All language subtitles for Este a Ver

[stirring music]

Narrator: Locked up and unloved,

the old Commonwealth Institute

in London's fashionable
Kensington

faced an uncertain future.

Opened in 1962
as a permanent showcase

for the countries
of the Commonwealth,

its unusual design proved costly
to maintain.

So costly that in 2004,
the building was closed.

By then, this landmark
on Kensington High Street,

with its unusual roof,

had been listed Grade II#*.

English Heritage called it

the second most important
modern building in London,

after the Royal Festival Hall.

Now, it has a new life,

as home of The Design Museum

with the exterior masterplan
handled by OMA

and the interior crafted

by one of Britain's greatest
minimalists,

John Pawson.

- You can never
please everybody,

because of course
there were people

who loved the Commonwealth
Institute as it was

and so didn't want
anything changed.

And then there are people
who realise that...

that by saving it,

and...and retuning it
for the Design Museum

was perhaps a good thing.

[stirring music continues]

Narrator: Perth,
Western Australia, 2011.

The Queen is opening
the Commonwealth

Heads of Government Meeting.

She has a particular passion
for the Commonwealth,

the organisation that ties
together 53 countries,

many of which
were part of the British Empire

when she was crowned in 1953.

Five years after
the Queen's coronation,

the old Imperial Institute

was renamed the Commonwealth
Institute

and it commissioned a building

where Londoners
could find out about life

in those far-off lands coloured
pink in the school atlas,

that the Queen
made it her mission to visit.

The London building
was designed by

Robert Matthew Johnson Marshall
and Partners

at the south end
of Holland Park,

under a swooping paraboloid roof

made from 25 tonnes of copper
donated by Northern Rhodesia.

The Queen opened it in 1962.

But there were problems,
leaks being one of them.

As the memory of Empire faded

and the Commonwealth matured,

the Institute
began to look old-fashioned.

And it was costing millions
to maintain.

So, controversially,
it was sold to developers,

with permission to use
some of the land

for apartment blocks,

as long as the 1962 building
was kept.

The scheme wasn't popular
with some conservationists

but at least
the Institute would survive.

With a new occupier,
The Design Museum.

And, in the year that the Queen
made her last trip Down Under,

the man who founded
the Design Museum,

Sir Terence Conran,

gave £17.5 million
of his own money

to realise a dream.

Terence Conran
is burying a time capsule.

It's been a long road
from the early days

in the basement of the V & A
to this site,

right in the heart
of London's Cultural Quarter.

And Conran hopes
it will send a message.

- Really, the most important

thing for me

is that it should
persuade government

of the importance of design.

And how important it is
to put engineers

and entrepreneurs
and designers together

to create new industries,

making things
that the world wants.

Narrator: For many years,
the Design Museum lived

on a wharf in the Thames,

a stone's throw
from Tower Bridge.

A bit out of the way.

Terence Conran believed

that all this deserves
a wider audience,

an audience that, in Kensington,

may already have visited
the Science Museum, the V & A

and the Natural History Museum.

But moving to such
a prestigious area,

and adapting a 1962 building,
comes at a price.

£83 million.

The challenge has been given
to a man known for minimalism,

John Pawson.

- Everybody always thinks
of architecture

as being new buildings.

But actually,
it's a lot more than that.

And I think as time goes on,

finding a new use or retuning
great, um, existing buildings,

I think is probably
one way to go.

It was an exhibition space,

but it was an exhibition space
which of course

was to show the commonwealth
countries' products.

But of course
so they didn't need windows.

And of course the big difference
for us is that, you know,

I want people to be able
to easily orientate themselves

and know where
the front door was

[laughs] after they've been in.

So we've got windows.
It's an extraordinary space.

And to have it
in the middle of Kensington

is...was extraordinary.

I mean, you'd never be able
to build it today.

- Here in this parlour,
we've got the most...

the greatest single
concentration of museums

in the world.
And how delighted we are...

Narrator: Today is a milestone

for writer and broadcaster
Deyan Sudjic,

once the design and architecture
critic for The Observer,

who took over as Director
of the Design Museum in 2006.

It's taken a long time
to get here.

A lot of people
worked really, really hard.

But for me,
it's particularly wonderful.

I used to come to this building
as a child

when it was the most
modern interior in London.

It was a utopian dream
of what Britain might be.

And to bring it back to life
for a new design museum

is particularly satisfying.

It was a monument
to British engineering

and daring, one might say,
architecture.

And we're going to bring it
back to life sympathetically.

For a new use, of course.

This, to me,

is...really one of
the most fantastic days

of my rather long life.

And...the next three years,

when we make this ambition

to be the very best
design museum in the world.

Every city wants
a design museum,

it seems these days.

But this is where
creative Britain should lead.

Narrator: Fast forward
four years,

and the old
Commonwealth Institute building

is still a recognisable feature
of Kensington.

Now cured of its 1960s leaks,

and covering an exhibition space

that speaks not of the history
of Empire and Commonwealth,

but of design.

And that includes John Pawson's
own design for the interior.

[smooth jazz music]

- It's trying to...

to have a certain calmness,

so that you...you sort of
feel good when you walk in

and then...and things look good,

you know,
when it's a bit calmer.

I mean, it's the sort of
serenity, I suppose,

would be a word
you'd be after.

[smooth jazz music continues]

We were able to, I suppose,

bring a certain
domestic refinedness

to, you know,
a big public space.

So it... I think
when you walk in,

it has a calmness

and a certain, you know,
friendliness.

And, you know, and you
incorporate all those things.

I mean, one of the things
I wanted to do was, you know,

when you walked in,
you could orientate yourself

by seeing
wherever you wanted to go.

You know,
you could...you could...

and there was this incredible
vertical sense of space.

You know, because you see
the whole five floors

from certain vantage points.

Narrator: Pawson is in love
with wood.

He's chosen oak for the atrium

and, as usual,
paid great attention to detail.

The way the strips of wood meet,

how the wood interacts
with other materials.

And he was well aware

that too much wood
can overwhelm.

Pawson: I didn't want it to be,
you know, like a humidor.

You know, I mean, it's...

so there's still a lot of white.

But I mean, the main...
one of the main

things for me is that I tried
to have the white out of reach.

I haven't succeeded everywhere,
but you... So you'd... [laughs]

The paw marks aren't, um...

So that... I mean, that's one
of the reasons for wood,

and also I was able
to perforate the panels

so that they're acoustic
as well,

which makes the...
it more comfortable,

audibly more comfortable.

An architect works with,
you know,

various things for building.

I mean, building blocks,
material's probably

one of the most important,
and light.

And then...and then the others
like scale and proportion

and mass and things like that.

But material, yes, I mean,

my palette's never been
very big. [chuckles]

It's just two or three
different woods

and two or three
different stones.

Narrator: And does
the minimalist do justice

to the Commonwealth Institute
of old?

Yes, says the Design Museum's
Director.

- I remember coming
to this building as a child.

It was a compulsory
school visit.

And we thrilled at the sights
of the diorama

that...convey the finer points
of sheep shearing

in the case of Australia,

or the Inuit totem pole
and the snowmobile from Canada,

and the Sri Lankans
who, rather regrettably,

shot and stuffed a tiger
for their display.

And like many utopian buildings,

the roof leaked furiously

and the insulation
characteristics were terrible,

so as time went by,
the commonwealth decided

they would rather spend
their money elsewhere,

and left this building
as a landmark.

A modern landmark,
a modern ruin.

And again,
when I was a journalist,

then at the Observer,

I found myself actually
confronted with the glimmer

of the attempt by the then
Secretary of State Tessa Jowell

to have the building delisted

so the commonwealth
could flob off the land

as advantageously as possible.

And I am so glad that I actually
said it must be saved,

because four years later,

when I was trying to find a new
home for the Design Museum,

this seemed like
a very positive option.

[smooth jazz music concludes]

Narrator: At 70, John Pawson,

born in Halifax,
educated at Eton,

can reflect on a career

as one of Britain's
most sensitive designers,

a man who reduced architecture
to its minimalist form

and played with light, mass,
rhythm, scale and proportion.

[uplifting orchestral music]

He started his practice in 1981

and attracted attention
in the early 1990s

for taking a Victorian
town house, his own home,

and replacing the interior
with a homage to minimalism.

- My father
was an architect [indistinct].

I mean, he...he was always,
um...

had friendly architects that
he was drawing up plans with

and so on. So home was...

..you know, the... There was
that sort of feeling about it.

But yes, it's strange.
I mean, I remember...

you know, odd things.

You know, odd spaces in Halifax

and things that you'd walk into

and you couldn't quite
understand

why some places felt good
and others didn't.

I was trying to explain

or trying to understand
where something comes from

in your...DNA
or your background,

or why you ended up
being an architect,

why you ended up designing
as you do.

So you... It's all instinctive.

But then you go back to...
If people...

If you want to try
and explain to people why...

you know, as my sisters say,

"Why you turned out so weird,"
you know?

Narrator: His work
includes houses,

many of them
in extraordinary settings...

..churches - this is the church
of St Moritz in Augsburg

where Pawson re-organised
the interior

in his trademark
minimalist style.

A bridge,

ballet sets...

..even the interiors of yachts.

His is one of the few
architects' practices

to have been asked to design
and build an abbey.

When the monks from the Abbey
of Our Lady in Bohemia

turned up at his London office,

he thought it was
a practical joke

played by his staff.

It wasn't.

And since 2004, the Pawson team
has been working on a chapel,

a guesthouse and outbuildings

at this important site
in the Czech Republic.

It's all done, he says,
"with simplicity."

He believes, "Life has
a spiritual

"and a physical dimension

"and architecture
must seamlessly hold both."

The sort of quote
you might expect from a man

who, at 24,
left Yorkshire for Japan

to become a Zen Buddhist monk.

I had a dream of becoming
a Zen Buddhist monk

but, um, it didn't quite...

you know, I ended up teaching
at university, though, so...

My mother's Methodist background

and, um... primitive Methodist
that...

I think she always wanted me
to be a missionary.

Um, she wasn't...expecting me
to sort of go somewhere fancy,

you know? [chuckles]

She just wanted me to do it
sort of modestly.

[siren wails distantly]

You know, you try to work
at something

so that nothing is done really
for effect,

or, you know, you...

I think everything
has to have a reason,

you know, behind the design.

It's hard work,
and you sort of, you know,

grind away at it and hopefully,
you know, it works.

I've been lucky to be able
to have done,

you know,
such a mix of buildings.

I mean, to...you know,
to do the churches

and the monasteries is,
you know,

isn't open to every architect.

I mean, I've been incredibly
lucky to do that.

And then you have
the domestic houses

and the stuff.

I mean, designing things
to go in those buildings.

It's not that I want...
I want to control everything,

per se, but I...

it... these small things
do affect the atmosphere,

and, you know, and the way
you feel about places.

[birds tweeting]

[gentle music]

Narrator: Most architects look
to those who went before them

for inspiration.

For John Pawson,

it was the German-American
Mies van der Rohe,

one of the pioneers
of modernist architecture,

who coined the expression
'less is more',

an idea given expression
through designs

like the Farnsworth House
near Chicago,

built just after
the Second World War,

and rescued in 1972

by Arts Council Chairman
Peter Palumbo.

- I did have a day there

which was absolutely amazing,

and Peter Palumbo
had organised it.

And they had a housekeeper
or a woman that looked after it,

and we arrived in the morning,

and you know,

she was very welcoming
and quite talkative.

Very, very talkative.

And so I thought, "What on earth
am I going to do?"

Because I just...you know,
you just couldn't...

absorb the atmosphere,
because of this sort of...

You know, she felt the need
to not have any silence.

And so I said, I said to her,

"Oh, maybe we should all have
a minute's silence

"in memory of Mies."

And what was brilliant
is she took that on board

more seriously
than I could have hoped.

And... [laughs]

So it took a, you know,

an hour to break the silence,
which was great.

I would say there are no heroes,
but, um...

But I'd say he's about
as good as you...you can get,

I think, in architecture.

I mean, extraordinary.

I mean, the body of work

and the dedication
and the talent.

I mean, huge, massive.

Massive.

That idea of pushing it
to the ultimate,

but in a way that
the craftsmanship and the...

and the atmosphere
and the pleasure you get

from being...
and the proportion.

Because that's what you
never get from the photographs,

when you go to France
or visit the...

The staircases are so wide
and the...

and it's so deep, you know.

It's... No,
it's quite a dream, really.

Narrator: Pawson's admiration

of Mies van der Rohe's
minimal aesthetic

shines through in his work.

But small houses are one thing.

Museum galleries, quite another.

John Pawson has worked
with exhibition spaces before.

In Berlin in 2016,

he transformed
a Second World War

telecommunications bunker
into an art museum.

By then, he had completed
London's Design Museum interior.

His practice may not be
very big,

but it's prolific.

He says he's not much
of a sketcher,

relies on others in his practice
for computer-aided design,

but does like making models.

And it was a model
he brought with him

to the competition interview

to land the job
at London's Design Museum.

When we were doing
the competition,

um, I mean,
it was quite stressful.

I mean, it was...it was
an incredible field.

And so, you know, and...

Anyway, I remember it got down
to sort of the short list

and Catherine and I,

she had kindly driven me
with my model of the scheme.

And...and then...

And then there was
another architect before me,

and he had a huge van
with six assistants,

[laughs] who got out this
huge...

and I thought,
"Oh, [muted]" [laughs]

'Cause his was magnificent,

and I thought, "Oh..."
You know.

So I... [laughs]

Anyway.

Interviewer: But you got it?
- Yeah, I got it, which was...

Yeah, I was...yeah.

It was, um... It was quite a...

You know, it was quite
an investment, emotionally.

[easy guitar music]

- I think that why we chose John

is that we have a powerful
building with this roof.

We have a very active,
vibrant campaign of exhibitions.

And we wanted an architect

who could gently bring
the building back to life,

to dispel that sense of failure

without inserting
their own ego into that.

And I think John has actually
very beautifully created

a building inside a building

with this sense of quiet calm.

It's a platform.
It's a very welcoming space.

I think museums have a future
because they are a social space.

They're a place
in which you have a reason

to switch off your computer

and go and do something
with others.

And people actually immediately
understand and respond to that.

They've arrived somewhere
which is for them.

Obviously when you...
when you've got a clean slate,

it's a different...
it's a different ballgame.

But I think half the work we do
is retuning existing buildings

and learning from them,

and trying to do it
in a sensitive way,

but you can never...

you can never sort of
please everybody

because of course
there were people

who loved the Commonwealth
Institute as it was

and so didn't want
anything changed.

And then there are people who
realised that by saving it

and...and retuning it
for the Design Museum

was perhaps a good thing.

We wanted to retain this
openness in that central atrium

and we very much wanted people
to have this

amazing views of the roof.

So that's how we kept
the sort of circular route

through the building,

the way in which
from any part of that centre

you can see the beautiful
shape of the roof,

and actually the building
reveals itself to you.

It was a long process.

From beginning of the project
to the end,

it took about eight years.

We had the benefit of working
with amazing architects

who were very sensitive to this
pre-existing architecture

and who worked with us
to redefine it

for the Design Museum.

And so what you see today
behind me

is this spectacular building,

with this warm oak panelling
that surrounds us.

And that gives it
this feeling of warmth.

That feeling also
that it's a building for you.

A building for people to come,
er, feel at ease with.

You can mill about,
sit down on the steps,

on the benches, have a rest,
be with your friends

and take in
the beautiful architecture

and then make your decision

as to what exhibition
you're going to go and see,

the permanent display,
or attend a lecture

if that's what you want.

I think what we were really
trying to do

was to make a building

that was open to the public
and inviting.

[smooth funky music]

We were very much taking this
reinvention of the building

and of the museum
as a design project,

so we were very focused
on our user.

Who is this for?

We wanted to be very welcoming

and we know that
for people to feel at ease,

for people actually
to enjoy an exhibition

or learn something,

first, they have to feel
comfortable.

They have to feel at ease.

If you don't give that,

then there's no hope that you
can get to the next level of,

"OK, now I'm going to go and see
the exhibition

"and learn something."

[smooth music continues]

We try and tell the story
of design

to those who don't really know
what design is,

just to make the point that
it's not a specialist subject,

because design
is everywhere around you.

It's the teacup that you have
your tea in the morning.

It's the telephone that you use

and you can't live without
today.

It's the...the cars,
it's the buildings you're in.

All of this is design,
so we're presenting that story.

And then we have gallery spaces

where we go
into more specific subjects.

And we look at the visions
of the home

actually looking at visions
from the past.

And what the past tells us about
the day in which we live today

and how technology
has completely revolutionised

the way in which we live.

We have in our homes
smart objects

that listen to us all the time.

We give away
a lot of our privacy.

We live completely mediated
by screens.

Actually, all of this, designers
of the '50s and '60s imagined.

So, where do we go from now?

From now,
where spaces in our home

seems to be shrinking
and shrinking.

What's the new challenges?

Narrator:
It's impossible to cover

every innovation in design
in a building of this size,

so the curators and John Pawson

have had to make
difficult choices.

But underpinning all this

is the philosophy
of Terence Conran,

who is credited with getting
Britain thinking about design

and who has always had
a clear idea

of what constitutes good design.

♪ Setting the trends ♪

♪ Making friends ♪

♪ Each day ends
like the last... ♪

- We all accept as designers

that style is important

for bringing the goods
to the marketplace

and making them fashionable
and, you know, of the moment.

But we slightly sneer at it,

something that is, you know,
an object

and then an arbitrary styling
is slapped all over it,

to me is rather fake.

British style
or British character.

Straightforward.
Don't mess it around.

Show it as it is.

♪ Setting the trends ♪

♪ Making friends ♪

♪ Each day ends like the last ♪

♪ Hitting the heights ♪

♪ The bright lights ♪

♪ Getting faster ♪

♪ Living for kicks ♪

♪ Gotta mix with the chicks ♪

♪ It's a bore ♪

♪ Men in the air ♪

♪ We don't care... ♪

- And I'll always remember
when we opened Habitat,

which I did because
as a furniture maker,

I was very frustrated about
the fact that I couldn't get

any public distribution
for my furniture.

So I thought,
"Well, I'll open a shop

"to show that there really is
a demand for it."

We wanted to sell to you

because we knew that
if we put it in front of you,

then you might say,
"Oh, I really like that

"and I can afford it."

But if we went through a buyer
in a department store,

they, "Oh, no,"
you know, never like that.

"No, no, no, no."
And so we opened our own shop.

All the other retailers
from Glasgow and Manchester

and Liverpool and so forth

came to have a look

and they said, "It's alright
in swinging London.

"It'll never go
in Manchester area."

And I suppose something
in that sort of...

you know, cynicism

made me think, "Well,
we'll bloody well show them

"and take it up there."

And of course, you know,
what they hadn't recognised

was the...was this big change
in the UK.

People beginning to travel,

go round the world,
see other things.

And they wanted
a different sort of life.

- Britain's one of
the first countries

which built
an industrial economy

on the fact that
it was fascinated by

how we use design
to make technology work

in ways that work for people.

And that's something
that was around at the time

of the Great Exhibition of 1851.

It's what was going on
when William Morris

set up Morris & Company.

It's what was actually behind
the starting of

the Royal College of Art
not so far down the road.

And Britain has actually been
really good at these things.

I mean, Terence,
as many pioneers are,

feels sometimes that, um,
his efforts fall on

sometimes resistant ground.

But I think Britain is actually
an extraordinarily fertile place

for design.
We can't rest on our laurels.

And I think one of the reasons
to open a museum

is to actually inject that.

We inject that sense of,

"Britain is at the centre
of these things."

I wouldn't say this is
a museum of British design.

I think this... It's hard to say
what British design is.

I think one actually talks more
about designed in Britain,

because this is a city...
this is a country

which welcomes people
from around the world.

Great designers
come to learn here

and they stay here
and that actually adds

to the richness of the community

that there is
in that world here.

Narrator: For Sir Terence,

the old Commonwealth Institute
in Kensington

is a dream come true.

The old Design Museum
at Shad Thames was popular,

but visitor numbers
at the new Design Museum

are in a different league.

I've always thought that design

is too interesting
and too complicated

just to leave to people
who wear Japanese suits

and have complicated haircuts,

so I've always felt
that this stuff matters,

and it's a way really to
understand the world around us.

It's not just what things do,

but it's what they mean
and how they're made

and what they mean to people
that we're looking at here.

- Where we are is a museum
of contemporary design.

We talk about what design does
and is,

but really how relevant it is
to our lives today,

and how it's going to shape
our future.

And the buildings that we build
create our cities,

and these are the cities
that we experience.

So if we build
efficient building,

then we're going to live
a better life.

If we build efficient
transport system,

then we're going to take care of
our environment and resources.

Conversely, if we don't...

Well, we're facing some
difficult choices very soon.

Narrator: The efforts of
Deyan Sudjic, Alice Black

and their teams have paid off.

The new Design Museum won

the European Museum of the Year
Award in 2018.

[stirring orchestral music]

So, here we are,

two years after the opening
of The Design Museum

and there's an opportunity
for those

who've lived and breathed
this project for over 10 years

to reflect how visitors
have used, and reacted to,

John Pawson's interior spaces.

For me, what John does

is he works incredibly hard

to let the architecture
blend in

and you don't even notice

all the quality, the research,

the focus that has gone into
creating the environment.

But bit by bit, you'll notice
those magical moments.

For example,
we have a main atrium

which is right here behind me.

But a little bit further out
in the corner,

there's a smaller atrium,
and you just happen upon it.

Now, this is a new atrium
that John created

because he wanted to evidence
the massive buttress

that goes through the floor

and connects to the roof above
and supports it.

It's like you move
in a little city

and you happen upon a piazza.

It's...it's just
a wonderful discovery.

The use of light
under the balustrades,

that really, you know,

guides visitor
around the building.

This is a concrete building.

It's a pretty harsh structure.

So bringing wood
into that building

softens that harshness
of the concrete.

And, you know,
the wood panelling all around

has got tiny little dots in it.

And this is to make it
sound absorbing.

So the acoustics is amazing.

That means that we've had
concerts in this building.

We've had performances.

And the stamina's just amazing.

People like to walk around

because from everywhere
around this atrium,

you can spot and spy
what others are doing,

and that's a lovely feeling.

So when we have events here,

it's such an amazing location,

because you can people watch

and you have a beautiful view

into what's happening
in the centre.

Narrator: For Deyan Sudjic,

the creation
of the Design Museum

is a personal achievement

that's brought
so many strands together,

his desire to give the museum
a wider audience,

his admiration for John Pawson,

he wrote a book about him once,

and his personal quest
to explain design.

Not to mention the opportunity

to be involved in the art
of architecture,

because, as a youngster,

he himself wanted to be
an architect.

I was too...I was too impatient
and too incompetent

to be an architect,

which is why I became
a journalist,

which gives you the sense
of instant gratification

of seeing something in print
or on the radio, on television.

But over the years,
I've been very fortunate

to understand that journalism
is essentially

a very selfish activity

where other people
are getting in the way

of your chance
to express yourself.

The museum and the things
I've done previously

are about creating a place
in which many people

can find ways
to do good things.

Doing this building has been
the most fun I've ever had.

Narrator: So, for Deyan Sudjic,
there's a reason

to celebrate architecture
in the new Design Museum.

And in its first years,
one of the main exhibitions

is of the work of the architect
Sir David Adjaye,

whose National Museum

of African-American History
and Culture in Washington

has won plaudits.

And, in this refined space,

what can we say
about John Pawson?

That he's the exact opposite
of the 'starchitect'.

That modesty and simplicity,

or 'serenity',
as he likes to call it,

have informed his career.

That the Design Museum
re-modelling

comes at a point in his life
where he's taking stock,

and when his contribution
to the life of the nation

is recognised in the Queen's
New Year's Honours.

He's been made a CBE.

Next stop, an investiture
at Buckingham Palace.

Good thing the idea of becoming
a Zen Buddhist monk

didn't work out.

- I'm 70.

And...you know, you...

I suppose
it's some sort of wake-up,

and...and...of course
I don't think I've changed.

You know, I think I'm,
you know, 30 looking out.

It's only when you catch sight,
you know, in the reflection

or...or you then...

But I've...
I have noticed recently

that people, you know,
being a bit...

There's a bit more deference.

Which is really worrying,

'cause it means obviously...
[laughs]

you're established or something,

but there is a body of work,
which is...

So I guess...

I mean, I've never been one
for thinking about legacy

or any of those other things,

but there is a body of work,
which, you know, is a broad span

and...and, um...

Yeah. I mean, it's...

It's, you know,
it's other buggers' efforts.

But I'm happy to be the focus.
[laughs]

Narrator: Next time...

We become accustomed
to steel and glass.

But one man continues to draw,
design and build

with older methods of materials,

in the classical style.

John Simpson,

a favourite architect
of the Prince of Wales,

follows in the footsteps
of Palladio, Nash and Adam,

to give the world a
new classicism,

which connects the future
with the past.

- What needed to happen

was actually to update
the tradition

and bring it
into the 21st century.

It's not just meet the needs,

but actually take society
forward.

Narrator: And now,

after years
of designing for others,

John Simpson has made a house
for himself.

But it's not
what you might expect.

- It's purely a matter
of making the whole thing work,

and finding ways of weaving
things and stories into it,

and giving it
a sort of much more...

Well, having fun, essentially.

Captioned by Ai-Media
ai-media.tv