A305 at CCA

Followers of this blog probably know I like architecture documentaries, such as ACB's informative half-hour features on modern and contemporary buildings. In 2016 I blogged about some overlap between those docs and my book 100 Years, 100 Buildings, but many of them were removed from YouTube after ACB's account was terminated. (I found versions of those docs elsewhere, but many embeds in that post are still broken.)

A series of architecture documentaries that shouldn't have that issue is A305, aka "History of Architecture and Design 1890–1939." According to the Canadian Centre for Architecture, which is posting the series on their YouTube channel, "Between 1975 and 1982, The Open University broadcast a series of televised courses on the genealogy of the modern movement: A305, History of Architecture and Design 1890–1939. Through twenty-four programs aired on BBC 2, the course team aimed to offer students and viewers a critical understanding of the intentions and views of the world that fueled the modern movement, and to present some of the alternative traditions that flourished alongside it."

As part of its exhibition, The University Is Now on Air: Broadcasting Modern Architecture (15 November to 1 April), the CCA is posting one episode per week. There are eight to date, all embedded below. As more are added to their channel, I'll embed those below. The next one will be tomorrow, so if you like the episodes, check back here every Friday for another one.

A305/01: What Is Architecture? An Architect at Work:


A305/02: The Universal International Exhibition, Paris, 1900:


A305/11 (thematically combined with 02): The International Exhibition of Decorative Arts Paris 1925:


A305/03: Charles Rennie Mackintosh: Hill House:


A305/04: Industrial Architecture: AEG and Fagus Factories:


A305/05: Frank Lloyd Wright: The Robie House:


A305/06: R. M. Schindler: The Lovell Beach House:


A305/07: Erich Mendelsohn: The Einstein Tower:


A305/12: Adolf Loos:


A305/08: The Bauhaus in Weimar 1919-1925


A305/09: Berlin Siedlungen


A305/10: The Weissenhof Siedlung, 1927


A305/16: Hans Scharoun


A305/13: Le Corbusier: Villa Savoye


A305/14: English Flats of the Thirties


A305/15: English Houses of the Thirties


A305/17: Wood or Metal? English Furniture in the Thirties:


A305/18: Edwin Lutyens: Deanery Gardens


A305/19: The London Underground


A305/20: Moderne and Modernistic


A305/21: The Other Tradition


A305/22: Mechanical Services in the Cinema


A305/23: The Semi Detached House


A305/24: The Housing Question