96. Britain’s Most Beautiful Building: With Norman Foster and Stephen Bayley

Break Out Culture With Ed Vaizey by Country and Town House

This week we’re talking to Britain’s most revered architect, Lord Foster, and to the design guru and co-founder of the Design Museum, Stephen Bayley, about their quest to put beauty back at the heart of contemporary building. The registered charity, the Royal Fine Art Commission Trust, which Stephen chairs, staged its first ever Building Beauty Awards on Monday 21st November at the Stirling Prize winning Bloomberg building in the City – which Norman Foster designed. We discuss the winners across four categories: building, engineering, public spaces and little gems, the last designed to cheer residents and bring pride to a built neighbourhood.

This is a rare chance to hear two such prominent figures from the world of architecture and design discuss what constitutes beauty in new building today. Building beauty reaps rich award – the winners received £10,000, the joint biggest prize in architecture and a Portland stone rhodium-plated trophy created by the jeweller Theo Fennell – who was also one of the judges.

Tune in to find out who the winners of the prize were and to hear about the first Royal Fine Art Commission Trust International Building Beauty Prize at World Architecture Festival in Lisbon next week.