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Dan Cruickshank's Adventures in Architecture

Season 1
What influence has architecture had on history and culture? And do buildings reflect the personality of a nation? Historian and writer Dan Cruickshank celebrates architecture as a creative force as he explores the world's greatest cities, buildings and monuments in this compelling documentary series. He travels the globe visiting incredible structures that have left an indelible mark on humanity.
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Episodes

  1. S1 E1 - Beauty
    April 11, 2008
    50min
    TV-MA
    What makes a building beautiful? In this fascinating documentary, historian Dan Cruickshank explores how humanity has created incredible beauty through architecture. He travels to Greenland to build an igloo, creating an architectural form that is under threat due to climate change. In China he scales the world's biggest Buddha and deciphers a temple in India rich with erotic images.
    Free trial of BBC Select
  2. S1 E2 - Death
    April 8, 2008
    51min
    TV-MA
    Since mankind created its earliest structures, death has always had a profound influence. In this documentary, Dan Cruickshank travels the globe to explore how different cultures have created architecture inspired by mortality. In the Czech Republic, he finds a chapel decorated with human bones. Even more shocking are the Yaxha Mayan pyramids in Guatemala, the sites of brutal human sacrifice.
    Free trial of BBC Select
  3. S1 E3 - Paradise
    April 15, 2008
    50min
    18+
    Images of the afterlife have been an important architectural ingredient for centuries. Dan Cruickshank looks at buildings that evoke the image of heaven across religions and cultures in this eye-opening documentary. In Egypt's Sinai desert, Dan explores the St Catherine Monastery, while in China he sees the Hanging Temple, an audacious Taoist temple that seems to dangle from a cliff-face.
    Free trial of BBC Select
  4. S1 E4 - Disaster
    April 22, 2008
    52min
    TV-MA
    Some of the world's greatest architecture has been forged in the face of adversity, terror and war. In this intriguing documentary, historian Dan Cruickshank explores buildings shaped and threatened by disaster. He makes a dangerous visit to the Minaret of Jam in war-torn Afghanistan while also exploring the role architecture can play in saving lives.
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  5. S1 E5 - Connections
    April 29, 2008
    52min
    TV-MA
    Community has always played an important role in our buildings. In this documentary, Dan Cruickshank sets out to reveal how architecture enables people to live together in all parts of the world. He finds vibrant communities in extraordinary buildings, but wonders why some prosper and others fail? His journey takes him from the super-rich inhabitants of Brasilia to the slums of Mumbai.
    Free trial of BBC Select
  6. S1 E6 - Power
    April 1, 2008
    45min
    TV-MA
    Buildings as gigantic statements of power have led to some of the most impressive structures on the planet. The fantasies of dictators, kings, sultans, warriors and the ruling classes are all exposed in this fascinating history documentary. Historian Dan Cruickshank explores the world's palaces of power in Romania, the Middle East, the American South, Turkey and Kazakhstan.
    Free trial of BBC Select
  7. S1 E7 - Dreams
    May 13, 2008
    52min
    18+
    Since building began, architects have tried to build the future, tried to build fantasy worlds, tried even to change humanity by replicating dreams in bricks and mortar. In this fantastic history documentary, Dan Cruickshank looks at the influence of dreams in construction. He discovers a city of skyscrapers made of mud in Yemen, while in a Philadelphia prison, dreams turned into a nightmare.
    Free trial of BBC Select
  8. S1 E8 - Pleasure
    May 20, 2008
    48min
    TV-MA
    How does architecture provide pleasure, both to its creators and to the people who enjoy the buildings today? As this landmark history documentary concludes, Dan Cruickshank wallows in the pleasurable by visiting one of the world's greatest and most luxurious hotels, the Taj in Mumbai. While in Germany, he explores a fantasy castle in the Bavarian mountains.
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Subtitles
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Cast
Dan Cruickshank
Studio
BBC
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