

There are live uses at ground floor. There's a kiosk in the square. There are cafes.

0:50:100:50:16

And there are proper corner shops where you can buy useful things.

0:50:160:50:19

There are places you can put your bike. You can even climb on this work of art.

0:50:190:50:24

It has become a real urban village green.

0:50:240:50:29

And that is the approach we need if real regeneration is to work.

0:50:290:50:34

When a 2½ mile section of elevated motorway opened in West London,

0:50:440:50:48

residents were faced with six lanes of traffic hurtling past their homes at bedroom level.

0:50:480:50:54

ALL CHANT

0:50:540:50:56

All the traffic is pouring past here. It's light at the moment.

0:50:560:51:01

By three days, four days, it'll be intensely heavy.

0:51:010:51:04

Meanwhile, the families in this road and the 142 children, like the youngster here,

0:51:040:51:10

will have to sleep in the front rooms because there's no room at the back.

0:51:100:51:14

And we're planning more demonstrations unless they assure us that something is going to be done.

0:51:140:51:20

-All your neighbours are leaving.

-Yes.

0:51:200:51:22

-Do you wish you were going with them?

-I do. I've lived in the street all my life

0:51:220:51:26

and I want to get out now.

0:51:260:51:28

But the Westway was only the start.

0:51:280:51:31

There was a much more radical plan in the pipeline.

0:51:310:51:35

Inspired by American freeways, it was called the motorway box.

0:51:350:51:40

30 miles of elevated motorway forcing its way through central London.

0:51:400:51:45

It is a controversial proposal, since it involves a complete ring

0:51:470:51:51

of four- and eight-lane highways so close to the heart of London.

0:51:510:51:55

The motorway box will be driven through some of the most densely populated parts of London.

0:51:550:52:00

With the newly opened Westway there for all to see,

0:52:000:52:03

Londoners realised what the impact of the motorway box would be.

0:52:030:52:07

Well, I object to having things steamrolled over me

0:52:100:52:15

without being able to say what I feel. And I've found that a great many people felt the same way.

0:52:150:52:20

Homes Before Roads's campaign believes things have been got out of perspective by County Hall.

0:52:200:52:26

Homes Before Roads was a new political party, formed to fight the proposed motorway box.

0:52:260:52:32

That has been boosted up to a position that will dominate London.

0:52:320:52:36

The scale of the proposals was extraordinary.

0:52:360:52:41

The so-called motorway box went through Kensington, Battersea,

0:52:410:52:47

Lambeth, Hackney, Camden.

0:52:470:52:50

Tight-built Victorian terraces.

0:52:500:52:53

So it was going to be this huge motorway, in many cases elevated,

0:52:530:52:59

through all the inner-London boroughs.

0:52:590:53:02

How can you build any new road through London

0:53:020:53:04

without taking down somebody's house?

0:53:040:53:07

Well, I think this is obvious.

0:53:070:53:08

You will take down somebody's house in building a new road

0:53:080:53:12

but, in fact, we're talking here of taking down the houses or the homes

0:53:120:53:16

of hundreds of thousands of people.

0:53:160:53:17

Homes Before Roads succeeded in putting up over 80 candidates

0:53:240:53:27

in the 1970 Greater London council elections.

0:53:270:53:32

This is a borough in which the so-called motorway box

0:53:320:53:35

is expected to cut a swathe through the housing.

0:53:350:53:39

And there has been a very great deal of interest to see how many boats the Homes Before Roads candidates

0:53:390:53:45

take away from the traditional parties.

0:53:450:53:48

The Conservatives won the election and were committed to building the motorway box.

0:53:480:53:53

It was a defeat for Homes Before Roads, but they would have the final victory.

0:53:530:53:57

When Labour regained control of the capital three years later,

0:53:570:54:01

they immediately dropped the motorway box.

0:54:010:54:05

Opinion was changing about building motorways in London.

0:54:100:54:16

Modernism was very destructive.

0:54:160:54:18

It was very narrowly focused on getting modern roads built,

0:54:180:54:23

getting comprehensive development done, and it didn't pay very much attention to the people themselves.

0:54:230:54:30

Around the end of the '60s, beginning of the 70s, there was a huge flip change

0:54:320:54:38

in popular attitudes,

0:54:380:54:40

from a belief in wholesale reconstruction of cities

0:54:400:54:44

around the car, to a belief in conservation, preservation

0:54:440:54:49

of the existing city, limiting the impact of the car on the city to the maximum extent possible.

0:54:490:54:56

It was one of the biggest and most sudden psychological changes I've ever observed

0:54:560:55:02

and I think that ever occurred in the history of the 20th century.

0:55:020:55:06

One of the local members said,

0:55:200:55:22

"Well, you know the route goes through Britain's best butterfly wood, don't you?"

0:55:220:55:26

And that was it.

0:55:260:55:29

That was something that would get people interested.

0:55:290:55:34

Butterflies and bunny rabbits always do it for people.

0:55:340:55:37

41 of Britain's 53 species have been recorded here,

0:55:370:55:41

and Friends Of The Earth campaigner Joe Weston is waging an uphill struggle to save them from the M40.

0:55:410:55:46

We've got some very, very rare butterflies here. Purple Emperor and the Black Hairstreak.

0:55:460:55:50

Fast disappearing from the British countryside, in very much danger

0:55:500:55:54

of disappearing from this environment if the motorway's completed.

0:55:540:55:58

Once we'd made those arguments and we'd had the cameras out and the press out once,

0:55:580:56:03

where do you go from there? What happens next?

0:56:030:56:06

The environmental group Friends Of The Earth have come up with a new ploy

0:56:060:56:10

for making life difficult for the motorway planners.

0:56:100:56:13

We decided to buy this field and then sell off the land in small plots

0:56:130:56:20

to thousands of people, hopefully all over the world,

0:56:200:56:24

-that would then completely

-BLEEP

-up their compulsory purchase process.

0:56:240:56:28

But Joe needed publicity for his cunning plan.

0:56:280:56:32

Lewis Caroll had been a regular visitor to Otmoor

0:56:320:56:35

and it was the inspiration for Through The Looking Glass.

0:56:350:56:39

"For some minutes, Alice stood without speaking, looking out

0:56:390:56:43

"in all directions over the country, and a most curious country it was.

0:56:430:56:48

"There were a number of tiny little brooks running straight across it from side to side.

0:56:480:56:53

"'I declare it's marked out just like a large chessboard,' Alice said at last."

0:56:530:56:58

And so Joe renamed his field Alice's Meadow.

0:56:580:57:04

This wasn't any longer just wildlife.

0:57:040:57:06

This wasn't any longer just landscape. This was cultural heritage as well.

0:57:060:57:11

Home in the summer of many of Britain's rarest butterflies

0:57:120:57:16

and a scene which it's said inspired Lewis Caroll's chessboard landscape in Alice.

0:57:160:57:21

The idea of turning all this could frustrate the government's efforts to complete the motorway.

0:57:210:57:26

One afternoon, we had the BBC,

0:57:260:57:29

the head of the Department Of Transport, the Minister Of Transport.

0:57:290:57:33

He's a member of a cabinet that can make laws.

0:57:330:57:35

ITV, Breakfast Television.

0:57:350:57:37

If the route is approved, then notices will have to be served on all the landowners.

0:57:370:57:42

We even had a crew that had flown in from Sidon.

0:57:420:57:46

Israeli tanks had been shelling the hotel that they were in the day before.

0:57:460:57:51

The next day they'd flown to Otmoor to film this story for NBC.

0:57:510:57:56

This plot of land where I'm standing belongs to Alex Warman of Oslo in Norway.

0:57:560:58:01

And this one belongs to Alan Parker of Melbourne.

0:58:020:58:07

This field has been divided into 3,000 separate plots.

0:58:070:58:12

Friends Of The Earth have sold those plots to 3,000 different people from all over the world.

0:58:120:58:17

We were even interviewed by the Tokyo Times. It was just amazing.

0:58:190:58:25

We could have sold England. It was incredible.

0:58:250:58:28

When the M40 was finally built, its route avoided Otmoor and today, it still remains untouched.

0:58:310:58:39

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

0:58:480:58:51

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0:58:510:58:54

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