Achi news desk-
Whatever McAslan thinks, his practice John McAslan + Partners has won more than 200 international design awards and has offices in London, Sydney, New York, Belfast and, of course, McAslan’s homeland, Scotland. It rather suggests that he has long known what he is doing.
And many have noticed. Last year the publisher Thames & Hudson published a deluxe monograph on McAslan’s career, Making Architecture. In 2022 the Financial Times described him as “a master of architectural reinvention,” citing his work at King’s Cross, his extensive redevelopment of The Burrell in Glasgow and his practice’s ongoing redevelopment of Penn Station in New York.
“From a young age I was always interested in making things better than they were,” McAslan told me. “We’ve been doing this for 40 odd years and it’s not something we’ve ever shouted about. It’s been natural.”
It is midday on a Friday and McAslan is getting ready to go to work for the afternoon when we speak. “I’m one of those sad bastards who goes to work on a Friday, but somebody’s got to do it, Teddy. It’s even sadder when you don’t care.”
But before that he talks to me, about art and architecture and climate change and The Beatles and homelessness and George Square and anything else that crosses his mind.
Oh, but McAslan is a tonic. Words and ideas rat-a-tat out of him quickly. He’s constantly in fifth gear and then he’ll come to a corner, shift down and ask, “What was your question?” I’m usually so far behind him trying to catch up that I can’t remember.
At the beginning of our conversation I ask him, what is the purpose of architecture? For the next 20 minutes he regales me on the importance of the arts and sciences surrounding his involvement with the Town Hall in his home town of Dunoon (which he helped save from demolition, bought for £1 and then played a part in bringing it back to life; he is now chairman of the Trust), his plans for its future, the uselessness of politicians, the impact of Bilbao and the role that architecture has for it. play in contemporary life.
Here are the edited highlights.. Architecture, in McAslan’s opinion, must address the issues of the day; climate change, poverty, homelessness. Without affordable housing, he points out, how can you solve the latter?
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“I think that for the profession to have meaning it has to be at the center of those conversations, not on the sidelines.
“And so architecture has a huge and fundamental importance, but only if we as architects are involved in the issues of the day and have a powerful voice.
“Otherwise, we become slaves to clients who want cheap buildings, weak planning systems that allow buildings that are overbuilt and unsustainable.
“So, a long-winded answer to say that I think architecture is extremely relevant and perhaps the most important…” He stops and asks himself a question. “Is this the most important? …”
A beat, two beats. “Surely, you can’t lose it,” he decides.
“What we can do is bring our skill to work and I think make the world a better place. But we need to work hard at thinking, what is that and how do we express it? And how to place the profession at the heart of the world rather than as something peripheral.”
McAslan wants to do the same in his role as chairman of the Burgh Hall Trust in Dunoon. He tells me that he is keen to revisit the artist Joseph Beuys’ idea of planting 7000 Oaks in the 21st century. “Imagine all the ecological benefits.”
McAslan also fancies building a modern Kon Tiki, a raft out of the debris washed up from the Holy Loch and then sailing it somewhere. “I don’t know how far you would get it. I shouldn’t be captain. I would be blown out into the Atlantic and lost forever.”
What may be apparent in all this is that at no point has he spoken of form or materiality or any of the concepts we might expect architects to engage with.
When I ask him how he became interested in architecture while growing up in Dunoon he starts by talking about The Beatles.
“When I was a kid I didn’t really engage much with architecture. But every Christmas I would get a Beatles album. That was the big gift. What I used to do is, I would photograph the Beatles album.”
In short, he would copy the album covers (“it was very easy with the White Album”). That in turn led to him starting to draw the ranch houses he used to see in American magazines brought to Dunoon by American soldiers. “I was drawn to ranch houses and all the things we didn’t have.”
And this would eventually lead him to study architecture at Edinburgh University. After graduating and traveling around America he worked with the architect Richard Rogers who was to be extremely inspirational.
“I worked in Richard Rogers’ office for a long time. He was a great man, extremely supportive of young architects and I benefited from knowing him after I left the practice. Amazingly generous.
“He was a great source of inspiration for me. And just as it happened he produced a number of great buildings that were high tech in this country. But it resonated with me because it was a non-hierarchical architecture. It was pop architecture.”
Working for Rogers had also given McAslan an insight into the importance of applying research and architectural knowledge.
“A lot of architects go to a source like, say, Zaha Hadid and they get a beautiful shape, but they don’t really ask how it got there.
“So it’s just boring stuff that has no meaning, whereas Zaha is an artist who developed and then honed her approach.”
McAslan has had plenty of time to refine his approach on one project in particular. George Square. In 2013 his practice won the original competition to redesign Glasgow’s central hub, only for the plan to be canceled almost immediately. In 2021 McAslan + Partners were again successful in re-running a competition and the redevelopment of Sqwâr Siôr is expected to be completed in 2027.
“We are making progress and developing the plan. It’s moving forward,” McAslan said today. “And the real challenge for us is how far the project can stretch itself in its different directions.
“It’s not just about the square, it’s about the routes that lead to and from the square and connect the city to the west. A little east towards the historic part of the city, south to the commercial city. Less perhaps to the north. It’s such a steep hill.
“So, for me, the key thing is how far we can go to coordinate it all and therefore for the effect to be felt as far as possible.
“The budget is so limited that it could be spent many times more and so we have to be extremely careful – like the Burrell – to allow the budget to stretch as far as possible. And we have to get as much possible use out of the square itself without turning it into a fair.”
It is an opportunity to do something he has expressed love for before. Create space.
Well, up to a point, he said. “Our instinct is probably to do less rather than more with the space because it is wounded, of course, by the ugly Queen Street Station. I think what has happened to Queen Street Station is quite secondary.
“On three sides he is very handsome. It’s a lovely space to be in. The civic chambers and the buildings to the south and west side are fine buildings. And then the paths that lead from it. It’s a great space, so we have to make it so that it resonates historically, that we extend the public domain as far as we can and that we make sure that it’s affordable and sustainable. ”
What does all this mean? McAslan may be 70 just getting started. He is about to restructure the ownership of his business but the word retirement is not in the blueprint.
“I hope no one thinks I’m going anywhere. The only way I leave here is in a box with a lid. On or off, you can choose. ”
John McAslan is speaking at the Boswell Book Festival, Dumfries House on May 11 at 10.45am. Making Architecture: The Work of John McAslan + Partners is published by Thames & Hudson
