Building Sights
(1988)Streaming Episode Guide
Series 4
Eight personal reflections on the best modern British architecture.Glyndebourne Opera House
Episode 8 - 7-10-1996
Writer Germaine Greer chooses the Glyndebourne Opera House on the Sussex Downs. The building, which opened in 1994, was constructed in just 18 months and was designed by Michael Hopkins and Patty Hopkins.
Haven't Seen
Willis Corroon
Episode 7 - 7-03-1996
Architect Zaha Hadid chooses the Willis Corroon building in the centre of Ipswich, Suffolk, a high-tech seventies work by Sir Norman Foster.
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Alton Estate
Episode 6 - 6-24-1996
Architect Sir Richard Rogers praises Alton housing estate in Roehampton. Built in the 1950s by the London County Council, Alton was planned to be a modern Utopia.
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Wood Street Police Station
Episode 5 - 6-17-1996
Cartoonist Posy Simmonds discovers a remarkable police station in Wood Street in the City of London.
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Humber Bridge
Episode 4 - 6-10-1996
Poet Simon Armitage finds inspiration in the longest suspension bridge in the world. Opened in 1981, the Humber Bridge is 1.3 miles long and, he feels, is "one of the modern wonders of the world".
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Hauer-King House
Episode 3 - 6-03-1996
Architect Will Alsop visits an unconventional private house built with glass walls.
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The Worsley Medical Building
Episode 2 - 5-20-1996
Damien Hirst, controversial winner of last year's Turner Prize, enjoys the juxtaposition of life and death at the Worsley Medical Building in Leeds where, as a student, he used to do anatomical drawings.
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Canary Wharf
Episode 1 - 5-13-1996
Jools Holland's love of panoramic views takes him to Britain's tallest tower, Canary Wharf in London. From a vantage point atop the 50-floor structure the musician and presenter looks out over the capital city.
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Series 3
A 12-part series of personal reflections on 20th-century architectureBoarbank Hall Oratory
Episode 12 - 4-16-1991
Architect Richard MacCormac marvels at the Boarbank Hall Oratory near Grange over Sands, Cumbria.
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County Arcade
Episode 11 - 4-09-1991
Alan Bennett wanders through the County Arcade, Leeds (Frank Matcham 1900).
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Garden House
Episode 10 - 4-02-1991
Film director and artist Derek Jarman visits Garden House in Wimborne, Dorset, built by his art master Robin Noscoe.
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St Olaf House
Episode 9 - 3-26-1991
To Alice Rawsthorn, design correspondent of The Financial Times, St Olaf House (1931) is 'a little island of art deco splendour tucked away between the south bank of the River Thames and the railway arches of London Bridge. It's one of those quirky places, where everything down to the tiniest detail was designed in a very particular way.'
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Leicester University Engineering Building
Episode 8 - 3-19-1991
Leicester University Engineering Building is one of only a few buildings that have had a powerful effect on structural engineer Tim MacFarlane: 'For me, this building is a work of art.'
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Court House
Episode 7 - 3-12-1991
Court House in Truro, Cornwall is admired by the artist Deanna Petherbridge.
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Michelin Building
Episode 6 - 3-05-1991
Tessa Blackstone, Master of Birkbeck College, University of London, praises the Michelin building in London.
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St Mary's Hospital
Episode 5 - 2-12-1991
Sandy Naime, director of visual arts at the Arts Council, looks at St Mary's, a new NHS hospital on the Isle of Wight by Ahrends, Burton and Koralek.
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Trellick Tower
Episode 4 - 2-05-1991
Architect Sand Helsel applauds Trellick Tower, a 1967 tower block in north London by Erno Goldfinger.
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Lloyds of London
Episode 3 - 1-29-1991
Artist Michael Craig-Martin marvels at Lloyds of London.
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Didcot Power Station
Episode 2 - 1-22-1991
Writer Marina Warner is inspired by Didcot Power Station in Oxfordshire.
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Boeing 747
Episode 1 - 1-15-1991
Architect, Sir Norman Foster, looks at the jumbo jet.
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Series 2
The Katharine Stephen Room
Episode 9 - 11-22-1989
Internationally renowned architect James Stirling examines the Katharine Stephen Room - rare books library of Newnham College, Cambridge (1988 Birkin Haward/Joanna Van Heyningen).
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Royal College of Physicians
Episode 8 - 11-15-1989
Architect Edward Cullinan thinks the best post-war building in London is the Royal College of Physicians in Regent's Park, designed by Sir Denys Lasdun in 1960.
Haven't Seen
D10 Boots Building, Nottingham
Episode 7 - 11-08-1989
The Boots factory is a vast glass palace built by Owen Williams in 1932. Iwona Blazwick from London's ICA tours the factory which is acknowledged as a masterpiece of early British modernism.
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The Blackburn House
Episode 6 - 11-01-1989
Artist and photographer Jenny Okun visits the Blackburn House in London's Hampstead, by architects Peter Wilson and Chassay Wright (1989). She argues that the Blackburn House - part office, part gallery, part flat - is important because really adventurous domestic architecture is such a rarity.
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David Mellor Cutlery Factory
Episode 5 - 10-25-1989
Writer Gillian Darley examines the new award-winning David Mellor Cutlery Factory in the Peak District of Derbyshire. Designed by architect Michael Hopkins and opened this year, it is extraordinary because it is round.
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Holland House
Episode 4 - 10-18-1989
Peter Palumbo, chairman of the Arts Council, praises Holland House, an office block built in the City of London by the Dutch architect Berlage.
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Janet Street-Porter's House
Episode 3 - 10-11-1989
Television executive and ex-architecture student Janet Street-Porter asked Piers Gough to design a house for her in London's Smithfield. For the first time on television, she shows the result.
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Stamford Bridge
Episode 2 - 10-04-1989
Architect Nigel Coates delights in Chelsea Football Stadium's East Stand (Darbourne and Darke, 1972).
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Arab Institute
Episode 1 - 7-11-1989
Janet Abrams reflects on the Arab Institute on Paris's Left Bank (architect Jean Nouvel, 1988), one of President Mitterand's portfolio of buildings designed to change the profile of Paris.
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Series 1
Personal reflections on the best of 20th Century architecture in Britain.Creek Vean
Episode 8 - 12-13-1988
Editor of Blueprint magazine Deyan Sudjic examines Creek Vean in Cornwall. It is a house built in 1966 by Team 4, a group of young unknowns. Two of them are now Britain's best known architects, Richard Rogers and Norman Foster.
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De La Warr Pavilion
Episode 7 - 12-06-1988
First-year architecture student Sophie Hicks delights in the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill, Sussex. Designed in 1933 by Erich Mendelsohn and Serge Chermayeff, the building is one of the finest examples of modern seaside architecture in Britain.
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Glasgow School of Art
Episode 6 - 11-29-1988
Artist Bruce McLean attended Saturday morning classes at the Glasgow School of Art from the age of 6, and went on to study there in the 1960s. But it is only recently says McLean, that he has realised the influence Charles Rennie Mackintosh's building (1897-1909) had on him.
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Alexander Fleming House
Episode 5 - 11-23-1988
Stephen Bayley, curator of the Conran Design Museum opening in 1989 argues, in the face of popular opinion, that Alexander Fleming House (Erno Goldfinger, 1962) in London's Elephant and Castle is a building worth preserving in its original design.
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Byker Wall
Episode 4 - 11-15-1988
Writer Beatrix Campbell visits the successful Byker housing estate in Newcastle, designed by Ralph Erskine in the early 1970s. It's an epic development - both monumental and modest, and Beatrix Campbell describes why it is such an ingenious design solution.
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Schlumberger Building
Episode 3 - 11-08-1988
Eva Jiricna -- the architect responsible for designing interiors for Harrods, Joseph and parts of the Lloyds building -- visits Schlumberger Cambridge Research (architect, Michael Hopkins 1984) and is enchanted by its modernity.
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Marsh Court
Episode 2 - 11-07-1988
Writer Jonathan Meades revisits Marsh Court, a private house-turned-prep-school designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1904 and with gardens by Gertrude Jekyll. Meades finds the place an ever-changing maze.
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Water Authority Pumping Station
Episode 1 - 11-01-1988
Architect Piers Gough looks at the brand new Water Authority Pumping Station on London's Isle of Dogs, designed by John Outram , that's good enough to eat in ...
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