McBride Charles Ryan are well known for some of their more unusual buildings, including the award-winning Monaco House in Melbourne. Kellie Harpley talks to practice director, Rob McBride.
What are you working on?
We are busy working on a range of projects, the largest of which include a new senior school of Penleigh and Essendon Grammar, and a new residential building for Grocon Developments located within The Brewery development in Carlton, Melbourne.
Smaller projects include Fitzroy High School, Dallas Upfield Primary School and some smaller individual housing projects for friends.
What are the most essential outcomes on a design project?
There are the quantifiable aspects such as does the project meet the client’s needs, does it minimise energy consumption, and is it value for money?
Then there are the more difficult aspects to quantify: how it makes people feel, does it engage them emotionally and intellectually, does it inspire or comfort and bring joy to the everyday?
We are always interested in how a building can contribute to a richer and better public realm.
Where did the idea for the Monaco House come from?
We went through many design options for the site and each new design seemed to feed off the previous.
The building was privately funded but was also to be the image of the Consulate of Monaco in Melbourne. We wanted this to be embedded in the imagery.
We also wanted to respond to the beautiful location opposite the magnificent plane trees of the Melbourne Club garden and we had a corner to consider, which was quite important from a pedestrian point of view.
The building has two expressions, the polished black of the street face and the white concrete of the lane face. Each begins rationally but the rationality breaks down the closer you get when approaching the corner.
The two expressions then meet in this most unlikely and complex way, which completely intensifies the corner expression.
MCR seems to have a penchant for unusually shaped buildings, can you tell me about the Letterbox House?
The Letterbox House may be aesthetically similar but the strategies employed in that project are very different.
From the front the house appears to spring from the letterbox. However when viewed from the rear, it is as if a simple vernacular home has been carved to reveal the extraordinary composition of the timber wall — an enduring backdrop to a family’s life while on holidays.
Like Monaco House we were interested in the public realm, yet in this case it was a much more modest relationship with the suburban street.
Do you prefer to design particular types of buildings?
We seem to go through phases. Initially we became known for our individual houses, later it was our multiple housing, now we are well recognised for our educational projects. I don’t have a preference; I think of our firm as specialising in an original approach rather than in a particular type.
What are the biggest issues facing architects today?
Sustainability is an incredibly challenging area; separating true innovation in that area from the gimmick and the ‘feel-good’ can be tough.
There appears to be a bit of a feeling that the good times may have been squandered and therefore a lack of optimism.
Nevertheless architects need to continue to imagine and to bring joy to the environment. With apologies to Stendahl and Botton, our buildings need to bring with them the promise of happiness.
