why architecture…
In all honesty, I have no idea - but architecture teaches me something new every day and that counts for a lot in life. My secret architectural passion is exploring how architecture and landscape fuse together - see my inspirations further down as evidence!
I grew up and was educated around Glasgow which taught me a lot about urban life, strong personalities and how architecture copes (or doesn’t) with persistent rain. I had the fortune to attend Glasgow School of Art (‘the Mac’) and the privilege to encounter amazingly talented people across the arts. Post University education, I cut my professional teeth at a small Glasgow practice, led by a charismatic ‘boss’, who threw me in at the deep end (drowning occasionally) and thus started my second architectural education. It was a hugely important grounding before I moved on to gain a different, but equally enriching, experience at Fosters. I joined RMJM early 1999 where I met the ‘moses’ and ‘williams’ parts of the equation. Little did we know…
My other passions are devoted to my amazingly creative wife Jo, our three inspirational kids and building this architectural practice… but when I can, I love (need) losing myself up mountains with my mates and descending to the ‘perfect pub’. Other than that, it is a bit of cycling, running, football and squash to keep ticking over.
And so finally to my ‘desert island’…
discs - way too many and a strange mix of Waites, Martyn, Franklin, Carmel, Winehouse, Lang, Jesus and the Mary Chain, Nirvana, AC/DC, Alabama 3 and my daughter singing
architecture - Falling Water, Barcelona Pavilion and a little place called St Conan’s Kirk
foods - a Glaswegian curry, beans on toast and anything Italian
luxuries - the first coffee in the morning, a Friday night beer and an endless supply of paper and pencil
books - Quiet (a revolution), Happiness (a revelation) and my ‘bible’ of munroes
And remember... ‘less is more - more or less’.
“We require from our buildings two kinds of goodness: their doing their practical duty well and then that they are graceful and pleasing in doing it.”
