tv Britains Best New Building BBC News October 13, 2018 2:30pm-3:01pm BST
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weather. scotland and northern ireland at least, where it is pouring right now, the good news is if you want some sunshine, it is heading your way tomorrow. hello this is bbc news. the headlines. strong winds and heavy rain brought by storm callum have continued to batter northern ireland and western parts of britain. president trump says saudi arabia will be punished severely if claims it's involved in the murder of a saudi journalist are substantiated. the chancellor is coming under growing pressure from his own mps now on bbc news, a special programme looking at the contenders and winner of this year's riba stirling prize for architecture. how much?
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i think it was over $1.5 billion, maybe $1.75 billion by the time we got done. you don't realise the scale of how big this build is. previously, most of us spent most of our time studying in our bedrooms, which can be a bit dark, boring and also quite lonely. i want to play, actually, in this space. great! but i think it makes everyone want to play! student housing is often very mean, and one of the meanest bits is the window. when you were told it was going
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to be made of compacted soil, what were your feelings? it's interesting. i had a sort of spiritual tingle. welcome to the roundhouse in london and this, the award ceremony for the royal institute of british architects‘ stirling prize — the award for britain's best new building. now, when we think about architecture, we always think about bricks and mortar. however, it's more than that. it's solving human problems. for instance, what is the perfect colour to help a three—year—old get off to sleep? or how about this? how do you have a building that's good for chamber music but is also good for children's parties?
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or marrying the needs of high finance with having a roman temple in the basement? here's another question — what about including people in a funeral if they're not allowed to be anywhere near a coffin? well, all these problems have been solved by the architects who have been nominated for this year's stirling prize and, over the next half an hour or so, you are going to see how they've done it. and at the end, the announcement of this year's stirling prize winner. watch, enjoy. so, if you are going to put your finger on one thing that makes a place a place, what is it? we're in cambridge. this is storey‘s field. it's a sort of village hall built by cambridge university. the university had this specific problem that it's very,
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very expensive to live in cambridge, housing was crazy, they need to attract the best researchers from around the world, but researchers with young families could not afford to come and live in cambridge. instead, they were going to harvard, they were going elsewhere. so they built this new development with this community hall as its centrepiece. my guide was daisy froud, who's an architectural consultant — an expert at helping communities get the buildings they need. and this is a place she loves. so we enter the reception of the building. it is quite a nice reception for a community hall. yeah, it does not — the whole building does not feel like a community centre, does it, in any way? so there are three of these multi—purpose rooms. so this is a multi—purpose room? yep. so these rooms can be booked and hired for all kinds of things. this is the medium—sized room. pretty big medium—sized room,
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isn't it, for a little community? the whole thing is so generous. and the heart of it is this — the nursery. and this is the shared outside space for all the children from the start to the finish of nursery, which is quite unusual. and to test it, we drafted in teddy and her sister allegra. i like that bit and that bit and the roof. i think it would be fair to say it was a hit. the architects have travelled around europe looking at the best nurseries. everything has been thought through, even down to the colour of the nap room. this is the sleeping room for the nursery, so where the children come to take their naps.
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so this lilac colour, a whole piece of research was done — so, apparently, van gogh was a tremendous insomniac and he became quite obsessed about what is a colour that supports sleep? and he identified this perfect bluey lilac — that art historians have managed to work out what the colour was — that apparently, in the way it relates to uv light, best supports a sleeping environment. oh, that's crazy! this is the perfect colour for sleeping? yeah! the essence of the challenge is its variety of functions. what is this? a village hall? this is the main hall in the community centre. so,it is a village hall, for a village that's just
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being built, then, isn't it? it's the equivalent of a village hall, but it's a village hall that's become a performance venue, but it's also a place for marriages, or memorial services. there are kids‘ classes that come on in here. but if you are doing dance, then chamber music, then rock, it helps if you can change the sound of the hall, which they can do. with the touch of a button, the blinds come down, the echo can change completely. the blinds are down. give me a clap. he claps. quite an echo there. two seconds? the blinds are up halfway now so another clap, please. that sounded much deader. more of about a second. a second, a second. so blinds down, curtain across, another clap, please. it's really changed the sound, hasn't it? i think we are below half a second now. one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
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i think it's beautiful. very spacious and one of the most spacious community halls i've seen. very brand new and really nice. tate came to st ives because of this amazing legacy here — an artists‘ colony that started in the early 19th century and continues to this day. we got to the point where he had four times as many visitors as we expected, so the gallery was bursting at the scenes. was bursting at the seams. the community wanted the gallery to expand, but at the same time they wanted it to be integrated into the landscape. we did this by excavating into the cliffside so that we could create the largest possible gallery level with the existing galleries. st ives sits as a spit of sand out into the atlantic, which captures
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both the east and the west light. and it was this particular double light that attracted artists here in the first place. the roof of the gallery is made up of massive concrete beams, above which are six very large light chambers that capture this very particular light of st ives. you could say that daylight was the primary material around which the gallery was built. inside the gallery, it was incredibly important that we provide art handling and staff spaces and this created a small building that sat above this landscape, and, as it was looking out to the sea and up at the sky, we chose to clad the building in a glazed tile, which reflects the sea and sky and captures these two primal elements of the cornish landscape. you don't realise the scale of how big this build is and how clever it was to imagine that it would fit
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here and to actually come here until you actually come into the finished space and you see it for the first time and it was just amazing. i am just thrilled. to me, this is a testament to true dialogue with the communities of cornwall, resulting in incredible architecture. we identified the need as a campus university to provide as much residential accommodation for students as possible. the client really wanted as many rooms as they could get on what was a very controversial site. historic landscape, listed buildings — and to do that in the least controversial way. the project consists of 210 bedrooms in three buildings in the grounds of grade ii—listed house.
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the building is a marriage of two histories — the brickwork from the georgian house and the concrete frame from the 20th century estate. what i really like about the development we have done here is the way it sits with the surrounding buildings. they look like they have been here forever. one of the features that really struck us was the bay window, and that became the inspiration for a whole series of elements within the scheme. student housing is often very mean, and one of the meanest bits is the window. but in this context, in a garden, we thought why not some french windows? generous, kind, and it gives them access to a balcony, wonderful daylight, but actually outside space. it is very important students don‘t feel isolated. it‘s very easy for them just to live in their room. we have focused on making sure the communal spaces are bigger than you might expect.
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we have also created, used, if you like, the grounds to develop outdoor space where people can meet, and it means they are encouraged to socialise. it's very different from your typical student hall sort of accommodation. you see the greenery, you see the people. it just adds something different so you know it is roehampton, but it doesn't feel like roehampton — it feels like home. what the client was looking to achieve was a space for lectures and performances where the whole community of the college could come together in one space. and in addition, what they wanted to do was to engage with the broader community of university and the city of oxford, and it could extend the intellectual life of the college. we host the oxford literary
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festival, where people come from all over the country to hear great writers and speakers. it has this beautiful auditorium in the style of an ancient greek amphitheatre. community spaces available for dance, exercise, play rehearsals, break—out space, so it's a building all about reaching out and coming together. i think the thing that i hope makes the building special and unique is the idea of a theatre in a beautiful garden setting. many lecture theatres are quite closed in, they‘re quite contained and they‘re permanently blacked out and we tried to design it so that light comes in from different angles. so as you‘re standing in the lecture theatre, the clerestory windows are giving you light from the sky, you can see beyond out into the illuminated cricket pitch, but also into other shady parts of the garden which are full of dappled light coming through the trees.
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previously, most of us spent most of our time studying in our bedrooms, which can be a bit dark and boring and also quite lonely. where this, in comparison, now we can study in the nazrin shah centre which is much brighter an area and it also means we have a social space whilst studying as well. it's a really nice balance to have. because the sultan nazrin shah centre is in our beautiful historic landscape, sustainability credentials were really important to us. but also, resilience against climate change. we‘re on the flood plain here, but the building is raised up above the flood plain, so we‘re pretty confident it‘s going to be here for 300 years, just as the college has been in the past. is this the main entrance? this is the main entrance. it‘s a bit hidden, isn‘t it? yes, he doesn‘t like to show up, he wanted to respect the buildings around us. this is our main reception and we are walking into the vortex. this is the vortex?
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the vortex. yes, it really is called the vortex. this is a building designed to slowly reveal itself. this is our pre—function space with the tapestry and art that is all around the area. that is james bond, isn‘t it? after all of that, it is just the lifts. so, where is the office? it‘s upstairs, so this... we cannotjust walk in there? no. we have to go up to the top? we have to go to the pantry. there is nothing holding this lift up. exactly, so these are special lifts. it is not a pulling force but a fork force. so you‘re pushed from below... exactly, so there is no cabling — that‘s why it‘s glass everywhere. on the sixth floor, the big reveal. this is where everyone
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starts their day. and these are the petals, aren‘t they? this incredible ceiling. those petals are new technology. they throw out light and absorb heat and sound. at the heart of the building is this central space. it is where you pick up coffee, meet and chat before heading down the winding central ramp to your desk. even the floors are new technology — engineered to muffle sound. can you hear shoes, because it is not something that you really hear? you really need to pay attention, but... i cannot hear any shoes. exactly. so this is how the air gets in and out. there is a mechanism inside. these strange cubbyholes. and if you struggle to be heard at meetings, this room has a solution. hidden microphones and speakers can make anyone audible at any distance. so you can hear me clearly?
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yes, just as if you are next to me. witchcraft, eh? this is meant to be a social space to pass people, then? yes. and the man in charge of the design is michaeljones. this is the whole thing? this is the whole building — the two buildings, in fact. the building supports this idea of people being much more fluid than being seated in a particular place. everything is encouraging people to get out of their seats, walk around a bit, bump into people, meet? correct. and there are very few meeting i’ooitis, very few fooitis where people canjust disappear. the whole idea is you do itjust in using the building. but of course, the crucial part of the project was having
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a billionaire willing to experiment — michael bloomberg. i have to ask the question. how much? i think it was over 1.5, maybe $1.75 billion by the time we got done. keep in mind we restored a temple, we helped build a subway stop. oh, i didn‘t mention the temple, did i? this is the temple of mithras. this is around 2,000 years old, and is now finally open to the public for free. the cult of mithras itself, we know, was male. only men would have been allowed in and the people who have been worshippers were generally high—ranking merchants, or high—ranking members of the army. the bigwigs, the wealthy guys. exactly that, yes.
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newsreel: the remains of a roman temple have been uncovered near the mansion house in the city of london. it is the only one ever found within the city. it was discovered 64 years ago and then moved to give space for a new office block, and the redevelopment has enabled it to be returned back to its original site. but all this money and innovation does have a purpose — profit. i think companies always look at space backwards. they have a budget for space and then they have to work with that budget to fit in people and the design of the desks and how close they all are, and what ancillary benefits you give people. they all have to be within that budget. but if you think about it, a company, particularly one like ours, they have one expense — it's people. so anything you do to make your people more efficient has got to be
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a better economic deal than trying to shoehorn them in. man prays. the lord gave and the lord has taken away. blessed be the name of the lord. bushey, just to the north of london, and a solution to a space crisis. these new funeral prayer halls will be the final destination for a large part of london‘s jewish community. the whole building is essentially a story.
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it looks so simple, but, from there, the point of light, we head down this slope towards what is the final destination. even the walls are symbolic. what you are looking at here is compacted soil. it comes from the cemetery itself and will, over the next few decades, eventually dissolve and return back to the earth. this is the prayer hall in which the funeral service will take place. lead the way. when you were told it was going to be made of compacted soil, what were your feelings? it is interesting. i had a sort of spiritual tingle. there is a passage in the bible where, after adam is expelled
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from the garden of eden, and the lord says to him, "dust you are, and to dust you will return." and so to be able to have a place where you are performing a funeral service that has been made from material that‘s been extruded from the ground and then, at a later stage, at the end of this building‘s life, will return to the ground, it has certain spiritual resonance about it. beautifully symbolic. of course, there are complexities. the cohens — anyone descended from the priestly class — have to have their own separate prayer hall. and that rule about not being in a room with a coffin also applies to trees over graves. so the graves will start approximately here and will run back, and the cohen cannot walk under a canopy that is also covering a grave. when this was being built and even now... the material itself is fascinating, because i think that there
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is something in the way in which we build our buildings now that is so mechanical that to actually have a building that is built by hand like this, with these blocks placed on top of each other, it is very quite moving. it is really quite moving. you have spent quite a lot of time on this, haven‘t you? yes. nearly ten years. bushey cemetery. one line from genesis says it all. "dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." and now, all that‘s left is the big question. ladies and gentlemen, the winner of the riba stirling prize for architecture 2018 is... the bloomberg building by foster and partners.
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thank you, everybody. it is such an honour to be the recipient of this. of course, i'm only standing here for a whole group, an enormous group of people, who are the people behind the project. it takes a huge, huge effort to produce a building like bloomberg, so i would just like to say thank you to everybody and not least of which to mike bloomberg and norman foster who clearly led the team and were inspirational in the way in which they pushed us to innovate and pioneer a whole new way of thinking for the workplace in bloomberg. michael, i have to say, first of all, congratulations. i think you were genuinely surprised.
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i was. it was such stiff competition. michaeljones of foster and partners, but this is far from the work ofjust one architect. it is a huge team, and a very singular client with the vision and a great deal of money. is there anything he said no to? "there are limits, michael." he used to say. sometimes yes, but he did say, on the other hand, never don't show me something because it has not been done before or... always show me what there is but there are limits, and we had a budget and the two things had to come together. a massive budget. congratulations. there it is, the winner of this year‘s riba stirling building of the year. however, while it stands out, it shares much in common with the other buildings. not only did it look beautiful, it felt beautiful, it was inspiring,
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and it sounded great. all of these human puzzles and problems solved by the nominated buildings of this year‘s stirling building of the year. i hope you enjoyed it. hello. i think the main message is that the weather will improve over the next 2a hours, but until then, we still have some very heavy rain on the way. hopefully this next spell of rain is not going to last as long as the one we have had currently. the good news is also that the winds are starting to ease so as we go through tonight, we really are going to lose those gale force winds, as this tail end of storm callum slowly starts to clear away from the uk, but for the time being, there is still an amber warning in force from the met office for southern parts of wales.
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this is where we have seen very troublesome weather with all of that flooding rain, and untilaround 6pm, there is a chance of encountering heavy falls of rain in the south. also heavy rain in the north west of england, wales, northern ireland as well. to the east and south—east that has been a completely different story, very warm. look at the temperatures at 8 o‘clock this evening, temperatures are still into the 20s. this air is mild, how warm this air is coming in from the south. it is driving this extreme weather front, very warm air to the east and the colder air tucking in out in the atlantic. in the early hours of sunday morning, it is 5 degrees in western scotland, 15 in norwich, and in between, we have that spell of heavy rain once again so this is the next spell of heavy rain, starting tonight, the early hours of the morning, in the morning on sunday and in the afternoon, it moves further north. you can see that contrast in the temperature between the north west of the uk and east anglia and the southeast. we are still going to
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have warm weather on sunday. this is the morning. from 6 o‘clock it is raining in the south, it spills across the midlands, wales into yorkshire, so areas that have not seen too much rain will get some whereas in the north west, a totally different story. it is raining here at the moment, but tomorrow you will get the sunshine in belfast and glasgow. still warm in london and norwich, 18 degrees, above—average for the time of year but lower than what we have had. on monday, high pressure finally starts to build across the uk. the message is that the weather is improving. later on sunday and into monday. this is bbc news. the headlines at 3. president trump has a warning for saudi arabia —
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if claims it‘s involved in the murder of a saudi journalist are stood up. we are going to get to the bottom of it and there will be severe punishment. more than 30 flood warnings are in place, as storm callum continues to bring heavy rain and strong winds to many areas. the chancellor is coming under growing pressure from his own mps to find extra funding for universal credit. also in the next hour — worries about the hare population. an outbreak of myxomatosis is being reported in british hares for the first time. scientists fear it could kill off huge numbers. the first ever national album day — celebrating the country‘s love of vinyl across all genres of music. and in half an hour here on bbc news —
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