This is the historic hub of the empire in Portland Place, London W1. Whence, in the words of the Corporation’s Reithian motto, nation shall speak peace unto nation. Just walking through the doors and into the 1930s lobby of that place makes you straighten your back, adjust your accent and wish you had worn slightly less shabby clothes. For all the depredations of the John Birt era, the BBC is still the BBC. And now Broadcasting House, sadly neglected in recent years, is once more to be the true nerve centre of the enterprise under the plans of Birt’s successor as director-general, Greg Dyke.

MacCormac’s task is to make it into the largest live broadcasting centre in the world. He is going to knock down all the later extensions around the original radio building of 1932. The old building will get thoroughly fettled for the digital era. Then he is going to build a brand-new L-shaped building behind and alongside it, to contain all radio channels, all live television news, and the World Service. The curving stone prow of the old Broadcasting House (hated by many, especially the architectural historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, when it was built), commanding the vista down to Oxford Circus, is to be balanced with a second rounded prow to the east. A courtyard will be scooped out between these two promontories to reveal the new building behind. MacCormac’s building is laid out to respond directly to the rotunda and spire of John Nash’s beautiful All Soul’s Church just in front, which acts as a visual hinge to the streetscape at this point.