(royal music) - [Narrator] Great public spaces have always been the measure of a healthy society, encouraging the development of and appreciation for the finer things in life, but the best city parks and galleries, the most popular stadiums and entertainment venues have always gone one step further in helping to foster a sense of civic pride.

These civic spaces are more than just feats of architecture or engineering, they are statements about a city, a society, a whole culture.

They are about the people who created them, the era in which they were created and the values of the communities they were built to serve.

(dramatic music) For millennia, town planners, civil engineers and civic architects have been trying to strike a perfect balance between form and function, creating spaces and places that not only resonate and surprise, but serve a purpose too.

(gentle Eastern music) The rulers of ancient Rome were renowned for the grandeur of the buildings they commissioned.

In particular, they took a keen interest in buildings designed for entertainment, buildings like the Circus Maximus, the go-to venue for fans of chariot racing, athletics and homicidal gladiators.

For the artistically inclined, there were places like the 5,000 seater Teatro Grande in Pompeii which staged theatrical productions.

The rulers liked these buildings because they showcased their wealth and power and just as importantly distracted an unruly public, better to have amused masses than a bloodthirsty mob.

These buildings also had a geopolitical purpose.

What better way for the Roman empire to impress its subjects than with an impressive piece of civic architecture?

A philosophy the Romans exported throughout their empire.

(gentle Eastern music) About 50 kilometres north of the Jordanian capital of Amman is one of the best preserved examples of Roman architecture outside of Rome.

It's called Jerash.

Jerash was all but completely destroyed by an earthquake in 749 CE and what remained lay hidden under the sands of the Arabian desert until 1806 when it was unearthed by German Explorer, Ulrich Jasper Seetzen.

Once restored, Jerash was recognised as one of the most impressive civic spaces in the Roman empire.

(upbeat Eastern music) Notable is Hadrian's Gate.

Built to honour the inaugural visit of the Emperor Hadrian in the second century CE, the gate was the entrance to a city dominated by avenue after avenue of stone columns.

Columns lined Jerash's streets, defined its temples and most spectacularly encircled the oval shaped forum or public square, where people gathered to trade, gossip and network.

The forum is one of the ancient world's great civic innovations and the forum at Jerash is a fine example.

(upbeat Eastern music) Jerash's main draw card though was the Hippodrome.

The word hippodrome derives from the Greek word hippo for horse.

So it's no surprise that the Hippodrome at Jerash was primarily the site of chariot racing and it was very popular too.

As many as 15,000 baying spectators would ring the Hippodrome's 265 metre long track.

And once the chariots had run their race, the Northern part of the Hippodrome was turned over to gladiatorial combat.

If chariots didn't appeal, there was always the Jerash Amphitheatre.

Meaning theatre on both sides, this amphitheatre held an audience of 5,000 in its 32 rows of stone seats and staged everything from plays to mime to song and dance spectacles, something which still persists today.

In Roman times, the building itself was something of a spectacle.

Although based on the Greek model, the Roman amphitheatre was more advanced.

Greek amphitheatres were usually built into a hill, but the Roman model was self-supporting and fully enclosed, meaning it could hold more people and the acoustics were much better.

As architecture, Jerash is a statement piece.

Through its civic buildings, the Romans are telling the people of Jerash who's in control, but also that there are benefits to being controlled.

When it comes to iconic civic buildings of the Roman era, the daddy of them all is surely in Rome itself, the Colosseum.

190 metres in length and 155 metres wide, the Colosseum was commissioned by Emperor Vespasian around 70 to 72 CE and opened to greater claim in 80 CE.

Designed as a sports and entertainment complex, the Colosseum was fashioned from travertine limestone, volcanic rock and concrete faced with brick.

But as with Jerash, the real point of the Colosseum was to show the 50,000 spectators who was in charge.

The Colosseum was highly segregated.

Of the 80 entry points, 76 were for the public and of the remaining four, one was for gladiators, but the other three were for the exclusive use of the emperor and members of Rome's elite.

The Colosseum was civic architecture as social stratification.

The so-called entertainment was varied, from gladiatorial contests to battle reenactments to plays, but the main game was always power.

One event, venationes, a spectacle featuring the slaughter of animals, was very popular, but very expensive to mount so would serve to highlight the wealth of those who generously sponsored.

Occasionally, criminals were publicly executed here, sometimes crucified or attacked by wild beasts, a warning to onlookers of what happens to those who didn't tow the Roman line.

For all its savagery and social inequality, the Colosseum did bestow something of lasting civic value, a blueprint for the modern sports stadium, a blueprint which has been replicated throughout the world.

One of the oldest stadiums still in use today is in London, the capital of England.

This is Lord's Cricket Ground.

Founded by Thomas Lord in 1787, Lord's Cricket Ground or Lord's for short is the home of English cricket.

As the birthplace of mass spectator sports, like cricket, football and rugby, England was always the likeliest venue for a revival of the stadium, none of which had been built since the decline of the Roman empire.

The idea of Lord's emerged in 1787, but it was only in 1812 after a few changes of location that Lord's settled on its present site.

And it wasn't until 1867 that the stadium started to resemble a stadium with the construction of a nine metre high, 53 metre long grandstand which clearly inspired by ancient Roman elitism also featured a private box for the Prince of Wales.

Since then, Lord's has grown into an impressive sporting arena and the spiritual home of English and world cricket.

The site is also home to the world's oldest sporting museum.

Housed in the former racket's court, the collection was established in 1864 and includes a wealth of cricketing memorabilia, including a bat signed by Australian cricketer, Donald Bradman, who has the highest average score of any cricketer in history.

But the most esteemed item in the collection is the Ashes Urn which symbolically commemorates England's first cricketing loss to Australia in 1882.

Granted, at 10.5 centimetres, the urn's stature is a little surprising, but make no mistake, among those who have followed the century old cricketing rivalry between England and Australia, its status is nothing short of iconic.

Museums play an important role in the civic life of many societies.

They spark curiosity, inspire self-reflection and in a very tangible way, bring us face to face with bygone times and cultures and no more so than here in Cairo, the capital of Egypt.

Amongst the largest cities in Africa, Cairo is a confluence of many cultures and many pasts.

Although a modern metropolis, it's architecture and culture still bear the stamp of earlier Roman, Arabic and Turkish influences.

But there is a deeper past in Cairo too, one that's found here at the Cairo Museum.

The Cairo or Egyptian Museum to give its formal name is an invaluable repository of antiquities from Egypt's foundational civilization.

Opened in 1902, the museum holds over 100,000 ancient Egyptian artefacts dating from as early as 5,000 BCE.

The star of the collection is the boy pharaoh Tutankhamun who ruled Egypt from the age of nine until his death at the age of 19 in 1324, BCE.

Included in the Tutankhamun collection is the golden chariot he may have been riding when he sustained the injury that ultimately killed him and his three sarcophagi, which would have fitted snugly inside one another like a set of Russian dolls.

Other significant treasures include the model of the boat he would have used to transport him into eternity and these marble canopic jars that contain his four vital organs, which would have been removed prior to the mummification of his body, and his exquisite gold throne, the back of which adorned by a relief featuring King Tut with his Royal wife and half sister, Ankhesenamun, who may have initially been married to her own father, a commonplace practise among the ancient royal families of Egypt.

Time itself has caught up with this extraordinary time capsule.

The museum is no longer fit for purpose and so the collection is moving to a more modern site.

Intentionally, the new site is right next to the Pyramids of Giza, whose ancient legacy the original Cairo Museum has done so much to preserve.

As human civilization has developed and grown, so too have its museums.

In Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, is the world's largest museum, The Smithsonian Institution.

Founded in 1846, The Smithsonian is actually made up of 19 museums, 16 of which are in Washington D.C.

with two more on the way.

The Smithsonian was the brainchild of James Smithson, a chemist and mineralogist who was deeply passionate about science and bequeathed his estate to the country for the increase and diffusion of knowledge.

And this day in accordance with Smithson's wishes, entry to each and every museum is free of charge.

The Museum of Natural History is a perennial favourite attracting between four and five million visitors a year.

Here, the public can explore how the Earth was formed billions of years ago and how it evolved through time to become a cradle of life.

Each and every exhibit is designed to spark curiosity and shed light on the rich diversity of our planet.

The Museum of American History near the Washington Monument houses an eclectic collection of memorabilia, everything from the red slippers Dorothy wore in "The Wizard of Oz" to Abraham Lincoln's stovepipe hat and the portable desk that Thomas Jefferson used when he wrote The Declaration of Independence.

The latter items are located in a large exhibition space that celebrates the glorious burden of the American presidency, the personal, public and ceremonial lives of the leaders who over the centuries have helped shape the national narrative.

By far the most popular exhibition under the Smithsonian's care is the National Air and Space Museum, which has dozens of aircraft on display, including the original 1903 flyer designed by the Wright Brothers to introduce powered, heavier-than-air flight to the world.

Several rooms within the museum celebrate America's history of space exploration.

In the Boeing Milestones of Flight Hall, visitors clamour for a chance to touch a slice of the moon, a sliver of rock procured during the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, the last time humans travelled beyond low earth orbit.

In the Apollo to the Moon display, there's a pressure suit worn by Neil Armstrong on the Apollo 11 mission and various helmets and gloves worn by his offsider, Buzz Aldrin.

There's also kind of creepily the preserved remains of Abel, the Rhesus monkey who was one of America's first spacefarers.

It's difficult to say what this collection of artefacts is worth, harder still to put a price on their value as they continue to inspire each generation to literally reach for the stars.

Humanity's need to be close to nature can never be overstated, particularly in the midst of the urban jungles we've built to accommodate our lives.

By 2050, 68% of the global population will be living in cities, but beyond the very basic provision of residential and office space, water and power, cities need art and culture to lift the spirit and nature to nurture the soul.

One of the oldest forms of civic green space found in cities all over the world is the botanical garden.

The first was created in Padua in Veneto, Italy in 1545 and remains to this day, an inspiration for others influencing not only their layout and design but the scientific disciplines upheld within their realm, the study of botany, ecology, medicine and pharmacology.

In the 19th century, glass houses became a popular fixture in botanical gardens and scientific institutions throughout the world.

The cost of glass at the time made them a luxury few individuals could afford so they carried a lot of status even in the civic realm.

They allowed scientists to grow all manner of exotic and native plants in temperature-controlled environments, initially for research purposes, but eventually to showcase the regal splendour that existed in the kingdom of plants.

And with it, a civic space of unparalleled beauty and public utility began to blossom.

With advances in technology, the design of glass houses has undergone a steady but radical evolution and none is more innovative or eye-catching than a pair of glass houses found in the city-state of Singapore.

This is Gardens by the Bay, a 250 acre theme park for the horticulturally-inclined and it's smack bang in the middle of one of the most intensely urban cities on our planet.

Costing a smidge under one billion US dollars, there are two separate glass houses.

The first is the Flower Dome, reputedly the largest glass greenhouse on the planet.

Covering an area three times the size of a football field, the column-free grid shell and arch structure was designed by an interdisciplinary team of local and international architects and opened to the public in 2012.

Sitting alongside the Flower Dome is the taller, some say better looking sibling, the Cloud Forest Dome.

In a fitting acknowledgement of their truly dazzling beauty inside and out, the domes won the award for the Best Display Building at the 2012 World Architectural Festival while the whole garden complex landed the site the highest global honour, the prestigious World Building of the Year.

The Flower Dome boasts well over one million plants and flowers arranged according to the continent and biome they represent.

The entire display is a tribute to the army of green fingers charged with keeping them alive in an artificial environment, everything from a 1,000 year old olive tree transplanted from the Mediterranean to these handsome cacti, which prefer their surroundings hot and dry.

Next door and replicating an environment at altitude, the Cloud Forest Dome is completely dominated by a 42 metre high mountain complete with its own waterfall.

It's liberally covered in plants that thrive in a cooler climate reproduced by air conditioning and a mist machine.

On a hot steamy day in Singapore, there are fewer cooler places to be, ambling along the suspended walkways that go around and through the plant clad behemoth.

Beyond the domes, the rest of the park is open to the elements, including this futuristic grove of 18 super trees, which are also connected by a skywalk hovering 22 metres above the ground.

Inspired by the mighty karri trees of Southwestern Australia and the fantasy forest Studio Ghibli created for their animated film, "Princess Mononoke", the tallest super trees soars as high as a 16 story building, the shortest, half that size.

Their trunks are made from reinforced concrete cocooned in a steel frame that supports a living skin of around 159,000 epiphytes, tropical climbers, ferns, orchids, and bromeliads.

One serves as an air exhaust system for the domed conservatories while 11 others are fitted with solar photovoltaic cells so they light up at night.

Never is a green sanctuary needed more than in the middle of a high density urban metropolis.

Tokyo takes the podium as the most populated city in the world.

It's estimated that the larger metropolitan area is home to over 36 million people, that's one quarter of Japan's entire population.

Parks become an essential civic space in jam packed cities providing welcome respite from the congestion of urban life.

In Tokyo, this respite is provided by Yoyogi Park.

Featuring stretches of forested areas, wide lawns and ponds, Yoyogi Park is frequented by locals who stroll the tree-lined walking paths and picnic on the lawns.

Adjacent to Yoyogi Park, the sacred Meiji Shrine is enveloped by the wider forested area.

The entrance to Meiji Shrine is marked by a torii, a traditional Japanese gate, which symbolically marks the transition from the mundane to the sacred.

Venturing into the space offers visitors a deeper, more spiritual experience, now worlds away from the hustle and bustle of Tokyo's streets.

At the purification font, flowing water is traditionally used in a ritual to cleanse the hands and mouth, and in doing so purify the mind and body.

This takes place at the entrance to the shrine before praying to deities.

The shrine buildings sit within the inner precinct of the main sanctuary.

Meiji Shrine is dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken.

The shrine was built in a traditional shinto architectural style, primarily made with Japanese cyprus and copper.

The building of the shrine was a national project mobilising youth groups and other civic associations from across the country who contributed labour and donated funding.

200 traditional sake barrels were also donated to the shrine by sake breweries across Japan as a sacred offering to the Emperor Meiji.

The Meiji Shrine together with Yoyogi Park occupy one of the largest expanses of greenery in Tokyo.

In the hands of a property developer, the area would be worth billions of real estate dollars.

But these spaces have been carved out for the civic good, which goes to show the inherent value civic parks hold, a recreational space to unwind and reflect is priceless.

Across Japan, another civic park was born of a need for deep reflection, one so poignant that it permeates to humanity worldwide.

The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, like other green spaces, offers city dwellers some restbite from busy urban life, but this park is also a memorial to the victims of an unprecedented nuclear attack.

On August 6th, 1945 at 8:15 a.m., the United States forces dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima.

Tens of thousands were killed on impact, and along with victims of the fallout, in subsequent months, over 140,000 people were killed.

The memorial park sits at the epicentre of the bomb site.

What was once the city's busiest commercial and residential district became a field of rubble after the explosion hit.

One building remained partially intact and has been preserved as the Peace Park's primary landmark.

Formerly an industrial promotion hall, post-war, the building was renamed the Atomic Bomb Dome.

The dome was the closest building to the bomb's hypocenter and is thought to have stayed standing because the force of the blast came from above sparing the solid stone and steel structure.

The damage facade complete with piles of debris have been preserved as a sobering reminder of the horror of nuclear weapons.

Atomic bomb survivors and Hiroshima residents see the dome as representing humanity's pledge for peace.

Another important memorial in the park is the Children's Peace Monument, a statue built in memory of the thousands of children who died as a result of the bombing.

It commemorates the story of one such child, Sadako Sasaki, who was two years old at the time of the blast and contracted leukaemia as a result of the radiation.

Throughout her long illness, Sadako's goal was to fold 1,000 paper cranes before dying at the age of 10.

Today, the origami paper crane has become a universal symbol for the pursuit of peace.

Another symbolic gesture in the park is the Peace Flame.

The flame was lit in 1964 and has burned continuously since that time.

The Peace Flame will remain lit in the Hiroshima Memorial Peace Park until the planet is free of nuclear weapons.

The park and its memorials attract over one million visitors each year, suggesting that it's plea for world peace is a sentiment shared by citizens worldwide.

The urge to be close to nature is well-established in our city's parks, but there is another civic space which also speaks to this urge, the zoo.

There are over 10,000 zoos and aquariums in the world today, providing citizens from all walks of life with a chance to connect to animals they might otherwise never meet in the wild.

Zoos have their origins in the royal menageries of the ancient Egyptians in about 2,500 BCE and were an expression of a ruler's power to exhibit exotic animals captured in conquered lands.

Today's zoos echo these early royal menageries, but have evolved to become civic spaces serving a completely different function.

In the harborside suburb of Mosman in Sydney, Australia, stands one of the Southern hemisphere's most impressive zoos.

Taronga Zoo, which stands on land originally owned by the indigenous Cammeraigal people has been operating for over a century.

The first exhibits to be built included the seal ponds and elephant temple and the grand entrance to the zoological gardens, which is still in use today.

The giraffe house was added in 1923 and its inmates still have one of the best views in Sydney, barely even having to crane their necks to enjoy the vista.

As far as civic architecture goes, the design of this zoo is in a league of its own for it must meet two often conflicting criteria, the needs of the animals and those of the visiting public.

At Taronga, the enclosures in most instances don't have any bars.

Potentially dangerous primates are separated by moats cleverly worked into the landscaping or transparent barriers that permit an uninterrupted view.

There are over 5,000 animals in Taronga today representing over 350 species, many of them endangered or threatened in the wild.

Through their observations and scientific study, the team at Taronga are constantly discovering new and remarkable things about the creatures they protect and the ecosystems that support their cousins in the wild.

As with any great civic institution, Taronga is constantly evolving, upgrading, and refining their infrastructure and finding new ways to stay relevant to the public.

They are making the most of the trend towards more interactive exhibits, which allow people of all ages to engage directly with the animals, and one hopes, their conservation message.

The open concept underpinning the philosophy and design of contemporary zoos reaches its peak in Singapore.

Singapore Zoo is home to well over 2,400 animals representing more than 300 species, 34% of which are under threat in then native habitats Here, the animals lucky enough to call this their home live in spacious, landscaped environments that are as close to the real deal as it gets.

The free orangutan habitat attempts to replicate to some degree the apes' original environment in the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra.

This space allows parents to pass on skills to their young useful for bonding and survival should they be released back into the wild.

Whilst zoos are clearly not nature on its own terms, they do offer urbanites an opportunity to get closer to nature, and with that comes the possibility of a greater understanding of the environment and a greater sense of compassion for all creatures great and small.

For humans, water is an intrinsic part of who we are.

Up to 60% of our body weight is comprised of water and adult humans require an average of between two and three litres of water per day to survive.

For cultural, economic and recreational purposes, we are drawn to water in the shape of our rivers and our oceans.

In our civic buildings too, water features prominently.

(royal classical music) And nowhere more so than here in Budapest, the capital of Hungary.

Budapest is home to the Szechenyi Thermal Baths, the largest mineral rich baths in Europe.

Conceived in 1896 to honour Hungary's 1,000th birthday, the Szechenyi Baths still draw the crowds.

Renowned for their medicinal properties, the baths now boast 18 public pools, three of which are associated with the on-site hospital which naturally enough specialises in balneotherapy, the use of spring water for the prevention and treatment of disease.

Architecturally, the baths are largely neobaroque and neorenaissance in style.

The cupola room is richly decorated with mosaics that depict the role of water through human history and the gods and goddesses associated with its rich mythology.

The three outdoor pools are favoured by locals, particularly those who like to train their brains while their bodies are rejuvenating.

Popularised during the communist era, chess has become a passionate pursuit among the Hungarian populace.

But here, competitors can literally immerse themselves in the game.

(upbeat music) Spaces providing a setting for social interaction have taken myriad forms over the millennia, yet one of the most enduring and often overlooked civic spaces is the library.

In Athens, the capital of Greece, is one of the oldest and most significant libraries in the ancient world, the Library of Hadrian.

Founded by the Roman emperor Hadrian in 132 CE, the library served as a repository for sacred writings and archives.

Known originally as the University of Athens, the library's books weren't books as we know them today, but papyrus rolls, a type of paper developed by the Egyptians, adopted by the Greeks and used extensively in the Roman empire.

The library was one of the largest buildings commissioned during the reign of Emperor Hadrian, which clearly speaks to its importance as both a centre of civic life and a centrepiece of civil society.

In the early Western world, the greatest librarians of all were Christian monks.

From the mediaeval period onwards, monks in Britain and Europe established some of the most learned and active libraries since the days of the ancient Greeks and Romans.

77 kilometres west of the Austrian Capital of Vienna is the tiny town of Melk.

Towering above the town is the imposing form of Melk Abbey, which contains one of the most valuable libraries in Europe.

The library sits in the middle of a Benedictine abbey, which was established in the 11th century and completed in the 18th.

The oldest and rarest books in the library's collection are held under lock and key in glass display cases throughout the main room.

The room is two stories high and crowned by a magnificent ceiling fresco painted by Paul Troger.

Beneath which, the walls of the entire lower floor are lined with shelving to hold 16,000 leather-bound volumes.

Melk's collection includes, as might be expected for an abbey, several antique bibles and prayer books, but it also includes some oddities, most notably "The Rose Thorn", a risque 13th century poem in which a woman holds a dialogue with her genitalia.

The second floor holds an assortment of scientific books, including a natural history collection, while smaller adjoining rooms house the remainder of the abbey's 100,000 books and manuscripts.

but Melk is no museum.

As a functioning library, it still welcomes scholars from all over the globe to study its prized possessions.

Libraries are devoted to serving the public through the transmission of knowledge.

And no library throws open its doors with as much gusto as one of Europe's oldest and most famous.

In Dublin, the capital of Ireland is the very Harry Potter-esque Trinity College library.

Situated in the grounds of Trinity College, the library is home to some six million items, including significant icons of Irish culture, such as the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic and the "Book of Kells", an illuminated manuscript of the four Christian gospels reputedly dating from the eighth century.

The main chamber of the old library, or long room as its known, was built in 1712 during the Georgian era.

But as the library's collection expanded, the roof was raised and a second floor added in 1858.

At nearly 65 metres long, it now holds around 200,000 of the oldest books in the library, and an impressive collection of marble busts of various dignitaries associated with the library and notable philosophers and writers of the Western world.

Trinity, like many libraries, is a beautiful civic structure, but a library's real beauty lies in what it represents, humanity's unquenchable thirst for knowledge, its respect for learning, and its endless quest for illumination (dramatic classical music) For centuries, civic spaces have been the cornerstones of our cities and our cultures.

They are places of entertainment, expressions of power, they are windows into what we once were, who we are and what we aspire to be.

Civic spaces also offer us the opportunity to rejuvenate, to reconnect, to reflect.

And with our cities destined to become more and more crowded, civic spaces have a role in reminding us that cities are not just about commerce or accommodation, they are about us.

(dramatic music)