World Architecture Community has released its tenth exclusive documentary exploring the Lowry Arts Centre in Manchester and Herzog & de Meuron-designed Tate Modern Arts Museum which are the two major projects supported by the British National Lottery's fund. 

The new episode also elaborates Millennium Bridge in London designed by Foster + Partners and Sir Anthony Caro and Arup. WAC releases a new documentary each week on Fridays as part of WAC's exclusive Life & Architecture series. 

In 1990s, 7.3 million pounds gained from lotteries in Britain in the last seven years was funded to projects on fine arts, sports, preservation of national values, education and environment. Among those built with these grants are Cardiff City Stadium, Covent Garden Opera Hall and Tate Modern Arts Museum which are pretty expensive examples. 

The Lowry Arts Centre, located at Salford Quays, Salford, Greater Manchester, was designed by Michael Wilford, who is the ex-partner of James Stirling who died in 1992. Construction was started in 1997 June and took 34 months to complete. The 23,350-square-metre building was inaugurated on 28 April 2000. The project received over £21 million of funding for its construction by The National Lottery.

Tate Modern Arts Museum is housed in the former Bankside Power Station. Th station was originally designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, the architect of Battersea Power Station. In 1994, the Tate Gallery announced an international competition to transform former Bankside into a new home of the new Tate Modern. 

Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron was selected to design the new Tate Modern Arts Museum located in the Bankside area of the London Borough of Southwark. Construction started in 1995 and the £134 million was completed in 2000. 56.3 million pounds of this amount was covered by lottery funds. 

WAC has launched Life & Architecture documentary series to give a detailed and in-depth look at many key buildings of contemporary architecture. The exclusive documentaries, captured from the 1990s, present an outstanding virtual journey throughout the buildings. 

Each documentary or episode features the buildings' distinctive features and the design stories of such important commissions narrated with exclusive interviews with architects, commissioners of the projects and project leaders. 

As the documentaries had been recorded for a Turkish television in 1990s, all the videos are presented in Turkish language but featuring English subtitles. However, the series are not outdated, on the contrary, these documentaries have a very high archive value to recapture the essence of the buildings. 

Amongst the many projects supported by the fund, the Lowry Arts Centre in Manchester and the Tate Modern Art Museum and Millennium Bridge in London are shown in this episode.

In a 20-minute documentary, you will have a close look at the Lowry Arts Centre, Tate Modern Arts Museum and Millennium Bridge with their design stories. 

WAC releases a new documentary each week on Fridays. WAC's new documentary will be posted on Friday, July 10, 2020 on the website and on WAC's Vimeo page.

WAC's tenth documentary: Pioneering of British National Lottery Administration

WAC Life & Architecture credits:
Presenter: Özlem Gürses, Editor
Technical Director: Andreas Treske

Image © WAC