The Culture Show

Season 19, Episode 6

Episode Title: Episode 6: Tents - The Beginning of Architecture

Air Date: 2014-06-23

Overview:

All architecture begins with the tent. Tents are what humans lived in before we put down roots and began our love affair with bricks and mortar. And no-one is more obsessed with solid, heavy, permanent buildings than the British. To us, the tent is something flimsy and temporary that we will only endure bedding down in on rare occasions. But has civilisation - and architects in particular - unfairly overlooked the brilliant, efficient design of the tent? In an overcrowded world faced with a housing crisis and dwindling natural resources, could the tent be the answer? Tom Dyckhoff thinks it could well be.