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Background
by Deyan Sudjic
There is something irresistible about architects who have the knack of making
difficult things look easy; of making the jerky, random messiness of everyday
space seem whole and coherent without apparently agonizing over it. Of putting
materials together with the skill and care that makes explicit the poetry in
the tension between delicacy and massiveness, between the simple and the
complex, without overelaborating the process. Of making an architecture
unmistakably of our times without struggling to be fashionable. Of believing
utterly in the integrity of architecture, and yet not losing touch with the
worldly. Of being as interested in approaching existing buildings as in
structuring large-scale vacant sites. These are the ways to make architecture
with directness, charm and enthusiasm. And these are all qualities, none of
them in overabundant supply in the current climate, that I associate with the
architecture of Alfred Munkenbeck and Steve Marshall.
The started their practice in London 20 years ago, bringing to their
partnership an international perspective - having both been educated at Harvard
and built around the world, and having had the experience of working in some of
the most distinguished architectural offices (Stirling, Farrell and Grimshaw,
among others) - as well as the intriguing creative friction that comes from a
confrontation between a Scots and an American sensibility. They took part with
confidence in the generational shift of the 1980s, when architects in their 30s
were able to move on from the arid stylistic battles that had dogged their
predecessors.
They have worked on a wide range of projects, from the robust urban masterplan
to the exquisite interior. On occasion they have had to make a silk purse out
of a sow's ear, faced with difficult, messy sites and unpromising material. But
they have risen to the equally difficult challenge of making a mark on a clean
slate.
Along the way they have proved not just that they know how to make architecture
with power and presence, as well as delicacy and subtlety, but that - just as
important - they can make spaces that feel good to be in. Whether designing a
shop for Yohji Yamamoto, the Orsino restaurant or office buildings, they have
continually shown a deft lightness of touch, inventing new technical solutions
and redefining architectural types. Why shouldn't a high quality office space
have natural ventilation? Why should speculative offices mean
lowest-common-denominator aesthetics? And, by the same token, why should
treating them with care and individuality make them any more expensive to
build. They have, moreover, thought long and hard about what it means to build
in the city, to make urban spaces that are alive and full of people, to create
structures that generate activity, and to build architecture on a scale that
lives up to that kind of setting.
For me, the architecture of Munkenbeck + Marshall means modernity without
austerity. They have an easy way with sensuous materials, and use a richer
palette of colour and texture that many architects of their generation. It is
clear that they have a passion for light, suffusing their interiors with
daylight, bringing to life spaces of all kinds. They have a bold and inventive
approach to form where it is appropriate, and a willingness to defer to
existing patterns where it is not. Above all, they have the energy to be
continually surprising, to produce new and original work without repeating
themselves. |
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