with clearer skies, rain the uk with clearer skies, rain returning, temperatures falling to 5-10. chilly returning, temperatures falling to 5—10. chilly starting places close to freezing in rural scotland and northern england and tomorrow more rain to come and a wet day for northern ireland with rain pushing north and eastwards across central southern england, always driest in the best of the sunshine further north and east. hello, this is bbc news with ben brown. the headlines... ministers say the american woman — who left britain after being involved in a fatal car crash — no longer has diplomatic immunity because she's returned to the united states. typhoon hagibis sweeps across japan killing at least 18 — rivers have burst their banks in over a dozen different places, and almost half a million homes are without power in tokyo. more than 130,000 people have been displaced from rural areas in north eastern syria, as a result of fighting between turkish—led forces

and kurdish militia. jacob rees—mogg has said the prospects of a deal with the eu are more positive than they were a week. —— a week ago. david sillito reports on the shortlisted buildings — including the winner — for the 2019 riba stirling prize, one of the most prestigious awards in architecture. platform six and seven for you. you're welcome.

the roof is a piece of art in itself. you can't see it at all from the outside. you enter the building and this remarkable space is revealed. we have something that is almost like an artwork that has come out of the ground. was there a moment when you thought, what have i done? obviously there were several days, dark days. me and my partner have both said it since we moved in, we are here for the long run, i think. it's brilliant. welcome to the roundhouse in london, and this, the biggest night for architecture, the stirling prize. this is where the great and the good of architecture, the royal institute of british architects gather together to decide which is britain's best new building of 2019. there are six nominated buildings.

and it's an incredibly varied list. we have an opera house, a visitor centre, development in someone‘s back garden. but there is a theme running through all of this. sustainability. what's the best way of being gentle on the planet? we begin with the first of our six buildings, a railway station, and itsjob, how do you turn an old victorian chaos and confusion into something fit for the 21st century and double the number of passengers? are you coming through? all right there? you're welcome. you need the 31 on platform one. all the way down the bottom, by that glass window, yeah? what's going on here?

it's not behaving. oh, dear, that's terrible. let's get you in. mind your knees. are you ready? platform six and seven for you. you're welcome. i'd much rather work here than the old station. i really would. because it's lovely. describe the mood, before and after, of the passengers. before, in my opinion, no one had any time to say hi, how are you doing, are you 0k today, how's the family? nothing. it's fine. it's ok. there you go. in the mood now? it's brilliant. oh, my goodness. we see our regular customers here, we have conversations. it's hi, how are you doing, i haven't seen you in a while. and they are genuinely pleased that this station has given them that kind of openness. you know, they're more freer.

so, for me, as the client, what i wanted most out of it, paradoxically, is that passengers arrive, go through and leave the station almost without noticing it. because that means it's worked as a station. because nobody wakes up in the morning and says i need to come to a station. this is a means to an end of them getting somewhere. as soon as anybody starts talking about a station, you know that their day has gone wrong. yes, exactly. the thing that strikes you is, where did all this space come from? because the old london bridge station really wasn't so much a station, it was more a confusion of random tunnels, platforms, it was a great place to miss your train.

and now, well, you can see one giant space that stretches as far as the eye can see, and you can work it out immediately. the trains are up here, you justjump on the train. they've made london bridge simple. and, in the past, it was anything but. for the 15 million commuters who pass through each year, london bridge was a place to be endured, rather than loved. the station is really an old set of viaducts that were built at different times, and never really linked up. and then in the 70s it had a bit of a 70s makeover. launched by... as the bishop said to aslef. the bishop of southwark and frankie howard.

but the solution... it was just another set of depressing and confusing corridors. the answer, radical. cut a massive hole through the station. all the platforms, all the supports, all the track was replaced while the station was still operating. it was described as open heart surgery on a patient that wasn't just awake, they werejogging. and to see how it works, i went for a walk with the architect. we were asked if we could avoid filming during rush hour. however, we managed to get around that. this is the absolute rush hour we are in at the moment, it's about 8.30. so this is the busiest time of the day. there's a calm, isn't there? it's bizarre.

there are 56 million people a year using this station, currently, it's designed for 96. but it's a kind of calm. it's mostly commuters, so they know where they're going. the thing about the london bridge station, no—one has ever had a great railwayjourney begin or end here, has it? it's not one of those stations where you go you bring your steam trunk and you are heading around the world. no. it's never been loved. i'm really hoping now that network rail and ourselves have taken the care to build, we think, a beautiful station, designed around the passengers, and people will start and finish theirjourneys here and will like using the station. actually use the station not just for getting trains, but for other things, too. wow, a beautiful commuting experience, that is what you are wanting. what we want is for everybody to have a beautiful commuting experience every single day.

there even a bit of natural light, isn't there? absolutely. i think what's important is that you do have a connection with nature. i think people, if you're just pushed and squirted through underground caverns, i don't think it's good for the soul. i think it's nice to see the light, see the light hitting the structure and the timber. that's what it was like, being squirted through underground caverns. yes, like being shot from a tube of toothpaste. but now you can walk freely. there are lots of exits and entrances, you can move wherever you want, you can connect with whichever part of the city you want. you aren't forced in any one particular way. we got us, we've got technology, we've got the shops, we've got a lovely seating area. you know, if it's raining up there, they come down here. they can just chill and relax for the next train. they don't have to go upstairs. it's been such a pleasure. 0h, another lady. are you all right there? do you want me to do it or are you all right?

when it comes to being green, taking an ageing piece of public transport and almost doubling its capacity is pretty impressive. but there are other ways of being gentle on the environment. these next three buildings all have something in common, respect for the beauty around them. we needed a new entrance into the park, we needed more car parking, more cafe space. and we also wanted a building that was going to bring people into this 18th—century landscape in a new way. you approach the building from the car park and you are taken into something which is almost like a kind of slit in the earthwork, like you are going into the hill, and everything explodes when you go into this room. the light explodes, and the landscape explodes in front of you. what we wanted to do was create a complete transition

from the motorway and the 21st infrastructure, to cross the threshold you would descend into the building, then we wanted people to be met with a calmness before then venturing out to the park to discover the wonderful works of art and the landscape. and from yorkshire we travelled to scotland, and another building that almost disappears into its setting. the idea of producing a nice shed, having the stuff in there that produces whisky and having a nice visitor experience wasn't what we wished to create. we felt the whole thing should be a jewel at every level. this area has lots of visitor centres for distilleries. in this one, we set out with a real intent to make it different, and to show the visitors just how a distillery works. graham's great line was that nature abhors a straight line.

the piece of art in itself, for it to be continually moving and allow that glass to stay in place on the wall, i don't know how it works. with its meadow roof, the distillery almost melts into the landscape. and our next development is entirely hidden. this was originally a stable block courtyard. we've converted this beautiful and historic building into an exceptional, but intimate theatre. you can't see it at all from the outside. you enter the building and this remarkable space is revealed. in contrast to many opera theatres that have gold and red velvet seats,

we wanted to retain some of the character of the stable yard. we already had these rich iron stone walls, timber felt a natural material to go to. our first task was to make a new floor, build the stage at ground level. we then created a new roof over the courtyard to make the room. but we wanted to keep a memory of the courtyard, and so we introduced the large roof light over the space. so, an invisible opera house. but our next development takes on one of the biggest environmental issues. energy. and not wasting it.

so, this is it. very nice. into the living room. we've got the garden, my little girl absolutely loves the garden. she's got the passageway out the back, she's made so many friends. who is this? that's my dog, rusty. rusty? hello, rusty. i would never have thought this would have been a council property. have you turned the heating on? twice. twice in a year? since we've been here, yeah, twice. have a look at how thick these walls are. these houses are designed to be low energy. you're not even allowed a letterbox in the door in case it lets out some heat. and they also make the most of the weather. one thing about it is it's pretty sunny. and there's a reason, because they've designed it that way.

because the roofs are kind of really flat, which means that even in the dark days of winter, even on the 21st of december, if there is some sunshine, it will be coming down here and hitting the bottom of the window. and another key feature is this. well, this, to me, is a snicket. coming from scarborough, it's a snicket i'm looking at. we've been calling it a ginnel. these were the 12 storey blocks of flats at gee street, finsbury. the first of britain's skyscrapers. for the last 50 years or so, the flat has more often than not been seen as the best way of making the most of limited space, but the architects here were determined to prove that houses could be high—density. and the reason they wanted them, sociability. i think we've got a real problem with lack of social connectedness. this housing is thinking a lot about how we can encourage social connections,

people meeting each other. but i think there's also ideas about how to encourage children to play outdoors, how to get to play areas without crossing roads and make that safe. and it's this child friendly safe space that made all the difference for chloe and her partner, louis. they're never going back to a flat. when you first walked into it... yeah? what did you think? i thought, they‘ re lovely, i'd love one. and i managed to get one, which is really good. ijust wanted my little girl to have a garden and some freedom, where she can investigate, pick bugs off the floor, you know what i mean? do what kids do. and i can't see myself moving from here, not for a long time. if you got the chance to buy it... i'd buy it. 100%, yeah, i'd buy it. they're all going to have a chance pretty soon to buy them, aren't they? yeah. i think that's true, under the right to buy scheme.

it would be great if the government would reconsider that policy. me and my partner have both said since we moved in, we're here for the long run, i think. it's brilliant. so, as soon as you get the chance... we'll buy it, yeah. that will be ours. and now ourfinal building. carbon neutral and com pletely recycla ble.

for me, this is a very cozy, warm, familiar space. there is a nice play of shadow and light in this building. it's a calm, still building. and that's because you are enveloped, it absorbs sounds, so it's very quiet. what does a green building actually mean? well, what's interesting about this one is what's missing. there's no mortar, no bricks, no plaster. almost no steel or plastic, or paint. it is just wood. cork. you just want to touch it. it just feels fantastic. it smells great. but this is about more than just being beautiful. this is an attempt to make a house that is truly recyclable. these granules are the by—product

of making corks, and they've been turned into building blocks that are just slot together. you've just got a pure plant—based organic piece of lego, if you like, plant—based lego, and they friction fit together, and take all the compression loads. and the pyramids? it's just the shape that naturally emerges if you want gravity to hold the blocks together to form a roof. you've built a pyramid, haven't you? built a pyramid, but we didn't start off to say i think it would be nice to have five pyramids. the reason it's this shape is because when you decide not to build with glue and mortar, that's the easiest way, structurally, to build the roof, just through one material, and not introducing steel or anything else. and to prove just how easy it is to assemble and disassemble the blocks...

i've been told even an idiot such as me can have a go at doing a bit of construction. so, let's see if this really is idiot proof. and... it really is like building blocks. this is, i think, a bit of roof. there we go. in. that goes there. i think i've just built a wall. not brilliant, but that was about a minute, wasn't it? amazing. the wall, simplified. it even meets building regulations. and the construction team, matt and oliver, who designed, tested, developed and built

everything from scratch. yeah, i like that. go on, then. yours a bit left. does look better, yeah. nothing but large blocks of expanded cork. that fit together. so, how many other cork houses are there before this? this is, as far as we're aware, the first cork house where we have tried to use cork for everything. so it's the solid structure of the building, the insulation, the outside and the inside of the building. all in one. so, cork has been used in construction for thousands of years, it's documented as used in roman times as a roof sheeting. and it's been used to externally and internally clad some ancient buildings in spain. as far as we know, this is the first permanent building that uses cork structurally in this way. we've designed it to last indefinitely, it's carefully detailed.

so, the aim is that it should last as long as a well—detailed timber building. and there are examples of timber buildings that have lasted several hundred years. what's this about? well, initially, the initial hypotheses, really, came from the idea of simplifying the wall. rethinking the wall. it's a very simple construction, made of a single biorenewable material which happened to be cork. i have to say, this is a poem in brown, isn't it? and black. there's some black here. so, you've rediscovered the pyramid, you've rediscovered cosiness. can't you think of a better word than cosiness? is cosiness a bad word for an architect? it's not a bad thing for a house. no, no.

maybe sheltering forms, cocooned, protective spaces, something like that. yeah, cosiness is fine. was there a moment when you thought, what have i done? i guess over such a long period of research and development, and genuine innovation, obviously there were several days, dark days,when you wondered, yeah. was i going to get to the end of it, was it going to be successful? yeah. i guess that's always a possibility, isn't it, with research. otherwise it's not genuine research. there were lots of days when you tried things and they fail. and the next day you try something else to solve the failure. this is a pilot project

for a new construction system. so, that's it, the six nominated buildings for this year's stirling prize. all that's left to find out now is who has actually won. course, there only has to be one winner. and it's my honour to announce the winner of the 2019 stirling prize. and the winner is goldsmith street. david mikhail, annalie riches, cathy hawley. goldsmith street, a development of council houses in norwich, built to the highest possible standards. energy bills will be about £150 a year if you live there. i just wanted to say that we would not be standing here if it wasn't for the vision

of norwich city council. you must be pleased tonight? delighted. so thrilled for norwich, because of their leadership of the local authority, so thrilled for us because we have been plugging away at this particular scheme for a very long time. yeah, thrilled, it means a lot. it's amazing that a council housing even made it onto the shortlist. so i'm certainly shocked that we have won it. but hopefully it will encourage people, other councils to think about doing this. congratulations to you both. 11 years, why has it taken such a long time? i get the feeling there have been some ups and downs along this process? i think the crash was instrumental. the project went to sleep, as so many did, in 2008—2009, around the country. and i think what happened was the government changed

the financing structures of local authorities, which meant that norwich looked again at this scheme and realise that perhaps they could do it themselves. and a lot of councils are now on that journey. so there it is, the winner of this year's stirling prize for architecture. and though it might lack a bit of the drama or spectacle of some previous winners, what it does have a something very special, inspiration, maybe even a model forfuture buildings. this really may change the way we build. with that, thank you and good night from this year's stirling prize for architecture. hello. a rather soggy sunday for much of the uk. more rain in this forecast. this was the scene a short while ago. along the coast of wales. clouds and heavy rain but not for

all of us. sunshine in this forecast as well. in aberdeenshire, from one of our weather watchers. today, these two weather front systems are merging together, so the rain becomes a large area. working north and eastwards. running up through the irish sea, clipping the eastern side of northern ireland. as it clears, behind, we have brighter skies developing through the afternoon. that rain is heavy and persistent across wales, large swathes into the east of northern ireland and scattered showers and spells of sunshine sunshine coming through, and breezy in east anglia and south—east england for some time, gusts of wind that eased through the afternoon. while we get the best of the afternoon sunshine, temperatures of up to 18 degrees. persistent rain, but feeling quite cool persistent rain, but feeling quite cool. the rain continues across

north—east england and eastern scotla nd north—east england and eastern scotland through the evening. that clears and in much of the uk overnight, dry with clear skies before rain arrives in northern ireland and southern england. five to 10 degrees, the overnight low could dip to freezing. chilly over the new year. unsettled. two weather fronts to deal with, one is pushing up fronts to deal with, one is pushing up through the irish sea, bringing a much wetter data northern ireland tomorrow. that rain returns in the south—east and southern england. working further northwards. tomorrow, the further north and east you are, you have some dry sunshine. but it will feel cool, 11 to 15 degrees. top temperatures here. behind that, sunshine for many of us. behind that, sunshine for many of us. rain in northern ireland through the afternoon. for much of the uk, a dry day with sunshine. that takes

the edge of temperatures, 1a or 15 degrees. this weather front slides eastwards on wednesday. a squeeze on the isobars. wet and windy. that clears on thursday. sunshine and blustery showers, certainly an u nsettled blustery showers, certainly an unsettled week ahead.

this is bbc news, i'm ben brown. the headlines at 11am... the family of harry dunn — who died in a collision with an american woman who then fled to the us — are flying there this morning, hoping fora meeting. typhoon hagibis sweeps across japan killing at least 18. rivers have burst their banks in over a dozen different places, and almost half a million homes are without power in tokyo. kurds under attack from turkey in northern syria. the un says more than 130,000 people have been displaced by the fighting. jacob rees—mogg has said the prospects of a deal with the eu are more positive than they were a week ago. i trust borisjohnson to ensure that the relationship the uk has with the european union is one where we are not a vassal state. and that is the point

that we are leading