Transcripts For BBCNEWS RIBA Stirling Prize 20240713

Reports on the shortlisted buildings, including the winner for this years Riba Stirling prize, one of the most prestigious awards in architecture. Platform 6 and 7 for you. Youre welcome. The roof is a piece of art in itself. You cant 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 were here for the long run, ithink. Its 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 britains best new building of 2019. There are six nominated buildings and an incredibly varied list. We have an opera house, a visitor centre, a development in someones back garden. But there is a theme running through all of this sustainability. Whats 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 . Youre welcome. You need the 31 on platform 1. All the way down the bottom, by that glass window, yeah . Whats going on here . Its not behaving. Oh, dear, thats terrible. Lets get you in. Mind your knees. You ready . Come through. Platform 6 and 7 for you. Youre welcome. Id much rather work here than the old station i really would. Because its just. Its 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, hows the family . Nothing. Go through, darling. Its fine. Its ok. There you go. In the mood now . Its brilliant. Oh, my goodness. We see our regular customers here, we have conversations. Its hi, how are you doing, i havent seen you in a while. And theyre genuinely pleased that this station has given them that kind of openness. You know, theyre 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 its 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 anyone 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 wasnt 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. Theyve 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. Sighs 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 wasnt 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, its about 8 30. So, this is the busiest time of the day. Yep. Theres a calm, isnt there . Its bizarre. There are 56 Million People a year using this station, currently, designed for 96, but theres a kind of calm. Its mostly commuters, so they know where theyre going. The thing about the London Bridge station no one has ever had a Great Railway journey begin or end here, has it . Its not one of those stations where you go you bring your steam trunk and you are heading around the world. No, its never been loved. Im really hoping now that network rail and ourselves have taken the care to build, we think, a beautiful station thats designed around the passengers, that people will start and finish their journeys here and will like using the station. Actually use the station notjust for getting trains, but for other things too. Oh, 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, isnt there . Absolutely. I think whats important is you do have a connection with nature. I think people, if youre just pushed and squirted through underground caverns, i dont think its good for the soul. I think its nice just to see the light, see the light hitting the structure and the timber. Thats what it was like being squirted through underground caverns, wasnt it . Yes, like being shot from a tube of toothpaste. But now, you can walk freely. There are lots of exits and entrances, you can kind ofmove wherever you want, you can connect with whichever part of the city you want. You arent forced in any one particular way. We got us, weve got technology, weve got the shops, weve got a lovely seating area. You know, if its raining up there, they come down here. They can just chill and relax for the next train. They dont have to go upstairs. Its been such a pleasure. I love working here, i seriously do. 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 youre taken into something, which is almost like a kind of slit in an earthwork, like you are going into the hill, and everything explodes when you go into this room. The light explodes and of course the landscape explodes in front of you. What we wanted to do was create a complete transition from the motorway and the 215t infrastructure, to cross the threshold you would descend into the building, and 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 travel to scotland, and another building that almost disappears into its setting. The idea of producing a nice shed and having the stuff in there that produces whisky and then having a nice Visitor Experience wasnt ever 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 the real intent to make it different, and to show the visitors just how a distillery works. Grahams 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 dont know how it works. With its meadow roof, the distillery almost melts into the landscape. And our next development is entirely hidden. Singing this was originally a stable block courtyard. Weve converted this beautiful, Historic Building into an exceptional, but intimate theatre. You cant see it at all from the outside. You enter the building and this remarkable space is revealed. Singing in contrast to many opera theatres, which 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, to bring 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. Singing 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. Weve got the garden, my little girl absolutely loves the garden. Shes got the passageway out the back, shes made so many friends. Whos this . Thats my dog, rusty. Rusty . Hello, rusty. Id never have thought this would have been a council property. Have you turned the heating on . Twice. Twice in a year . Since weve been here, yeah, twice. Have a look at how thick these walls are. These houses are designed to be low energy. Youre 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 its pretty sunny. And theres a reason, because theyve 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, its a snicket im looking at. Weve been calling it a ginnel. These were the 12 storey blocks of flats at gee street, finsbury. The first of britains 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 weve got a real problem with lack of social connectedness. And this housing is thinking a lot about how we can encourage social connections, people meeting each other. But i think theres also ideas about how to encourage children to play outdoors, how to get to play areas without crossing roads and make that safe. And its this child friendly safe space that made all the difference for chloe and her partner, louis. Theyre never going back to a flat. When you first walked into it. Yeah . What did you think . I thought, they re lovely, id 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 cant see me moving from here, not for a long time. If you got the chance to buy it. Id buy it. 100 , yeah, id buy it. Theyre all going to have a chance pretty soon to buy them, arent they . Yeah. I think thats 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, were here for the long run, i think. Its brilliant. So, as soon as you get the chance. Well buy it, yeah. That will be ours. And now ourfinal building. Carbon neutral and com pletely recycla ble. For me, this is a very cosy, warm, familiar space. There is a nice play of shadow and light in this building. Its a calm, still building. And thats because you are enveloped, it absorbs sounds, so its very quiet. What does a Green Building actually mean . Well, whats interesting about this one is whats missing. Theres 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 theyve been turned into Building Blocks that are just slot together. Youve just got a pure plant based organic piece of lego, if you like, plant based lego, and they friction fit together, and they take all the compression loads. And the pyramids . Its just the shape that naturally emerges if you want gravity to hold the blocks together to form a roof. Youve built a pyramid, havent you . Built a pyramid, but we didnt start off to say i think it would be nice to have five pyramids. You know, bee hive pyramids. The reason its this shape is because when you decide not to build with glue and mortar, thats 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. Ive been told even an idiot such as me can have a go at doing a bit of construction. So, lets 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 ive just built a wall. Not brilliant, but that was about a minute, wasnt 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 were aware, the first cork house where we have tried to use cork for everything. So its 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, its documented as used in roman times as a roof sheeting. And its 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. Weve designed it to last indefinitely, its 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. Whats this about . Well, initially, the initial hypotheses, really, came from the idea of simplifying the wall. Rethinking the wall. Its 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, isnt it . And black. Theres some black here. So, youve rediscovered the pyramid, youve rediscovered cosiness. Cant you think of a better word than cosiness . Is cosiness a bad word for an architect . Its 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 thats always a possibility, isnt it, with research. Otherwise its 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, thats it, the six nominated buildings for this years stirling prize. All thats left to find out now is who has actually won. Course, there only has to be one winner. And its 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 wasnt 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. Its amazing that a Council Housing even made it onto the shortlist. So im certainly shocked that we have won it. But i think 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 for 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 years stirling prize for architecture. And while 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 years stirling prize for architecture. Hello, we two weeks into 0ctober hello, we two weeks into october and some parts of the country havent seen a dry day, we had a lot of rain around the weekend bringing heavy spells, this is the beach as the sun sunday evening above london. Still a bit of rain to come through the week ahead, im afraid this unsettled picture, so further rain at times but equally there will be some sunny dry weather to be enjoyed particularly during tuesday. What we got today through the day on monday is you got a couple of areas of the pressure. This went to the west bringing rain across Northern Ireland from the word go, we got a waving by the front across the south east of england producing initially heavy showers, toward sussex, those showers will be hit at best they worked their way northwards across central parts of england through the day, could be happy with thunderstorms and perhaps some wins as well, Northern Ireland also sang some fairly persistent rent which would push into the west of scotla nd rent which would push into the west of scotland later on. That rent could be quite heavy in the south, producing some laying surface water with thunderstorms, squally winds possible. Temperature is about 13 17 sources, not far off what we would expect for this time of year. The bulk of the heavy rain and potential thunderstorms pushes northwards across Northern England into tuesday morning. Its going to be sitting across parts of north east england, perhaps distance got them first on tuesday, but actually elsewhere quite a lot of dry, settled weather to start your day on tuesday, frost certainly, but some mist and fog as round jacaranda certainly, but some mist and fog as round jacaranda s certainly, but some mist and fog as round jacaranda s office of murkiness clears away duty is not a bad day, between two weather systems are very small ridge of High Pressure and charge tuesday, dry, day breakers away from that of these, an extra in area of rain is waiting in the wings and it will arrive at a Northern Ireland across the evening hours, space is having a dry day, 12 15 degrees with spells of sunshine. Wednesday we start with wet and windy weather particularly for scotland and england, that band of rain should clear towards the east and out of a quickly so returned to sunny skies of the southwest and sp scattered showers is offered up high is fairly similar to what is seen recently, but of apposite individuals but most of us at low pressure statin child but mr of the week ahead, it will be a mix of the week ahead, it will be a mix of sunny and dry weather and plenty of sunny and dry weather and plenty of blustery showers, goodbye for 110w. Welcome to bbc news. Im maryam moshiri. Our top stories syrias government says it will send troops to confront turkish aggression as turkey continues its military operation against the kurds. New tactics from hong kongs hardcore, pro democracy protesters attacking pro beijing targets while dodging the police. Japan deploys thousands of troops and rescue workers as the true scale of typhoon hugibis becomes apparent. 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