Alastair Hall and Ian McKnight are the founders of Hall McKnight.
Archi.ru:
Your projects include the transformation of public spaces in historic neighborhoods and the creation of similar zones from scratch - in Northern Ireland and abroad. What do you think is the key to success - in terms of architecture and urban planning - to keep such a space alive, “ready to use” and able to bring joy to the citizens?
Ian McKnight:
- It is rather difficult to say whether a public space arises as a result of the need for it or whether it can be "constructed". For example, the Wart Square in Copenhagen, which we were transforming, existed for a long time, but was not used, and the municipal authorities decided to change this situation to the opposite. But before that, they studied their city, found out how it functions, and how they would like it to function. That is, “isolated” work with public space is practically impossible.
Cornhill Square in Ipswich [project won the competition in 2013, implementation will begin in 2017 - approx. Archi.ru] has existed for more than five centuries, is used now, but it could “work” much more actively, especially from the point of view of creating a “spirit of the place” in Ipswich. Therefore, the project aims to give a new meaning to this public space, so that the townspeople begin to perceive it in a new way, to “experience” their city through a visit to Cornhill. That is, the process of creating a public space depends on the scenario that you find there and on the economic conditions.
Alastair Hall:
- I doubt that a public space should always be lively and active, it can be quiet or majestic, waiting for the visitor or ready for his visit, just be present as a spatial component of the city. Public space is significant not only as a place of action, it is important to create conditions there, thanks to which it can become a scene of action, but not to depend on this action. In my opinion, public space is not always filled with people and noise, it can be empty and at the same time retain its importance. The presence of outstanding public buildings is significant for the city, their volumes fill the space. An empty cathedral is no less valuable than a cathedral filled with people watching the ceremony.
Ian McKnight:
- Another important aspect is the change in the intensity of use of space during the day. Wart Square is mostly empty, but it can also host major city events and become very crowded.
In addition, some places are confident, they know their essence. The people of Copenhagen know who they are, they are proud of their city, they know what life in Copenhagen consists of, that it is culturally rich. The same can be said for London. If we talk about Ipswich or Belfast, their residents should be encouraged to develop their cities, to the kind of city life that it should be. The reason for this uncertainty among the townspeople may be economic, as in Ipswich, or historical and political, as in Belfast.
How is it worth transforming public spaces in old cities? On the one hand, working in a historic center means working in a unique urban environment that must be preserved. On the other hand, it is impossible to keep everything. The city and its inhabitants need a comfortable public space and new buildings just as much as they need historical monuments. How do you find the trade-off between development and conservation?
Alastair Hall:
- We consider the historical city as a constantly evolving phenomenon, and the object that we create in this context - as part of this development, of what has already happened and will happen in the future. We do not work with a fixed historical situation and do not include our objects in it in such a way that they either oppose or complement each other. Our work is built on the principle of accumulation and repetition.
Ian McKnight:
“We do not like the idea that as architects we cannot create something that in a hundred years will be no less valuable than other buildings in the historic city. It may sound a little arrogant, but if we don't believe that we can add value to the cultural life of a city, how can we develop as a society? It is a lack of self-confidence that betrays weakness. Quite a few problems stem from the modernist idea of “butchering” history, which established other aesthetic values. This is the stage that we have all gone through. But after that, there is a method of working where you maintain integrity, without trying to cross or destroy the [historical] phenomenon.
The historic quarters, where the architect has to work, have been in the process of development and transformation for centuries. There are always renovated and altered elements in a medieval church. Such transformations are natural. The buildings exist and periodically require repair, then the already repaired elements are repaired, and the building no longer looks as beautiful as it was originally. It is rather annoying to work where, due to historical structures, the architect cannot change anything. I can assume that many wonderful spaces in our cities were created solely due to the fact that someone made the decision to demolish something ancient, to let it die.
You have received many orders as a result of your victories in architectural competitions. But is it worth entering the competitions given the amount of effort required to participate and the lack of a guarantee of victory - especially in large competitions such as the recent competition for the project of the Guggenheim Museum in Helsinki?
Ian McKnight:
“For a [small] architecture firm like ours, this is the only way to get this type of order. The main thing in the competition is the fairness of its holding. We are careful in choosing the contests in which we participate. In our experience, even in the event of losing a major competition, as with the Guggenheim, an architect learns, learns a lot of new things. Competitions allow us to experiment, try new ideas, think through old ideas to the end.
Alastair Hall:
“For our bureau, participation in architectural competitions was worthwhile, we won about 50% of the time.
Ian McKnight:
- To a greater extent, our success is associated with a careful selection of competitions based on the principle of their relevance to our interests. We are very enthusiastic about participating in such competitions. It's like learning what you really want to learn. The opportunity to do what you want is a great pleasure. The key problem is that we always have other tasks to be solved simultaneously with the preparation of the competition project.
Alastair Hall:
- The number of contests in which you can take part in a year is not limitless. When we participate in a competition, we invest a lot in it, it takes a lot of time and effort. We don't like submitting a work to a competition when we feel we could have done it better.
Ian McKnight:
- Now we are participating in two competitions, each of which is organized professionally and is extremely interesting for us. To some extent, these competitions are attempts to evaluate high architectural quality, so many people tend to take part in them. On the other hand, participation in competitions has a phenomenally high price. The UK has quite strict procurement legislation, so we spend about two-thirds of the time preparing documentation, which is not taken into account at all when summing up the results of the competition. Participating in a tender is really exhausting.
What attracts you to work on projects abroad? What are the main disadvantages of such projects?
Ian McKnight:
“The benefit of participating in such projects is that the architect is faced with a new way of acting and a new environment.
Alastair Hall:
- Working on overseas projects combines the excitement of working in a new environment and the burden of having to learn it. There should probably be a limit to the amount of information that needs to be mastered in order to be prepared to design in a new location. It is quite difficult to achieve the amount of knowledge that makes you feel that you have understood everything about the site. You can quickly examine the place superficially, but this, in my opinion, is not enough.
What cultural artifacts, phenomena and ideas influenced your vision of architecture and your professional activities?
Ian McKnight:
- I have always been interested in history, tried to understand the past, especially philosophy and fiction at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, since they reflect the development of society and culture.
Alastair Hall:
- It seems to me that architecture is a separate self-sufficient discipline, and I do not understand architects who talk about architecture through the prism of other creative and cultural coordinates. However, we use other creative guidelines in the process of working on the project, this allows us to clarify the nuances of the culture and history of a particular place. Most often we turn to literature and fine arts. In one project we can be inspired by poetry, in another - by graphics. Sometimes we show our customers pictures, it helps to discuss the project in the terms in which we thought it over. When we started working on the reconstruction project for Wart Square in Copenhagen, we were especially influenced by one of the fairy tales of Hans Christian Anderson [meaning "From the window in Wartow" (1855) - approx. Archi.ru].
#themac #hallmcknight
Photo posted by Satellite Architects (@satellitearchitects) Sep 11 2015 11:28 PDT
Your office has received several national and international awards. How do you balance work in the UK and overseas?
Alastair Hall:
- In our case, it is rather not building a balance in terms of the geography of projects, but the search for suitable projects, no matter where they are carried out. Sometimes this entails a lot of travel. In Northern Ireland, opportunities are quite limited: few architectural competitions are held here, and the local procurement system is focused not on the quality of the project, but on its lower cost and the experience of developing similar objects from its authors. It's not that we want to work abroad, if there were more opportunities for us in Northern Ireland, they would be interesting for us. From time to time we participate in local projects, including at the moment. However, the larger properties and most of the attractive contests are outside Northern Ireland. We continue to work in Belfast, but finding a good job here is not easy.
Ian McKnight:
- This is a question of the level of economic development. In dynamic cities with vibrant economies, quality architecture develops very quickly, as it is perceived as a value and contribution to the urban environment, while where little is happening, the recognition of the value of quality projects and their discussion remains at the most basic level.
Alastair Hall:
- In the early 2010s, three significant projects were implemented in Northern Ireland: the Lyric Theater by O'Donnell + Tuomey (2011), the Visitor Center for the Giant's Trail by architects Heneghan Peng (2012) and our Metropolitan Arts Center (MAK) in Belfast (2012). For 10 years before, not a single building of international importance was built here, and after that nothing was done either. Therefore, these three buildings are not a reflection of Northern Irish architectural culture, but the result of an unusual combination of circumstances.
#theMac #aesthetics #concrete #grey #HallMcKnight
Photo posted by Tar Mar (@tarmarz) Sep 5 2015 at 7:44 PDT
In recent years, the appearance of Belfast has changed significantly. Your activities in Northern Ireland - including designing new public spaces for dialogue and reconciliation such as MAC, arches in Holywood, walking trails in the Titanic Quarter, Garden of Remembrance (memorial to the fallen policemen), and the choice of east Belfast [location of major conflicts in the 1960s - late 1990s - approx. Archi.ru] for the location of your office - significantly influenced this process. What principles do you follow to create objects that would be accepted by both sides of the local community - unionists advocating the preservation of Northern Ireland as a part of the United Kingdom, and nationalists advocating the idea of a united Irish state?
Ian McKnight:
“We design space and I doubt that the two communities in Belfast perceive architecture and space differently, in my opinion their value is universal.
Alastair Hall:
- I never thought about our projects in Northern Ireland in the context of political disunity. Historically speaking, the period of conflict is a fairly short period of time. This is definitely a short period in the history of Ireland and a relatively long period in the history of Belfast as it is a relatively young city. The way we work in Northern Ireland is not much different from how we work in Copenhagen or Ipswich. Of course, we react to the peculiarities of the physical context, to some extent it is always different, but the differences are not related to the political sphere.
Ian McKnight:
- Projects like IAC were previously impossible. The lobby of this center is open from 10 am to 7 pm, everyone can go to see the exhibitions - without checking their personal belongings. Previously, during the conflict in Northern Ireland, it was impossible to walk along a shopping street without going through a security checkpoint. But this change has nothing to do with architecture. Public life has not always existed in Belfast, and the city is now developing a sense of collective coexistence and use of public spaces.
#HallMcKnight #YellowPavillion # LFA2015 # ID2015 #KingsCross
Photo posted by Nick Towers (@nicktowers) Jun 4 2015 at 11:15 am PDT
Temporary Pavilion of the London Architecture Festival 2015 at King's Cross, London
How important are your Northern Irish roots to you? How do you position your architecture bureau - Northern Irish, British, European?
Ian McKnight:
- We have two offices - In London and Belfast, in Belfast we spend a little more time than in London, but we have to fly to London weekly. We are definitely different from those offices that are located exclusively in London. It seems to me that everyone has their own set of landmarks. After all, we continue to distinguish between Dutch and Belgian architecture. They influenced each other, but remained different.
In London, it is quite difficult to interact with the landscape - with the mountains or the sea. In Northern Ireland it is very simple, people here are connected with nature, this is one of the characteristics of every Irishman. We feel connected to Ireland and the Irish idea, we feel the differences in atmosphere and regional characteristics north of the border [ie Northern Ireland versus the Republic of Ireland - approx. Archi.ru] is part of our identity. However, this does not mean that we cannot design outside of Ireland.
Alastair Hall:
- The connection with the landscape has a physical manifestation: people drive to work and home in the countryside, admiring the hills. This closeness to nature is very important.
By European standards, Belfast is a city with a short history. He's very young compared to Dublin. Dublin feels like the capital of the island. There are clear limitations to what an architect can learn in Belfast: there is no historical layering, a rather small typology of buildings. But Belfast has a clear presence of honesty, directness and modesty that are not readily discernible in major capitals.
Ian McKnight:
- Technically, legally and de facto we are located in the United Kingdom. There is no single answer about identity in Northern Ireland; locals prefer to remain unconvinced. If we talk about ourselves as a bureau from the UK, most of the architectural ideas and projects, as in other areas of activity, are concentrated in London. Other European countries, in my opinion, have more diversity in terms of centers of architectural quality. Germany has Berlin and Munich, a similar situation in which discussions about the development of architecture are going on in several cities at once, exists in Italy, Switzerland and other countries. In Great Britain, everything is London-centric. On the one hand, we are part of this London-centrism, on the other hand, we are very pleased that our main office is in Belfast, which sets us apart from others.
London is a wonderful city, but it is separated from continental Europe and does not look outside, the activities of many British architectural firms do not go outside London. It is a city with a lot of cultures and ideas, which makes it very self-centered. I value the opportunity to alternate between staying among many people in the center of London and in complete silence somewhere high in the mountains, in the green dampness of virgin nature. It is a fundamentally important emotional experience for the person involved in creating the environment.
Alastair Hall:
“We usually don't think of ourselves as Europeans. The North of Ireland is the edge of Europe.
Ian McKnight:
- Periphery of the periphery, as someone said.
Alastair Hall:
- We are now taking part in the American competition, we are the only ones there not from the USA, so the jury calls us “Europeans”. And it was the first time I thought of us in this way.
Each of you left Belfast at some point and worked abroad. How did you choose the direction to move and why did you decide to return?
Ian McKnight:
- When I was a teenager, I already wanted to leave. Northern Ireland at that time was full of prohibitions. I left after school and lived abroad for eleven years between the ages of 18 and 30, which was an important period in my life. First, I went to study at the University of Newcastle. I think I subconsciously chose it because it is similar in size to Belfast. Then I moved to Glasgow: I was interested in this city and its architecture. Then, out of a desire to work in a big city, I moved to London, where I learned a lot. For quite a long time I worked in David Chipperfield's bureau, took part in the transformation of this company. My move to London happened during the economic crisis, at which time London was one of the few places where you could find work. Returning to Belfast in 1999 was not my conscious choice, it was influenced by the circumstances, but it was a good time to return.
Alastair Hall:
- I had a wonderful childhood. When I finished school, I did not want to leave, there was no spirit of adventure in me that would invite me to other lands. I felt nothing for life here but love. I received my first degree from Queens University in Belfast. The decision to leave was due to the desire to continue education. In search of a stronger educational institution, I moved to Cambridge. During two years of studying there, I realized that I was in the right place, understood the profession. Most of my classmates left for London, but London was never attractive to me, it scared me with its scale. So I went to Dublin and went to work for Grafton Architects. This was my first job after college. Although Dublin is a wonderful city and Grafton is an outstanding architecture firm, I never thought about staying there forever. The differences between the north and south of Ireland are quite significant, including in architecture. Here in the north we feel a natural connection with London rather than Dublin architecture. Dublin has its own original, wonderful architectural culture, but working there, I felt as if I had been "transplanted" into an environment that was alien to me, so pretty soon, in 1995, I returned to Belfast.
