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Saving Notre Dame documents the immediate aftermath of the devastating fire and the first-year efforts to save the cathedral from collapsing. Embedded with architects, archaeologists, engineers and all the special crafts needed to rebuild (carpenters, builders), this series captures unique human stories and bears witness to the progress and difficulties of this challenging mission.
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This program profiles the man responsible for some of the most triumphant architecture of the 20th century: architect I.M. Pei. He discusses the triumphs (and failures) of his career, and the primary artistic and intellectual influences reflected in the sweeping simplicity of his designs, from the Kennedy Presidential Library to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. Pei also talks about his more recent projects, as viewers follow him...
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From the sky, it resembles a serpent, a whale, a bulging vein or a river. From inside, it looks like a huge stained-glass window. Dreamed up by the experimental, provocative Israeli designer Ron Arad, whose playful furniture designs featuring rounded, sculptural shapes have made him world famous, this startling construction swells, curves and winds its way through Médiacité, Liège's gigantic shopping center, for over 350 meters. It is a covered...
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Deep in the Balinese jungle nestle 40 buildings of varying sizes - the bamboo campus of Green School Bali, founded by Americans John and Cynthia Hardy. The three-story main building, known as the Heart of the School, houses classrooms, offices, the school library and a huge playground. Made entirely of bamboo - no concrete, metal or glass has been used in the building framework, floors and ceilings, walls, tables and chairs - it an inspirational example...
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A free spirit of modernism, Sir Norman Foster has long been known for the brilliant way he brings natural light into the buildings he designs. This documentary explores the extraordinary range of work he has undertaken, focusing on the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, the Carré d’Art in Nîmes, Stansted Airport, and the Lycée Albert Camus in Frejus. The program also looks at some of Foster’s most recent projects, including the construction of the...
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An iconoclast with great reverence for the past, Frank Gehry is constantly breaking new ground. Experimenting with new and nontraditional materials, he has changed the vernacular of architecture and furniture design. In this program, architects, artists, critics, and Gehry himself discuss the symbolism, emotion, and spirit that invigorate Gehry’s projects around the world.
8) Beauty
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Dan Cruickshank explores the theme of beauty in architecture in this program, from the beauty of nature's simplicity to that of extreme ornamentation. Dan goes to Ittoqqortoormiit, Greenland, where he builds an igloo and learns about Inuit culture; Leshan, China, home of the ancient Giant Buddha, the largest of its kind; Russia's Catherine Palace, a masterpiece of Baroque architecture; the Sun Temple in Konarak, India, full of erotic statues that...
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From the top of its arcade to the bottom of its vault, the Cathedral at Amiens is virtually all windows-a truly remarkable feat for 13th-century engineering. This program thoroughly examines France's monumental masterpiece, an architectural hymn to the High Gothic in stone and glass. With height the dominant aesthetic aim, skeletal construction was carried to its precarious limit, creating a sunlit nave more than 140 feet high and capable of accommodating...
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More than 2,000 years ago, the thriving city of Petra rose up in the bone-dry desert of what is now Jordan. An oasis of culture and abundance, the city was built by wealthy merchants who carved spectacular temple-tombs into its cliffs, raised a monumental Great Temple and devised an ingenious system that channeled water to vineyards, bathhouses, fountains and pools. But following a catastrophic earthquake and a slump in its desert trade routes, Petra’s...
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After the First World War ended, the parish priest at Le Raincy decided to build a new church to honor fallen soldiers. But the country was ruined and the clergy's coffers were empty. Architect Auguste Perret took up the double challenge of urgency and budget. Building quickly and cheaply at that period meant building with reinforced concrete-a material considered shameful and only fit for industrial use. Thirteen months of work on site was enough...
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Commissioned to build a public facility that combined a library and art gallery in 1995, Toyo Ito finally completed his new concept of architecture, the Multimedia Library of Sendai, in 2001. With his 50m by 50m glass cube, Ito proposed a transparent cube through which thin floor plates float suspended on organic-looking seaweed-like "tubes" that reinforce the "immateriality" and the lightness of the building. Ito expanded his mandate for a barrier-free,...
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Sainte-Geneviève library in Paris is now considered a milestone on the path of neoclassical architecture to modern architecture of the twentieth century. Learn how the architect, Henri Labrouste, designed the building to accommodate books and large numbers of people studying and reading, and to express his ideas about libraries, learning and architecture.
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Istanbul’s magnificent Hagia Sophia has survived on one of the world’s most active seismic faults, which has inflicted a dozen devastating earthquakes since Hagia Sophia was built in 537 AD. As Istanbul braces for the next big quake, a team of architects and engineers is investigating Hagia Sophia’s seismic secrets. NOVA follows the team’s discoveries as they examine the building’s unique structure and other ingenious design strategies that...
16) Carlo Scarpa
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This beautifully photographed program, filmed on location in Italy, pays tribute to this renowned Venetian architect, famous for combining classical and modern architectural forms. Scarpa's unique ability to successfully incorporate his own designs into historical renovation projects is shown at several locations, including the 15th-century Castelvecchio in Verona and Palazzo Abatellis in Palermo. Brion Memorial-one of the great enigmas of modern...
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Combining interviews with leading architects, historians, and conservationists with location footage from all over Europe, this program examines the Modern Movement in architecture, from its emergence after World War I until World War II. The first half of the documentary explores the movement's origins and ideology, spotlighting the Bauhaus in Germany, Le Corbusier in France, the Functionalists in Holland, and the Constructivists in Russia. The second...
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Unveiling the man behind the myth. Five hundred years ago, Michelangelo created three of the art world's greatest icons: the statue of David, the painted ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican and the dome of St. Peter's in Rome. This revealing drama documentary traces his development from angry young man to pride of Rome. His prodigious talent has led people to describe him as more divine than human. Modern experts reproduce elements of his...
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The garden is an architectural art form as well as a mirror of man's relationship with nature, and as exemplary of the style of an age as its literature or art. This program follows the stages of Western civilization as it explores the various styles of gardens through the ages.