The Art of Architecture on Sky Arts

Over the last couple of months, Sky Arts has shown a mainly excellent study of  new architecture that showed how they were were designed and brought to fruition.  Some episodes were better than others.

Episode 1  World Trade Centre Transportation Hub

It all started with Santiago Calatrava's World Trade Centre's Transportation Hub in New York. Known as the Oculus, the huge mezzanine leads to the four underground platforms. What the programme failed to show were shots of the interior, and nothing about how the construction was achieved. Instead, this was a presentation entirely by the architect himself, drawings and sketches abound. There was little, if any, mention of the $4 Billion dollar cost: massively over budget and years late.

Episode 2  Battersea Power Sation

Far, far better was Episode 2, the fantastic Battersea Power Station brought back to life by international developers and brilliant architect  Jim Eyre. My visit there this year is on my posting of the 8th August and a piece about the programme on the 15th August.

Episode 3  The V&A Dundee

Episode 3 looked at the V&A Dundee. Interesting to a degree, but too much about architect Kengo Kuma and all his other projects.

Episode 4  The Vessel

Back to New York for Episode 4 and a fascinating study Thomas Heatherwick's funky staircase of a tourist attraction called The Vessel at Hudson Yards. A piece of engineered art that defies it's purpose. 154 Intricately connecting flights of stairs, 2,500 steps and 80 landings it takes a mile to reach the top! Thomas Heatherwick is primarily a designer and artist but not a traditional architect. Although his practice does include such professionals. His work includes two I have seen: the cauldron for the 2012 Olympic flame and the Rolling Bridge at Paddington Basin. I enjoyed his description of how this latest project came to fruition.

Episode 5  Weston Tower

Probably my favourite of the series, Episode 5 looked at Ptolemy Dean's Weston Tower at Westminster Abbey. His design for an access stair and lift up to the new Queen's Diamond Jubilee Galleries is quite remarkable, blending modern metal and glass alongside the existing building. It respects the vertical aspects of the cathedral and has used sixteen different types of stone cladding to the lift shaft in bands, sampled from the history of the building with the earliest stone at the bottom rising in age to the top. The shape is an intersecting rotated square that looks quite something, with bronze tracery wrapped around the exterior. The glazing is a multiplicity of leaded windows that are extraordinary. The whole effect is amazing. I must pick a nice day to go.

Episode 6  Macallan Distillery

I gave that episode a miss. I watched the four minute video on YouTube and that was enough.

Episode 7 Smithsonian National Museum of African American History

Not an attractive building so also gave that a miss.

Episode 8  The Design Museum

Although the exterior is quite ugly, the programme concentrated on the amazing interior. by John Pawson. The former Commonwealth Institute was a relic from the 1960's and has been transformed with a beautiful modern roof and atrium adorned with traditional oak and marble. A fine juxtaposition of superb materials with crisp rectangular lines. My visit there in August took in the Stanley Kubrick exhibition and unfortunately I hardly had time to appreciate the work that has gone into this £89 Million refurb.

Episode 9  A Hampshire House

A self indulgent piece about the architect John Simpson's own house. Glad I missed it.

Episode 10  Alexandra Palace Theatre

This was a treat. Matt Sommerville described the brief and his vision for transforming a props store for the Alexandra Palace back to it's original glory as a theatre. The space had been hidden for over eighty years and the decay has been incorporated into the final design. Originally opened in 1875 as part of the rebuilding process following the great fire that destroyed Alexandra Palace, the theatre was reopened after the Great War in 1922. Only for it to close as it could not compete with the theatres of the West End. The programme described the planning and construction process that saved the original floor boards and the ornate ceiling as well as parts of the fabric of the interior. I hope to visit in the summer next year.