On BBC2 last night with Dan Cruickshank.

Did anyone see it? I found it really interesting and some of the buildings created in the 1920s and 30s could have been models for those we have seen in Grand Designs.

Particularly impressed with the building in Russia and the use of space, different windows, round tower, etc.

It reminded me also of a previous programme I saw a few years ago about Frank Lloyd Wright.

So, what IS new?

New is what can be achieved with modern technology and materials available today.

Many people say that the failings of some of the early modernist houses were because they were too ambitious, a bit before their time.

Building houses to suit the way we live in the 21C should be the priority, aesthetically pleasing and a pleasure to live in.
The former of course is subjective but as pastiche accounts for the majority of new homes then we should argue to have more choice.

Did you see the next programme on BBC 4 at 10 pm 'Living with Modernism? It was really interesting too, involving looking around a house built by the architect who designed Centrepoint in the 1960s.
It had a Hyperbolic paraboloid roof!
Try saying that after you've had a drink or two!

I am bringing this back to the top again as the second was on last night.

Imagine Grand Designs being revisited in 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 years time and people who have actually lived in the houses talking about it. He has a different style but I am finding it fascinating. I am also impressed he does not feel the need to recap throughout the programme.

Spongemum - I did not watch the programme afterwards but wish I had from your description.

I saw the end briefly where he was in Park Hill Flats in Sheffield, It was ironic how he was saying how run down and dangerous it felt and high rise was so austere, but look at any major city at the moment and high rise is all you see! I wouldn't walk around some of the new flat developments in Central Leeds alone at night and these are all lived in by people earning thousands.

It's not the architecture that killed Park Hill it's the residents, when it was finished the residents loved it (my nan had relatives who lived there) and it was a far cry from the back to back slums they replaced.

Once Urban Splash finish their improvement work people will be clamouring to live their again.

I watched the program.....nothing we didn't know already really.

Architects building concrete battery hen type accommodation for the masses to relieve the slum house clearance.
What they forgot was Community Spirit,Vandalism unsocial behaviour and decay and lack of repair investment would kill the dream of this type of development.

They showed those flats just after they had been completed and the residents loved them. They really did treat them as 'streets in the sky' and the children did use the play areas. Having watched 'See No Evil' over the weekend, it struck me that maybe the Moors Murders had a lot to do with that kind of development not working, having the children playing in a central area like that just wasn't safe. I grew up in Manchester in the 1960s and the grown ups were shocked and very wary once that case hit the headlines.

But back to this BBC2 show, that is what I am finding really interesting, old news reels showing and interviewing people who are living in the properties. And what has struck is how many of these modern designs are being used again in Grand Designs.

"Living with Modernism" was fascinating. Cruikshank does not need to continually recap, COS IT'S ON THE BBC and there are no breaks. C4 seems to think it's viewers do not have the memory span of a commercial break and insist on recapping after every break AND IT IS VERY ANNOYING.

I was born and brought a very short way from "NEW WAYS", the modernist house built for Bassett Loake in Northampton, whose previous residence was a tiny Georgian terrace in the town centre which is also of interest, as he had Charles Rennie Mackintosh completely redesign and refurbish the interior. Now open as a museum and visitable by appointment. Odd, when I return to the old town just how many interesting buildings survive - which I took no notice of as a kid.

What is it with us Brits? Why have so many had cosy nostalgia running through our veins for generations? When the US and continental Europe were embracing Art Nouveau we were building pastiches of what had gone before over the past 3 centuries. Cruikshank's examples were the exception rather than the rule.

And we're still at it. Whilst you see fantastic, modern, high density housing estates all over Benelux, Germany, Scandinavia (try the route into Eindhoven from the airport), here Bryant, Countryside et al are busy sticking up hideous little copies of Arts & Crafts, Victorian, Edwardian, Georgian all over the green belt (funny - never Deco though). If you like period houses (which I do) then buy one. If you like modern (which I also do), don't, unless you can afford to commission something from an architect that looks like it actually belongs to this century.