Not my favourite presenter, but Alan Yentob does find some interesting people for his Imagine series. And I always want to watch when it is an architect as important as David Chipperfield. Or Sir David Alan Chipperfield CBE to give him his full title (never mentioned on the programme). Here are the first words from Yentob:
"In an archive inside what was East Germany (resides) ....eleven years of work. 3,000 files, 352 metres of shelves, all from a pre-digital age. One architectural project - The Neues Museum in Berlin. We hear all about it's restoration (yes, employing a British architect), "a new building created from the remains of the old". Combining classical architecture with "crisp modernism", some of which to my eyes is startlingly good.
We are told about the tortuous gestation of the competition and design, the committees exploring every detail. The commission was won in competition in 1997 and in 2011 it won the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture. There was a nice story about the selection of the architect from the final two, the other being Frank Gehry. Apparently at one point The General Director, who heavily favoured Gehry, walked out, humiliating Chipperfield's. presentation.
We hear about other projects. The Museum of River and Rowing at Henley.
Hepworth Wakefield.
Turner Contemporary Margate.
The Royal Academy. See my blog posting of 23rd November 2018 for my visit there).
I was less impressed with a walk around Berlin with Wim Wenders. The three, in identical black suits were described somewhere, a little unfairly, as "Reservoir Dogs meets Last of the Summer Wine".
Nor did I want to hear about Chipperfield's expensive house in Corrubedo in Spain and a pretentious explanation why this is where he feels at home. If only. Both the above segments went on far too long.
The programme ended in New York where Chipperfield has won the competition to design a new gallery for the South West Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His most prestigious project yet according to some. It involves knocking down some of the existing building! It is still at the concept stage and the model is still under wraps.
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