Meades, On the Brandwagon, 2007

our name is jonathon meats and this series is called abroad again it lifts the stones of British building to reveal the light Falls Nene look them hollows lonely highway of adventure so a broad again for a map of the future and of tomorrow's tomorrow may the 29th 1985 evening pal Avast Lafleur I was looking for a bar with a telly when I found when it was silent war Neela Madge was the score I asked the bloodshot psychopathic barman glared at me and the tonton d'amour Giusti see about 30 dead so far what [Music] then I realized the match hadn't kicked off in upon tender more chewy 30 people dead killed English this could turn nasty the hassle sation had its owners eyes spread across the floor like a crocodile no speak-o said the half-truth of my life a punter at the bar suggested that just because I was Scottish I wasn't responsible for what was happening at Hisle Stadium I agreed gratefully and I pointed out that Liverpool was no more representative of Britain than Marseilles then the race hate capital of Europe was representative of France but they're doing something about Marseille what are they doing about Liverpool they had the garden festival this was an astonishing li met with incredulity the Liverpool garden festival [Music] football apart Liverpool in the early 80s was notable for strikes militant riots and the loss of 20% of available jobs and ten percent of its population here was a city that was a basket case the city looking for cure Michael Heseltine Secretary of State for the environment swung into action the decades of decay are over on 250 acres in the heart of Liverpool we are building the finest urban industrial housing and recreational project in this country it wasn't an axe Hesseltine had the bright idea of solving all of Liverpool's ills with a 5-month pageant of horticultural excellence and spectacular entertainment his price idea was not his own it was over 30 years old the earliest bundes carton Shawon was staged in West Germany soon after the Second World War a steam or provoked Universal time to annoy accrues Frank mine Frigidaire these were the years of the German economic miracle when that vanquished country triumphantly entered the Golden Age of white goods seniors or states of man fidgety [Music] Heseltine put two and two together planting flowers would occasion the Scouse economic miracle the change in West Germany's fortunes had hitherto been ascribed to fiscal reform curtailing the money supply and exercising wage and price controls hydrangeas in bloom would evidently achieve so much more [Music] I think that after the festival is gone they'll be very suitable numbers and houses build a large lots of jobs respect upon the industrial sites where three and a half million people visited the Liverpool Garden Festival in 1984 yet astonishingly unemployment remained high per capita income remained low the Garden Festival was herve and massively influential in other ways it proved to be the foundation of a new industry or rather an industry which presented itself as new the regeneration industry [Music] Doug which is regenerated the global regenerative community is transforming our town potential izing its potential world-famous architect Frank Gehry has been invited to bring his Bilbao vision to dud which his Museum of bingo balls and Center for numerical leisure will regenerate the area where the bingo ball factory once stood incentivizing incentive it's an opportunity gateway water spanning solutionist Santiago Calatrava will transform dud which's canal water into the Venice of the West Midlands trailblazing connectivity it's an energy pathway architects town planners urban developers have spoken that which is regenerate I'm regenerating I'm regenerating unregenerate a Oh yo [Music] no one had previously ever heard of regeneration in the sense that it is use today it's inescapable what is it a job creation speed urban renewal by oblique means spin made stone rather spin made glass steel and titanium finger in the dike of post-industrial despair body and building in disguise [Music] comprehensive redevelopment reincarnated and given a name with spiritual connotation a sprat to catch a multinational gentrification with new bills the most telling expression of New Labour it's all these and more it's the greatest of contemporary gravy trains it's a bandwagon the bandwagon has been rebranded the bandwagon is now a brand wagon rebranding is a euphemism for euphemism call this a hallmark diversifier and it becomes something entirely different as early as 1988 the National Audit Office recommended that the Merseyside Development Corporation be wound up due to its having spent hundreds of millions to little effect how such effect is measured is the holiest mystery of the regeneration cult [Music] cost-benefit analysis is at best an imprecise pseudoscience and when applied to regeneration the National Audit Office was impotent against what is essentially a faith so regional development agencies multiplied this expansion shows that in regeneration results whatever they might be count for little beside flashy initiatives loud gestures and the guy'll procure public money in the first place [Music] [Music] regeneration is subject to crazes and again in the late 80s and early 90s it was Liverpool that just stated the aloes after the garden festival came the renovation of its dock buildings which had unsurpassed in britain by the work of Jesse Hartley who was not an architect with an engineer they are now overpriced apartments and shops selling useless knickknacks but these awesome structures are also visible reminders of what once was and now isn't a city's greatness [Music] their restoration was Retton to be a step towards bringing new hope to the city through presumably the Blair of Association but restoration is not some magic panacea that allows us to exhume the past and repeat old glories nonetheless we can still pretend the buildings must be found a role after all the post Protestant conscience will not allow architectural marvels to be preserved for sublimity sake they must be preserved for a social purpose for community we all know that community is sacred like our mission diversity and vibrant sustainability [Music] museum devoted to an industry that no longer exists situated in a building rendered redundant by that very non-existence this was certainly a quaint way of looking to the future still this charade of an approximate past and a collectively false memory did have the effect of safeguarding buildings whose continued existence that by no means been assured [Music] now the regeneration community grew and groove justice individuals become dependent on handouts soda places Liverpool is generously funded because has a tradition of being generously funded it breeds want these are a few of the agencies which require support Merseyside netway Merseyside construction initiative Merseyside d alliance Merseyside acne Merseyside partnership Merseyside pathways till the mid-1990s their work was predominantly reactive but worthy refurbishment smacked merely of patching up an exhausted fabric not of invigorating Pro activity not of modernizing [Music] contemporary photographs of Nazi Germany's Autobahn and show them deserted and so they were few folk had a car to drive on of course there are future military significance but more importantly these road building projects put people to work [Applause] 1997 was the year of New Labour's metric rifle here was a regime that like a tin pot dictatorship believed in state subsidies for athletes and in building to its own glory when the names [Applause] mundo Scott no Yuja are no longer recognized and his criminal folly in Iraq is forgotten among the hosts of preliminary skirmishes in the 21st century struggle between civilization and barbarism Blair's age the age of social Thatcherism will be recalled as much by its architecture as by its low dishonesty [Music] [Applause] there can be no doubt about what type of building will come to be regarded as almost parodic lee representative of this age a new type of structure characterized by its hollow vacuity by its sculptural sensationalism by its happy quasi modernism and by its lack of actual utility [Music] yet it possesses two definite purposes to be instantly and arresting ly memorable be extraordinarily camera friendly [Music] this type of structure is a soundbites visual analog sight bite [Music] the site bite may be an instrument of that fetish of new labor modernization the site bite may appear modern that is pastiche modern synthetic modern it's the antithesis of modernism one of whose shibboleths was that form should follow function now in the case of synthetic modernism form doesn't proceed function rather form is the function this is transgressive modernism its ornamental modernism 1997 the notion of a building is the three-dimensional load who has born the same year as New Labour's met to cry for wrong the notion of a building is a three-dimensional logo that's to say as the sign of a Creed or the symbol of an ideology or superstition predates 1997 by many thousands of years it probably predates the notion of a building a shelter for instance the Catholic Church sought to impress humble punters with baroque extravagance God's house was the house of a very rich man [Music] yes the floor does slope it helps the client to experience the holistic presence of God's mission initiative [Music] [Music] like Liverpool Bilbao was the near corpse of an industrial city with special needs rusting plant abandoned mills defunct furnaces empty docks high unemployment declining population [Music] unlike Liverpool it was actively separatist and violently nationalist it was perhaps turn is the heartland of Etta who scardy tar a scattered toner vast land for the Basque people this green organization of theirs was twinned with the ILA they're very similar but they do have differences Etta has always favored the olive balaclava which is moodier groove here and perhaps lends a certain grace to terrorism of course your murderous terrorism is my glorious struggle for independence neither however does much to attract inward investment or tourism [Music] first country is linguistically unique its sports are hi Ally tree chopping grass cutting [Applause] it invented Jakari and the Society of Jesus Bilbao has always looked out from the Iberian Peninsula and away from its Castilian dominated hinterland Athletic Bilbao was the colors of Sunderland and employs only bass players it was the most successful team in the Spanish league in the early 80s when and own egoic a chair known as the butcher was playing [Applause] but as Liverpool's much greater contemporary success showed football does absolutely nothing for a city's economy TV viewing figures would suggest that only 5% of the population is interested in football what is populist is not popular the past country is almost wilfully eccentric you eat Elvis with pimentón and garlic hate chicken salt cod peel peel both of which a wonderfully gelatinous salt cod fritters apple fritters sea urchins street urchins brains in batter cerebral the dalla calf muscle Bulls balls two sorts of horse the hacker Navarro and the bear Getty which have bred specifically for the table goose barnacles tripe with peppers black pudding white pudding grilled beef ribs forty sorts of hams sixty sorts of cheese the most succulent teretha imaginable Bremen cider baked Kidd braised boar this country is gastronomically linguistically and culturally insular hence its proud nationalism in large nations nationalism is always dangerous in small nations nationalism is always proud in small nations chauvinism to is permissible apparently yet the guggenheim museum bilbao's device for putting itself on the map was designed by a man who because he is Canadian would not be allowed to represent athletic bilbao he doesn't speak the language or play higher lie or bom madrid government offices further Frank Gehry's building makes no concession to where it is it looks as though it has been dropped on Bilbao the cookin Heim is the world's most important building of the recent past it screams deafeningly take my picture take my picture adding Sato but mind where you take it from take it from the sanction side like an ancient starlet it has a good side and it has to be lit just so it bellows look at me but what are we looking at apart from Australian titanium counterintuitive angles anti geometry and supposed allusions to Hulk's shipbuilding to whales are we looking at an item of American cultural expansionism for which the vast government paid a hundred million dollars much of it provided by the EU the promoter of regional autonomy are we looking at a monument to Frank Gehry's limitless self regard what we are certainly not looking at is a museum at the first second third or even fourth class or even fifth six but then the exhibits are entirely irrelevant the building is a success it's an xxx XL lump of sculpture what happens inside it is of no moment could have been an abattoir it could have been a call center it makes no difference what it purports to be its job is to be seen all over the world gary has designed an advertisement a perpetual marketing campaign if architecture is frozen music Gary is easy listening for those who despise easy listening talking heads in titanium [Music] what Bilbao has shown is that the word regeneration has to be made flesh so to speak has to be figuratively represented a new faith requires material expression Bilbao has also shown that regeneration breeds regeneration the Guggenheim was dropped on Bilbao it could have been dropped on anywhere indeed its many imitators have been dropped on anywhere on everywhere with indiscriminate enthusiasm Gary's scheme proved inspirational as soon as it was published let alone built we should not be surprised architects as zealous hunter-gatherers of inspiration in any era there exists a few exemplars each of whom attracts an army of acolytes or to use the technical term plagiarists [Music] regenerative cities replicate each other's buildings which is hardly surprising for they all commissioned iconic blue chip trackers from members of a small cadre of perpetually jet-lagged architects these the architects who are relentlessly copied the ones who set down the templates for our new Aegis monuments the monuments to ward to non-orthogonal geometry to spatial delinquency to magnifications of early 1960s product design remember the lighter shaped like of pebble to the infinite capacities of software to zoomorphic and geomorphic whimsy to a willful unorthodoxy which has of course rapidly become the new orthodoxy [Music] virtually indistinguishable buildings occur on every continent every building that has ever made has the potential to be a one-off but that opportunity is constantly missed the bespoke is being globalized not only architecture but the entire apparatus of regeneration is slavish in its adherence to fashion its signally ingrown the smooth-talking Veruca why should the strategy dreamed up for a basque city be considered appropriate for the north west of england the assumption that every post-industrial city is akin to every other post-industrial city is wrongheaded and insulting it omits all that is specific to a place the strategy was replicated long before anyone had had the opportunity to assess the benefits to Bilbao of the Guggenheim the cause was on the drawing board the effect was obviously entirely unknowable to the calibration community [Music] this is evidence as though anyone needed the what prompted development agencies to eight Bilbao was not the promise of an improvement in the quality of life but the covetous desire for a flashy building or a flashy bridge by Santiago Calatrava certainly Bilbao did get itself noticed and nine years after the Guggenheim was opened yet her laid down its arms which shows how efficacious it was [Music] [Applause] [Music] the Bilbao strategy is a 2k Lex initiative throttle first comes the sight bite of the three-dimensional logo the challenging focus the symbolic component designed by a world-famous architect who has never seen the location next comes the decision about what function to suture on some regeneration remedy creatives at work these guru guys who coalface at the coalface of armageddon decisions instead sighs tough paradigms and vision inclusions in big thought canopies they brainstorm like their fire bombing Dresden they go into deep spine submersion then they announce that the site bite will contain a museum and gallery and cultural logarithm with conference facilities for the regenerative community this is because the next stage of the initiative throttle is the proposition that a museum and gallery with cultural logarithm and conference facilities for the regenerative community is a catalyst for economic growth and social progress why a silly question because culture is good [Music] not old-style culture not Mozart Beethoven joy Shakespeare Goya fond of Aden our cell culture was not inclusive therefore it was elitist therefore it was bad [Music] but the new excessively accessible fun style fanarts they beacon integrated modernizing lighthouse revitalization for everyone faulting awareness gateways it doesn't matter whether you're so old you're old Alzheimer himself it doesn't matter whether you're so young you're in utero culture will springboard you into the happiness sector of course the arts a creation of Arcturus committees for public purposes are not art the arts are generalized artists particular this is art this is Sir Thomas Aston at the deathbed of his wife by John such a predominantly heraldic painter who spent his entire career in the northwest in Anna Ranchester every museum or gallery needs a painting such as this something which speaks to the small of the back the problem is there aren't enough of them to go around [Music] museums have to be filled or had to be their vessels or were the Guggenheim Bilbao has almost pioneered the museum of nothing now there's an idea the supply of vessels is outstripping that of the kit to stuff them with it has to be spread thinly and will be till this acceptance of the museum of heritage narrative rising the spectrum of heritage museum since heritage was invented in 1985 while the museum of toxic waste but we've already had that the Millennium Dome a routinely near modern building filled with Mandelson sanctioned trash in the pervasive reeked of McDonald's the proposition that art museums galleries theaters public sculptures and so on might be socially morally and economically useful is in other words nothing more than a belief a hope which can of course be dressed out to give its substance by the application of a delightfully bogus science called output measurement metrics this halt of statistical mirrors and reflective mendacity allows development agencies to spend public money as they wish yes the floor does slope it enables the client to experience the disorientation of war and it draws attention to the main exhibit the architects imagination that Daniel Liebeskind is rarely what's on show here he is evidently a far greater artist than Evanson or Wyndham Lewis and has persistently to remind us of the fact this is one of the best museums I've ever visited congratulations on a truly wonderful Museum recommended physical it's fascinating and very heart rating building all in all it's Guinness Imperial really is a lovely shellacked rather than fill your mind everyone should come and see us as I was saying it enables development agencies to claim that what is politically opportune possesses economically rational basis so culturally diverse handshake sheds multi-faith street furniture creative hub clusters vibrant cycle paths inclusive flag shipping lanes participation footfalls therapeutic tram shelters wholistic pudding churches these are all somehow written to be triggers of enterprise [Applause] will these oblique forms of intervention really prove more effective than the provision of say shelter to those who cannot afford the affordable health care for the needy subsidized jobs effective public transport such as say ultra speed which would cut the journey time between London and Manchester to 40 minutes what has happened to Greater Manchester since it got to cultural site bites within a few minutes walk of each other [Music] what are the wider social benefits of the Imperial War Museum in the north and the Lowry gallery because of inclusive culture curvy buildings and reinvigorated Docs most sites crack dens have turned into holistic dance workshops there are no longer drive-by shootings and killed the underage rent community no longer hawks its brawn at Victoria Station most members are now reading four degrees and development partnership studies the many graduates of Toronto's legendary Polytechnic of pimping and people-smuggling who plied their trade here are all retraining as urban Energizer's [Music] and I'm Napoleon although tomorrow I'll be Keith Harrison or Phil Manchester may have been rebranded as a knowledge capital whatever that means yet the city is obliged to run a crime and disorder reduction partnership managed by an executive partnership group whose work is carried out by the crime and disorder team the Manchester multi-agency gang strategy the youth offending team the drugs and alcohol strategy team and it still has the highest crime rate of any conurbation in the UK maybe that's what having two Premiership football teams does for a city [Music] maybe cultural determinism isn't working could it be that it says goofily optimistic as the architectural determinism of the welfare state a sort of nationalized noblesse oblige which combined good intentions with a belief that better housing would create better people [Music] [Applause] [Music] the presumption that humankind is improvable let alone perfectible by material means is as laughable as that which prescribes doses of participatory street theatre and 9 laboratories there has always existed an interestingly large minority whose instinct for self-preservation is so unevolved that it will trash its dwelling and piss in the lived it's a fact of life that the self-made get out of where they come from once upon a time in England they're not so much in Scotland it was to the outer suburbs and satellites in Manchester's case Hale oddly edged Knutsford today it's too shiny apartments and cooky houses it's mandatory to describe the old outer suburbs as leafy it's equally mandatory not to describe these places as suburbs at all remember euphemism literally speaking happily is a glass box trucker of regeneration these places our housing market renewal pathfinders the suburbs the 21st century suburbs the brownfields suburbs they're the most significant achievement of the regeneration lark the ideal English home throughout the 20th century derived at many removes from the bucolic cottage today if you've just loved freight at a hundred weight of speciality goods from Morocco or Colombia you head for a lifestyle solution that is exclusiva ties by representatives of the security community by representatives of the guard dog community even if you're not in the import business your expectations in this challenging new millennium unable to be different to those of your parents and grandparents the aspirational synthetic modern apartment is the cadmium coaxial of the souffle economy on which someone will one day open the oven door it is a product of design culture it draws on bar culture restaurant culture retail culture gallery culture museum culture culture culture it is designed by an architect it is built by an urban regenerator there is no longer such a thing as a builder's bomb it is an urban regenerators bomb which sports her suit cleavage with optional black heads for builders to call themselves regenerators is merely a laughable fear is the urban bit which is questionable these places may be within cities rather than on their peripheries but they don't belong to those cities they're not integrated they don't fill the space left by industrial plant they are alien growths within the body rather than on its skin and they completely overturn a century's association of topography with wealth those who can afford to do so used to flee the inner cities these new burbs are a sign of a momentous demographic shift the more we work in isolation from home the more we will crave cities the sites for interaction and pleasure the electronic cottage will not come to pass the electronic loft is more like it [Music] since the Industrial Revolution inner-city has but only in the USA in England been shorthand for poverty and neglect of children racial strife sexually transmitted diseases fencing stolen hubcaps and literacy used needles and losers poverty was to be found in inner cities wealth in outer suburbs cultural regeneration has turned all that round within a few decades inner-city Britain will come to resemble inner-city Europe in Manchester whedon glimpse the future what they will happen to the outer cities again will follow the European law this is suburban Liverpool the oblique processes begun by Michael Heseltine will indeed achieve the regeneration of inner cities the epithet in a city will cease to be used as shorthand for social woes but poverty drug addiction racial strife and so on will not go away the desperate and the dispossessed will always be with us they will merely move to the outer burbs victims of an economically enforced migration this is what adherence to the European model means no riots within the Ring Road [Music] Wow [Music] later tonight - problem dogs are given a second chance natural world at 9:00 coming next on bbc2 coast [Music] Wow [Music]

Channel: Paul Go

Views: 2,850

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Meades, On the Brandwagon, Abroad, Abroad Again, BBC, Documentary

Id: eWYXj0gDpE0

Length: 47min 34sec (2854 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 27 2019