0:00:32 > 0:00:37Britain's biggest building company has a new name and a new boss.
0:00:37 > 0:00:41Sir Neville Simms runs Carillion, formerly part of Tarmac.
0:00:43 > 0:00:45They built the Channel Tunnel.
0:00:45 > 0:00:48The Thames Barrier.
0:00:48 > 0:00:51And most of our motorways.
0:00:52 > 0:00:58But a key part of the business is refurbishing council and housing association homes.
0:00:58 > 0:01:03The Government spends over £1 billion a year doing them up.
0:01:03 > 0:01:06Carillion employ a tenant liaison officer to deal with
0:01:06 > 0:01:12disagreements between the builders and the residents and to make sure everything runs smoothly.
0:01:12 > 0:01:16Sir Neville will be Maggie Brownset's trainee for the week.
0:01:16 > 0:01:22Well, my job is to move people out of their homes and to move people back when they're completed.
0:01:22 > 0:01:25We're going to see Mrs Cook,
0:01:25 > 0:01:28- who is going to be moving out on Wednesday of this week.- Yes.
0:01:28 > 0:01:30We haven't made any of the arrangements yet.
0:01:30 > 0:01:32You're going to be doing that.
0:01:32 > 0:01:35And we do absolutely everything for them.
0:01:35 > 0:01:41Each tenanted home is receiving a makeover worth around £40,000.
0:01:41 > 0:01:45The money comes from the government-funded Housing Action Trust.
0:01:45 > 0:01:50Much of the cash is being spent on internal home improvements.
0:01:50 > 0:01:54So it's vital to get all the little details right before work starts.
0:01:54 > 0:01:57- This is Neville. This is Mrs Cook. - Hello, Mrs Cook.
0:01:57 > 0:02:00None of the tenants know who Sir Neville really is.
0:02:00 > 0:02:03How long are you going to be out of your house for?
0:02:03 > 0:02:10- It's roughly about 12 weeks. - And what are they going to do? - Patio doors there.- Yes.
0:02:10 > 0:02:12They're going to tidy all my walls.
0:02:12 > 0:02:16New kitchen units and I'll have kitchen units on that side as well.
0:02:16 > 0:02:23Part of the tenant liaison officer's job is to check on homes after they've been refurbished.
0:02:23 > 0:02:26The paper. Instead of when you're coming along
0:02:26 > 0:02:30with a strip of paper and you've got about an inch and a half left,
0:02:30 > 0:02:36instead of coming round and matching up, they're just going into the corner and overlapping.
0:02:36 > 0:02:41- Every corner's the same.- Mmm. - The work is atrocious, mate. I think so.
0:02:41 > 0:02:43The work is so sub-standard.
0:02:43 > 0:02:47None of it's joined. It doesn't even match if you look at it.
0:02:47 > 0:02:49The wallpaper.
0:02:49 > 0:02:53There are supposed to be two roses there. One and a bit.
0:02:53 > 0:02:57Also, we're getting the dust, like I say. Sometimes it's on paper.
0:02:57 > 0:03:00- Where's the dust coming from? - This is what I don't know.
0:03:00 > 0:03:05They're trying to tell me, the know-alls at the Housing Action Trust, once your carpets are down,
0:03:05 > 0:03:07the dust will stop. Well, this is not happening.
0:03:07 > 0:03:14If you were sitting there one night with the fire off and a window open, you can actually smell it.
0:03:14 > 0:03:18However many times you clean it, that's what you get every time.
0:03:18 > 0:03:20Yeah, it's most peculiar.
0:03:20 > 0:03:24There's a draught coming through the bottom of that.
0:03:24 > 0:03:27It was coming round all over it
0:03:27 > 0:03:30and he put some sealant round it the other day.
0:03:30 > 0:03:34But he still hasn't done it. We're made to feel the guilty party and I don't think it's fair.
0:03:34 > 0:03:37Whoever put these in must have been either drunk
0:03:37 > 0:03:40or something, but I don't know what was the matter wi' him.
0:03:40 > 0:03:44There's no way in hell they've spent £35,000 here.
0:03:44 > 0:03:48And if there is, I'd like to see a breakdown of everything they've put in this house.
0:03:48 > 0:03:49Maggie.
0:03:49 > 0:03:55- Hello, Neville. - Oh dear. Don't be sad about it. I'd like to talk about Buchanan.
0:03:57 > 0:04:01Oh, look, it's thicker than everybody else's.
0:04:01 > 0:04:03Let me ask you the 64,000 dollar question.
0:04:03 > 0:04:07Does Mr Buchanan really have any complaints, in your mind?
0:04:07 > 0:04:09Is there anything of substance here?
0:04:09 > 0:04:12No. I say to everybody, when you move back in your home,
0:04:12 > 0:04:16you are bound to find something that you are not happy with.
0:04:16 > 0:04:20And I just say to them, bring a little list in, which they do.
0:04:20 > 0:04:22And I always say a "little list"
0:04:22 > 0:04:27to them. We've had lots and lots of lists off Mr Buchanan.
0:04:27 > 0:04:32Do you think we even go into loss on people like that?
0:04:32 > 0:04:37Well, I suppose with the amount of time that trades have to go back there, I mean,
0:04:37 > 0:04:42I'm not into the money side of it, but each time somebody has to go back
0:04:42 > 0:04:48and they're not doing something somewhere else, I should imagine yes, it does cost the company money.
0:04:53 > 0:04:58One of the most interesting things for me is what we do for the residents.
0:04:58 > 0:05:04You help people to choose the wallpaper, you sit with people in the most amazing surroundings,
0:05:04 > 0:05:09not very nice surroundings on occasions, to talk to them about moving their furniture out.
0:05:09 > 0:05:13But one of the points I'm going to put on the table is, do we do too much?
0:05:13 > 0:05:21Do we get the balance between operational activities and liaison activities right?
0:05:21 > 0:05:23A Scots gentleman,
0:05:23 > 0:05:28who amazingly, you are not going to believe this, we have featured in our magazine.
0:05:28 > 0:05:30Ron, chuck me down the magazine, please.
0:05:30 > 0:05:35I'll just show you what I found when I came back in here. I didn't know this until I opened this up.
0:05:35 > 0:05:38"We understand you".
0:05:38 > 0:05:46And I can assure you that if anybody understands Mr Buchanan, it's not us on the site there, because we don't.
0:05:46 > 0:05:50At the end of the day, the brochure is full of people because our business is about people
0:05:50 > 0:05:54and we're going to find that there's good and bad
0:05:54 > 0:05:59- and we need to manage those as well. - Take my word for it, I had my ear bent something rotten.
0:05:59 > 0:06:05He has more complaints about more things than one could possibly imagine.
0:06:05 > 0:06:12The difficulty is, how to take the few complaints that are genuine, seriously.
0:06:12 > 0:06:16When 100 of them are totally spurious.
0:06:16 > 0:06:21And that's where, you know, our resident liaison officer, our Maggies of this world,
0:06:21 > 0:06:26have to show considerable patience because it's not an easy task.
0:06:39 > 0:06:44It's been called Britain's single greatest contribution to urban design.
0:06:44 > 0:06:46It's this country's most common form of housing.
0:06:46 > 0:06:51It's the humble, and not always so humble, British terraced house.
0:06:51 > 0:06:57It's built into our cultural imagination as a double-edged symbol of both community and poverty.
0:07:00 > 0:07:04Plenty of people who were brought up in back-to-backs like these couldn't get out of them fast enough,
0:07:04 > 0:07:08so why do conservationists want to preserve
0:07:08 > 0:07:11what many would see as a basically obsolete form of housing?
0:07:12 > 0:07:17The heritage group SAVE is best known for rescuing great houses and churches.
0:07:17 > 0:07:23Now, with hundreds of streets lying empty, they say we must save the northern terrace from destruction.
0:07:23 > 0:07:25The terrace house is a great British invention.
0:07:25 > 0:07:29Other nations live in great apartment blocks, but in
0:07:29 > 0:07:32Britain we all have a front door. And that actually means something.
0:07:37 > 0:07:41The terraced house began as an aristocratic idea.
0:07:41 > 0:07:43It began in the squares in London,
0:07:43 > 0:07:49the Georgian squares, and gradually the idea trickled downward because,
0:07:49 > 0:07:54with the Industrial Revolution, you needed to house a lot of people
0:07:54 > 0:07:59in quite a small amount of space, quite close to the factories.
0:07:59 > 0:08:02Because people walked to work.
0:08:02 > 0:08:05But now suburbanisation, the car and a surplus of
0:08:05 > 0:08:09new housing in the North have all emptied the inner cities.
0:08:09 > 0:08:16While the terrace is truly routed in our industrial past, the present day sees thousands, tens of thousands,
0:08:16 > 0:08:19of these houses, abandoned from Liverpool to Newcastle.
0:08:21 > 0:08:26So, what's it been like living on a real live Coronation Street here in Salford?
0:08:28 > 0:08:31Well, I've lived here 41 years.
0:08:31 > 0:08:33And there's been a big change in the area.
0:08:33 > 0:08:37When I first moved here, it was a lovely area.
0:08:37 > 0:08:43Cobbled streets, children playing in it, doors open, very good neighbours.
0:08:43 > 0:08:49Then, it just all changed. People moved out, bad people moved in.
0:08:49 > 0:08:52The area went down. It was a ghetto.
0:08:52 > 0:08:57While most of the country obsesses about house prices,
0:08:57 > 0:09:03terraces like these in Salford have become worthless. Literally, worth nothing.
0:09:03 > 0:09:06The Government decided to regenerate this housing market.
0:09:06 > 0:09:11Their advisers suggested demolishing between 150,000 and 400,000 terraced houses.
0:09:11 > 0:09:16Figures initially endorsed by the Government, while horrifying conservationists.
0:09:16 > 0:09:18We think that this demolition
0:09:18 > 0:09:22on an enormous scale is completely unnecessary.
0:09:22 > 0:09:26These houses can be quite simply and inexpensively improved
0:09:26 > 0:09:30and made into nice places to live, with heating, insulation, warmth.
0:09:30 > 0:09:33The numbers in the SAVE report are just complete nonsense.
0:09:33 > 0:09:38I know there's been a lot of exaggeration in this area.
0:09:38 > 0:09:41We should just look very practically at what's happening at the moment
0:09:41 > 0:09:44in the current phase of the Pathfinder programmes.
0:09:44 > 0:09:49They're proposing 20,000 refurbishments and 10,000 demolitions.
0:09:49 > 0:09:53That's twice as much refurbishment as demolition. But they're also proposing new-build as well.
0:09:53 > 0:09:57Back in Salford, just crossing the street can take you
0:09:57 > 0:10:01from a thriving terraced community to an area of complete dereliction.
0:10:01 > 0:10:04But behind the barbed wire and tinned up houses,
0:10:04 > 0:10:06there's an idea for the future of the terraced house.
0:10:06 > 0:10:10Because knocking down to rebuild is many times more expensive than just
0:10:10 > 0:10:16refurbishing, a commercial developer is adapting these empty terraces into modern homes.
0:10:16 > 0:10:19Keeping the Victorian facade and rebuilding the interior,
0:10:19 > 0:10:21Urban Splash are turning the terrace upside down.
0:10:21 > 0:10:25Beds on the ground floor, living space up to the ceiling.
0:10:25 > 0:10:27Coronation Street crossed with Sex And The City, all to draw
0:10:27 > 0:10:31a wealthier population into the skin of a dying inner city street.
0:10:31 > 0:10:34You can see from here, it's quite a complicated process
0:10:34 > 0:10:39keeping the facade. But I believe they're well-designed streets.
0:10:39 > 0:10:42They're right in scale, right in stature.
0:10:42 > 0:10:46They look attractive, the detailing is slightly different on every street.
0:10:46 > 0:10:49There's a certain warmth about the architecture and the facade.
0:10:51 > 0:10:54It's a housing form with at least two very loyal fans.
0:10:54 > 0:10:56Is there a limit to what you can do with your terrace?
0:10:56 > 0:11:02There's plenty you can do with it, if you've got a good husband like mine.
0:11:02 > 0:11:03Thank you.
0:11:03 > 0:11:05I might get a drink tonight.
0:11:15 > 0:11:20The root of all evil in buildings is water.
0:11:20 > 0:11:22It dissolves buildings.
0:11:22 > 0:11:24It consumes wood, erodes masonry,
0:11:24 > 0:11:27corrodes metal and peels paint.
0:11:29 > 0:11:33It permeates everywhere when it evaporates and expands destructively when it freezes.
0:11:33 > 0:11:40It warps, swells, discolours, rusts, loosens, mildews and stinks.
0:11:41 > 0:11:44Water is the elixir of life to rot and insects.
0:11:44 > 0:11:49All this damage has been caused by a tiny frost split in an attic pipe.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52Water is one of the biggest problems
0:11:52 > 0:11:57with buildings because it comes from so many sources.
0:11:57 > 0:11:59It can be mixed with sewage,
0:11:59 > 0:12:03it can be rainwater, it can be water from washing machines.
0:12:03 > 0:12:10It can get into the fabric of the building and once it does, it takes a long time to disappear.
0:12:10 > 0:12:15It stays there. With warmth and cold, the problem is magnified.
0:12:35 > 0:12:37Maintenance is a never-ending cycle.
0:12:37 > 0:12:42No-one knows this better than a south London Council's emergency response team.
0:12:42 > 0:12:45Much of their work comes down to fighting the effects of water.
0:12:47 > 0:12:50Maintenance is low priority.
0:12:50 > 0:12:53When it competes with more pressing needs, it always loses.
0:12:53 > 0:12:59It's a slow-moving problem in a fast-moving world, so we let it go, until it reaches a crisis.
0:12:59 > 0:13:04Mick Morley and Albert Mills belong to a small unit of workers
0:13:04 > 0:13:07providing round-the-clock emergency service for Lambeth Council.
0:13:07 > 0:13:10They're on call to deal with anything that goes wrong
0:13:10 > 0:13:13in the borough's 47,000 housing units.
0:13:13 > 0:13:17On a busy night, they handle as many as 100 calls.
0:13:17 > 0:13:24..I'll get them to send a contractor back out to do the job properly.
0:13:24 > 0:13:27We'll do what we can with it, but it needs to be done.
0:13:27 > 0:13:29Someone has to come here tonight.
0:13:29 > 0:13:33We've been here the whole weekend and can't use the toilet.
0:13:33 > 0:13:39I'll see if I can get a plumber out tonight. Hello, 799, receiving?
0:13:42 > 0:13:43Hello, Sam.
0:13:43 > 0:13:50What we've got is a brand new job, a toilet has been refitted but by Donald Duck, I'm afraid.
0:13:50 > 0:13:56We need a plumber out here to rectify it because the toilet is totally unusable.
0:13:56 > 0:14:00The toilet was not put in by the council's employees but by someone else.
0:14:00 > 0:14:02It's a shoddy job, done in a hurry,
0:14:02 > 0:14:06typical of the low priority that maintenance usually gets.
0:14:06 > 0:14:09The building is like a living thing, you know?
0:14:09 > 0:14:15It's bricks, mortar, timber, metal, glass and it needs maintaining.
0:14:15 > 0:14:19If it's done a little bit and often, it'll be great,
0:14:19 > 0:14:24but if it's left for 30 years and then someone panics and thinks,
0:14:24 > 0:14:26it's going to cost them too much.
0:14:26 > 0:14:29It may even be cheaper to knock it down and rebuild it.
0:14:29 > 0:14:34The accumulated effect of rainwater running down the face of this old mill
0:14:34 > 0:14:38in the West Country has nearly split the building in half.
0:14:38 > 0:14:41The mill is virtually beyond repair,
0:14:41 > 0:14:44thanks to £100 that was not spent on a new downpipe.
0:14:46 > 0:14:50An empty building rots fast and attracts trouble.
0:14:50 > 0:14:52Once it's left unheated and unventilated,
0:14:52 > 0:14:56any moisture that gets in immediately begins to cause serious damage
0:14:56 > 0:14:58with no-one around to notice or worry.
0:15:01 > 0:15:05Just one loose roof tile can kill a whole building.
0:15:05 > 0:15:08The wind gets in and starts lifting the other tiles.
0:15:08 > 0:15:10Once the roof is open, water pours in,
0:15:10 > 0:15:15causing the walls to bow out and the house begins to collapse.
0:15:15 > 0:15:19People can be as destructive as weather to empty buildings.
0:15:19 > 0:15:25Squatters know better than most about the netherworld of semi-abandoned housing.
0:15:27 > 0:15:32People actually go around in vans and break-in to old properties,
0:15:32 > 0:15:34if they're boarded up, or look empty,
0:15:34 > 0:15:39take out the fireplaces, take out skirting boards,
0:15:39 > 0:15:41light switches, floorboards,
0:15:41 > 0:15:45joists even, they'll even take out the joists, you know.
0:15:45 > 0:15:48That's how they make their living, basically,
0:15:48 > 0:15:50by gutting the inside of houses.
0:15:50 > 0:15:55I have actually woken up and found people knocking down walls
0:15:55 > 0:15:58in the property that I've been staying in.
0:15:58 > 0:16:01I was up on the top floor,
0:16:01 > 0:16:07I heard loads of banging, come down and there was this guy taking out a bay window.
0:16:07 > 0:16:12I was like, "What the hell are you up to, man? There's people living in his property."
0:16:20 > 0:16:22SIRENS
0:16:23 > 0:16:27Just like a jail, that was my first impression. It looked shocking.
0:16:32 > 0:16:38995 flats, three persons in a flat, that's nearly 3,000 people on here.
0:16:42 > 0:16:46- WOMAN:- I'm terribly lonely. I feel as though I'm shut away from the world.
0:16:49 > 0:16:52It's fantastic. It's like a piece of sculpture.
0:16:57 > 0:17:02It's about reinventing something that was of huge significance at the time
0:17:02 > 0:17:04and didn't really quite work for a whole series of reasons.
0:17:04 > 0:17:10Getting to the roots of why it didn't work and what you've got to make it work for the future.
0:17:14 > 0:17:18An amazing building, incredibly intricate
0:17:18 > 0:17:20and finely formed and thought out.
0:17:20 > 0:17:23While it's not perfect, there's so much about it that's good.
0:17:23 > 0:17:26We want to kind of bring back the love, basically.
0:17:29 > 0:17:31There was a dream, 40 or 50 years ago,
0:17:31 > 0:17:33and it wasn't just quite right
0:17:33 > 0:17:36and we have a second chance of getting it right.
0:17:38 > 0:17:41Come on, listing '60s buildings isn't an exact science.
0:17:41 > 0:17:44That's where you're wrong. Listing buildings
0:17:44 > 0:17:46is an exact science, that's what it's about.
0:17:46 > 0:17:48We try and make it a science, not an art.
0:17:48 > 0:17:51It may have caused eyebrows to be raised, listing this building,
0:17:51 > 0:17:54but as far as historians are concerned,
0:17:54 > 0:17:58as far as English Heritage was concerned, this place made the grade.
0:18:02 > 0:18:07It's a building that inspires strong emotions, either of hatred or love,
0:18:07 > 0:18:10and that's more than a lot of new buildings today.
0:18:10 > 0:18:12That's not good enough.
0:18:12 > 0:18:15We need to make sure that it can have a viable future.
0:18:15 > 0:18:19It can't just stay in a way that doesn't work.
0:18:19 > 0:18:24A quick makeover for Park Hill was never going to work,
0:18:24 > 0:18:27preserving the history in aspic wasn't ever going to work.
0:18:27 > 0:18:31You have to have a plan that fits in with the city's regeneration plans.
0:18:31 > 0:18:35It's about making it a neighbourhood that people choose to live in.
0:18:38 > 0:18:43The thing that many people misunderstand when you're thinking about listing a building is that
0:18:43 > 0:18:46the listing somehow means you can't touch it.
0:18:46 > 0:18:48People say, "Oh, well, you're preserving this in aspic".
0:18:48 > 0:18:51I don't know why everyone talks about aspic because no-one eats aspic any more.
0:18:51 > 0:18:54That's what people say.
0:18:54 > 0:18:56That simply isn't the case.
0:18:59 > 0:19:01The solution, call in the developers,
0:19:01 > 0:19:06in the hope they can sprinkle fairy dust on Park Hill's brutal facade,
0:19:06 > 0:19:09keep EH happy, and perhaps make some money.
0:19:10 > 0:19:13I'll knock down any building in the world
0:19:13 > 0:19:16providing you're going to build a better building in its place.
0:19:19 > 0:19:22In Park Hill, the basic structure is fantastic, the basic design is amazing.
0:19:22 > 0:19:25What doesn't work is the way the elevation has gone.
0:19:25 > 0:19:29We need a new elevation. We need to bring it up to the 21st century.
0:19:29 > 0:19:32But the way you read the building as a single entity
0:19:32 > 0:19:38is very important and the way the building is a big, abstract canvas is also very, very important.
0:19:38 > 0:19:41Those I think are worth keeping.
0:19:41 > 0:19:46What we all want to do is preserve it as a piece of great modernist architecture,
0:19:46 > 0:19:50a bit of Corbusier's influence left in England.
0:20:04 > 0:20:06Last century, London's electricity
0:20:06 > 0:20:11was supplied by 28 power stations stretching the length of the Thames.
0:20:12 > 0:20:16By 1982, only Greenwich and Lotts Road were still in action.
0:20:16 > 0:20:19The rest were either demolished or left to decay.
0:20:23 > 0:20:26Bankside was the first to be redeveloped.
0:20:33 > 0:20:36It lay empty until 1994 when it was acquired by the Tate Gallery
0:20:36 > 0:20:39who commissioned the Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron
0:20:39 > 0:20:42to transform it into the hugely successful Tate Modern.
0:20:46 > 0:20:52But there are still two more left for redevelopment, Battersea and Lotts Road.
0:20:54 > 0:21:00Until it closed last October, Lotts Road powered most of the London Underground.
0:21:03 > 0:21:07The site is now part of a half a billion pound developer-led scheme
0:21:07 > 0:21:10which aims to create a new urban quarter.
0:21:11 > 0:21:15The plan is to build two residential 30-storey towers on the river front
0:21:15 > 0:21:18with the power station made into luxury living units.
0:21:24 > 0:21:28Battersea Power Station used to be known as the temple of power,
0:21:28 > 0:21:30but since its closure in 1975,
0:21:30 > 0:21:33it has been the subject of highly-charged controversy.
0:21:33 > 0:21:36Previous bids to redevelop it have failed.
0:21:40 > 0:21:44No major work has been done to this building since 1989 when the roof was taken off.
0:21:48 > 0:21:52When Jules Wright bought this derelict power station for £4 million,
0:21:52 > 0:21:56she wanted to retain as much of the original interior as possible.
0:21:56 > 0:22:02The result is an imaginative restaurant and exhibition space called the Wapping Project.
0:22:02 > 0:22:05Why did you decide to leave the building
0:22:05 > 0:22:08more or less in the state that it was?
0:22:08 > 0:22:11I spent £4 million on it, so I can assure you it's
0:22:11 > 0:22:14- not in the state that it was!- OK!
0:22:14 > 0:22:17However, having taken that insult...
0:22:17 > 0:22:21However I would have liked to have done absolutely nothing to it.
0:22:23 > 0:22:26The restaurant is a plugged-in fusion of past and present.
0:22:26 > 0:22:31The food is modern, the furniture contemporary, and there's only Australian wine on the menu.
0:22:31 > 0:22:34It's all a big contrast to the old engines and pipes.
0:22:34 > 0:22:39It doesn't fight the power, it feels it.
0:22:39 > 0:22:43This is the boiler house and you can still smell the coal in here.
0:22:43 > 0:22:48This place feels really contemporary, theatrical and old at the same time.
0:22:51 > 0:22:53The details are really sensitively done.
0:22:53 > 0:22:57It's really raw and I love it.
0:22:59 > 0:23:02I fell in love with it the moment I walked through the front door.
0:23:02 > 0:23:05It was like walking into a film set.
0:23:05 > 0:23:07When I walked into this building,
0:23:07 > 0:23:10there was a sense of people being here and I think
0:23:10 > 0:23:13the proportions and the shape and the feel of these buildings
0:23:13 > 0:23:19is rather like industrial churches. At some level, people of all kinds,
0:23:19 > 0:23:24all backgrounds, all classes experience that sensibility.
0:23:28 > 0:23:33The sheer size and scale of these power stations make them unique sights.
0:23:33 > 0:23:39Tate Modern and the Wapping Project have proved they can become cool, creative spaces.
0:23:39 > 0:23:42As an architect, I hope Battersea and Lotts Road
0:23:42 > 0:23:45can build on that success and show as much imagination.
0:23:57 > 0:24:04Since the 1970s and 1980s, motorway junctions have been colonised by business parks.
0:24:04 > 0:24:08The post-war search for the perfect living environment
0:24:08 > 0:24:11has now become a search for the ideal work environment.
0:24:13 > 0:24:16It's 180 acres of supreme opportunity.
0:24:16 > 0:24:20It's highly accessible by the motorway network, so please come to Green Park.
0:24:22 > 0:24:26The vision is simply to give people a stunning place to work,
0:24:26 > 0:24:28where people will be inspired
0:24:28 > 0:24:30by the architecture around them
0:24:30 > 0:24:33and the environment outside the buildings as well as inside.
0:24:33 > 0:24:37The bottom line is about maximising productivity, but there's an awful
0:24:37 > 0:24:43lot of research that shows that productivity is maximised through people being happy where they work
0:24:43 > 0:24:47and we're trying to play our part in delivering that kind of development.
0:24:48 > 0:24:55Just metres from the M4, Green Park is set to provide a working environment for 10,000 people.
0:24:55 > 0:24:58As was once the vision for the new towns,
0:24:58 > 0:25:02the dream is for this to be a place you never have to leave.
0:25:03 > 0:25:05It is ultimately our aim
0:25:05 > 0:25:08to absolutely deliver a state-of-the-art, sustainable community here.
0:25:08 > 0:25:14We're currently just about to submit plans for a community of just over 700 homes.
0:25:14 > 0:25:16What we've tried to do is bring on board
0:25:16 > 0:25:20all the other facilities that we would normally find in a town centre.
0:25:20 > 0:25:23It's about creating choices, but it's always a challenge
0:25:23 > 0:25:26to influence people's behaviour through planning.
0:25:28 > 0:25:32These fantasies of futuristic motorway communities
0:25:32 > 0:25:36are the product of business rather than state planning.
0:25:44 > 0:25:46Bluewater is now the biggest shopping mall in Britain.
0:25:46 > 0:25:49In a few years it'll probably be one of the smallest.
0:25:49 > 0:25:52Britain is a nation not of shopkeepers, but of shoppers.
0:25:52 > 0:25:57It's become a national disease, and I'm sure that many people in Britain
0:25:57 > 0:26:00love shopping and they live to shop,
0:26:00 > 0:26:02but what has it done to the country?
0:26:02 > 0:26:06Physically, certainly in terms of its architecture and its planning,
0:26:06 > 0:26:11it's littered the landscape with these enormous, great, gas-guzzling, air-conditioned stores,
0:26:11 > 0:26:14American-style and Chinese-style warehouses
0:26:14 > 0:26:18which just suck up masses of energy, they blast out lots of heat.
0:26:18 > 0:26:22They're destroying the planet as much as the cars that use them.
0:26:25 > 0:26:29Bluewater has 27 million visitors a year.
0:26:32 > 0:26:36The product of a survey of over 20,000 people's shopping fantasies,
0:26:36 > 0:26:39it's designed to exacting consumer requirements
0:26:39 > 0:26:42and it aims to fulfil all of them.
0:26:48 > 0:26:52'I come to Bluewater at least twice a week, probably three times,
0:26:52 > 0:26:55'but at least twice, and if I'm here on my own
0:26:55 > 0:26:59'I'm here for shopping, generally speaking, or for a beauty treatment.
0:26:59 > 0:27:01'I come with my other half at least once a week
0:27:01 > 0:27:03'and generally we come here to eat.
0:27:03 > 0:27:07'We've also been learning Spanish here at the Learning Centre.
0:27:07 > 0:27:11'Then I would be here for the cinema, I would come with a friend
0:27:11 > 0:27:13'or for lunch or to meet someone for coffee.
0:27:13 > 0:27:16'It's a relaxing place and enjoyable place to be.
0:27:16 > 0:27:19'I wouldn't come here as often without motorways
0:27:19 > 0:27:23'because the local roads are very narrow and very twisty
0:27:23 > 0:27:25'and if the volume of people that use Bluewater
0:27:25 > 0:27:28'were having to use the local roads, it would be impossible.'
0:27:32 > 0:27:36Bluewater is straddled by two main motorways, the M20 and the M25,
0:27:36 > 0:27:40so for Bluewater's success they are absolutely critical.
0:27:40 > 0:27:44If they do stop running, we notice a downturn in feet.
0:27:46 > 0:27:51We have people who will do a two-hour drive to get here who then may stay for 12 hours.
0:27:51 > 0:27:53They will maybe have a massage in the spa,
0:27:53 > 0:27:54they will have an evening meal
0:27:54 > 0:27:57and they might take in a film at the cinema.
0:27:57 > 0:27:59The motorways are critical for us.
0:27:59 > 0:28:02The catchment site is currently about 10.5 million people.
0:28:02 > 0:28:06Bluewater is also part of the national curriculum for geography,
0:28:06 > 0:28:09so you regularly see big groups of school children being
0:28:09 > 0:28:13taken around the centre and looking at everything, from the architecture
0:28:13 > 0:28:15through to the individual stores.
0:28:15 > 0:28:19I think the out-of-town shopping malls are a logical conclusion
0:28:19 > 0:28:23to the way that the motorway system has developed here.
0:28:24 > 0:28:29The aspirational quality of the British motorways was built
0:28:29 > 0:28:34on a consumer vision of a future that was powered by consumption.
0:28:34 > 0:28:42The out-of-town shopping malls have arisen to gratify that as an outgrowth of the roadway.
0:28:42 > 0:28:45In all conscience, that is where we should go.
0:28:52 > 0:28:59It is a symptom of our age that we are very worried about what we might build.
0:28:59 > 0:29:04"Not in my backyard", or people who want to conserve the countryside,
0:29:04 > 0:29:08or people involved in restoration or conservation.
0:29:08 > 0:29:11Everyone is frightened of building.
0:29:11 > 0:29:16Yet in previous ages, the opportunity to build a new city
0:29:16 > 0:29:22would be seen as just that, and a new city would be seen as a terrific achievement.
0:29:23 > 0:29:31But today we're worried that we're going to despoil the countryside by building on it.
0:29:31 > 0:29:33What is the alternative?
0:29:33 > 0:29:37This is the site of a proposed new town.
0:29:37 > 0:29:39It's a stretch of land in South Wales.
0:29:39 > 0:29:43But it's formerly the site of the first oil refinery in Britain.
0:29:43 > 0:29:47Now laid to waste, it represents 1,000 acres of brownfield real estate,
0:29:47 > 0:29:50and it's going to be developed by the Welsh Assembly Government
0:29:50 > 0:29:54in partnership with the Prince of Wales and his Foundation.
0:29:54 > 0:30:01The town will be called Coed Darcy, and I met with the project director Hank Dittmar.
0:30:02 > 0:30:06- This is a real brownfield site because it was an oil refinery. - That's right.
0:30:06 > 0:30:10That is traditionally very unattractive to developers, isn't it?
0:30:10 > 0:30:13It is going to be so expensive to turn it back into...
0:30:13 > 0:30:19- a place.- It is, but Government policy says the first priority
0:30:19 > 0:30:24is for building on brownfield sites so as not to disturb natural areas.
0:30:24 > 0:30:30It is also hard to find 1,000 acres of contiguous land, and that's on our side.
0:30:30 > 0:30:34The Prince is building something here which in a way reminds me
0:30:34 > 0:30:39of the way that a lot of Cardiff was built originally, by...
0:30:39 > 0:30:45a sort of... the ownership of a large estate, then putting
0:30:45 > 0:30:48the money in and laying down the rules about how it should be built.
0:30:48 > 0:30:54Well, that's right. It is the model for most of the great British cities,
0:30:54 > 0:30:59really, were built by landowners setting out a simple design code.
0:30:59 > 0:31:05- So, Bath, much of Cardiff most of London...- Edinburgh New Town. - Edinburgh New Town...
0:31:05 > 0:31:09They are places that that remain the most valuable places,
0:31:09 > 0:31:12and people's favourite places hundreds of years later.
0:31:12 > 0:31:16Basically, the aristocrat wanted it sort of under his control.
0:31:16 > 0:31:20It happened to be the aristocrat, in that case it could be the landowner.
0:31:20 > 0:31:27You are sort of, reintroducing the autocrat into the process of rebuilding Wales.
0:31:27 > 0:31:30- We are introducing quality into rebuilding in Wales.- Of course.
0:31:32 > 0:31:37Coed Darcy is similar to the other Prince Charles initiative of Poundbury Village in Dorset.
0:31:37 > 0:31:43The idea is that the place will be built with a lot of houses close together.
0:31:43 > 0:31:47With no cul-de-sacs or roads that lead somewhere.
0:31:47 > 0:31:51And there are facilities to help people to actually work in the town.
0:31:51 > 0:31:55Shops will be within five minutes' walk.
0:31:55 > 0:31:584,000 homes will house 12,000 people
0:31:58 > 0:32:06with a mix of private and social housing all laid out in modern terraces along classical lines.
0:32:06 > 0:32:08There has been quite a large number of a sort of,
0:32:08 > 0:32:12a certain type of architect who looks at something like Poundbury,
0:32:12 > 0:32:14which is also a Foundation development and says,
0:32:14 > 0:32:17"Oh, it's just pastiche, you're building a Disneyland,
0:32:17 > 0:32:20"a fake world, a world which pretends to be something it's not."
0:32:20 > 0:32:23I wonder if they said that about Christopher Wren
0:32:23 > 0:32:26when he brought Palladio's designs into England.
0:32:26 > 0:32:30- You don't mean to say you are taking the safe option at the moment? - Not at all.
0:32:30 > 0:32:36We have had 50 years of zoning communities, for separating,
0:32:36 > 0:32:39you know, sleeping from working,
0:32:39 > 0:32:42from shopping and we're trying to change that practice.
0:32:42 > 0:32:45That is a big challenge. It is hard work.
0:32:52 > 0:32:56It is amazing what people get up to in parks these days.
0:32:58 > 0:33:00But your local park was probably designed years ago
0:33:00 > 0:33:05when most people's idea of fun was a brisk constitutional.
0:33:05 > 0:33:09Many parks are now out of step with 21st-century living,
0:33:09 > 0:33:15having been created in the 1800s as an escape from the big city.
0:33:15 > 0:33:18The Victorian ideal was very prescriptive.
0:33:18 > 0:33:22You could relax but in certain areas and in certain ways.
0:33:24 > 0:33:30As cities got taller and noisier, it got harder to keep them out.
0:33:30 > 0:33:34Decades of underfunding meant that, by the '80s, "going down the rec"
0:33:34 > 0:33:36took on a whole new meaning.
0:33:36 > 0:33:39We needed an update for the old style park.
0:33:39 > 0:33:42Michael Heseltine came up with a very '80s answer.
0:33:42 > 0:33:45Garden festivals are a sort of designer park.
0:33:45 > 0:33:50They gave derelict areas a glossy makeover, but within a few years, they were a mess again.
0:33:53 > 0:33:55In the mid-'80s, France led the way
0:33:55 > 0:33:58with Bernard Tschumi's massive Parc de la Villette in Paris.
0:34:00 > 0:34:03Tschumi turned the traditional park on its head.
0:34:03 > 0:34:07The metal structures make it feel half urban, half rural.
0:34:12 > 0:34:14He wanted the park to be a built one.
0:34:14 > 0:34:17I mean with buildings inside, and activities, OK?
0:34:17 > 0:34:18He did not want the park to be
0:34:18 > 0:34:23a place where the city was supposed not existing, OK?
0:34:23 > 0:34:25He wanted you to...
0:34:25 > 0:34:29be able to walk in the park and leave the park
0:34:29 > 0:34:33and go in the city without feeling differences between the places.
0:34:34 > 0:34:40Tschumi scrapped swings and roundabouts in favour of interactive themed gardens.
0:34:43 > 0:34:46There are no "keep off the grass" signs.
0:34:46 > 0:34:50You are encouraged to touch, walk on and play with the park.
0:34:55 > 0:34:58And messing about makes you see yourself afresh.
0:35:11 > 0:35:16These spaces are designed just as much for adults as they are for kids.
0:35:21 > 0:35:23Mile End Park in the East End of London
0:35:23 > 0:35:29was an under-used mess, cut in half by five lanes of traffic.
0:35:29 > 0:35:30But not any more.
0:35:34 > 0:35:41Like Parc de la Villette, it is broken into a number of smaller themed spaces like this ecology area.
0:35:41 > 0:35:46Despite its size, this is very much a local park for local people.
0:35:50 > 0:35:56In the arts area, an earth-covered pavilion provides a meeting space for the community.
0:35:58 > 0:36:04This area of the park was designed after consultation with local elderly and disabled residents.
0:36:04 > 0:36:09When asked, it turned out they did not want another bandstand and bowling green, they wanted this.
0:36:10 > 0:36:17Partly hidden from the road, it is easy to access, laid-back and peaceful.
0:36:19 > 0:36:20CAR HOOTS
0:36:20 > 0:36:23But there was still one big problem.
0:36:23 > 0:36:25The road.
0:36:25 > 0:36:28This is Mile End Park's most celebrated feature.
0:36:28 > 0:36:36It's a Piers Gough designed living bridge and like all great design, its genius lies in its simplicity.
0:36:38 > 0:36:41Covered by tons of soil, shrubs and trees,
0:36:41 > 0:36:44it carries the park across the road.
0:36:44 > 0:36:48It is hard to tell where the park stops and the bridge begins.
0:36:49 > 0:36:53The rent from built-in shops cleverly coins in a steady source of cash
0:36:53 > 0:36:55to help maintain the park.
0:37:02 > 0:37:06The designers of this park by the Thames barrier faced a different challenge -
0:37:06 > 0:37:10to transform a toxic dump into a green oasis.
0:37:10 > 0:37:14Once the heart of London's Docklands, the land was so polluted,
0:37:14 > 0:37:18the site had to be covered in concrete before building could start.
0:37:18 > 0:37:24In five years, the land has been transformed into a calm, minimalist park.
0:37:24 > 0:37:29As hoped, it has turned the area into a highly sought-after address.
0:37:38 > 0:37:42The park's industrial past is incorporated into the design.
0:37:42 > 0:37:48A green dock, complete with shrubs pruned to look like waves, pays tribute to the site's former life.
0:37:50 > 0:37:54Even the flats look a bit like ocean liners.
0:37:54 > 0:37:57We have moved on from Victorian times,
0:37:57 > 0:38:01cities are no longer seen as evil places that should be hidden away.
0:38:01 > 0:38:05We are an urban nation and need parks to reflect that.
0:38:05 > 0:38:08Today's parks are very honest.
0:38:08 > 0:38:13We are no longer kidding ourselves about who we are, where we live and what we want to do.
0:38:23 > 0:38:26The spirit of Leicester is unlike any other city.
0:38:28 > 0:38:31It is very diverse and yet very cohesive.
0:38:31 > 0:38:35If you look at the carnival, you experience Diwali here,
0:38:35 > 0:38:38you feel the buzz of the city.
0:38:39 > 0:38:43You know that it is the people that make a city, and all we're doing
0:38:43 > 0:38:47is giving the people of Leicester and Leicestershire what they want.
0:38:47 > 0:38:50This is more important than ever because, by 2010,
0:38:50 > 0:38:53it will be the first city in Great Britain
0:38:53 > 0:38:58where the ethnic minority becomes the majority.
0:38:58 > 0:39:01Are the planners and architects taking that on board or just ignoring it?
0:39:04 > 0:39:08I think the planners in the City haven't taken on board the fact that
0:39:08 > 0:39:10there is a critical mass in the city
0:39:10 > 0:39:13of Asians and African Caribbean people
0:39:13 > 0:39:16and we're going to reach 50% of those communities very soon.
0:39:16 > 0:39:20That critical mass is going to impact on the economic life,
0:39:20 > 0:39:25the social life, the recreational life, the retail, you name it, it is going to have a huge impact.
0:39:25 > 0:39:28That is a very important issue for Leicester,
0:39:28 > 0:39:31it is one of its great strengths, it is that depth of diversity.
0:39:31 > 0:39:33As far as the city centre is concerned,
0:39:33 > 0:39:39our ambition is to grow a wider range of jobs here which will benefit all the communities of Leicester
0:39:39 > 0:39:45because the regeneration of those individual communities depends on a sound economic base for the city.
0:39:45 > 0:39:47I feel that I am very, very visible,
0:39:47 > 0:39:51but absolutely completely invisible in terms of the vision for the city.
0:39:51 > 0:39:54That is my personal view.
0:39:54 > 0:39:56Pawlet runs the Peepul Centre,
0:39:56 > 0:40:01named after a tree revered by Hindus and Buddhists.
0:40:01 > 0:40:08It sits amongst the serried ranks of chimney pots of the old slum quarter of Belgrade like the Taj Mahal.
0:40:08 > 0:40:12It is a tribute to the efforts of five Asian women who decided Leicester had nothing for them.
0:40:12 > 0:40:20Although this city council contributed 260,000 to the £20 million cost,
0:40:20 > 0:40:25the Peepul Centre didn't figure in the regeneration scheme at all.
0:40:25 > 0:40:28Maybe that is because the planners were focusing on a landmark project
0:40:28 > 0:40:33only a mile down the road that would put Leicester in the vanguard of European culture.
0:40:36 > 0:40:41After all, Gateshead has got the same has got the Sage, Manchester has got the Lowry,
0:40:41 > 0:40:43Bill Bowers got the Guggenheim
0:40:43 > 0:40:46and Leicester is pinning its artistic hopes on this,
0:40:46 > 0:40:52the futuristic Performing Arts Centre designed by the New York architect, Rafael Vinoly.
0:40:52 > 0:41:00Containing two theatres, a dance studio, workshops, rehearsal rooms and the mandatory cafe bars.
0:41:00 > 0:41:02It's USP is masses of glass.
0:41:02 > 0:41:09To create the effect of an inside out theatre where the performers are virtually in the street.
0:41:09 > 0:41:11It is just as well it is close to traffic.
0:41:11 > 0:41:14It is very big, how much is it costing?
0:41:14 > 0:41:16It is costing a lot of money. Circa 55, 60 million.
0:41:16 > 0:41:19You can imagine with a project like this, it is ambitious.
0:41:19 > 0:41:23£60 million for an arts centre in Leicester?
0:41:23 > 0:41:25It is about bringing the arts to the region.
0:41:25 > 0:41:28It is not just about Leicester, it is about the entire region,
0:41:28 > 0:41:316 million people in this region and they deserve a facility like this.
0:41:31 > 0:41:35Your community, people from Leicester, are going to fill this place are they?
0:41:35 > 0:41:37Yes, it has 1,200 seats
0:41:37 > 0:41:42and we have a population of just around 300,000 so why not?
0:41:42 > 0:41:45This will be a centre which will have been nationally and internationally renowned.
0:41:45 > 0:41:49There is no other theatre like it in the UK or in Europe.
0:41:49 > 0:41:52How has this been received by the people of Leicester,
0:41:52 > 0:41:56all this money being spent in the city centre on an elitist art centre?
0:41:56 > 0:41:58I wouldn't call it elitist.
0:41:58 > 0:42:02We have to make sure every citizen of Leicester wants to come here.
0:42:02 > 0:42:05I have not seen it yet. I have heard about it.
0:42:05 > 0:42:07Shiny and new with an American architect.
0:42:07 > 0:42:08It could be good.
0:42:08 > 0:42:14Asians and Afro-Caribbeans don't come to formal theatre like this do they?
0:42:14 > 0:42:16They will if the performance and programme is right.
0:42:16 > 0:42:23The PAC is going to find it difficult to attract Asians and African Caribbean people in the city,
0:42:23 > 0:42:27unless they start connecting with the things that are important to those communities.
0:42:27 > 0:42:31For example this year sees 60 years of independence for India and Pakistan.
0:42:31 > 0:42:35There have been celebrations in our communities. Will they be doing it?
0:42:35 > 0:42:3750 years since the independence of Ghana.
0:42:37 > 0:42:39Will they be celebrating that?
0:42:39 > 0:42:42Martin Luther King's birthday, will they be celebrating that?
0:42:42 > 0:42:48All sorts of events which are very important to us need to be reflected in their calendars.
0:42:56 > 0:42:59What is the biggest contributor to climate change?
0:42:59 > 0:43:01Is it Ryanair? No.
0:43:01 > 0:43:03General Motors? No.
0:43:03 > 0:43:06Is it Jeremy Clarkson? Wrong again.
0:43:06 > 0:43:09If you said architecture, well done you have won a coconut.
0:43:10 > 0:43:15Amazingly architecture is responsible for a whopping 50% of our energy consumption,
0:43:15 > 0:43:17our greenhouse gas emissions.
0:43:17 > 0:43:22Our buildings are like gas guzzling SUV's with a leaking petrol tank.
0:43:22 > 0:43:26Architects have paid lip-service to the environment for a few years.
0:43:26 > 0:43:32A turf roof here, a solar panel here, all good PR but we need to do more than tinker around the edges.
0:43:32 > 0:43:36We need planet saving and architecture right here, right now.
0:43:36 > 0:43:38What is planet saving architecture?
0:43:38 > 0:43:43What does it look like and would any of us like to live and work there?
0:43:43 > 0:43:47The answer to some of these questions stands at the edge of Essex at Rainham Marshes.
0:43:47 > 0:43:50It is the latest visitor centre for the RSPB.
0:43:50 > 0:43:53Does the future of Eco architecture look like this?
0:43:53 > 0:43:58A rough tough castle raised high off the marsh lands waiting for the sea levels to rise.
0:43:58 > 0:44:01The burly concrete superstructure is designed to keep it warm in winter
0:44:01 > 0:44:06and cool in summer and to ward off the local vandals.
0:44:06 > 0:44:10RSPB centres are usually in remote areas but this one is an hour from London.
0:44:10 > 0:44:13This is an attention grabbing building for the urban bird watcher.
0:44:13 > 0:44:19The visitors who come here get a clear view of their wildlife right across the marshes.
0:44:19 > 0:44:25You might think the RSPB centre is glowingly green, but it is not green enough for some eco-warriors.
0:44:26 > 0:44:30All that concrete and metal gobbles up energy and a car park? Tut, tut.
0:44:30 > 0:44:34If you really want to save the planet, maybe we need to go even deeper green.
0:44:36 > 0:44:44Jubilee Wharf in Penryn, Cornwall is another zero energy development from pioneering architect, Bill Dunster.
0:44:44 > 0:44:48The aim of these buildings is the planet-saving Holy Grail - zero carbon emissions.
0:44:48 > 0:44:53Andrew Marston commissioned this development and liked it so much, he moved in.
0:44:55 > 0:44:58By moving to this building I have halved my family's energy consumption
0:44:58 > 0:45:02and we have a quarter of the carbon footprint we had before.
0:45:02 > 0:45:05In the past the public reaction to developments like this are a bit ugly.
0:45:05 > 0:45:12Characteristic turbines and cowls come in for critical flak.
0:45:12 > 0:45:15It is different and a lot of the differences come from its function.
0:45:15 > 0:45:19Once they understand that function, for instance the wind cowls,
0:45:19 > 0:45:23you might, if you didn't know what they were, you might find them peculiar.
0:45:23 > 0:45:26Once I have explained them to people
0:45:26 > 0:45:29how they it obviate the need for a ventilation stack,
0:45:29 > 0:45:34and that they have a heat exchange on them and that they naturally ventilate the building,
0:45:34 > 0:45:37people develop a love for them once you have lived in the building.
0:45:37 > 0:45:40With energy prices set to double in the next five to 10 years,
0:45:40 > 0:45:44perhaps we will all have to start cuddling up to the cowl.
0:45:44 > 0:45:49The bulk of the British housing stock is of an ageing stock that is difficult to heat,
0:45:49 > 0:45:53isn't thermally insulated and that is what has to change.
0:45:53 > 0:45:56If they are available, I could have sold these units twice over.
0:45:56 > 0:46:00If they are available, people would buy them.
0:46:03 > 0:46:07This is a sleight of genteel hippie heaven but it is clever too.
0:46:07 > 0:46:10The turbines fit in with the whole look of the wharf.
0:46:10 > 0:46:15The building's position is to make best use of the power of the wind for energy generators.
0:46:15 > 0:46:20Even the shape of the building makes sure there is nothing to block the wind that blows in from the sea.
0:46:20 > 0:46:24Turbine bedecked flats entirely fashioned from sustainable materials.
0:46:24 > 0:46:27They are selling like hot cakes in Cornwall.
0:46:27 > 0:46:31What is a planet saving architect to do with a more practical challenge
0:46:31 > 0:46:33like a civic building in the heart of London?
0:46:33 > 0:46:39This is the School of Slavonic and Eastern European Studies at University College London.
0:46:39 > 0:46:44It is bold and inventive and is about what buildings are made from and how we use energy itself.
0:46:44 > 0:46:50Alan Short is the architect and disapproves of the granola munching school of green architecture.
0:46:50 > 0:46:54It is a building in the middle of one of the greatest cities in the world.
0:46:54 > 0:46:56Trying to make a piece of civic architecture
0:46:56 > 0:47:02and we are sceptical about the gadgetry, the cells and windmills.
0:47:02 > 0:47:05Architecture is the physical stuff of the building itself
0:47:05 > 0:47:10and the geometry of the openings and exits and windows to make them comfortable and work.
0:47:10 > 0:47:16It is about rethinking the physical space of architecture
0:47:16 > 0:47:20and using that as far as possible to push towards a green agenda in some way?
0:47:20 > 0:47:21Very much so.
0:47:21 > 0:47:24This building is heavily constructed.
0:47:24 > 0:47:32It has concrete floors you can see, it is made of brick, very thick brick walls.
0:47:32 > 0:47:37That stabilises the temperature inside and there is the architecture that goes with masonry
0:47:37 > 0:47:44which is different to the light weight stuff that I was taught to design when I was a young architect.
0:47:44 > 0:47:46Alan has brought back the chimney,
0:47:46 > 0:47:50killed off by central heating but had a complete rethink on how to use it.
0:47:50 > 0:47:53This time it is not for churning out fossil fuels,
0:47:53 > 0:47:57but as architectural nostrils to make the building breathe more easily.
0:47:57 > 0:48:03In the way that the constructions work, the way it has set itself up is it is fantastically risk averse.
0:48:03 > 0:48:07It is a huge issue with our PFI hospitals and schools.
0:48:07 > 0:48:12The businesses usual architecture of the '70s, '80s, and '90s is frozen in aspic,
0:48:12 > 0:48:17it's extremely difficult to innovate and that is something we are interested in.
0:48:17 > 0:48:24It is innovators like Alan that work out the architectural recipe for planets saving buildings.
0:48:24 > 0:48:26Now it is down to builders, developers and the government
0:48:26 > 0:48:29to make the architectural oddities but the norm.
0:48:38 > 0:48:42Over the next 15 years, nearly 4 million new homes will be built in Britain and many of them
0:48:42 > 0:48:48will end up on greenfield sites in or around the edge of rural areas.
0:48:48 > 0:48:54Building in the countryside is always going to be controversial
0:48:54 > 0:48:56but how about if you can't see the building.
0:48:56 > 0:49:01- This isn't a field, it is a roof and the people who live below me
0:49:01 > 0:49:04think these sorts of houses are the way forward.
0:49:06 > 0:49:11The five homes at Mystery Hill near the village of Hockerton in Nottinghamshire, are pioneering.
0:49:11 > 0:49:14Not just because they are partly built underground,
0:49:14 > 0:49:19but because they are specifically designed to have minimal impact on the environment.
0:49:19 > 0:49:24Where most new developments are easy to see, this one is hidden from view by its earth roof.
0:49:24 > 0:49:31While all new homes are connected to the water mains, these recycle rainwater for drinking and washing.
0:49:31 > 0:49:34Mystery Hill's about as environmentally right on as it gets.
0:49:34 > 0:49:36We are happy with it.
0:49:36 > 0:49:41We have ended up with a house that does have very minimal energy use.
0:49:41 > 0:49:43We don't have any space heating.
0:49:43 > 0:49:48It keeps itself warm with the sunshine and body heat.
0:49:48 > 0:49:50Our energy bills are very low.
0:49:50 > 0:49:53We have a house that supplies itself with water.
0:49:53 > 0:49:56The water comes from the rain and we collect it on the roof.
0:49:56 > 0:50:02We have a house that's in a fantastic environment for the wildlife and for the children.
0:50:02 > 0:50:07It has turned out to be an all-round success.
0:50:07 > 0:50:12I think the houses show you can actually live in a fairly sustainable way
0:50:12 > 0:50:16without necessarily having to have a very different lifestyles.
0:50:16 > 0:50:19Our lifestyle is no different than it would be
0:50:19 > 0:50:22if we lived in a conventional house.
0:50:22 > 0:50:28But, there's 50 or 60 million people in this country and it needs to be appropriate to those people.
0:50:28 > 0:50:32I think what we've done here,
0:50:32 > 0:50:39some of it can be taken to the mainstream and from low energy lightbulbs and recycling,
0:50:39 > 0:50:44to growing your own lettuces, those are things anyone can do in their garden, in their homes.
0:50:44 > 0:50:47If we all do that, it's a step in the right direction.
0:50:47 > 0:50:51The technology these houses use is cutting edge
0:50:51 > 0:50:55and it took five years to get the project from idea to reality.
0:50:55 > 0:50:59It's taken a four applications to get approval for a small wind turbine
0:50:59 > 0:51:02which will provide the families with all the electricity they need.
0:51:02 > 0:51:05The families have developed an independent water system.
0:51:05 > 0:51:11You dug this lake yourselves and it's all a part of being water self-sufficient isn't it?
0:51:11 > 0:51:17Yes, that's right. We collect rainwater from the roofs and it goes into holding tanks.
0:51:17 > 0:51:23We take it out of the holding tank and then treat it and it goes back to the houses.
0:51:23 > 0:51:27We use it for drinking and washing, it comes, once we've flushed it down
0:51:27 > 0:51:30the toilet or down the sink, it into the reed bed here.
0:51:30 > 0:51:36There is a settling tank for the solids, but the water is then treated in here,
0:51:36 > 0:51:43the bacteria on the roots of the reed digest the pathogens in the water and it's cleaned up.
0:51:43 > 0:51:48It goes round the reed bed and out through and into the lake
0:51:48 > 0:51:54and that gives us water at bathing water quality, so that's really good.
0:51:54 > 0:52:00But it also is very nutrient rich, so the fish in the lake are thriving.
0:52:00 > 0:52:04And the project's proving an inspiration to others.
0:52:04 > 0:52:09This development of 25 new homes is on the edge of the Nottinghamshire village of Collingham.
0:52:09 > 0:52:12It's proving that the eco homes don't have to have fields on the roof.
0:52:12 > 0:52:17They do have double the usual amount of insulation and solar panels as standard.
0:52:17 > 0:52:20How long until all new homes are like this?
0:52:20 > 0:52:21It could be a while, yes.
0:52:21 > 0:52:25But just because it takes a long time to get people to accept it.
0:52:25 > 0:52:27But I think the pace is changing,
0:52:27 > 0:52:30the more examples like this one there are,
0:52:30 > 0:52:33the more the message will get through it's not that difficult.
0:52:33 > 0:52:38The more people are encouraged to put them on existing houses, although the costs are high,
0:52:38 > 0:52:45nevertheless it is the sort of thing that gradually takes off and get faster.
0:52:45 > 0:52:49But building this development hasn't been either easy or cheap,
0:52:49 > 0:52:54there were problems finding the energy-saving technology and renewable building materials.
0:52:54 > 0:53:00The houses cost about 10% more than conventional homes, but fuel bills are cut by at least half.
0:53:06 > 0:53:08Throughout Britain, thousands of buildings,
0:53:08 > 0:53:12which most people wouldn't even think of as being architecture,
0:53:12 > 0:53:16yet they are buildings we all use and spend a lot of time in.
0:53:18 > 0:53:24Can supermarket architecture ever be anything better than big, bland boxes?
0:53:24 > 0:53:28Way past their sell-by date, are the edge of town superstores
0:53:28 > 0:53:32built in the style laughably called traditional.
0:53:32 > 0:53:36In fact, the first was built less than 30 years ago by ASDA in Essex.
0:53:36 > 0:53:40That's why the trade calls them Essex barns.
0:53:40 > 0:53:46In a sense, supermarkets are the modern barn, they're big sheds full of foodstuffs.
0:53:46 > 0:53:49There is the challenge, how do you design big buildings well?
0:53:49 > 0:53:52Everyone wants to live near a supermarket,
0:53:52 > 0:53:55but no one wants a giant box dropped next to their house.
0:53:55 > 0:53:58So these stores try to blend in with their surroundings
0:53:58 > 0:54:02by disguising themselves as quaint country cottages,
0:54:02 > 0:54:04straight out of Trumpton.
0:54:06 > 0:54:11Somebody decided if you put a little pitched roof on a huge great whacking box of a building,
0:54:11 > 0:54:15you make it feel small and approachable. It just doesn't work.
0:54:15 > 0:54:21It's a bit like putting lipstick on a gorilla to disguise the fact it's a big fat, hairy simian.
0:54:21 > 0:54:25Essex barns replaced vast areas of real countryside with a fake pastiche.
0:54:25 > 0:54:30They still scar the whole of Britain, but very few have been built since the late 1990s.
0:54:30 > 0:54:35A genuinely Conservative piece of legislation in the last years of the Tories,
0:54:35 > 0:54:38made it hard to get approval for edge-of-town superstores.
0:54:40 > 0:54:46Some new superstores are still being built, but there are signs they're being built better.
0:54:46 > 0:54:52Tesco's style has moved on from rustic barns to high-tech machines for shopping in.
0:54:52 > 0:54:56The architects now choose from a range of standard kits,
0:54:56 > 0:55:01a bit like giant Meccano and a whole store can be put up in less than 15 weeks.
0:55:01 > 0:55:04This modular approach is cheaper and greener.
0:55:04 > 0:55:07The new stores need less energy to build and run than a brick barn.
0:55:07 > 0:55:13And they're flexible enough to be extended easily or even moved wholesale to another location.
0:55:15 > 0:55:20Tesco's arch-rivals have been exploring new ways of building.
0:55:20 > 0:55:23What's claimed to be the UK's most environmentally responsible superstore
0:55:23 > 0:55:28was built by Chetwood Associates in South East London.
0:55:28 > 0:55:34Its walls are embedded in earth which keeps it warm in winter and cool in the summer.
0:55:34 > 0:55:36And makes the place look kind of stylish.
0:55:36 > 0:55:42Some of the features here are a little bit of an environmental gimmick, it's a bit of a green wash.
0:55:42 > 0:55:47Like this, I wonder how many people have actually charged their electric cars here?
0:55:47 > 0:55:49This one is certainly petrol.
0:55:49 > 0:55:53And while it's great to recycle plastic bottles to make the toilet walls,
0:55:53 > 0:55:57it does look a bit like someone's splashed vomit everywhere.
0:55:57 > 0:56:03But there are some very impressive features, one of which is very simple.
0:56:03 > 0:56:10JS Sainsbury's final words, the words he said on his deathbed, were keep the stores well lit.
0:56:10 > 0:56:13Now there's a man dedicated to selling produce.
0:56:13 > 0:56:1680 years on, his dream has come true.
0:56:16 > 0:56:19This place, even on a dull day like today is flooded with natural light.
0:56:19 > 0:56:24That cuts down on electricity being used to light it, which is good for the environment.
0:56:24 > 0:56:29But it also makes you feel like no other supermarket I've ever been in,
0:56:29 > 0:56:31it's far less artificial and oppressive.
0:56:31 > 0:56:36For night-time shopping there are funky spotlights,
0:56:36 > 0:56:40much better than huge fluorescence high on the ceiling.
0:56:40 > 0:56:43The building also uses natural ventilation in place of air-conditioning.
0:56:46 > 0:56:51Sainsbury's says some of the features will be incorporated into other stores.
0:56:51 > 0:56:55But don't hold your breath, it was much more expensive than most supermarkets,
0:56:55 > 0:56:58something of an architectural loss leader.
0:56:59 > 0:57:03This place is a massive improvement on the Essex style barn,
0:57:03 > 0:57:07but if we are going to build more supermarkets, and undoubtedly we are,
0:57:07 > 0:57:11there are even more environmental and more radical ways we can do it.
0:57:13 > 0:57:16This brand new barn is in West Sussex
0:57:16 > 0:57:20at the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum of Historic Buildings.
0:57:20 > 0:57:25It houses their rural crafts workshop, but with its light, open interior,
0:57:25 > 0:57:28it would also be ideal for a supermarket.
0:57:35 > 0:57:39This is a truly green building. It's made from sustainable oak and cedar
0:57:39 > 0:57:45and thanks to the astonishing way it it was built, took very little energy to construct.
0:57:45 > 0:57:48It's one of only three grid shells in the world.
0:57:48 > 0:57:55This means it was built as a flat grid on scaffolding with joints carefully plotted by computer.
0:57:55 > 0:58:02As the scaffolding was removed, the sapling wood simply dropped into shape by force of gravity.
0:58:02 > 0:58:05If we are going to build on the edge of towns or replace the stores
0:58:05 > 0:58:08that have already encroached on to the countryside,
0:58:08 > 0:58:11this seems a better way of doing it than these stick on brick barns.
0:58:11 > 0:58:15This building is very functional, it's not covered in decorations
0:58:15 > 0:58:19so it's much more in keeping with rural traditions, but it's also very beautiful.
0:58:19 > 0:58:23And the quality of space inside is really magical.
0:58:23 > 0:58:30It cost only 10% more than a conventionally built space the same size.
0:58:30 > 0:58:35If mass produced, the structures would be cheap enough even for stingy supermarket chains.
0:58:35 > 0:58:39Tesco's have already been to look at it.
0:58:46 > 0:58:49Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:49 > 0:58:52E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk