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Non-classifiable

Plain Modern

The Architecture of Brian MacKay-Lyons

by (author) Malcolm Quantrill

text by Kenneth Frampton

preface by Glen Murcutt

Publisher
Princeton Architectural Press
Initial publish date
Jul 2005
Category
NON-CLASSIFIABLE
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781568984773
    Publish Date
    Jul 2005
    List Price
    $45

Classroom Resources

Where to buy it

Description

It's been our distinct pleasure over the past few years to publish monographs on a select group of young architects and firms whose work represents the best of contemporary design thinking while retaining a distinctive regional sensibility. The Nova-Scotian architect Brian MacKay-Lyons fits neatly into this distinguished list, which includes Marlon Blackwell in the Ozarks, Rick Joy in the Southwest, andMiller/Hull in the Northwest.Those familiar with Nova Scotia understand the austere beauty of this Canadian landscape, with its wide open skies and rugged terrain pushing up against the Atlantic. MacKay-Lyons's work responds to this unique topography and to the vernacular building traditions that define its communities. His houses, commercial buildings, and public projects combine regional forms with local materials, technologies, and building practices to create works that are linked to their environments right down totheir DNA.Peaked gables, shed roofs, and sliding doors are inspired by local barn types; corrugated metal cladding comes from the buildings used by the areas fishing industry; structural wooden frames are based on local ship-building traditions. These elements communicate a sense of place that is sophisticated, accessible, and free of sentimentality.Novelist and historian Malcolm Quantrill weaves together an intimate portrait of MacKay-Lyons and his work, elucidating the "peculiar regionality" of his subject's architecture.A New Voices monograph published with The Graham Foundation.

About the authors

Contributor Notes

Malcolm Quantrill is a distinguished professor of architecture at Texas A & M University, in College Station, Texas.