Our Favourite Buildings Kevin McCloud's Favourite Buildings

Date Published:

26/06/2008

Credit: Arcaid/Joe Cornish

The Gateshead Millennium Bridge To St Mary's Axe

Wilkinson And Eyre Architects
280 miles north of London is another iconic structure built to mark the new century. The brief was to design a bridge for pedestrians and cyclists that allowed large ships to pass underneath and that wouldn’t obscure the views of the existing bridges and didn’t obstruct the quayside. Wilkinson and Eyre Architects and engineers Gifford and Partners created the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, which does everything required of it plus so much more.

The bridge opens to allow ships through like the blink of an eye. It cleans up its own litter, and you can drive a 4,000 ton ship into it at four knots and it’ll just shrug it off, which is all very useful but the real trick is that everything this bridge does, it does with such beauty and grace. It symbolises a new spirit of regeneration in what is now one of Britain’s most vibrant areas.

Credit: Arcaid/Michael Harding

Battersea Power Station, London

Sir Giles Gibert Scott
It’s 25 years since Battersea power station stopped producing electricity, but that in no way reduces its impact on London, or its place in Londoners’ hearts

The power station started life in 1933, called simply Station A. At the time it consisted of just one chimney. Then, 20 years later and with much public outcry, Giles Gilbert Scott was asked to build Station B beside it and the iconic silhouette was born. Scott’s job was to try and make the structures being built by the London Power Company more appealing, and here it’s certainly worked. Decorative brickwork was literally hung off a steel frame in exactly the same way that skyscrapers are built.

The power was turned off in 1983, and after a failed attempt to turn it into a theme park, a new plan to create an entertainment complex has been proposed. Meanwhile, Battersea power station slowly crumbles.

Credit: Arcaid/Joe Cornish

Royal Crescent, Bath

John Wood The Younger
Royal Crescent is probably the most famous piece of architecture in Bath, and you can’t help but see why. At 50 feet high and 500 feet long, it has a huge visual impact, strengthened by its simplicity of style. 30 elegant and exclusive houses, designed by John Wood the Younger, sit in an arc overlooking parkland. Completed in 1774, the Royal Crescent is a celebration of Georgian architecture and it remains every bit as stylish today.

But then architecture was in Wood’s blood. His father was the city’s chief architect, responsible for some of its best known streets and buildings including the north and south parades and Queen’s Square. Wood the Younger was determined that Royal Crescent would be a masterpiece of uniformity and grace. I think he achieved them both.

Credit: www.britainonview.com

Ironbridge, Shropshire

Thomas Farnolls Pritchard
One iconic structure that it’s surprising to find on this list is the Ironbridge in Shropshire, and that’s probably because of what it represents as much as the pure beauty of the structure itself. Stretching across the River Severn, it’s both elegant and graceful, even more so when you consider that this was the first bridge to made entirely of cast iron, 378 tons of it to be precise.

Each section was custom-cast as the bridge was built, and the whole structure only took three months to complete. What’s more, there wasn’t a single injury in the process which even today would be quite an achievement.

The bridge is also an icon of the industrial revolution and rightly takes its place amongst the most iconic of British architecture.

Credit: Arcaid/Richard Bryant

St. Mary’s Axe, London

Foster And Partners
It probably won’t come as too much of shock to discover that the iconic building to receive the most votes was London’s other curvy, feminine building, St. Mary’s Axe. Or, as it’s more affectionately known, The Gherkin. At almost 600 feet, this is London’s first ecological tall building. Light wells carry natural light deep within the building, and a unique cooling system opens and shuts windows to reduce the air conditioning required. Cleverer still, its shape stops the building being too overbearing on the London skyline, and at street level the design allows a public plaza and better views of surrounding buildings.

All of these attributes make St. Mary’s Axe a potent addition to the city - 600 foot Faberge egg made up of over 5,000 pieces of glass.